[Iain Stewart]

 Hi guys. I am heading up to a local Loch which has Charr. My pal flucked one on our first trip with a Blue Zulu in the shallow margins as I was busy trying to haul in the drogue and hold the boat in a force six. Cheers buddy.
Wondering if there are any killer flies worth tying before my trip start of June. I was told blue is a killer colour? But also wondering if has to be sunk lines and wets as seems to be the stories I have heard.
Any stories or experience welcome.

[Rob Brownfield]

I can't really add much except that around 26-28 years ago I fished an Angus loch a few times for Char and we used lead core lines and a team of three flies. The fish normally held 30-50 feet down and were taking the flies as they started to rise on the retrieve. Almost like feathering for Mackerel.

Flies were Alexandria's, Teal Blue and Silvers, something with a red and white wing (Something Belle maybe) which I cannot remember and I have never seen since and silver Wickham's Fancies.

HOWEVER, I also used to do a fair bit of walking around the same loch and for brief periods of time the Char would be up near the surface feeding on flies. I seem to recall this being late summer time, but could be wrong. There were people fishing at that time and catching them on dry fly and nymphs.

So, basically, fish deep or shallow, with wets nymphs and drys..lol...not much help, sorry.

[Iain Stewart]

Thanks Rob, that is a start. It is Loch Lee that I am fishing so may well be the same Angus Loch. The team sounds good. I was thinking Bloody Butcher, Silver Invicta, and Teal Blue and Silver myself so maybe not a million miles away. I would guess they will still be deep in June as it will still be freezing up there.
Will give the sunk lines and lift a try though.


Thanks again and tight lines.

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

Never tried it myself but have heard that an orange fritz fished deep can pick up some Char.

[Hamish Young]

Orange fritz could work, the few char I have targeted in the past have come to a whisky fly!

[Marc Fauvet]

since the water types are similar here's my experience with char. i caught quite a lot of them in Swedish lakes when i was living there. fly selection didn't seem to make any difference as long as they had some sort of bling/strong colour to them. what made the difference where line densities.
floating line- better go take a nap...
floating with sink tips- ditto
intermediates- some success but with excessive waiting periods to allow the line to go down.
S3 - S7 

what seemed common was they would follow the fly quite a bit before committing, usually not far from the rod tip when the fly was lifted.
best of luck !
marc

[Derek Roxborough]

I haven't targeted Char but I have caught them , Zulu and Soldier palmer seemed to do the job,I was gullying a couple of years back and a guest had a 1 1/2lb char on a 4in toby, what was stranger was that when it was gutted it was stuffed with Daphnia, we were trolling for salmon at the time,there is a loch near here with nothing in it but char, they are very hard to target, easgach 1

[Rob Brownfield]

Thanks Rob, that is a start. It is Loch Lee that I am fishing so may well be the same Angus Loch. The team sounds good. I was thinking Bloody Butcher, Silver Invicta, and Teal Blue and Silver myself so maybe not a million miles away. I would guess they will still be deep in June as it will still be freezing up there.
Will give the sunk lines and lift a try though.


Thanks again and tight lines.

You are correct about the Loch

As Marc says, although the fish were deep, they followed the flies up and took as they came near the surface. It was almost as if you had to go below them (hence the lead core shooting head) and draw the flies through them and up. These days I would look for a Di7 as lead core is a bugger to cast!.

[Eddie Sinclair]

Iain,

amongst the lines that I left at your house is a blue one on a spare spool, this is a DI7 and will work on a 6 or 7 weight rod. That one will get you down to them.

Eddie.

[Derek Roxborough]

The char don't mind the cold they will feed down to 2C, they stay in the deeper water because it is cooler down there anyway,there ia a loch near here with brook trout (salvelinus spp) and they wont take in any sort of breeze, flat calm and sunny and you can get them
overcast and breezy  and they go , easgach 1

[Iain Stewart]

Cheers lads. Seems it is pimp my fly box  and get down on the lines front.
I will keep you all updated on progress this Friday.

[Derek Roxborough]

5 char taken  on a local loch last week up to 1 1/4lb all taken while trolling for salmon, easgach 1

[Hamish Young]

Really That's interesting, were you using a downrigger or dipsy diver:?

[Derek Roxborough]

Just the usual trolling , the char were up around the river mouth, not shallow at all,I wasn't on the boat I was on the raging river with other guests  easgach 1

[Iain Stewart]

Meant to give you guys the update a while back but never got time. Sadly it was a poor day with white horses and 50mph winds. We got a couple hours in the morning and had to abandon ship.

There is always another day.