Lough Fishing.

This is my favourite type of fishing: remote loughs usually populated by small, wild brown trout. Such loughs often require a bit in the way of leg work before the fishing can begin but it is almost always worth it. The photo shows Loch Kertavat on a bright and sunny September day. Not much of a day for the fishing but an ideal day for sitting by the loch drinking tea and watching the world go by. At other times of year the fishing can be bad for reasons of rain, gale and cold. Many March days see the lough angler wrapped up in layers of fleece and waxed cotton trudging across wet bog in driving rain. The most important item on a day such as this isn't a Sage or a Simms but a flask of hot water for some tea. Tea, it seems is the common factor across all locations and weather conditions.

In Scotland and Ireland there are two main types of lough fishing. One is carried out from a boat and is refered to as "short lining." As you might guess the angler rarely casts a line more that a few times the length of his rod and he imparts most of the movement to the flies by raising the rod tip to pull the flies towards the boat. This method of fishing is most common on large loughs and, clearly, requires a boat.

The remote loughs, such as Kertavat shown above, rarely have boats and they require a different technique where the angler casts from the bank. This is often refered to as "long lining" and, as you might guess, more line is usually cast than would be the norm from a boat. In saying that the huge casts of reservoir fishing are rarely seen on the loughs. The other thing which is rare to see on an upland lough in Scotland or Ireland is a dry fly, almost all of this fishing is carried out with a cast of three wet flies.

This is a wet fly, in actual fact this is a Black Pennell which is a very simple but very effective wet fly. There would be few traditional lough anglers who wouldn't fish the Black Pennell on occasions. The Black Pennell is a point fly, though sometimes it is tied large and bushy and fished on the bob position. A point fly goes right at the end of the leader while the bob fly goes on the top dropper nearest the connection with the fly line.

This is a Blue Zulu, this is a bob fly and a favourite of myself and many other anglers. The bob fly is usually more bushy than the point fly and is designed to fish just below the surface. Often the angler will lift his rod point to work the fly right in the surface of the water producing a great disturbance on the water surface. The Blue Zulu catches a lot of fish and is common in sizes from 14 to 6. Usually the size of the fly is determined by the size of the wave, so on a calm day a small fly would be used while in a gale a much larger fly would see action. On a small loch such as Kertavat the wave never becomes huge and so sizes 10 and 12 would probably cope with all conditions.

You might be thinking that I was going to ignore the middle dropper of the usual three flies. Usually it is the least productive fly on the cast and it is often given much less consideration than the others. The fly shown here is a Solicitor and it is a Scottish fly which has gained quite a reputation for being a good middle dropper. It is, as you can see, quite a bright fly and maybe not quite what you might expect but this is a good fly and will take trout on days when the others fail. It can be very productive when the fish are feeding on small fry and I think the shine gets it taken for a little fish.

The cast is usually between 9 and 12 feet long with the droppers spaced about equally along it's length. Many people used to dry fly fishing try this out and find that it is a disaster with their cast becoming tangled and knotted. The important thing to note is that it helps if the leader is constructed of fairly stiff nylon as this causes the droppers to stand out and so reduces the chances of a tangle. For what it's worth I am a big fan of the Hardy Co-Polymer Tippet Material but I am told that this material is very expensive in the USA. If you have a problem this way then order it from the UK, I use SportFish Link to the sportfish web site. and find them very good and they are willing to send orders overseas for the cost of the postage.

I usually attach my droppers with a Water Knot which I find easy to tie and very strong. It doesn't make the droppers stand out as well as a full Blood Knot but the Blood Knot isn't as strong and I find it a real pain to tie correctly, specially in a gale. Usually I tie up my casts at the waterside and this allows me to take the weather into account. On such exposed loughs the weather really is the boss and on a windy day I might go as far as 10 pound BS leader material, not for strength but for added stiffness. A windy day would also encourage me to make the droppers somewhat shorter and this also helps avoid tangles.

Leaders and flies are the areas of wet fly fishing which seem to attract most attention from those used to other methods. The dry fly angler is usually taken aback that stiff leader material is used and that the usual cast consists of three flies. Many are also amazed that the leader isn't tapered in any way and talk about things such as power transfer and turnover. These are not of any great concern to the wet fly angler as presentation is a different concept in water the colour of good whiskey which is usually topped by waves and foam. The fish in these loughs do not have much pressure from anglers and many of the more remote loughs may not see an angler from one year to the next.

Roddy Martin seeks shelter and holds on to his hat on a windswept loch.

While many fishermen are very interested in rods and reels they are, to be honest, probably the least important items carried by the lough angler. It is usual to fish with a rod about 11 feet in length casting a line of about 6 or 7 weight. Although the fish tend to be small most of the loughs are very exposed and so you need a rod which can cope with the conditions. I have a 10 foot Sage 4 weight which is a wonderful rod for lough fishing when the conditions permit but on a windy day in March I might as well stay at home as struggle with a 4 weight. I also have a very special Dave Lewis 11 foot 7 weight rod which breaks into 5 pieces for air transport. It is, as Dave might admit, a strange weapon but very effective on the loughs and easy to carry on the plane. It is designed for the windy days and sports a Windmaster line which I find helpful getting the flies out when the wind gets up. You can contact Dave at http://www.performanceflyrods.com should you have requirements as strange as mine.

As for reels? Well, what can I say? Get one which holds all your line along with some backing and don't worry too much about it. Clearly if you are going to use a longer, heavy rod then it is important to get a reel which balances the rod well as a long day casting can be hard work. Also by their nature lough rods are also suitable for grilse and sea trout fishing and if that is your plan then it is worth getting a reel which can stand the stresses and strains of such fishing.

Now, we come to the important bit. Most loughs are wild, exposed and often some considerable walk from the road so the angler needs to be prepared for and protected from the elements. As I mentioned above a flask is a very important part of the standard gear for a day on a hill lough. You will find that many of the most important items are clothing or boots. I prefer good walking boots and have a pair by a company called Brasher. These boots are Gore-Tex lined and do a great job for walking on a bog that is almost always wet. Waders might seem like a good idea but after the first few miles their appeal will be greatly reduced and I've never seen much advantage in wading on the loughs I fish. A good coat is also a worthwhile investment. At present I remain a fan of waxed cotton as the various plastic coats never seem to be quite up to the job in terms of being robust enough to cope with barbed wire fences while remaining waterproof. It must be said that the waxed cotton isn't quite as good at dispersing water vapour but I don't find it a lot worse than other fabrics. Barbour http://www.barbour.co.uk have just released a new waterproof jacket using Gore-Tex or something similar. I have had a quick look at the jacket in a shop and must say that I consider it too lightweight for the fishing I do. Now I am sure that it will be waterproof but the fabric feels like very lightweight cotton and, in my view, will not be robust enough to survive a few hedges and barbed wire fences. It is also somewhat lacking in the pockets I require for fishing but then I do carry nearly all my bits and bobs in my jacket pockets. In the mean time I think the waxed cotton will remain the solution for me. In terms of plastic coats the nearest I have seen to being as robust and useful as the Barbour is the Musto Highland and I have recently added one of these to my collection. In fact I have now been wearing my Musto for just over a full season and have been quite impressed. It is certainly a well designed coat with all the facilities you could ask for in a fishing or shooting coat. It has also shown itself to be waterproof on some very bad days and is comfortable to wear. I would say that, in general, it does shift water vapour somewhat better than the Barbour but it is still far from perfect. The area where I had most concern for such plastic coats has proven to be the one where the Musto has indeed let me down as there are now a number of rips here and there. Luckily most are in the internal lining and so don't compromise the waterproof-ness but even so a Barbour would have survived the encounters without damage. In saying that I intend to carry out some repair work and to continue wearing the Musto for my fishing trips and must confess that I have become quite attached to it. You can get Musto on http://www.musto.co.uk/fred/default.htm and from there you follow the link to the catelogue and the country clothing. You should note that while the Highlands jacket gets a great reputation some of the other fishing and sporting jackets have not been getting such a good name and there are reports of leaks. All I can say is that I am happy with my Highlands and am hopeful that plastic coats will soon be more robust.

I usually carry all my fishing bits in the pockets of my coat, my requirements are simple and run to some flies, leader material, some mud to sink the leader and a few other bits and bobs. Additional clothing goes into my rucksack along with food supplies to keep me going for the day. It is maybe just me but I need to eat quite often and so spend a lot of time stuffing food into my face, along with tea of course. The only other item I could add to this list is a good knife. I am a fan of the Swiss Army knife and have one which goes into a little pouch on my belt, I also have a lock knife which I use for cleaning any fish I should kill.

Technique.

By now some of you are thinking that this is all well and good but how about a clue as to how we fish the wet fly. Well, it's simple, we throw it out and pull it back. There isn't much more to say than that but, for some reason, I have found that you have to be throwing it out for quite some time before you get the technique for pulling it back with a fish on the end. It's hard to explain and some waters are different than others. One of my favourite waters fishes well for most anglers in the early months of the season, months when I rarely take a fish from it. Later in the year when the other anglers have moved on to more productive areas I find the water comes on for me and I can get a lot of fish. So it goes and nearly every angler will have a similar story. The best advice is to get local advice as waters which look similar often require different techniques to get results. If you just throw it out and pull it back you will not be going far wrong.

My Guide to wet fly presentation.

My Guide to Lewis Lochs.

As a footnote for anyone who is becoming confused it is important to note that a loch and a lough are exactly the same thing but lochs are found in Scotland and loughs are found in Ireland. The term can apply to both sea and freshwater in either country.

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