SCOURIE TALES

The day I fished with an ankle injury

It’s funny when you tell the Board Master that you are injured with a twisted ankle and then say, well the Eillenach beat will do me for tomorrow. Those that have walked the steep track on the south side of Stack will know what I mean, Robin Cook lost his life here and many a walker has needed to rest at the small waterfall that over looks the Duchess’s Loch.

But a bad ankle is only a risk if you do not bind it up well, take care with your steps and do not do too much loch side fishing or roaming over the hill loch ponds. With only six days fishing you have to make the most of the opportunity especially when you are young and working with only a weeks-fishing permit from her-indoors.

Graham on his way up the Eillenach path with the Duchesses loch in the background

It takes a good hour to get to the Eillenach main loch where my brothers Peter and Robin set up their rods. “It can take double that if you leave your reels behind and have to run back down and up again as I did in 2008!!” l rested this time and watched the proceedings with interest mainly in what length leaders (18ft) and what flies they intended to use (Pete- classic CDC, Robin- a dry sedge)

They were travelling through to the Top Chain beat but were keeping an eye on their younger brother and would pick me up later on in the day for the trek back. Before they fished my beat which is a tradition in the Williams family "we share!" I set off for my fishing spot for the whole day so that it was not thrashed to a seething foam with no hope of a trout returning to the area for the next six hours.

The spot in question is ideal for it is probably the biggest area of water on the beat with reputedly extreme depths towards the middle and a weedy bay at the south end. With a light wind coming from the north I had the chance to cast way out to the depths and cover the weed fringes as well as the notorious fishy islands areas. I set up with a dry fly and my usual 16ft leader of 8lb nylon not prepared to make any concession to the large fish that live in these parts. I selected a dear hair sedge but a small one with a fine brown hackle and duly cast out with some ideal drifts from my seated position.

I watched the fly continuously as it drifted along and varied distance and direction on every cast but nothing was aroused by my artificial sedge which may have also looked like an emerging fly much like the stimulators of today seems to do. I had plenty of time so changing fly would occur but in good time and then wet flies would be used and even a team of wet flies of extraordinary variation would be used including the worm fly, ombudsmen, peter ross, wickhams fancy and the old favourite soldier palmer.

In the mean time I was waiting for at least a sign that there were fish in the loch and soon the occasional rise could be seen and heard across the football pitched sized area of water. One large fish rose and swirled near a small island to my left and I covered the area for a while and changed fly a few times. I tried further out but nothing was interested. I reduced my tippet to a sensible 4lb co polymer and was delicate to the extreme with my casts but not a single rise or close swirl.

Eillenach with its many

islands from the north east.

I stopped fishing completely sipped my chilled sauvigon blanc and tried to think like a fish for a change. What were they taking? I had seen little fly life but a few flying ants had started to appear and perhaps these were landing on the water and were the food of choice today. I looked into the fly box and had a number of options from foam ants to hawthorn flies which all looked ant like. I tied two on of different options and cast out, as I did the loch started to explode with rises and my foam ant was duly gulped down by a fish, I struck after a very short delay and played the 3/4lb fish quickly so not to disturb the area too much.

In the next hour or two I rose an incredible amount of fish I hooked twelve but missed double that and had a beauty of 1lb 3/4 to take back to the Scourie Hotel tray. It was simply a golden moment we have had many at Scourie but this one was just for me and with a poor ankle was befitting my day of rest.

A typical Scourie trout over the 1lb mark but not quite 2lb

I have fished this area many times since and there have been a few rises and a 1lb + fish from an island during low water. I even tubed the area in 2012 and was very careful with my approach and covered the whole area with no success but there has never been a day repeated like the ant day.

The brothers duly returned after poaching the rest of my beat that I could not manage but had little to show for their long walk to Frog and Otter. I packed up and noticed that I had actually fished dry fly all day and that must have been a first for me at Scourie.

A Williams brothers BBQ lunch on a pond high above the Duchess loch in 2010