OK, so one of the waters for this years 'Outcasts Highland Fling' featured here http://www.fishingthefly.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3890.0 and today I had the pleasure of taking a complete loch novice out for a day afloat on the same water. He won a days fishing with me at this years Wild Trout Trust auction - what a nice man.
Thought those who will be making it (and those who will not) might enjoy a photo or two of just a couple of fish from today:
(http://i45.tinypic.com/2menz0w.jpg)
(http://i48.tinypic.com/2007ekm.jpg)
and
(http://i47.tinypic.com/8x2e1i.jpg)
He went away a very very happy chappie :cool: Come to think of it, so did I :wink Roll on the Outcasts gathering :cool:
H :z3
Great weekend that went by too quickly :z6
Started off on the Beauly AC beats but the tide came in very early..... which was a bit of a pain. Still, a run into Inverness and back to the river seemed to nip by in no time. The river had cleared down nicely by the time we got back:
(http://i47.tinypic.com/15nrvcx.jpg)
Iain covered the water really nicely with his Orvis Access Switch rod and Euan got back into the 'swing' of things with my Mackenzie DTX 15' after several years of not picking up a double hander. The far bank got hooked up a few times, so my guess is he was doing OK :z7
Iain and Switch:
(http://i48.tinypic.com/5x50u1.jpg)
Euan and Mackenzie DTX:
(http://i45.tinypic.com/6rizqw.jpg)
We had to do some beer, wine and whisky sampling in the evening when John turned up. Iain had a hard time choosing just exactly what to sample, so did everything. Good man.
(http://i46.tinypic.com/1ij1c0.jpg)
The evenings entertainment was 'sponsored' by several beers from the Black Isle Brewery http://www.blackislebrewery.com/ some excellent red wine and a selection of whiskies including a very quaffable Glendronach and some Isle of Jura. Nice.
Saturday morning near Beauly dawned with mist clearing to blue skies. Bollocks. Fortunately, Iain had the foresight to bring some excellent Blue Sumatra coffee from my favourite coffee and team emporium in Aberdeen (Macbeans). My mood improved immediately. With lunches made we scooted off to Inverness to meet up with Allan who was joining for us for the day afloat on Ruthven.
The good news was, despite the strong winds and bright sun, some cloud was around. So we hussled down to the water and headed off.
John, Allan and Euan head off for a day afloat:
(http://i49.tinypic.com/2571738.jpg)
Whilst I volunteered Iain to bail out our boat for the day:
(http://i49.tinypic.com/2drrl7d.jpg)
It became very clear half way through the first drift that the sport was going to be harder than I've got used to on Ruthven. A few fish were willing to play though and, as Iain has already described, we got some teamwork going between dap and wetfly. The fruits:
(http://i47.tinypic.com/33xwsc4.jpg)
Unfortunately due to the wind direction a lot of rowing was required. Bloody hard at times too in the wind conditions. We met up with the other chaps for lunch but, just before they landed, I grabbed a couple of pics includingt his one which I really like:
(http://i47.tinypic.com/246wgli.jpg)
Lunch was a hoot, plenty of banter and yarns told.
The large waves and strong wind might have prolonged lunch longer than normal, but the craic was great.
We headed off to Inverness and had a meal at my favourite curry house the Rajah: http://www.rajahindianrestaurant.com/ honestly folks, it's worth finding if you're in the area.
Sunday (after a few ales etc on Saturday night) was on Loch nam Bonnach above Beauly. Truthfully, Euan and I did fish it earlier in the year in silly amounts of sunshine and heat. Oddly enough, we got the same again. But after a 'gentle' start to the day we made our way up and conditions improved to very nearly almost perfect. We saw feck all. Not a sausage. Nada. Zip. Bugger all. Perhaps the phrase Euan and I had coined earlier in the year (Loch nam Bollocks) is more appropriate. Give it a miss folks, it's pish. Sorry guys, I had high hopes for that place. I'll do better next time.
The retreat from the midgies that eventually drove us away from the loch did give me this belting pic which deserves a caption competition:
(http://i49.tinypic.com/29w0cuw.jpg)
Back to my place via my 'torture' site on the Beauly (a bridge where you can see all the fish you have failed to catch on the club waters of the Beauly) and everyone headed home. I had a great time and I know Rachel didn't get too bored by all the fishing talk which, in itself, is something of a minor miracle :z4
Well done chaps :cool:
There was talk of another wee visit towards the back-end for Salmon. Hopefully, we will make it happen.
Just so long as I do not have to do any more damn rowing :!
H :z3