Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Mike Barrio

Beautiful Assynt
« on: 17/07/2017 at 00:53 »


Assynt : What a great way to spend a week, from Ullapool to Durness, dramatic scenery, self catering in a small bay near Lochinver, bonnie sunsets, sandy beaches, sea otters, awesome pies, bacon rolls, seafood and coffee ..... and fun with the Landy on single track roads!







I also enjoyed an awesome day with Stewart at 'Assynt Fly Fishing' in spectacular surroundings :z16
We don't really do fishing guides in Scotland ........... but we should :!
There are lochs and rivers round every corner in this area and Stewart's local knowledge ensured that we made all the right choices for a cracking day on the water!





After about an hour's walk in ....... or was it two? ( we were so busy chatting along the way about all things fishing that I really can't remember :z4 ) we reached our destination and there were a couple of fish rising in the river, so I set about having a cast or two and Stewart stayed on the bank and started digging gear out of his rucksack.





It's a strange place to fish, as always you get immersed in what you're doing as your eyes follow your fly, the takes, the misses, the trout that come to the net, but when you pause or look up ....... that landscape really hits you - Boom!

Stewart had been busy and the next thing I know, I'm sitting on a rock with home baked cakes and freshly brewed coffee ..... does life get any better :cool:

And to top this off, when we moved further upstream we came across some delicious wild strawberries for dessert :cool:





The trout were mainly fairly small, as you would expect in the hills ( some even smaller :z4 ) but we caught plenty and both had a cracker or two to get excited about.

Stewart was having a ball fishing wets on his fibreglass 2wt,  so I felt somewhat over-gunned with my 5wt rod and wished I'd taken my usual #3 ...... but not to worry, I was still having loads of fun with all the splashy rises to my dries!





In fact we were having so much fun on the river, we lost track of time and headed on up to the loch a bit later than planned :z4

It was a tad breezier up here and I was now glad I had the 5wt .... Casting into the wind I soon got into a nice trout or two :cool:







An awesome day out in great company ........... Thanks once again Stewart, I'll be back :z16



If you are heading for Assynt ...... you can contact Stewart ( Stewart Yates on the forum ) via PM.
Check out his website at https://assyntflyfishing.com/

Dave Felce

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #1 on: 17/07/2017 at 07:24 »
great photos Mike!
Stewart's a top bloke and can offer a blinding day SWFF-ing too!  :z12

Mike Barrio

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #2 on: 17/07/2017 at 08:15 »
Yep ..... the saltwater fun could well be the next box to tick Dave :z16

Hamish Young

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #3 on: 17/07/2017 at 18:09 »
Yep ..... the saltwater fun could well be the next box to tick Dave :z16

Goooooood  :z13

Euan Innes

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #4 on: 18/07/2017 at 09:42 »
Nice work Mike. It is indeed a lovely place for all the reasons you mentioned.
Must get back up sometime.

Euan  :z1

Jim Eddie

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #5 on: 18/07/2017 at 18:50 »
Great stuff Mike
 :z18

Jim

Stewart Yates

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #6 on: 20/07/2017 at 20:22 »
Thanks for the kind words Mike, most definitely a mutually pleasurable experience for sure. Keep that fire burning and stay hungry!  :z16

Allan Liddle

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #7 on: 21/07/2017 at 07:44 »
Fantastic stuff Mike, i simply love fishing in Assynt and sadly haven't done as much as i used to (or would have liked to) over the past four or five years.  Stunning place with some fantastic fishing, must get back up there very soon.

Iain Cameron

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #8 on: 21/07/2017 at 18:59 »
Great report Mike. Was reading it while on Mull planning a few September days back up there with some fishing buddies; fairly whetted the appetite.



Derek Roxborough

Re: Beautiful Assynt
« Reply #9 on: 22/07/2017 at 21:59 »
Nice report, and great Photos, I did a local guiding service in the 90's but it had to be on  an ad hoc basis as I had a home to keep, so a full time Gillies job kept the wolf from the door, then I got a job with SNH and the Guiding bit had to be trimmed down, had lots of fun doing it,and made some good friends, Derek Roxborough

 




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