Post by johnesmithson on Sept 16, 2020 13:05:31 GMT
Being a bit of a fanatic for loch-style fishing, I try to get up to the Hebrides every year, usually late summer/early autumn. After the Covid madness, we were particularly looking forward to this year's excursion (31st August to 5th September) on Lewis. They had a massive early grilse run in June, and in the absence of the usual syndicate members and visiting anglers, local rods were allowed to fish some of the most hallowed waters (like Grimersta) at a very substantial discount. Our ghillie (a very accomplished angler, it has to be said) accounted for at least 20 fresh fish to his own rod in a small number of visits. However, a large spanner was thrown into the works when the jet stream decided to shift southwards in early August, dumping all of its rain along with gales on the Scottish lowlands and all points south. My angling partner's car was destroyed by a falling tree in Cardiff a few days before we set off! By contrast, the Western Isles looked like a brown desert, and the burns had pretty much dried up when we arrived. Water temperatures in the lochs were unusually high, as were the winds (we were blown off on 3 days). So altogether a dreaded combination for our intended target species of sea trout. The final day saw some rainfall and cooler conditions which encouraged a big run of finnock, and we had fun extracting eighteen of them from a shoal that we bumped into whilst drifting one of the main lochs. Other highlights were catching what may have been a local record flounder (44cm) on mackerel strip from a local surf beach, and using my newly acquired dapping outfit to deceive a few little brownies up to 1/2lb or so. Roll on 2021!