Hi all,
From Wednesday May 19 through Sunday May 23 Robert, Jans and I had our annual visit to beautiful Scotland. This year, we stayed at the Argyll Hotel in Ullapool, to fish the lochs that surround this very nice little town. The Argyll is a good place to stay, with excellent food. Highly recommended!
After arrival we fished the nearby Dam Lochs to the north of Ullapool (permits from Loch Broom Hardware store). Dam Lochs? Damn Lochs! Just one trout on a Golden Olive Bumble for me, Jans and Robert blanked, so we returned to the hotel after three hours for a well deserved pint of Spitfire (may have been more than one, but who’s counting?).
Again, or better: As usual, we had the best of Scottish weather. This was the view from our hotelroom when we got up the first morning.
Thursday and Friday we fished the lochs of the Coigach peninsula. After a spectacular drive of about 50 minutes we arrived in Polbain where we bought our permits in the local crafts shop. Old Dornie Lochs, Loch na Bèiste, Lochan Dearg and Loch na Totaig gave us cracking fish. Most of them were caught an orange Deer Hair Sedge (thanks for the tip, Stuart!) and black Klinkhamers but my favourite fly for the holiday was a Pennell type fly I used on the point with the DHS dropper. Butt of pearly tinsel, tippets, body of peacock dubbing and a brown hackle.
On Saturday we started at Loch Ailsh, one of the countless lochs operated by the Assynt Angling Group. We caught just a few small fish, so we decided to pack up our gear and fish Loch na Gruagaich after lunch. That proved to be a good decision, because this small loch next to Loch Awe gave us fish in huge numbers. Loch fishing at its best!
Haddo was fully booked, so on our return on Sunday we fished the Loch Insch Fishery for a couple of hours. Hard fighting rainbows on size 18 black dries. That was fun!
All in all a great couple of days. We can’t waite untill next year!
(ltr) Robert, Jeroen, Jans at Loch na Gruagaich
