Fishing on loch Seil

I fly fished a Scottish  loch once about 25 years ago, From the bank and not very succesfully I seem to remember. So part of the pleasure of the trip was the planning ahead and the acquisition of a suitably loaded fly box was the main part of that. Tackle wise like very many fly anglers I have a selection of rods lines and reels so it was the selection of flies and tactics for lochs that were new to me. There was a vague mention of estate boats for loch fishing but didn`t really know what to expect.Having ditched the river fishing due to the lack of water I picked up the Oars and life jackets from the estate office and ventured of to find the boats. Eventually locating the white dinghy tied up with about 50 yds of rope and about 20 knots, The boat also had about a foot of water in it. Bailing out a boat and wrestling with tennis ball sized knots resulted in a good sweat but eventually was ready for the of....

Loch Seil

After getting afloat by battling through the reeds ,  ( I had brief thoughts about Bogart and Hepburn and the African Queen) Daft I know but hey I was on holiday..

Afloat on Loch Seil

Once through the reeds the loch was clear and fairly rich and fish were moving . I went to my fly box with the ranks of the new flies :

First team of flies was a Sawyer PTN on point for a little weight . Then a Kate Maclaren with a Bibio on the top dropper , Second cast bang a feisty little brownie literally threw itself at the flies.  Third cast the same then a pause well actually a long pause with me casting to the same little area , then penny dropped cast to new area and hey success another little scrapper. 

Loch Seil Brownie

By the time I had cast to all points of the compass with the most action coming along the reed fringes, It was time to get away back to the house :

Day Afloat 2

The second time I tried the Loch was faced with a real scorching day pretty much a flat calm and bright sunshine but my fishing had to fit in with the general holiday stuff ie buying food selecting the appropriate wine visits to distillaries and the occasional bit of site seeing.  I am maybe no loch fisherman but I know
tough conditions when I see them....

Started wiith same team of flies as previous with no interest from underwater at all.... So sat lit a pipe and studies the panorama.  Only to notice the odd fish was rising actually in the reed beds.  Here the water was about 3ft deep so there was plenty of room for the fish.  Now I figured the only hope was a dry put on the edge but what fly the chapter on loch fishing in the ancient tomb I had consulted didnt mention single dry fly tactics but it was september and sunny so that means one thing to me... A daddy longlegs which I had in my general fly box.  So a new leader and a size 12 daddy sailed into the reed fringes.  The daddy sat there I reached down to my bag for the pipe. A distinct "gloop"  jerked my head back up only to see fly sat there with in the middle of lots of circles of ripples... Bugger bugger bugger. Check fly and recast when the next "gloop" happened a tightening resulted in my first loch fish on the dry fly :

Loch seil Brownie

Several more Gloops resulted in several more fish all on the dry daddy sometimes the fish took as the fly landed sometimes when it was given a little twitch but they did seem to like a little movement..  The day ended when sitting in the sun getting roasted became just to much. Also the attraction of the evening menu and the glass of Shiraz that would be waiting for me.  On thing that did surprise me was how one body of water could throw up so many brownie shapes and colours . There were nice tradional golden brownies with nice red spots and some very grey fish and fish that were long and elegant and others that were short and fat...

I really loved my  few days on the Loch the fish werent big but scrapped well above their weight and it was a real change to fish in for me such unusual surroundings.  Several times I had eagles in the air above the loch I will return thats for certain.  At the end of the week the estate fella mentioned that there are Arctic char in the loch . Now theres a thought....