Rounding out my Spring salmon season

[@tonyjones5530]

What a place to cast a fly Philip, truly stunning and who would be bothered if you don’t catch.looking forward to more videos 👍🏼

[@caorach3354]

It is a lovely place Tony, and right by the road so it is a really handy spot. Further up the river it becomes a bit wilder and more remote and it is fed from a huge and convoluted system of lochs. It isn't a system that I know at all and last year was the first time I explored the upper part of the river, as well as being extensive the system is extremely varied. I did a little video of the upper parts of the river last season: kzbin.info/www/bejne/el64oGhmr9-hipo

[@tonyjones5530]

@@caorach3354 yes I think I did watch that video, more exploring to do then?

[@martin7955]

Looks lovely

[@bobtopaz7418]

Good evening from Shropshire I have watched all your videos and enjoy every one of them fish or no fish. I am planning a three week tour of the Hebrides in September this year staring on Skye, then Lewis and Harris from finishing on the Uist’s and Benbecula and I know you have been asked this a hundred times but I would love a few pointers as to where to start in terms of waters to try for trout and sea trout. There are hundreds of lochs to fish and I could easily end up being a rabbit in the headlights trying to decide on where to fish. My target is to catch my fist sea trout but accept that September may be a little late in the season. Any help gratefully received. Keep posting the videos

[@caorach3354]

September is a good time to visit, but then I'm biased as I like the back end fishing, and our sea trout can run quite late in many places so you are in with a good chance of fresh fish. I can only really comment on Lewis as there are a lot of lochs and salmon/sea trout systems there so I've no reason to travel. For September sea trout then the obvious answer is the Gress Angling Association facebook.com/groups/486184075257389/ water as the runs on Gress tend to be later and September tends to be their best month. You can get day tickets, or even better get a season ticket for £25 and that is you set up for sea trout, salmon, and brown trout. Unfortunately I don't really have any "good" Gress videos as I haven't been fishing Gress as much as in the past just through circumstances but it is a good fishery. In part the advantage of Gress is that if the water is low then the salmon and sea trout will lie in the saltings area waiting to run the river and if the water is high then there will be fish in the pools on the river. This gives the advantage of fishing in almost all conditions. The club are super friendly so drop them a message and they will give you all the info you need, there is so much fishing on Lewis that no one is keeping secrets. If you wanted some estuary fishing then the Fideach Angling Club fideachangling.co.uk/ have estuary fishing for salmon, sea trout, and slob trout close to Stornoway. The Steinish Pool is quite heavily fished in the sense that you might have to share it but in truth it can be great fun and a great social event plus the pool is sometimes stuffed with fish, they are hard to get in the salt water but it can make for an exciting few hours. If you might also be interested in a salmon (plus many good trout lochs) then the Stornoway Angling Association syangling.com/ have really good salmon fishing on the River Creed. Unlike a lot of association fishing it is rarely crowded except, perhaps for a few of the pools in the Castle Grounds but I never fish there as I like the pools up on the moorland. If you have a 7 weight single hander that will do for salmon, I use an 11ft rod in a 7 weight for everything including spring salmon and many, maybe most, salmon are taken on what you might consider trout flies so your trout gear will do for salmon. You can get day tickets or season tickets and access is easy to many pools, but you can also have a good walk if you wish. There are also 2 salmon/sea trout lochs on the system with boats and they can be very productive. The SAA also have a goodly amount of trout fishing that is mostly close to the road and perhaps their most productive loch would be Loch Achmore - it has a boat and so if you wanted a day of boat fishing it would be an ideal spot. It appears in quite a few of my videos but I always fish it from the shore and by the nature of the loch I'd say the boat outfishes the shore by maybe 10 fish to every 1 on the shore angler would get. The fish are good quality and usually in the 3/4lb - 2lb sort of size. There are about 1000 other trout lochs and in one sense you are only limited by how far you want to walk and your willingness to explore. Many of these lochs are rarely, or never, fished. Generally speaking you will find lochs that produce large numbers of smaller fish, or lochs that appear empty but occasionally produce a monster, and in many cases no one knows until they go and fish the loch. I can't document a lot of trout lochs as it would take 1000 pages but one example that is close by the road might be Loch Raoinebhat in Shawbost. This loch has a reasonable head of modestly sized trout of maybe 1/2lb - 3/4lb but it also holds a few monsters with the biggest I've heard of recently being 11lb. Despite appearances it is a deep loch (60ft) and it falls away from knee depth to 30ft in a single step so don't wade it. The big fish tend to be caught at night on the worm or spinner so you have to expect them to very much be a bonus, but they are there and they will take the fly. The loch has a Norse Mill at one end, where there is parking, and there is also a completely unexcavated and unvisited stone circle should you be interested in such things. The last video I made there is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGjRm355raiqqtUsi=BJU5rX0cNBsIiFrc After all that I'm going to give you the most important info - talk to Donnie the Angling Promotion Officer. You can email him on [e-mail] and you should also take a look at the Fish Hebrides web site: www.fishhebrides.co.uk/ Donnie talks to all the ghillies and anglers across the Hebrides and he personally has fished just about every river and loch on the islands so he is a mine of info and I'd often pop in to see him and to ask for suggestions and he never fails to come up with somewhere interesting that I've never fished before. If you are looking flies then get in touch with John Maclean and he can do you up a few local patterns that will get you fish: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057469959391

[@bobtopaz7418]

@@caorach3354 thank you so much for taking the time to answer i will have already been in touch with John Maclean and purchased some fly patterns. Cannot wait to get up to the Islands and hopefully connect with my first sea trout or two!! Bob

[@gavinstuart6704]

ive arrived and driven all the way down to south uist, incredible the around of lochs and rivers you drive past, incredible place to have fishing as hobby

[@caorach3354]

The trout fishing tends to go well in the Uists at this time of year so you should be in with a good chance of decent fishing as I think the wind is to come to the south and west over the next few days giving milder conditions. Up on Lewis the salmon and sea trout fishing tends to over-shadow the trout fishing plus physical access to our trout can require a lot of walking so our trout fishing isn't so well known, or obvious, as in the Uists but I've seen a lot of decent fish getting caught in the Uists recently so you should soon be in the fish.

[@davids9549]

Honestly, there can be few people who make such compelling and enjoyable viewing from not catching fish as you do Phil. I'm up your way next week, so I'll say Hi if I spot you!

[@caorach3354]

I hope you'll have a good week and thank you for your kind comments, though it must be said that maybe I might benefit from catching a few more fish :-) I'm currently not fishing at the minute and am away working so I won't be about next week but hopefully conditions will be good for the trout - the water is generally a bit too low just now to be bothered trying for salmon. Lewis is traditionally very dry and sunny in May and June so they can be difficult months but if the conditions work out they can also be fantastic months for trout in particular.

[@douglasweston126]

Hello Philip - nice to see you back out on the water again. The moors around the lochs looks very bleak, you wouldnt want to be caught out there in a storm thats for sure. Cya on the next one. Tight lines. Cheers Doug (from Down Under)

[@caorach3354]

That was the last day of my "spring salmon fishing." The truth is Lewis doesn't get a spring run and their total spring catch this year - 11th February until end of May - was 1 fish. However it was too cold for trout fishing and I really enjoyed the 4 days out. If you hunt around there should be another 3 spring salmon videos out there, including one where I actually managed to lose a fish! This particular fishing spot is actually right by the road, you can see the local church behind me in some of the shots, so it isn't at all remote but the moorland is quite bleak and dangerously soft in places so it does require some thought and care to fish the more remote spots.

[@RickLohrey]

What a stunning location …just beautiful …very enjoyable …I kept expecting a fish or maybe a trout …the Loch looked very trouty 🤫

[@caorach3354]

It was really weird that I had nothing at all for the day, not even a trout! Sometimes you get days like that I guess. We are so lucky to have such wonderful places to fish.

[@davidbratby5134]

Thanks again Philip for a wonderful presentation. I think the reason for diminished spring runs could be reduced numbers of fish generally, therefore no need for queing to get into the river, It can all happen later-on (in summer/autumn). I don't know that Einstein fished, but according to him: "The only reason for time is so everything doesn't happen at once." Imagine the effect on prices if all lambs came to market at once!

[@caorach3354]

Glad you enjoyed it David. Lewis has never been known as a spring fishery and as far as I know there was 1 fish caught this year between the opening on 11th Feb and the 1st June. Given this I consider that I did quite well to see one, and fail to hook one. We are also lucky that, certainly so far, there isn't any queueing to get onto the rivers even when there are grilse in the systems. Part of what saves Lewis is that it was always a very exclusive destination for salmon and so it never really marketed its fishing so the people who knew were invited and everyone else was of the view that there were no opportunities for mere mortals. On top of this it is a bit more of a journey to Lewis than to the "well known" spots plus some of the fishing can require walking many miles across rough and remote ground. Most anglers simply aren't willing to put in any effort and, largely, they want guaranteed catches for zero effort. These days there is good access to a lot of Lewis fishing, though the ferry trip across to the island remains as a deterrent, but compared to most places even the popular spots remain lightly fished compared to similar places on the mainland. I have to guess that as salmon numbers decrease, and competition to catch the few that are left increases, then Lewis will see increasing numbers of fishing visitors. I think there is already a slight uptick in visiting anglers on the island looking for fishing but overcrowding isn't a problem as yet. So, you make some interesting points that will probably become more relevant with time. From my perspective then I usually only fish for salmon right at the end of the season once the trout fishing is pretty much over, last year I think it was about 23rd September before I had my first cast for a salmon, so if the salmon fishing starts to get crowded (and I have no reason to believe that will happen) then I can simply just stick to the trout fishing :-)

[@TommyBlack03]

Hi Phillip. Have you managed to get out much this season? Recent rise in water might do you well. I had a salmon off the gress yesterday morning, reckon you’d have a good chance in the coming week.

[@caorach3354]

Hi Tommy, well done on Gress as the salmon aren't super common on there so getting one is quite a success. Currently I'm away working so no fishing at the minute and with various faults with my GoPros etc. it may be that I'm going to wrap up doing the videos. My plan is to do a few this Autumn if the gear will work but if the gear quits then I will probably quit as well.

[@TommyBlack03]

@@caorach3354 that’s fair, hopefully it works out, me and my father regularly watch. If not then it was good while it lasted😂 tight lines for the rest of the season

[@colind8525]

How are things looking on the creed? I'll be back up in Stornoway next week and hoping for better conditions than the last few years when I've been up

[@caorach3354]

Pretty early for the creed in June but currently there's no water however the moor is pretty wet so any rain that does fall won't be soaking into the moor. Like everywhere else it is cold but the trout seem to be at least feeding a bit, I guess they've no choice, so they can be worth a cast.

[@colind8525]

@@caorach3354 I know you obviously get some up in June but know from speaking to the likes of Robbie bell and old Callum when he was on the river it can be slow for salmon in June but 1st 2 years after lockdown when I was up you could walk through the bend pool and not get your feet wet. Last year wasn't a lot better

[@caorach3354]

@@colind8525 there is a bit more water this year plus the moor is currently mostly wet so if rain came there is a decent chance it would lift the river. I don't know if there is any sign of fish yet. Usually I don't pay much attention to the salmon until September but it is currently cold for trout with a forecast of two degrees in places tonight so there isn't much motivation to go to trout. I had a quick cast yesterday and had one reasonable trout and I've been hearing of people getting reasonable trout so I guess they have to try and feed no matter how cold it is. If the wind comes out of the north I'll give the trout a go later in the week but salmon currently seems not worthwhile.

[@andrewbuglass6284]

I really enjoy your films. Do you ever try a muddler on the dropper on some of the slower pools? I have had good results doing this in North Uist and the Halladale - even in May when it’s cold. Super fun when they come up for it even if they don’t all stick.

[@caorach3354]

I would quite often use the muddler Andrew, I have a sort of feeling that the tradition of the Orange Muddler on the bob position for a salmon might have been a Lewis thing and certainly if there is a decent wave on the loch or river it can be most effective. I tend to fish more for trout and over the past few years have only really had a cast for salmon right at the end of the season so I've almost always been fishing the fly a bit deeper - even a tube on a sinking line. For that reason there isn't much, if any, muddler action in my videos. I think the current trend for using a "hitch" fly for salmon is basically someone trying to reinvent using the muddler. A couple of days back I stumbled upon this video, both these rivers appear in some of my past videos, and as you can see the muddler is a well recognised technique: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f53HZHaVbMmqm6Msi=IUHE9V1Dgbe1FX1j

[@billymacneil3839]

Spring salmon i take it are as rare as a loch ness monster sighting lol nice spot again Phill,,

[@caorach3354]

The season opened on 11th Feb Billy and as far as I know there has been one single fish caught, a couple of weeks back. This video was shot about 25th April and at that stage, apart from the fish I lost in the previous video, I think that was the total action for the island for the season. So you can get the idea that spring fish are not at all common and I really am not joking when I say that catching one is some sort of miracle. They are so rare that I was even pleased to lose one in the previous video as that seems like a major success compared for fishing for 20 years and never even seeing one :-)

[@ChristopherBridges-v6r]

Great countryside! Weather looked better than it was. We have lots of rain and rivers are brown but we caught 7. Brown trout all above 25 CMS this morning so keep up hope Philip! 😂

[@caorach3354]

You did well to get one, never mind 7 if the river was coloured! Well done. When salmon fishing I think everyone depends on hope especially when the fish are ignoring us.

[@nickwolstenholme7479]

Hi wondered if you could recommend a place to stay for a weeks fishing in early September from where I could fish?

[@caorach3354]

There is a lot of fishing so nearly anywhere you stay on the island will have some fishing nearby. If you are looking for B&B then take a look at Hal o' the Wynd in Stornoway as it is good and very central: www.halothewynd.com/ If you want to book "lodge" type accommodation with its own private fishing then most will be fully booked but it is worth talking to the Angling promotion officer in the Fisheries Trust - Donnie is an excellent angler who has fished almost everywhere on the island and he is also in touch with ghillies, anglers, and accommodation providers on an almost daily basis: [e-mail] It is also worth taking a look at the Fish Hebrides web site: www.fishhebrides.co.uk/ as there is lots of info on there for accommodation.

[@nickwolstenholme7479]

@@caorach3354 fantastic thank you very much.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

As others have commented , what a shunning location to wet a line👍

[@caorach3354]

It is a nice spot Chris, there are some other places that I prefer but it is just a personal preference thing. However I only walked a few hundred yards that day and you can see how varied the fishing was with both the loch and river. This is the lower part of the river that appears in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/el64oGhmr9-hipo

[@RickLohrey]

Hi Phillip …just wondering where you’ve got to mate …I hope all is ok …been missing your videos 👍👍

[@caorach3354]

I haven't had much chance to fish since I made those few videos in the Spring, just a few casts in June. Also I'm having "gear problems" in the sense that my GoPros and microphones are becoming a bit unreliable. I did order an Insta360 Ace Pro to replace one of the GoPros, based on internet footage and reviews, but in truth I found the video to be awful from it and so returned it. Usually I fish quite a bit at the back end of the season in September so there may be some videos once we get into October but the other possibility is that I will give up on the videos - there are quite a few of them now and they give a reasonable cross section of Lewis fishing but I guess many people are getting a bit fed up with them so now might be a good time to stop.

[@RickLohrey]

@@caorach3354 gee I’m sorry about the gear issues mate …for one I really enjoy your Videos ..and I’ll be sorry if you stop…the great thing about todays world is being able almost literally fish along with a kindred soul on the other side of the globe ..so many of the Lewis Lochs have similarities with Tasmania’s Central Highlands …the fishing is different ..here it’s polaroiding and stalking the trout ..watching shorelines waiting for a cruising trout ..then on those rare great days casting to “rising trout” … anyway I hope I can encourage you to keep going Phillip ..take care mate 👍👍

[@ChrisDAlessandro]

I am going to be at Stornaway and the Isle of Lewis in mid June, I joined the Stornaway Fishing Association, however, do you have any recommendations for few different brown trout lochs? I will have a day or two to fish while I am there.

[@caorach3354]

In a way this is a nearly impossible question Chris as there are just so many lochs to chose from. Obviously Loch Achmore (A Stornoway Angling Association loch) can be a great loch plus you can make a whole day out by fishing the 3 other SAA lochs that are just a short walk from each other beyond Loch Achmore. In Shawbost Loch Raoinebhat is right beside the road and holds some very large fish, though they are hard to get and mostly you'll be catching 1/2lb fish. The two lochs by the road in the village of Breacleit on Bernera can also produce great fish, fish usually in the 1 - 2lb size and sometimes 20+ for a day, but they've been getting a lot of fishing recently so I think the fish might be harder to get this season. North of Stornoway then if you have a 4WD (I mean something on AT tyres and with decent clearance designed for the job etc. don't go out here on road tyres) there are a lot of lochs north west of the track up the River Gress and they all hold fish, you'll need to be fit to walk the moor though and the quality of each loch changes over time so no one is going to tell you their current "secret loch" but it can be a great adventure to find out - many of these lochs are rarely fished so if you do find one producing good numbers of 5lb fish then you might be the first to have discovered that it has "improved." If you go right to the end of the road through Tolsta and park at Garry Beach just down the hill from the Bridge to Nowhere then you can walk north from there and have a selection of maybe 40 lochs, providing you are fit. Don't take a car past the Bridge to Nowhere, a 4WD will go out the track but you are going to struggle to get turned and might have to reverse the whole way back. The lochs out here, as with everywhere, vary and the fishing changes over time so it is a matter of exploring. The best advice is to contact the fishing promotion officer in the Fisheries Trust. Donnie speaks to a lot of ghillies, keepers, and anglers almost every day and so usually knows where is fishing well plus he can take into account your ability to walk, navigate, etc. Drop him an email: [e-mail]

[@ChrisDAlessandro]

@@caorach3354 Thank you so much! I will contact Donnie! This was extremely helpful.

[@billymccullough2624]

Compelling video philip,can you say what river this is?

[@caorach3354]

I am kind of unwilling to name most of the places I'm fishing unless they are club waters as, apart from anything else, I don't represent or wish to misrepresent the estate waters I get to fish. Lewis estates don't let spring fishing, for example, simply because the chance of a fish is almost zero so the fact that I'm catching nothing in the recent videos doesn't reflect on the quality of these rivers once the grilse run begins. Also I would sometimes do stuff out of interest but that no sane person actually wanting to catch a fish would do - if you tell me a fish has never been caught from a certain loch then that is almost certainly where I will spend the next week fishing just to see if there isn't a way to manage it even if the neighbouring loch is stuffed with fish :-) In view of the fact that very few people read comments I don't think there would be any harm in posting a link to the website of the estate on which this river is located as that let's them speak for themselves: www.sovalestate.co.uk/

[@andydixon9707]

what a beautiful location 🙏

[@caorach3354]

We are very lucky to have such interesting places to fish Andy. This spot is so handy because it is right by the road so I didn't even have to walk!

[@Linda-o2e2d]

Hi Philip I too was getting concerned and wondering if you’re ok, so I looked to see if any recent comments would shed any light as I thought perhaps your sheep had penned you in and you were trapped, unable to get out on the water! Please re-consider giving up the videos, we’d be most disappointed. Even if you only do the odd one here and there. They are always interesting regardless of whether fishing is successful, just to take in the scenery and some joyful banter, “a banana” or a “big bun” will go down in folk lore and now incorporated into our own fishing exploits! We’ve taken your advice and are heading up on 23rd Aug for 3weeks this time (whilst mayhem ensues down here in the South). We’ve ‘done’ north part of Lewis twice, so given the expense of the trip I’m not sure how many more we may do, (Bob is 79 now and I’m sure finds the traveling exhaustive though he wouldn’t admit it ) so thought we’d better see some other places in case this turns out to be our last. So 1st week on North Uist and then 2weeks at Bernera. We’ll still pop up to the Gress for old times sake as flying back from Stornaway. If you do decide to stop videos I’d like to thank you for introducing us to this wonderful part of the World. It’s clear how much you appreciate being so lucky to be able to enjoy it. We wish you good health and tight lines for the future. Kind regards.

[@caorach3354]

Hi Linda, that is great that you are getting 3 weeks in the hebrides! No matter which islands you are visiting you can't beat it. Bernera has some great trout fishing and the two lochs right in Breacleit can both fish really well and produce good numbers of quality trout in the 1lb to 2lb region - though because they've been fishing so well recently I think they've also been getting fished a lot. I also like fishing Loch Barabhat, you can park at the north end of it to fish down the west bank, but it is one of those dour lochs that are pretty hard work when it comes to actually getting a fish. Barabhat has a few larger fish in it as well as decent quality fish in the 1lb - 2lb range but as you walk south the walking does get a bit rough underfoot. If you were interested in a salmon then you aren't too far from Garynahine and it is always worth asking if they might have a free day while you are in the area. It is unlikely that Grimersta would have a free day as I think they are pretty much booked solid but there's no harm in asking though it would be extremely costly. As for the videos, well, really I haven't made any decisions but my cameras and microphones are becoming unreliable and it would be very costly to replace them plus I don't want to waste valuable fishing time fiddling with cameras and stuff if things go wrong when I'm out and about. I did look at replacements for my GoPros but my big problem is getting a reasonable audio solution that is also waterproof. The solution is simple, but it requires the camera manufacturers to make a camera that will connect wirelessly to the microphone. Some cameras can do this but I recently ordered one only to find that the video quality was awful and so i returned it. Perhaps the next version of the GoPro might have this feature and this might encourage me to get back into it.

[@Linda-o2e2d]

@@caorach3354 Many thanks for the additional information, Phil. Very useful for our trip and interesting. I get regular updates via the ‘Fishpal’ website, used it when we fished in Yorkshire and more locally, and I’ve been seeing the daily reports on the catches at Grimersta. To be honest we try to avoid what appear to be the more commercial fisheries, preferring to be loners but sometimes it just can’t be helped and you have to bite the bullet. I do understand your problem with the camera equipment and hope you manage to get it sorted at some time. You have a small but faithful group of followers who I’m sure would all welcome future spasmodic videos as and when you feel like doing them, so I hope you manage to source something suitable at some point in the future. I’ve had our trip booked since February, Loganair have changed our flights twice in the interim! But they’ve now cancelled the Southampton - Glasgow route entirely (from July) so we’re having to go via Edinburgh. It may become too difficult to make the trip. Maybe we’ll take the scenic route add a few extra days and drive up in future, save on car hire. If you’re out an about when we visit, who knows we may bump into you. I do hope so. Meanwhile many thanks again for your all your advice and inspiration.