Tuesday 5 June 2012

Old Acquantances II

I had all intentions of going back onto the River Avon after leaving Munro and travelled up to Strathaven only to be met with around 40 cars and over 100 people all lining the banks of the place where I had all intentions of starting the evening session on the river, After a quick inquiry I found out it was Strathaven raft race all part of the Gala celebrations so that was that idea scuppered.

After a quick call I headed up to see John & Gwen Reid at Tinto Fishery, family friends for more years than I care to remember and had all intentions of  going straight onto the Lochs but once I arrived it was a seat around the kitchen table and catching up that took precedence and after nearly 3 hours of conversation and cups of coffee I finally made my way up to Loch Cleugh some 1020ft above sea level looking to temp one of the lovely brown trout that's resident.

  There was a slight breeze blowing but nothing that would effect the sport and after a 20 minute sit to see if any fish were moving.












 I began to walk around the Loch where lots of small wild trout which had be born in the Loch were constantly rising everywhere and after a few minutes one was in the hand.

Totally wild and in pristine condition.








The wind died off after about 20 minutes and the Loch turned into a mill pool and after a few more casts I hooked into one of the larger brown trout residents which took off like a polaris missile and breaking my rod in the fight only for a few seconds later to disappear and leave me standing with a cane rod which the top eye had detached from it, luckily nothing a spot of glue wouldn't put right, so it was a 300m walk back down to the Bothy and John's workshop for a spot of araldite to put right the rod again.


After another few coffee's and another natter it was back up the 300 metres to the top loch to try and tempt one of the bigger brownies but it wasn't to be the temperature had fallen by 10 degrees in the time of the rod being fixed and virtually nothing was moving at all so a few half hearted casts and another 2 small wildies,  it was time to snap a picture of the sunset and head down to Loch Lyoch and see if any of the Rainbow's or Blue trout would oblige.


On arriving down at the Loch the temperature was right down to only 3 degrees so myself another angler met up with John and it was back to the Bothy for a coffee before finally calling it a night at 1030pm and I left John to drive the hour back to the north side of Glasgow to my bed.

For anyone heading North to Scotland for a holiday or simply as a fishing trip you wont go wrong if you stop in at Tinto, All the trout are in pristine condition, you will be met with a very warm welcome and you wont find any stripping of lures here as John says its a thinking anglers fishery where you have to match the hatch to succeed & if you want to stay the night if the cottages are not already booked up you would be made very comfortable. To find out more follow the link you wont be disappointed.
Tinto Trout Fishery & Holiday Cottages


No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments will be added after verification by the moderator.