Wild Fish from Wild Places
It’s August, which for me means a year of waiting is almost over, a return to South Uist is due. Fishing South Uist has many wonders, but for me its greatest are its sea trout – because it still has them, and has managed to escape the salmon cage imposed carnage inflicted on their mainland brethren.
I can’t remember the start. I can’t remember learning. I have always fished and always will.
Loch Leven, an evening last August. Perhaps it would be a good time to admit that the biggest wild brownie I’ve caught is a mere four pounds. Given the time, effort, and let’s be honest, straightforward cash I’ve expended trying to catch a really big one, you could say that a Corrib four pounder is a pretty poor effort – you may have a point.
Loch Caladail, a setting where the fish are the stars. Muscled slabs of silver, flanks highlighted with a hint of gold. Athletic, feisty and sometimes enticingly large.
A delightful diversion, a secret pleasure. Dapping appeals to the eternal child in every fisherman the one that will spend hours dangling a crab line off a Cornish harbour wall or even longer messing around lifting stones in a Hebridean rockpool.
This one is exotic and undoubtedly the biggest trout that I have lost, except I didn’t lose it, my incompetence meant I didn’t quite get that far.
The Lower Duart was a gem, and to my dad an obsession.
I say ‘was’ because, although it is still undeniably stunning and a hugely popular beat, in the past it was on an elevated pedestal of being one of the most wonderful, special and unique places to catch a Scottish salmon.
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