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Take to the hills

Our September 2001 contribution from Lesley Crawford

This month Lesley delivers some advice on fishing remote hills lochs for wild trout...

Some of the most dramatic trout angling in Scotland takes place unseen, tucked away in the hills and miles from anywhere. Forget the niceties of manicured hedgerows, paths and fertile fields, this is bare bones fishing with only the silence, the deer and the wind for company. To undertake this form of angling you have to leave all your city baggage (physical and mental) behind and instead tune in totally to the quiet emptiness of the hills. You will be rewarded by clean clear air, majestic scenery and a tranquillity to your trout angling you would never otherwise know existed. 'Put and take' fishing it ain't but that's not why you go, this is all about getting involved in a wild situation.

Remote and wild

Despite the arduousness of hill loch angling it has many fans and frankly it's not hard to see why. As long as you are well prepared, this is challenging wild trout angling at its very best. Not without good reason is it a good idea to check your general fitness out before you strap on your hiking boots. Half way up a mountain is not the place to suddenly decide you want to be somewhere else, you have to get there and back over trackless terrain and bank fish for several hours as well! However with a little forward planning you are guaranteed a memorable time and to help you on your way I offer the following tips to make your hill fishing a safe and enjoyable experience.

• Plan the route on a large scale OS map first, estimate mileage and then double it for what looks like a mile on the map is often twice that. Remember you must ascend and descend hill and vale on your way as well as make detours to skirt bogs which appear out of nowhere.

• Allow plenty of time and tell someone where you are heading. Take the map and compass with you and know how to use them. It's often necessary to take a bearing to get yourself off the hill should the mist descend. Boy scout stuff it might be but this skill saves lives. Don`t rely on a mobile phone, there is often no signal in enclosed valleys ringed with big hills and anyway it's frequently a modern cop out for not knowing how to use a compass properly. Travel light with one rucksack, travelling rod and two light reels (your normal one with a floating line plus a lightweight spare in case it all jams – been there and done that!).

At last!

• Wear appropriate gear - layers of cotton and/or fleece are best. Take a folding lightweight waterproof with you. This should be windproof and watertight - you would be surprised how many of these garments are not. If bank fishing, you can get by with wearing hiking boots and standing on the edges. Personally, I wear wellies because there is nothing worse than walking for miles and then finding the trout just that little bit out of reach. Wellies give you that extra distance at the loch though admittedly they are harder on the legs.

• Depending on walking distance I will either wear or carry my fishing vest with all its bits and pieces like nylon, flies, snips, dark glasses, floatant etc. in the rucksack.

• It's advisable to also take lightweight waterproof trousers. These are very useful during downpours at the loch though they are not recommended for walking any distance in. Remember fishing and walking are two different things requiring different body action.

Make sure you have plenty of water, food and energy sweets. A spare bar of chocolate is always essential. And take one of those space blankets (the foil sheets the marathon runners use which weigh less than an ounce). I've never yet had to use it but as well as a warmer, it's a good sight indictor if God forbid they ever have to send out a helicopter for me!

Tackling up

TACKLE AND TACTICS

As already mentioned the kit must all be lightweight with a 10ft travelling rod the maximum length normally required. It's not advisable to take a rod shorter than 9ft as some hill lochs have high banks (which are not normally marked on the map) and you will need enough clearance in order to cast. Fish traditional wet flies to begin with if you are not sure what's happening with the trout. Black or black and red flies like the Pennel, Zulu or Bibio are all good risers of fish. Plan your attack according to the terrain. Go to flatter shelving areas first, steep sheer banks have little or no appeal to trout as they offer little in the way of food or shelter. Fishing over a precipice is not advised for obvious reasons! Look out for features which break up the uniformity of the loch surface. Weed beds, boulders, islands etc all attract trout and you should aim to put your fly near these first. If wets are not attracting, fish the dry fly with confidence as something like a Grey Wulff or a dry Wickhams will often bring up welcome surprises from apparently dead water.

It's important to take into account the time of year you are visiting the hill loch. Because of their altitude some waters do not come on song until later on with late

Hill loch success

June through to September being the most productive times. If you go earlier on in the season say May when Scotland can have some warm dry and bright weather, bear in mind the trout might well be lying up very close to the edge in search of food and shelter in that order. If you send lines out into the wide blue yonder you will simply line the fish and put them down. Sunlight is not normally a huge problem on high waters in fact because it stimulates growth of invertebrates you may well find the trout become more active in conditions which would be classed as hopeless on lowland waters. Not that hill loch trout are easy pickings. Just because they rarely see more than a handful of artificial flies cast at them in a year, it does not mean they surrender easily! Survival is always uppermost in the trout's mind so keep your casting delicate and your profile low. A breeze to disguise your intentions is also welcome.

Hill loch angling is not for everyone, in fact half way through my last full day excursion on a hot sweaty August day I was muttering darkly about being so knackered walking up the hill I might not have the energy left to fish. My family responded by scoffing that I was doing too much writing about fishing and not enough rod waving (true!) and they went off skipping like gazelles up to the loch leaving me a panting wreck in their wake. Hmm, still I did catch some great trout in the end. If you go at it with a light step and light gear you can feel proud of achieving a visit to fish in a remote isolation, it's a big adventure after all and the trout are incidental but not essential…

About Lesley Crawford

Lesley has fished for brown trout and sea trout from a very early age and her enthusiasm for these beautiful Scottish fish shows no signs of diminishing. She is well known as a leading angling writer and photographer with prodigious articles in a wide range of publications including Salmon Trout & Sea Trout and the Scotsman.

Lesley is a REFFIS qualified fishing guide and arranges bespoke wild trout angling holidays in the Northern Highlands. Her first major book 'Fishing for Wild Trout in Scottish Lochs' (Swan Hill 1996) was a runaway success and the long awaited follow up 'Scotlands Classic Wild Trout Waters' (Swan Hill) was published in 2000. Order your copy now. Read more about Lesley at www.wildtroutfisher.co.uk