Caithness was Calling!

Caithness was calling  The Dabbler, The Tangler, The Tiddler and The Rookie set off on our much anticipated  trip to the far north of Scotland  on  Friday 7th July at 4 am.
On route we stopped at Kintradwell just outside Brora so that I could visit Megan Boyd's ruined house.
My companions didnt understand my fascination and enthusiasm of the Megan Boyd Story and her ruined house.. I'll speak more of that in a separate blog post.
We arrived at the Brown Trout Hotel in Watten mid morning and settled into our self-carering digs!
The digs were rather drab, rundown and basic. I wouldnt take my wife there but they were perfect us four fishermen!
The weather was scorching so we just hung around the digs until about 5pm and made the short drive to the boat moorings at Loch Watten's east end.
Loch Watten was a huge disappointment as it was green with algae and looked like pea soup.
We had a couple of drifts, went ashore for a blether then decided to make one last short drift and called the game a bogey!
On Saturday morning  we met Hugo Ross at his shop and managed to readjust our plans for the weekend. Hugo was very helpful and accommodating and arranged for us to have a boat on Tofftingal on Saturday night and Sunday during the day.
We managed 17 trout between the four of us on a very sunny and hot  Saturday night
No huge trout but braw fiesty fighters!
On Sunday we had better fishing weather: cloudy grey skies with a gentle breeze so we fished through the day!
It was fantastic and surprising to see good hatches of mayfly on the loch on both days!
The loch had a fair bit of weed up the middle, however we managed good long drifts either side of it and managed a good number of trout once again between the four of us!
The Osprey we watched on both days did quite well too!
Succesfull flies were Watten Warriors, olive bumbles and Loch Ordies.
We called it a day around 5pm as we had arranged to meet Hugo at his shop and hand back the keys for the boats and engines in the evening. Whilst in Wick we had a take - away and headed back to the digs where we relaxed and had a few drinks
On Monday morning we were up early and as ever Scott was on breakfast duty making sure we were well fed before we packed the cars and headed over to Loch Calder for a planned few hours. The two Tams and Scott caught a few trout on the spinners whilst I had a couple of small trout and numerous rises to my flies,  however Thunder and lightening halted play prematurely and that was the last of the fishing on our sojourn to Caithness.

We then started the long journey south down the A9 stopping off at Kintradwell for another look again at Megan's House. Once again my companions werent interested in that.. Next stop was Tain for a bite to eat which everyone was keen on. Then the long tiring journey home to Lanarkshire.

Although Loch Watten was dissapointing we had a great time fishing at Tofftingal and Calder and the camaraderie was fantastic back at the digs at night too.

Looking forward to another trip together sometime in the future already.

Flytying at the Scottish Game Fair 2023

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of flyting at  the Scottish Game Fair 2023 at Scone
It was a great peivilage and delight to be in the company of some of the best flytyers around at such a  prestigious event over the three days.
This was the first time I had tied at a show so I was a little nervous but was made to feel very welcome by the flytyers and soon relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience.
I must say that I did find the first day quite tiring as I dont usually tie over such a long period.
It was also nice to chat with the public  as I was tying and great to meet some friends and colleagues who had come along to the game fair and visited the flytying tent to see me.
There was quite a variety of styles and patterns on show by the flytyers and fantastic to see.
I  decided to stick to tying Loch style wets which I find very aesthetically pleasing to tie. Although in some  quarters this style be seem old fashioned and out of date  there was a fair bit of interest in this style at my vice.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank all fly tyers and organisers for making me feel so welcome and putting the event together.
Now that I have had a ttaste of flytying at a show it's something I would most certainly like to experience again.
So hopefully I will get some invites to do some more shows!
Hope you enjoy my pics and some of the flies I tied at the Game Fair below.

Thank You Vicuña Dubbing!

I first became aware of  Vicuña Dubbing about five years ago when this dubbing material came to my  attention on various flyfishing and flytying media pages.

Based in Essex Vicuña Dubbing is an entirely natural product made from Alpaca wool which has been dyed and processed by hand to achieve a dubbing which adds that essential buggy effect to your fly patterns. 

I was very kindly sent some samples to try by David Lloyd to try back then.

I was very impressed with the material as a sub for seals fur and used it in quite a few of my loch style wets and cruncher style patterns.

I recall going along to a GAC Open day round about that time  and noticed a few of the tyers were using this which at the time was a new dubbing material.

I particularly remember talking to Geroge Barron that day and we spoke about Vicuña dubbing and how impressive it was.

Since then I have used it off and on for a lot of my flytying.

At first I started collecting the basic colours for my fly patterns but as time went by I started blending different  colours together to come up with some interesting combinations.

Over the last few years The company have put together some lovely blends too and introduced fine dubbing for dries and specially blended boxes as well as my favourite, the SLF Blends.

This year I have fortunately been asked to tye at the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace.

This event takes place in a couple of weeks time. 

This will be my first time ever tying at such an big event in public and although I'm feeling nervous I am equally very excited to be tying alongside some very talented flytyers.

Whilst preparing for this event I was given some good advice and was told to relax and enjoy the experience and to tye what I do best. 

Therfore it was an easy decision to choose and focus on loch style wets.

So with this in mind I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to once again highlight vicuña dubbing in my fly tying displays at the Game Fair.

I must thank David Lloyd at Vicuña Dubbing who has provided me with a box of their fantastic SFL blends which I will definitely be utilising at Scone.

In the pattern below I've dubbed the body with the Fiery Black SLF blend from Vicuña Dubbing.

The picture here doesnt do the material justice. 

Best to see it first hand and you will appreciate the colours that come together to form the fiery black 

If you are attending the game fair do pop along to the flytyers marquee and see the flytying demos. I'll be the slightly nervous guy tying loch style wets with Vicuña Dubbing.

Scottish Game Fair 2023

Good Day on a Badenoch Loch!

Sunday 11th June What a fantastic memorable day in the Scottish Highlands.

Myself, the two Tams and Scott had a great time in the Upper Spey area on a Badenoch Loch catching fiesty brown trout whilst the net was closing in on an indignant  Sturgeon elsewhere! 

We travelled North in the afternoon at a leisurely pace as our intention was to fish into the evening.

Some two and a half hours later we arrived at the loch where we met Sheena & Jacko for the first time this year.

Last year Sheena was out of commission for some maintainance so it was good to have both boats available once again.

As the four of us set off afloat out on the loch, the weather wasn't the best for fishing but it was great for the  tourists and sightseers I'm  sure!

We had bright sunshine and occasional cloud cover  for most of our time on  the loch  however we did had a lovely warm gentle breeze blowing  from the west which switched to the south, and thankfully the rain showers and  thunder & lightening which was predicted didn't materialise.

Despite the bright conditions the trout were very obliging taking a wide variety of patterns. Leggy hopper patterns, Muddlers, Sedgehogs, Ordies and various other Palmers fooled the trout.

Twenty six trout were caught between the four of us.

We had twenty to the boat, twelve for Tam and eight for me whilst Scott and the other Tam had thee each.

We called it a day about 8.30ish and reluctantly went back ashore.

After all the he pelava of carrying our engine and gear back to the cars we were soon heading back down the A9 and made our customary stop at Pitlochry for a very welcome bite to eat.

It was just past midnight when we got home and I learned of the latest Scottish political scandal.

A great day was had by all!

Too Darn Hot!

I should have been fishing yesterday on a boat on a Highland Loch.
However my fishing companion, Tam The Clarkston Tangler decided he would rather go for a walk somewhere near Edinburgh pinging golf balls up and down fairways and possibly the long grass too.
Therefore I was rather frustrated as the fishing season is moving along at pace, so for me it felt like another weekend and opportunity wasted.
Nevertheless given the mini heat wave we are experiencing at the minute it was perhaps not so bad an idea to give the fishing a miss.
The heat and the blazing sunshine on a flat calm Spey Dam would not have been condjusive to good fishing. It'd  be too darn hot!
So with the Scottish Game Fair at Scone coming up in a few weeks time I got some flytying practice in at my vice tying up various fly patterns for my display stands.
This will be my first time ever flytying in public. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement but is something I'm very much looking forward to.
As well as flytying I decided to tidy up and clear out  my numerous flyboxes! It was a daunting but rewarding task as I ended up with three new empty fly boxes!
This weekend I hope to make that trip up north flyfishing.
I can only hope that the fishing weather improves and that Tam will swap his golf clubs for a fishing rod! 

Down The Upper Clyde

When I set off down the M74 I'm usually heading south to visit my brother in Cumbria however on this ocassion my journey south was much shorter as I was going fishing.
I therefore cut off at Abington services , first for a coffee and   then continued on the short journey through Abington onto Crawford by the River Clyde.
I arrived just after midday at the Camps Rd nearby the ruins of Crawford Castle.
The weather was a bit mixed with bright sunny intervals interrupted  by periods of blustery wind and rain showers.
However I was prepared and soon I was on the river swinging my spiders across the current.
I had a great afternoon managing to net 1/2 a dozen small but fiesty brown trout which were great fun to catch. However I managed to rise and miss a few fish too.
All but one of them took a size 14 waterhen bloa. The exception being the trout that took a grouse & orange!
The Upper Clyde is a beautiful area to fish,  today I got the river all to myself and it was bliss!