It was 1973 when I was first transported
the 700 miles to the West Coast of Sutherland for my first fishing holiday. I
was just 13 years old and in an old Mazda with two brothers Pete and Robin,
Spence a school chum of Pete’s and our driver and cook Myrtle our mother. In
those days it took at least 2 days and we camped somewhere in the Scottish
Lowlands on the first night, strangely this year in 2016 I drove back down the
west side for the first time in 43 years.
On that first trip we had permission to
camp in the school grounds at Lochinver for the first week and then to
Achmelvich camp site for the second. We walked miles in the hills in waders and
donkey jackets and caught fish all over the place including Fionn, Beannach and
the Drumbeg area.
Since that first encounter with North West
Sutherland I have been back almost every year for one or two weeks other than
when I got married in 1985, in Australia in 1989 and when Peter and I cycled
and fished southern Ireland in 1977. It is what I dream about when I can’t
sleep, it is what I plan throughout the winter months and sometimes it is what
I write about in trying to enthuse fellow fisherman about the area.
This last year in 2016 we went back in time
with our planning, no more Scourie hotel for two weeks, no concentration on
just one area, no real fixed bookings but an idea of where we wanted to fish
and a sketchy timetable of sorts. In the past we have been camping, stayed in
static caravans, tried crofts and stayed in a variety of hotels including
Scourie for over 25 years. Peter and I even once cycled and camped which was
memorable from washing hair under a tap with fairy liquid and then getting
spotted dancing at the Lochinver ceilidh in wellies under our
Brutus blue jeans. I ramble but
remembering a frustrated Peter hurling his bike to the ground on the Stack Poly
road, falling asleep on the way back from the pub and ending up in a bush for
the night and living off scotch pies from the Lochinver bakery brings back fond
memories. Brothers a few years back looking trim!
Peter started in Wick with his newly
purchased VW T6 Bilbo’s campervan here is his report
“My arrival at Wick around 1.30pm on the
last day of May was a relief. Fatigue had kicked in some miles before after
many miles and little sleep from my Penrith campsite. My journey up the east
coast after Inverness had been a surprise to me. I thought I knew Dornoch,
Brora and Helmsdale but the truth I had seen the names on traffic signs and
buses heading in their direction. I had flown over this part of Sutherland and
Caithness a couple of times and from several thousand feet up it looked like a
desert but it turned out to be a fertile land supporting crops, animals and
trees.
My first port of call was to Hugo Ross
(referred to by Mr Sandison as ‘Mr Caithness Fishing’). However his fishing
shop was closed for lunch. This gave me some time to look around Wick, which
with its grand old buildings reminded me of a miniature Aberdeen. Lunchtime
over and I purchased permits for loch Watten for two days off the bank, some
flies and the telephone number for a boat on loch Heilen.
I checked into the campsite a stones throw
from Wick centre and set off to Watten. I fished loch Watten in wellies which
was my first and not last school boy error. The wind pushed the waves over my
boots and after an hour I returned to the campsite. That evening I went to the
Crown bar followed by a meal at the Norsemen hotel ... all very enjoyable.
Clothed in full chest waders nothing was
going to stop your correspondent catching his first Watten trout. A trout just
over the pound mark 41cms was landed around 1.30pm just after lunch on a kate
mcclaren. Beyond that I saw no fish rise and had no other pulls and by 4.00pm I
travelled to find the following days venue loch Heilen and also visited St
johns loch near Dunnet Head.
The Crown bar and Norsemen Hotel were my
evenings entertainment once again. Loch Heilen is run by and association where
some club members have their own boat, bank fishing is available via various
means . Our contact was Hamish Pottinger who offered me coffee and having
declined both milk and sugar offered a further additive which I thought better
of accepting at just after 9.00am !! We enjoyed twenty minutes of great banter
and then went off to the loch with Hamish. The wind that had been around for
the last two days had not abated and our chance of catching a trout on that
rainy Thursday was not looking good. On the Monday a fish of 11lb 2 oz had been
extracted!!
I was joined by Michel and John who had
travelled over from Tongue, Michel and I took the boat whilst John tried the
bank. The north bank is protected from anglers due to nesting birds therefore
depending on wind direction bank fishing option is chancy affair. We did a few
drifts and got no bites amongst some heavy downpours. However, as I was sorting
out a tangle my boat partner saw a fish to my right which in any circumstances
would have inspired the lines ‘we gonna need a bigger boat’
“
I guess the lack of Peter’s comments on
their catch meant they caught nothing but it was an interesting first for all
of them. They then all traveled back to Tongue to convene with myself who had
just arrived from Las Vegas the day before and after a three hour stop in
Cardiff to pick up all of my gear had driven to the Ben Loyal Hotel and had
collapsed in my bed for an afternoon sleep.
Over a fabulous dinner in the bar of the
hotel and joined by fisherwoman Sue (John’s better half) we plotted our Tongue
campaign for the next three days. Scarrie lochs on the Friday, fishing and
camping in the hills Saturday and Sunday and a rendez- vous with Mr B Sandison
on the Friday evening at the hotels bar.
The ‘Going back in time’ theme was being
held onto with this two night stay in a hotel, after 3 days of travelling I
knew I had to book a bed in advance and at £45 a night for B & B compared
to $200 in Vegas it had to be done. I had booked it 7 months before hand as
they don’t have many single rooms but saying that after only 2 nights in his
campervan Peter booked into a delux room probably to keep an eye on me in the
late bar.
After a brief visit to the Borgie Hotel and
a chat with the Landlord we headed up the hill at the back of the hotel to fish
a cluster of lochs that held a range of trout many around the lb mark but some
larger. I watched John catch two nice fish from the east bank of the largest
loch on a wet fly it gave him an excellent fight but were returned once netted.
I was on the west bank but there is a narrow stretch which was ideal for
sending a large dry fly out to drift into the deeper parts of the loch. Very
little stirred for me until I reached the southern end and the weedy part of
the loch, here I put on my newly bought stimulator from the USA. Within seconds
of this fly landing a bigger fish snatched the fly and headed under again he
was a lot bigger than the few fish I had hooked previously. Soon I had him
under control and my first trout over a lb had been achieved. We had more fish
off the smaller lochs to the North and they travelled great distances to smash
into my semi floating nymphs, you could see the bow wave as they approached the
sub surface flies.
It was an interesting hour spent with Mr
Sandison at the Hotel on that early Friday evening he advised us on lochs we
were to fish in the coming days including Loch Lanlish in Durness, Scourie
lochs, Assynt waters and his memories of the Caithness lochs Peter had fished
that week. We may have been fishing up here for 40+ years for two to three
weeks a year while he has lived and fished up here for many many years with
further knowledge gained from so many other local fisherman.
Never miss a ceilidh if you can walk to one
is my mantra, so that night we hit the Tongue Hotel bar which had a band on.
Not sure if we danced much but Peter did a turn on the mandolin for a Rod
Stewart solo intro and exit, we met lovely girls from Thurso and Tongue and
drank whisky with the staff from our hotel. A late night for the Williams boys
but not as late as the night to come when the big fish were rising!
With permits purchased from the hotel,
rucksacs packed in the car park and the obligatory photos taken of Ben Loyal we
set off for our overnight fishing trip into the hills. There is a good
selection of fishing with the Tongue permits with a range of lochs on either
side of the Kyle but also permission to fish the Kyle itself for Sea Trout,
Salmon and Sea Bass.
The weather was good with light winds
little cloud and a warmth which you don’t get very often up here. We walked the
4 miles in about an hour and a half and dumped our heavy packs into the
prospective camping ground ¾ of the way down the loch. John and Sue had come up
for the day only and were fishing with a few sightings but no tugs. We set up
our lunch spot overlooking the loch from a hill on the north west corner, it
has a great view of the loch and views of Ben Hope in the distance.
Now to put the record straight I had fished
this loch 3 times over the last 3 years and caught nothing, Peter has had a
3lb, a 4lb and a 2 1/2lb all on separate visits. It is one of those lochs that
you rarely catch small ones and rarely see fish at all. You do hear them
though, big thumps and splashes like someone has thrown a boulder in off a high
bank. Well I am going to cut this short as it is worth a chapter in a book
itself, broken twice both on the take, a 9-10lb fish on a huge (while sinking)
orange stimulator (about 8pm), a big fish on a beaded black nymph (about 5am)
possible school boy errors but leaders just not good enough.
He attempted to use his enormous wooden net
but the fish was a handful and I screamed at him to wait for my arrival. I
grabbed the net and he brought him round for a run at the net, it was huge! a
great big flank on him and he darted for the underside of the bank. Luckily we
slid the net under him and I brought him onto the bank. Unbelievable, simply
unbelievable the fish was a healthy 6lb+ (61cm) with incredible spots and
Michel was exhausted and ecstatic at the experience. After a photo call he swam
back out like a torpedo and caught on video looked even bigger than on the
bank.
What an adventure, I did catch a fish over
a lb but it was such an anticlimax it is best forgotten and looking at my
fishing diary it didn’t even make an entry. In great spirits we walked down the
hill for a few drinks by the cars and headed south to Durness for some
limestone action over the next few days.
The Durness campsite sango sands oasis is
brilliant, plenty of room, loads of facilities, pub and restaurant on site,
helpful attendant and owner/manager who will sort out your battery if you’ve
been stupid. We had emailed in advance about the fishing about 8 months
previous but had sent a reminder a few weeks before that we required a boat on
Caladail and Borralie as well as one of us fishing Lanlish over the next two
days. I have read lots of articles and books over the years but had never
fished any of these Durness lochs before.
This is a photo of a 11lb trout
caught on Lanlish by Mike’s our sisters partner Grandfather….
Loch Lanlish is difficult and best fished
at night according to the experts, I fished it over two days during the sunny
periods as you can see and saw very few fish rise but some large fish
definitely reside and there were some largish splashes. After picking up 21
golf balls that did not make the 6th green I waded out to the left
of this picture below and you can nearly reach the middle which was great for
drifting the dry fly across the lake even to the far bank.
The boys fished Caladail and saw a huge
fish early on but caught some smaller ones. They fished Borralie the next day
while I was golfing, fishing Lanlish again and then walked over the hill to
fish Borralie from the bank which was very tough going but managed to catch a
few tiddlers from the bank.
MC holding a nice fish from Borralie
MC holding a nice fish from Borralie
After three nights and two full days
fishing in Durness it was time to move on but we will definitely be back. We
headed south to pass the Dionard and the Laxford before arriving at the Scourie
campsite and set up camp so that we could get fishing on some Scourie and
District Angling Club lochs that day.
We have been big fans of the SDAC water
over the last 20 years and I even keep a club map and leaflet in my Filofax at
all times. 36 lochs with three that have boats and very reasonably priced.
We entered the main system from two
directions with Peter climbing the reservoir hill while M and I cut into some
initially smaller lochs from the main road. There are some wonderful looking
lochs as you trek from East to West with Mackay’s loch being deep and
mysterious.
It was classic loch style fishing as we
fished and walked from loch to loch usually taking one step after each cast. We
were heading for a lunch time rendezvous with Peter at no 22, Loch Laicheard
Beg and the sun was just beginning to get through the clouds and the
temperature by lunch time was getting extreme. It was hard fishing but we all
had something but nothing to boast about in the Scourie bar that night.
After a sweltering afternoon we headed back
to my car for some refreshment and hopefully to catch up with our many friends
who were staying in the hotel that week. A glorious evening was had by all as
we drank, ate and chatted in the Eagles Eyrie bar, they had not had a
successful week so far with the sunny weather
We then spent a great day on a road side
loch in a boat taking turns to gillie the other two around loch no 32 (an damh
mor). Over the years we have fished this with wives and children and had some
interesting trout of all sizes up to about 2lb. It did not disappoint, dry
flies of many varieties were used but with few changes and fish would take all
over the loch but you had to work hard for them on each drift. A lunch time
break to the Kylesku Hotel probably did not help with the score but we had well
over 30 trout between us the best being a 1lb 10oz to my small black stimulator.
Over the next few days we were led astray a bit by the Lochinver bars and having to change a tyre for some holiday makers who had taken the Kirkgaig road from the Summer Isles Hotel. But did manage some fishing trips with little success. The picture here was from the Baddidarach peninsular and an interesting loch (na gobha) where I rose a very large fish who was feeding on something very near the bank, he followed my fly but never really seemed to snatch at it after he missed the initial take when it dropped in the water.
A boat was taken on the Monday on Loch
Fraoich from Assynt Angling near the mission in Lochinver by Peter and I. IT
was a weird day with the wind changing direction frequently and sometimes dying
completely which was midge madness!!! Many fish were caught but none of
anything above a lb and I am not convinced there are bigger ones here compared
to its sister loch which has some whoppers in it.
One occasion I need to tell you about was
one lunchtime we had delayed our fishing with a visit to Peet’s bar by the
harbour. This is the old Culag bar from my youth when at the age of 15 I was
drinking in the bar and trying to enter the under 16 fly fishing tournament at
the Lochinver highland games. Not a good idea. Anyway we decided to head up to the
town reservoir and give it a whirl, we parked at the old quarry and a fellow
angler also parked at the same time. I went over and explained what our
intentions were and introduced myself only to be told he already knew who I was
and of my brother Peter from my blog account. It was great to meet someone who
had followed my stories and visited many of the places I had talked about. Gijs was from the Netherlands and chatted with Michel while on the loch during the
afternoon. I hope he reads this and takes some interest and enjoyment from the
article which is getting too long and running out of steam.
Thanks to you who made it down this far but I have enjoyed many posts from fellow fisherman but they do tend to end too quickly. I tired a bit as well as the memories were fading but a great two weeks in my dreamland. Now planning next year with more of the same but spending more time around Scourie area after Durness days. Look foward to meeting you on the hills if you are about in June. Cheers Graham
Thanks to you who made it down this far but I have enjoyed many posts from fellow fisherman but they do tend to end too quickly. I tired a bit as well as the memories were fading but a great two weeks in my dreamland. Now planning next year with more of the same but spending more time around Scourie area after Durness days. Look foward to meeting you on the hills if you are about in June. Cheers Graham
