In July I took a little run up to Lewis. There was plenty for me to be getting on with but the plan when I booked the leave way back last August was to do some fishing as well. However, there has been little or no rain on Lewis since early or mid-April and so the conditions for fishing are not great. There are still a range of options, including 1000+ trout lochs and sea trout and salmon in the sea or in freshwater lochs but as I had a lot of other stuff to be getting on with I only really fished 2 days out of the fortnight.
So, this is going to be more of a little photo report than a serious fishing report but there will be some fishing elements, that's the best I can manage.
As well as the fishing I did do some camping beside a small loch but this was more part of a night out than a true fishing expedition and, as you can see, the conditions were not conducive to fishing with it being quite bright and there being very little wind:
Despite the lack of fishing potential, and not a single fish moved on the loch that evening though I did have some fish off a nearby loch, it was an enjoyable night out.
With it being a sort of "working" holiday on the croft Barney the lamb was needing fed and as he has got bigger he has also become more keen to get to his bottle so he now jumps up on the gate and makes an awful racket if he thinks there is the chance of a feed:
Barney lives on the croft and there were a few days when factor 50 was necessary even to get to the bottom of the croft as the sun was strong and the car was reporting 26 degrees:
This heat and lack of water had the local River Creed on its bones:
Although it has some nice pools and great fishing it is not a big river and in the current conditions this is all the water there was on the falls low down on the river. This is about the first obstacle that fish coming in from the sea face and it is questionable if there was enough water to get them up:
On one of the "full" days I fished I hit a local river for a salmon. There was very little water in the river and the fish were not running very far before they were holing up, in fact most of them were in the sea pool. Under these conditions I wasn't doing much business and all I managed for the day were a few offers and a sea trout:
SWMBO also announced out of the blue that she wanted to try her spinner for a salmon. Now, in this particular spot the chances were literally zero as the water was so low that the fish couldn't get in out of the sea but she was so keen that this didn't put her off and we had a lovely evening on the loch side taking a few trout but no salmon:
While we were down at the loch I also snapped a quick sunset photo:
When not fishing there is no shortage of "stuff" to be doing and this doesn't just mean croft work and cutting hedges and mowing lawns. We had a ball with picnics and BBQs and visiting sites of interest, this is the West Row at the most remarkable Callanish stone circle:
We also headed west and took in some of the nice coastline and hills in the far west of Lewis:
The Guardian newspaper recently reported that this may be the longest dead end in the UK but I'd not be given to believing anything they say. However, it is a very nice dead end and the road gets rather small as it progresses along the route:
Towards the end there is a little beach which sometimes has lots of sand, and sometimes has little or none. At present it is in a rather depleted state but that didn't discourage some kids from making the best of it:
Some of the other beaches were not short of sand and even in these peak holiday season weeks were not overly crowded, though there had clearly been some kids playing on them for most of the day before we arrived in the evening:
With the good weather we had a few nice, though not spectacular, sunsets and so made our way onto the coastline, or up a nearby hill, by the village on a few evenings to enjoy a walk in the last of the light:
Before I packed the car to head off it seemed like a good idea to wander the moor to one of the more remote trout lochs. I love wandering out there to a spot that probably hasn't been fished by anyone except for myself in a very many years. With the tracks being dry the car didn't get covered in mud getting to this rather inaccessible parking spot which gives good access to a few lochs:
Despite the lack of rain the moor is good at holding its water and there were still significant areas which were wet and, for the unwary, very dangerous indeed:
I quickly wandered out past the first loch:
And soon had the lunch going on my target loch for the day. It is a relatively big loch that has never produced larger fish so I didn't expect anything bigger than 3/4lb and that was about what I got but for me a lot of the entertainment is in the walk and spotting things along the way and having lunch in a remote spot:
In the distant past I wouldn't have had the loch to myself but the residents of this shieling are long since gone and I saw no one at all for the day out, indeed you could probably spend several years here and see no one at all except for me wandering about with my fishing rod:
That just about wraps up another Lewis "fishing" report. I know there wasn't much fishing but, well, sometimes there are too many other things going on to be spending time fishing and although it was possible to get fish, despite the very difficult conditions, I spent most of my time doing other important stuff.
To end the report I must add that I was disappointed to note that the red roof on this old house has now gone as it always made a good subject for a photo when passing through the village of Achmore:
So, this is going to be more of a little photo report than a serious fishing report but there will be some fishing elements, that's the best I can manage.
As well as the fishing I did do some camping beside a small loch but this was more part of a night out than a true fishing expedition and, as you can see, the conditions were not conducive to fishing with it being quite bright and there being very little wind:
Despite the lack of fishing potential, and not a single fish moved on the loch that evening though I did have some fish off a nearby loch, it was an enjoyable night out.
With it being a sort of "working" holiday on the croft Barney the lamb was needing fed and as he has got bigger he has also become more keen to get to his bottle so he now jumps up on the gate and makes an awful racket if he thinks there is the chance of a feed:
Barney lives on the croft and there were a few days when factor 50 was necessary even to get to the bottom of the croft as the sun was strong and the car was reporting 26 degrees:
This heat and lack of water had the local River Creed on its bones:
Although it has some nice pools and great fishing it is not a big river and in the current conditions this is all the water there was on the falls low down on the river. This is about the first obstacle that fish coming in from the sea face and it is questionable if there was enough water to get them up:
On one of the "full" days I fished I hit a local river for a salmon. There was very little water in the river and the fish were not running very far before they were holing up, in fact most of them were in the sea pool. Under these conditions I wasn't doing much business and all I managed for the day were a few offers and a sea trout:
SWMBO also announced out of the blue that she wanted to try her spinner for a salmon. Now, in this particular spot the chances were literally zero as the water was so low that the fish couldn't get in out of the sea but she was so keen that this didn't put her off and we had a lovely evening on the loch side taking a few trout but no salmon:
While we were down at the loch I also snapped a quick sunset photo:
When not fishing there is no shortage of "stuff" to be doing and this doesn't just mean croft work and cutting hedges and mowing lawns. We had a ball with picnics and BBQs and visiting sites of interest, this is the West Row at the most remarkable Callanish stone circle:
We also headed west and took in some of the nice coastline and hills in the far west of Lewis:
The Guardian newspaper recently reported that this may be the longest dead end in the UK but I'd not be given to believing anything they say. However, it is a very nice dead end and the road gets rather small as it progresses along the route:
Towards the end there is a little beach which sometimes has lots of sand, and sometimes has little or none. At present it is in a rather depleted state but that didn't discourage some kids from making the best of it:
Some of the other beaches were not short of sand and even in these peak holiday season weeks were not overly crowded, though there had clearly been some kids playing on them for most of the day before we arrived in the evening:
With the good weather we had a few nice, though not spectacular, sunsets and so made our way onto the coastline, or up a nearby hill, by the village on a few evenings to enjoy a walk in the last of the light:
Before I packed the car to head off it seemed like a good idea to wander the moor to one of the more remote trout lochs. I love wandering out there to a spot that probably hasn't been fished by anyone except for myself in a very many years. With the tracks being dry the car didn't get covered in mud getting to this rather inaccessible parking spot which gives good access to a few lochs:
Despite the lack of rain the moor is good at holding its water and there were still significant areas which were wet and, for the unwary, very dangerous indeed:
I quickly wandered out past the first loch:
And soon had the lunch going on my target loch for the day. It is a relatively big loch that has never produced larger fish so I didn't expect anything bigger than 3/4lb and that was about what I got but for me a lot of the entertainment is in the walk and spotting things along the way and having lunch in a remote spot:
In the distant past I wouldn't have had the loch to myself but the residents of this shieling are long since gone and I saw no one at all for the day out, indeed you could probably spend several years here and see no one at all except for me wandering about with my fishing rod:
That just about wraps up another Lewis "fishing" report. I know there wasn't much fishing but, well, sometimes there are too many other things going on to be spending time fishing and although it was possible to get fish, despite the very difficult conditions, I spent most of my time doing other important stuff.
To end the report I must add that I was disappointed to note that the red roof on this old house has now gone as it always made a good subject for a photo when passing through the village of Achmore:
