THAMES VALLEY

FLY DRESSERS

BRANCH OF FLY DRESSERS GUILD

The South Uist lochs 2022

Peters W and H headed north and a bit west again to fish the South Uist lochs for sea trout and maybe a salmon or two in the second week of October.

A slow puncture en-route tried unsuccessfully to delay us.  Bad weather cancelled Sunday's CalMac's Mallaig - Lochboisdale ferry, however a carefully planned backup booking of the alternative Uig – Lochmaddy route got us over the Minch. This meant an early morning start (before our fried breakfast, heaven forbid) and an extra few hours drive. The clever ferry company had moved the sailing 4 hours earlier than scheduled to fit the voyage into a gap between two storms. This meant that we arrived in North Uist several hours earlier than planned, ready for an extra hour drive south through North Uist, Benbecula and most of South Uist to find our cottage home for the week – all in daylight, which made life easier.

Six days fishing on three different lochs in flat calms to near raging tempests, produced two fantastic days fishing, two average and two non-productive sunbathing days. The worst weather produced the best fishing: quelle surprise!

We could fish on all days, only stopping temporarily when our ghillie, Colin Mackenzie's, new waterproof turned out to be more absorbent that expected, and a retreat to his car to dry out and change was necessitated.

Result was something over 20 sea trout (the best just under 6 lbs and most around 2 lbs) and two surprise salmon, as  the Herbrideans term their grilse, of around 5 lbs. Salmon specialist Peter W rose three more but failed to hook them all in 10 minutes of evening action. One feature of the year was the high proportion of very fresh fish, some even with the sea lice still attached.

Our 30 year old return ferry had rusted through and sailed off to Birkenhead (Liverpool) for drydocking and welding of the holes – so once again we were stuck. We booked three alternative ferries including Stornoway – Ullapool, but at the last minute CalMac rerouted a ferry and we had an early start for a five-hour Lochboisdale – Oban ferry trip and short drive into Glasgow for our overnight hotel.

In summary, a successful trip and motivation to return next year!

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