Sad News from Camps!

Sad news reached me today that the Camps Reservoir's wee fishing hut which I visited only two weeks ago has been destroyed by fire. When I first heard about this my initial thoughts were that it was an act of vandalism but apparently not it was a terrible accident caused by a spark from the fire which ignited the big couch they have in the back room which then unfortunately set the whole hut alight. Thanfully no one was in the hut at the time. A fisherman had got the fire going then decided to leave it unattended and was out fishing on a boat. it's such a shame as it was a great wee facility and fantastic retreat whenever the weather turned nasty. I hope the club can recover from this and get another new facility soon. Here is a pic I took only ywo weeks ago

Small Lochs, Big Mountains.

It was only last month that I travelled to the far north of Scotland in search of true wild fish.But once again my heart is yearning to get away to the Highlands on a brown trout adventure to some remote lochan in amongst the mountains. I will have to wait a few weeks more though as my friend has arranged for him and I to go sea fishing this weekend. I do enjoy the occasional sea fishing outing but it does not compare to getting out into the hills with my fly rod and box of flies in search of wild trout.
I came across this poem from my favourite Scottish poet , Norman McCaig. It transports me to places I daydream of everyday.

SMALL LOCHS

Six rods are dapping for sea trout
On Loch Baddagyle. Their blowlines each make
A bosomy downwind curve. Six bushy flies
Ballet dance on sunstruck water.

— See that boulder? In it’s toupee of heather
There’s a wild cat watching me. Two topazes with ears.
…I tilt up and pan along my trail of mountains
From Ben More Coigach all the way down to Quinaig.

An old ewe brings me down to earth
She stamps her forefoot on. I look at her implacable
Whisky and soda eyes. She knows all a sheep
Needs to know: she’s a black-stockinged bluestocking.

And a spinnaker line has straightened. The water
Explodes and shoots a seatrout into the air,
While five bushy flies still dance on the moving glitter,
like water nymphs in their dangerous tutus.

Hillend Brown trout.

Yesterday my friend Scott and I thought we would have an outing at Hillend from the boat. Engine packed etc , we went up to the Loch for the evening session from 5pm to 10 pm. We maneuvered up to the west end of the loch and began a tremendous drift from Eastercroft bay all the way down to Lowe's Bay. We were only fishing five minutes or so when I landed the first fish of the evening, a rainbow at about a pound and three quarters. I caught it on the top dropper with a pattern I devised for a fly tying comp.Another five minutes passed and I was into my second fish but this time it got away. Not to be outdone Scott was soon hitting fish but they wouldn't stick. until later. Scott hooked into a good brown trout but it got off at the boat, he also lost another couple of small brown trout.We made another few drifts then while on a drift near Speirs Island Scott hooked and landed the magnificent brown trout in the pic. To say Scott was very pleased with his capture is a bit of an understatement. It was tremendous to see that Hillend Loch is still producing brown trout of this quality. I can't help but feel that the Club memebers made a big mistake by wanting and introducing rainbow trout into our Loch.
When you compare the quality of the fish in the the pic of the rainbow and the Brown trout I think you will understand where I am coming from.

A Year on the Fly!

If you like art, yes art, and fishing , perhaps this interesting and unusual blog from across the pond might interest you.I came across this blog after the creator contacted me and expressed an interest in my blog and painted one of my flies which he came across while browsing among these pages. I was going to describe what, A Year on the Fly was all about , but thought it would be better to let the artist do the explaining instead.You can read all about what motivated and inspired ,Joel DeJong on his site. There is a link to his appealing blog,second from the top on my links bar.

Kate McLaren

There can't be many flies that are named after a woman,this very famous Scottish fly as you probably guessed is one, of only two that I can think of, the other being a Hairy Mary, I'm sure we all know one of them lol!
So who was Kate McLaren? Kate McLaren was the wife of John McLaren who ran the Kinlochewe hotel in the Scottish Highlands. The Mclarens were good friends of the Glasgow tackle dealer, William Robertson. Mr Robertson devised the pattern in the 1930's for his friend John and as a nice touch named it after his friend's wife.
Kate McLaren was also the mother of Charles McLaren who was the long time proprietor of that very famous Scottish angling retreat, the Altnaharra hotel on Loch Naver.
The fly was first devised as a sea trout pattern for Loch Maree, that's another womans name,but it is now highly regarded as an essential brown trout pattern too.
Wherever my fishing travels take me I always make sure I have a few in my fly box as I know I can fish confidently if I have a kate on my cast. I hope you think my tying does it justice. Please leave a comment and let me know.

Hook. standard size 12 hook
Thread. Black uni thread 8/0
Body. Black seals fur
Rib. silver tinsel
Tail. Golden Pheasant crest
Body Hackle. Black cock hackle
Collar Hackle. Red game hen hackle

Return to Camps!

Yesterday I made the journey down the M74 on a return trip to Camps Reservoir. I last visited the loch at the end of May, this time I took along my friend, Scott. I booked a boat in advance and picked up my permits and key at the keepers cottage below the dam. We drove round to the fishing hut where we met Gerry aka Mr Camps.
Before going afloat we had a good chat with Gerry who was very forthcoming with tactics flies and hot spots etc. He was an absolute wealth of information and even gave us a couple of his favourite flies to try.
This was to be a day of my kind of fishing laze about,get afloat,fish for a while, repeat over and over again, until knackered.
We caught our first brown trout of the day at the north arm of the loch then after we decided to have a break . Back to the hut for a blether with Gerry then back out again , this time on the south east arm.We were soon into fish again. Gerry's recommendation of small flies worked a treat, most of mine came to a size 14 spider of mole fur body and a grouse head hackle. I call it the Grouse and Mole.sound s like a good name for a country pub, doesn't it? It's a vey easy pattern to tie. I might do a wee video of me tying one in the next day or so.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Camps again even if I didn't catch as many trout as I did on my previous visit, The wealth of information I picked more than compensated for the reduced catch. Scott and I caught ten fish between us which were all returned safely to the Loch to fight another day.
This was the first time I had met Gerry and also the first time I had fished Camps from the boat. The facilities at Camps are first class. I'm certain that I will have another visit before the season is out.

Mixed Fortunes at the Lily

Last Sunday evening my friend Tam and I walked over the hill to fish the Lily. On arrival we were met with a strong westerly wind. It made sense to get round to the western end of the Loch so that we could use the wind to our advantage. We fished the big bay that has quite considerble weed growth in a section of it. I set up with a three fly cast of a hare lug nymph on the point,Clan Chief on the middle and a Kate McLaren on the bob. I turned three fish and hooked into one fish on the nymph which after a good wee fight managed to throw the hook which meant that I would go home fishless. Tam had better success he turned a few, had a couple of takes and eventually landed a nice rainbow caught on a Loch Ordie.
Despite losing that fish I rather enjoyed my latest visit to the Lily made all the more pleasent by watching the local birdlife and watching the full moon rise over the hills.
Photos to follow

A Fyne Day

Due to technical problems, it's only now that I have been able to get up to date with my blog.
Last Friday Tam, a work colleague, and his friend's son and I decided to swap freshwater for saltwater and made the two hour trip into the heart of beautiful Argyle for a spot of mackerel fishing or whatever else fancied what he had on the end of our lines.
Loch Fyne was our destination but I will not be forthcoming with the exact location as it's a beautiful unspoilt mark. I have known about this place for a few years now and would hate to see it ruined like so many excellent mackerel marks do once they are widely known.
On arrival at our destination we were met with a flat calm which unfortunately meant the midges were out but to our advantage the tide was in , which was probably the reason why Tam and young Alan were into fish with their first casts of the day. As usual I was last to connect with the fish ten or fifteen minutes later. After an hour or so the mackerel catch was mounting. We then decided it was time for a break and used some of the fish as bait to see if we could get any Dog Fish or anything else that came our way. As we sat back and waited for that always exciting twitch of the rod,Tam set about getting the BBQ ready for our breakfast.
while Tam was cooking and preparing the rolls on Sausage I hooked and lost a Doggy but managed to land a crab and Young Alan caught the first of his five dog fish.
After breakfast Tam got in on the doggy action, which he most enjoyed.
We then switched back to the feathers and spinners and spent the rest of the day catching plenty of fish which were going to be shared among friends and relations.
We called it a day at around four o'clock. We made the journey back to Lanarkshire sun burnt , tired and exhausted but happy in the knowlege that we had a FYNE DAY!

A Lack of Dabbling.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a week now . It's not that I haven't been fishing recently or have nothing to say. The reason for the temporary lack of Dabbling is that I am having PC Problems.
At the moment I am using a friend's PC and have no access to my documents.
As soon as everything is resolved I will have have a couple of articles about a sea fishing trip to Loch Fyne and also an evening session at the Lily Loch.
I hope that normal service will resume in the next day or two.
Thanks for your patience,
The Dabbler of Hillend.

Happy and contented at Hillend

As this was a bank holiday today I decided to give Hillend a miss during the day as it can sometimes be busy on such occasions. I waited until about half past eight tonight before making the short journey up to the Loch. Conditions were favourable as I walked from the club house towards the Braco Burn. i stopped short of the burn and set up my cast of a half hog hopper on the point and a Clan Chief on the dropper.Soon I was casting at the odd rising fish.It wasn't too long before I made contact with my one and only fish of the evening. I'm afraid I didn't manage a pic as I landed the fish in among the huge boulders that are spread along the south shore and I had left my bag further up the banking. I released the 2lb rainbow and off it went into the shadows. After a while I moved back up to the narrows and sat waiting to see if a rise would come on. One or two fished showed so I had a few final casts before packing up. I did get some pics of the Loch as usual the best of which is the one above.The fly above is the fly which fooled the trout tonight.For the second night in a row it was happy and contented angler that arrived home to write on my blog.

Lucky at the Lily Loch

Decided to go up to the Lily Loch tonight with my friend Tam. We met at the car park opposite the Owl & Trout at about 6 o'clock then walked along the right of way over the hill to the loch. We decided to go up to the west end of the loch. It was a good choice as I caught my first trout of the night in this location. There was the odd fish showing now and again , then when I saw a fish rise close to the weed beds I cast over it. The fish turned at my fly then a few seconds later it came back and I was into my first fish of the evening. It was very rewarding to see that it had taken a half hog hopper that I had tied this afternoon.
We then decided to move round to Scunner's Point. Once again there were fish rising intermittently. We fished on as an aeroplane made an appearance over the Loch it flew right round the loch a couple of times then just when we thought it had gone for good it came flying in over the Loch right over Drumfin Hill and along the south shore I thought it was going to land in the field it was that low then it swooped up to gain height and it was gone. Unfortunately I was wading at the time and had no time to get my camera to capture these dramatic events.
We fished on and Tam was soon into a fish, a rainbow of about 2 1/2 pound caught on a Loch Ordie. Just as he was playing it out I hooked into my second trout of the night which fell for the Clan Chief variant that I tied yesterday after watching Davie McPhail demonstrating one on his on-line channel.
Soon after, the Loch went flat calm just like a sheet of glass. We then called a halt to the fishing and walked round the Loch and back over the hill to the car park.
I had a very thoroughly enjoyable evening fishing in the very good company of my friend Tam. I will have to get him to fish my Loch......Hillend, next time we are out.