Highland Lochs 2026

James Laraway · 22/03/2026 at 16:50

yes, its that time of year again - spring is in the air and the wild trout season has opened

So i had a choice on Saturday - head up to my usual lochs round about Dornoch, stay round here or head to speyside.

There were roadworks at Tain so i didnt fancy that do i headed east for the day. I'll not name the loch but those who know will know....

Anyway, arrived about 1000 and it was flat calm as you can see in the photo

Fished hard down the loch but not a sign of a fish - very annoying. Tried all sorts of flies but no joy.

Stayed afloat at lunchtime and then a wee breeze picked up putting a nice ripple on the water. Quickly put down my sarnies and cast. A few mins later I'm in. A long but skinny fish

The wind died then picked up again - had a huge take and the leader parted....

Kept going and every now and again i had a fish on or missed one. Lovely colour they were too

Including a real clunker...

Probably had about 7 fish to the net on total over the day so was quite happy for the 1st trip of the season

Most of the fish took a bead head tadople in black and silver ( pink or fluro yellow brass bead), but it is still early in the season. All fished on a Barrio midge tip line that seems to be my 'go-to' line these days....

Oh and on a 'Sandy made' glass Haldin 78 which is in my view one of the most awesome blanks around....

Robert MacDonald-Lewis · 22/03/2026 at 19:54

A good day out. That is a cracking fish.

Keith Potter · 22/03/2026 at 20:07

Looks like a great opening day out on the water. Some beautiful looking fish as well. Hopefully the first of many good days out.

Allan Liddle · 03/04/2026 at 00:06

Beautiful fish James. Very interested to know more about your fins, think it's time I upgraded mine.

John Wastle · 03/04/2026 at 08:11

Quote from: Allan Liddle on 03/04/2026 at 00:06Beautiful fish James. Very interested to know more about your fins, think it's time I upgraded mine.

They are suberb looking fish!

Upgraded fins made a huge difference to my tubing Alan I have Scubapro jet sports which securely fit over anything from wet shoes to wading boots.

James Laraway · 03/04/2026 at 09:13

so quite a few years ago I bought a set of IST Talaria Split Fins and they have not missed a beat. Had a google but im not sure you can buy them any more but they are excellent and very very powerful. The only downside is they are heavy as they are so well built so if you need to hike with them its a bit of a pain....

Talking of carrying i bought a set of Pike n'Bass carry straps for carrying the tube on my back - well worth every penny and then some...

Quote from: Allan Liddle on 03/04/2026 at 00:06Beautiful fish James. Very interested to know more about your fins, think it's time I upgraded mine.

James Laraway · 01/05/2026 at 09:55

so as the weather was good i thought i would take a quick trip to Dornoch. Turns out that the weather was a bit too good, hence the lack of fish !

Fished from a boat for a change as opposed to the tube, just to try it out really.

Pros of boat - you can go distance with much much less effort

Pros of tube - you have much more control on your drift, movement and manoeuvrability

Only caught one wee fish, but for the 1st time in ages got my Taniwha 764 out....i had forgotten how lovely it is to fish with....

One thing i did see for the 1st time was a heather beetle hatch - the place was covered in them - however...the fish weren't looking up due to the bright sunshine which was a real shame as otherwise i think it would have been an amazing fishing day.

Still i did better that the other chap who was out who blanked...

James Laraway · 08/06/2026 at 09:15

So i wandered up onto Dava Moor on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours to do a wee spot of burn fishing.

It was a little gusty at time and bright sunshine but the little burn did not disappoint with lightening fast , feisty wee brown trout coming to the net

Choose my wee Taniwha #4 with a Barrio smallstream line with a small bead head nymph - never even needed to change flies.

As you can see the fish had very different marking from one another and one of them was incredibly spotty including all over its back...

James Laraway · 13/06/2026 at 17:23

blimey - second week in a row i got out !
Headed down the Ft Augustus road this time to a rather nice loch. More than can be said about the weather ...it was a tad gusty (especially in a float tube) and rainy

That being said it didnt put the fish off.

In fact my first fish was one that i had not caught in a long time..

This was then followed by about a dozen trout over the next 4 hours and quite a few missed. Nothing massive but pretty none the less.

Took a whole range of flies but also got my first on a 'loch stimmy' from Arthurs book...

even managed my first double header for a long time..

All on my Barrio midge tip - love that line....

Mike Barrio · 13/06/2026 at 18:28

Great stuff James - nice Charr

James Laraway · 22/06/2026 at 10:02

Thanks Mike - i think summertime is the time to catch them.

I've only ever caught 3 and all have been in the summer on floating or midge tip lines...

James Laraway · 03/08/2026 at 09:55

So had a day out on Saturday for some wildies...

Day started off quite nice, overcast with some wind...but that was to change

The water in question is up in the hills, quite small with limited spawning as there is not really an inflow burn so the angling club put in some wild fingerlings every year to supplement the stock (from their lochs that has thousands of stunted fish - once moved they interestingly are no longer stunted and grown ( they have permission from the Scottish Government agencies)

Anyway i started off and was fishing my way up the loch. Cast out and whilst i was gathering my thoughts one took my wet fly which was static - and a belter is was too.

I missed another cracking take then the wind put the fish off as did a shower of rain.

When the wind dropped and the sun came out so did the fish. This one did an a amazing 'porpoise' take and smashed the muddler on the dropper - saw the fish come right out of the water and drive back down on the fly - amazing

The wind really picked up to poop my party but when back over to where i had the first fish and got a savage take on the loch stimmy on the dropper - this one went approx 2 lbs and is doing some free advertising for Mike if you check the reel ..

It just got too windy after that so finished early sadly. Still 3 wild loch trout landed and 2 missed shouldnt complain...