School Boy Error No #99 "Wild Camping"

School Boy Error No #99    “Wild camping in the hills”

from Peter Williams

After a miserable trip in 2017 where, ‘never again’ and ‘I don’t want to die of exposure’ were uttered, we were once again planning a trip up into the hills to our favourite loch not a million miles from Tongue. Preparations over the winter at home and prior to the walk to the loch had been meticulous and on a par with the planning for Buzz Aldrins moon walk. I filled my backpack and emptied it on the floor of my study, otherwise known as the nerve centre, and re-packed leaving a couple of items out.

Finally, the day in June had arrived and after a quick de-camp from Thurso campsite and the journey to the Tongue hotel, a quick pint and permits bought, we were off. The weather was mixed but not disastrous, and, with whatever weather website we had on our phones we were able to track the severity of prevailing rain and wind for the next twenty four hours or so. We found out later that, with no surprise to us, that the weather forecast in this part of the world can change often and dramatically.

I turned sixty two this year and maybe another year of abuse must have taken its toll as a note in my diary registers ‘tough walk’.  After the two hour walk we set the tents up half way down the east side of the loch as a moderate south wind blew steadily that evening.

Our Belgium friend fished the west bank carefully and was rewarded with a nice 49cm trout caught close to the bank on a sedge pattern. Graham hooked a reasonable fish in the weeds at the southern end but failed to bring it in after a few challenging minutes.

My efforts were not rewarded and I figured with another evening up here there was always a chance of one of those balmy evenings when the fish are jumping and rising in a way that torments you as though they are saying ‘Well catch me if you can!’. But if you don’t then you have “only yourself to blame”. It was surprisingly cool but with a strengthening wind, so an early night was not a surprise for all three of us.

Overnight the wind began to steadily get worse and early the next morning there was rain according to my brother Graham who was predicting world cup scores at 12.30am. The early weather report indicated that they were going to get stronger and the winds were moving directly from the west. 

By eight o’clock only the west bank was fishable as that bank had some calm water from the bank to about ten metres out. I spent most of the morning avoiding the rain by remaining in my tent whilst the other two fished. Graham had arranged to stay at the hotel that evening and as predicted, as the rain stopped the wind increased whipping the surface into a barrage of waves on a beach.

If there was one lesson from the previous year that we learned, it was use the topography for your comfort and even your survival. With help from my brother and a quick check on the weather, we moved my tent behind a ridge protecting from the now fierce westerly. Graham returned to the hotel. 

Our Belgium friend did not embrace this idea of moving his living accommodation until the last minute when his tent was seconds away to being blown into the kyle, a distance of three miles away and no vegetation to stop its flight.

I had no excuse by three o clock but to go fishing so I clambered from my tent picked up my rod to join Michel on the west bank. My first attempt was halted half way up the knoll we were camped under by gusts that made climbing a danger. So I tried to approach the loch around the other side of our protective hill. This time waves were crashing into the bank threatening to sweep me into the water forever, I gave up. Fish zero due to zero effort. Now for the most irritating part of this story. Breakfast had been a long time ago and Spartan. Michel, I noticed waved to me in a triumphant manor from the far end of the loch signalling yet another success, this time 45cms. (despite Brexit we are metric).

The new site protected from the wind and 30 yards from where we started the night before. 

One tent gone with Graham sipping coctails at the Ben Loyal Hotel Tee hee!

Finally, he came back to camp to find a very grumpy and hungry me. Actually I think those two feelings are somehow linked. I was also cold but after two barbequed burgers and a chocolate bar my spirits were raised just in time to go to bed with a gin and tonic night cap. Having spent most of the day in the tent I had a restless night and at around 3am a further night cap or two was required.

The wind had finally dropped in the early hours of the next morning but it took some time for the sun to warm things up a bit. I finally went fishing after thirty six hours of ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ dreaming and fighting the cold in my tent in a sleeping bag that is to be demoted to a dog blanket. I strolled casually along the path which, the night before had water crashing onto it and proceeded to the far west bank from whence the wind was still blowing but considerably less than twelve hours before.

My go to fly is probably the sedgehog fished on an eighteen-foot leader (not sure how many cms that is). This one I had tied myself with a claret seal fur body and for once a decent amount of coastal deer hair on a barbless size 12 hook. This is going to sound somewhat familiar but there are times when, especially when the wind is behind you, the cast just straightens out perfectly and the fly sits there screaming ‘eat me, eat me’. And that is what happened at 8.15am as a slurp sucked down my offering and a trout was on. The trout was only half asleep but after the time in my tent I was the opposite and the fight was over after five minutes when 55cms lay briefly on the bank and was quickly returned.

The rest of the morning passed without any further of our finny friends being extracted from their watery world and we proceeded back to the hotel for a welcome pint and lunch.

Next year? Will we return? Will we pay any attention to the weather forecasts? What do you think? Of course we will.

Please note the trout I caught had one of those situations where the gill cover did not fully cover the gill on one side and should be easily recognise should someone catch it again. If you were holding the trout with its head pointing away from you then the damaged gill was on the left hand side.

This is Peter’s article for 2018 which has some familiar tones to others I have written. What he does not tell us is that 12 days before hand we also spent a night on the hill at “the best loch in Sutherland”. Maybe it was the four hour walk to get there, the howling wind that night and early morning or is it the fact he did very little fishing and caught nought? It was just another SBE but he has vowed to never return and I think he will never reach this loch again unless we fly him up there. I feel with our new Icross water transport we may well not need to camp out overnight in the future see www.icrossflyfish.com. Tight lines this autumn maybe some sewin or salmon next week if it rains?

Success on the Durness Limestone Lochs in 2017

Success on the Durness Limestone Lochs 2017

I had heard about them for the last 30 years, clear water, shallow, very dour at times, some of them only at night, lucky to see a fish let alone catch one and so on. But even the positive comments had always said “you will be pleased if you catch it just right and catch a couple of good two pounders”. Even the Master, Colin had agreed that they were a tough gig but should not be overlooked.

I had met fisherman at Scourie who were used to a short walk to the boats and then spend the day afloat and return to the Cape Wrath Hotel with the odd good fish. But I never dreamt of 12 fighting fish in a day from our boat with fish over 50cm and at least four over 3lb and another day off the shore a 5lb + beauty who was an old boy but over 64cm and much heavier in his prime years.  

  

This story goes back to 12^th July 1932 when Sir George Willis was fishing Loch Lanlish with the dry fly. He managed to catch a lovely 9lb 8oz on his annual holiday to the Sutherland highlands while he was home from India. The fish and a photograph of Sir George sits in a bookcase arch in a house in Totnes and is admired by my brothers and myself whenever we get to visit our Sister in Devon. I have dreamt about catching such a fish for the last ten years and have been fascinated with all the stories surrounding Lanlish.

As you can see it is impressive and there must have been plenty of food around to grow this fat but as they say, there always was back in the good old days.

The Big Fish competition in 2016 had taken us much further north than our usual Assynt and Scourie haunts and we had fished from Wick to Tongue to Durness before heading to south west Sutherland. In Durness we fished for just two days and a large fish was seen on Caladail and a few fish of reasonable size were caught on both the main boat fishing lochs. I had fished Lanlish twice and seen good fish but should have taken notice of the advice received from Bruce Sanderson who we had met in Tongue a few days before and that wading was a complete no no as they cruise in the shallows.

I rose nothing, netted 21 golf balls and playing 18 holes one afternoon did not help with my fishing timetable!

Peter here demonstrating my fishing success!!

After this fairly disappointing limestone initiation we allocated & booked two further days in 2017’s trip with 2 boats on Caladail for four fishermen and a day on Lanlish for three of us. After Peter and I had been blown off the hill in Tongue we had headed for a restful afternoon at the Sango Sands campsite and bar. So we were full of enthusiasm as we approached the hill on the golf course leading to Lanlish that next morning, it is a good stroll and you are bankside in under ten minutes. 

We set up by the 6^th green and had a very comfortable vantage point to scan the loch for any movement and watch the golfers approach shots across the water to the green.

I don’t remember much of the morning, a good breeze, some sunshine and assorted dry flies from the three of us. We are typical creatures of habit and used our top performers to start with and don’t tend to change flies too many time before lunch. I use some small stimulators of different colourings including black, Michel opts for a Goddards Caddis / deer hair sedge type dry fly while Peter is the master of the Turks Tarantula. The Turks, well maybe not to start with but it doesn’t take him long to abandon the small parachute flies he often uses.

We fished hard though and our flies were on the water a good few hours before a shout from the north bank and Michel was into a good fish. He was fishing the beach bay and a cruiser had taken his floating fly and was on the run to deeper water. Was he broken or did the hook not hold? Well his WhatsApp reply to my question recently was the fish ran to some weeds wrapped around them and he was broken in the process.  He was gutted, angry and even more determined to catch a fish on this loch. Pete and I were just excited that there were fish in the loch and that they could be hooked, I turned to wets and cast into the wind from the south west being aware of the possibility of golf balls flying past on the sixth fairway. I worked my way around the southern end but it was difficult and there are reeds along the shore so side casting helps but does not get the line far out. I wanted to wade but was aware of scaring all the cruising fish especially as I was nearing Michel’s bay of plenty, well one!

Lunch was taken back at the sixth green base and white wine consumed as we considered our tactics for the afternoon. Peter mentioned that he had a rise during the morning but it was well out and no idea of size. We agreed that dries or sub surface flies slowly pulled in was the way forward and we set off to cover the north west shore again for a few hours.

The boys were flagging after an hour and the day seemed to be coming to an end as they sat on the bank of a hill by the shore near the beach bay and the very shallow area that extends way out into the loch. I had put on a fresh fly to fish wet for the last time and cover the water the boys had fished earlier with dry flies. It was a Ke-He size 10 traditional colours with some extra legs, a fly I always have in my box these days as there are so few Wormfly options around.  I cast out with Peter and Michel as a potential audience but they were snoozing after discussing dinner options and aperitif selections.

We have all had those takes that you get after an initial cast and you miss it as you are getting the line sorted and not paying enough attention to the fly at the end of your cast. Well this was a classic as the fly was floating and although a fair way out in shallow water was a temporary cast area before I concentrated on a hot spot. So I was looking of sorts but shocked to see my line straighten, I struck and immediately realized I was into a good fish who was on the move and heading out to the middle and deeper water. The boys woke up in disbelief of my good fortune as they had both fished here within the last twenty minutes and initially were dubious to my appeal for support.

I have just watched my GoPro video of the playing of the fish and had to change my initial typed comments above and what follows  as the truth was told on camera- missed the actual take and boys fast asleep on bank. For some reason I struggled to play it in a calm manner, I was trying to boss it but it was strong and raced towards me a couple of times which throws you a bit. Anyway Michel netted it finally as I held him steady in the shallow water. 64cm and just over 5lb in weight with beautiful colours and spots.

 A broad back but not in best condition as I felt he was an old fish and on the way out with a saggy stomach. He was returned after measuring, weighing and extraction of Red Tag or Ke-He.

It was and is my best Brown Trout in Scotland with a 4lb 15oz being my previous PB to date. I still can’t really take it in that I have had a Lanlish monster on the line and in the net but luckily I will be back there again in 2018 and will endeavor to repeat the experience with a younger fish and preferably a little bit bigger. Maybe with some small nymphs and buzzers hanging in the water, catching the interest of big uns as they cruise around in search of food. After a few more casts from myself the guys were ready for early drinks at the campsite and we headed off down the hill to celebrate.

Caladail from the boats was our appointment the following day and we were up early making up lunch boxes and having a cooked breakfast outside the tent and campervan. Robin was on his way up from Scourie to share a boat with myself and the weather was typically average, grey sky, a bit misty with a very light wind.

We took three cars to the parking spot and unloaded fishing gear only and headed for the short walk to the boats. Peter had his new electric motor which had been a great benefit when fishing Healan and St Johns loch earlier in the week. It proved useful here but mainly to tow the other boat back for a picnic lunch at boat bay.

With the stories of big fish I had advised Robin that strong line would be needed and I repeated the advice given to us at Heilan about using a 10lb minimum   but preferably 12lb. We had heard and seen the big fish up at Wick break fisherman some on the take others playing the fish with all the weed about. We had upped our breaking strain but Robin paid the price and lost two early fish with breaks both in the weeds that are all over the loch.

It was a frantic morning I had two fish over 2lb early on and then had one over 3lb which gave hell of a fight but I was strong with him and he was netted in record time.  We moved the boat and drifted around the southern island and the wall that runs in and across the Loch from South to North.

   Here we once again got into some great fish with another large fish taking my Red Tag and being over 3lb in weight, Rob lost another one to his disgust after a brutal fight and I blamed his knots and weight of line. Probably his skills as well but that’s Brothers for you but we had a challenge to win against the other motorised boat.

As the other boat drifted near us before lunch we found that we were well behind in numbers but they had nothing of the size of our fish caught by me or lost by Rob. Anyway a shout went up and Robin was into another good fish he was careful and played it well and got it up on the top and away from the weeds. It was nearly in my net at one stage but a plunge into the deep started the fight all over again. The other boat was coming too close for comfort and with no attention to our health and safety, we screamed at it’s irresponsible skipper but it was too late the fish broke Robin’s line and another 3lb + fish lost (also his last Ombudsman).

We got a tow back to the boat bay and the gap in the submerged wall and went back to the car for our picnic spread and assorted wine selection. Talk was of the mornings experiences which none of us had expected and of the forthcoming trip to Iceland in August. Further advice was given on knots and breaking strain!!!

The afternoon was quieter but still productive and both of us on our boat managed a few more fish in the 2-3lb category. 

We were thrashed on numbers by Peter and Michel but they could not rise the bigger fish. I think there is another size a step up from these as we have seen them before but I was happy to be connecting with quality fighting fish and one of the best days of boat fishing I have ever had.

We adjourned to the campsite when the clouds got darker and the temperature seemed to be dropping. A satisfied glow surrounded the Limestone loch fisherman as they sipped their gin & tonics in deck chairs within our corral of tents and campervan. We talked of Scourie where we were heading the following day to camp and fish the Scourie and District Angling Club waters with Robin fishing the hotel beats he would select later that night.

On reflection:

• ·         What a cracking days fishing Caladail can be.
• ·         Unbelievable success against all the weather gods advice
• ·         Check your leader for worn areas, knots and breaking strain- don’t just guess yesterday’s leader will be ok
• ·         Take more white than red wine on your picnics
• ·         Give good advice on the best picnic deck chairs before you leave home (mine can be used in a boat as well)
• ·         Reminder to self- always buy a spare double blow-up mattress
• ·         Don’t spend too long or too many days at Lanlish
• ·         Take your golf clubs or hire some for £10, breaks up the fishing and drinking and you meet some great people.

     Certainly not a Bob Walker cracker but an effort to bring some life to our trip last year and the great experience of catching fish in Durness. We are back for a whole week here in 2018 and hiring the Balnakeil House to celebrate Robin's 60th with his children and family and friends. I guess we will thrash Croispol and Borralaidh boat fish Caladail, night fish Lanlish as well as play more rounds of golf

      Other than that I am fishng Achiltibuie, Assynt, Scourie, Wick and Dunnet head and all lochs south of Melivich for two weeks from the 1st June. Tight lines out there Cheers Graham