The Hillend Veteran and I

 

 

Today I arranged a day off work and met up with Hillend veteran Davie Graham.

Davie is a Hillend angler of great repute and a very experienced fly fisher indeed.
Last year Davie and his boat partner won the annual Hillend boat angling competition so I was looking forward to sharing a boat today with him and looking to tap into his vast knowledge and experience of fly fishing at Hillend as well as his knowledge of highland lochs.
Davie suggested we head straight up to the west of the loch at the dam and make our first drift of the day from there.
Davie set up with floating line with a Kate muddler on the point a butcher on the middle and a soldier palmer on the bob, while I tried a sink tip line with a lure on the point and a Kate on the top dropper.
Very soon Davie was into a fish, a nice brown trout which was fooled by the Kate McLaren Muddler. I persevered for a while longer with my set up but eventually changed to my floating line with a wet daddy and a Kate which to be honest is a much more enjoyable way to fish. I felt that I now had a good chance with this more comfortable set up.
But alas still the fish wouldn’t come to my flies even after changing them from time to time.
We tried various drifts all over the loch. The wind certainly increased as the day went on which was a bit troublesome from time to time.
After a few hours we went back to where we made our first drift and low and behold Davie fooled, hooked and I netted another brown trout for him which was deceived by an F Fly.
We fished on for another couple of hours without any further fish and decided at about 5pm to call it a day and head back to the club house for a coffee and a bite to eat.
I had a very enjoyable day on the loch despite not fooling any trout and I’m sure Davie did too.

A welcome Fish

As I said in my last blog post I haven't being fishing much recently, well since that last article that statement still remains the same. Well with the end of the season fast approaching I thought I had better make the most of the next few weeks so off I went to Hillend on Saturday morning for the first time in a while.
The weather was very pleasant as I walked along the south shore which looks in a terrible state as the water level at the moment is very very low. In fact its the lowest I've seen it in about ten years or so. It doesn't look its best with all the mud and bog showing. The above pic taken during the week form a hill to the south of the loch will give you an idea how low it actually is.
I stopped at the Eastercroft bay just round from the cliffs and sat for a while. I noticed a few fish splashing around so I made a few casts at them but to no avail. I fished on for a further few hours moving around a bit and trying various areas.
I then went back to where I started and once again I saw a few fish rise. I made a few casts at them and low and behold I hooked I netted my first Hillend fish for weeks. Not the prettiest fish but a welcome one all the same.