My friend and I are off in about a month for a week's fishing in Assynt. I've been reading reports about the area which seem to suggest a lot of fish, but mostly quite small.
I also watched a programme, "A river somewhere", two Australians who fish all over the world, and when they fished Scotland, they seemed again to only catch quite small fish.
I know that size isn't everything (that's what the missus assures me, anyway), but are there any big fish, other than Salmon, in the Highlands?
And if so, is it right to assume the bigger the water, the bigger the potential fish?

Thanks.

There are dozens on here with infinitely more experience than me....but, in my experience of fishing Scottish lochs for wild brownies, one or two weeks a year for the past 40 years, I imagine I've landed no more than a dozen trout of more than one pound in weight (I've lost a few mind on light tippet).
Saying that, of those dozen, probably about half were between 2-3 lbs.

Don't expect anything much more than half a pound and you'll not be disappointed.

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Cheers
Don

Anything from 4oz to Ferox in the teens of pounds. It depends on the loch and what takes your fly. The size of loch is no indication of fish size even the puddle size ones can have big fish. Just go and enjoy the wildness of the area and look on the fish as a bonus

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Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.

I fish highland lochs every year every week of the season and every year take dozens of fish in the 2-3lb category and a good few 3-4lb. Biggest brownie to date was 13lb from a lochan on Harris.

If you want to catch big browns you need to fish for them, bobbing around chucking a size 12 Kate Maclaren in all directs is unlikely to get you far.

Perhaps one of the TF or TTF 'experts' can tell us how to target big wild brownies

Why dont you go ahead and tell us....?

I think the original poster is looking for answers not more questions!, also iv had many a decent sized wild brown on a size 12 kate, but i wasnt "bobbing around chucking it in all directs"....whatever that means!

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i was walking far from home, where the names are not burned along the wall, saw a building, high as heaven, but the door was so small

the natural law of lots of small or a small number of big to a loch, tends to apply,
average round assynt possibly half to three quarters of a pound, with the odd bigger one,
midge infested evening rises are when the big guys come out.

whats a TTF expert?

Just to add to what Fishtales said about "puddles", I remember camping in the Laxford area many years ago and having a daft cast in a lochan not much bigger than the average garden pond and taking a 1.5lb cracker on a wet fly.
So don't pass up these dead looking pools without a cast or two.

I have fished that area a few times and pretty much 3 to the pound is average. There are quite a few limestone lochs round Assynt, which neutralises the naturally acidic peaty water and the fish grow a lot bigger. Most of the limestone is north towards Durness and east toward Caithness. If memory serves me right the likes of Cam Loch is further south is also limestone....personally I didn't get much out of there over the pound mark but didn't fish it particularly hard.

Awesome location, great sport and genuinely catching anything big really is the icing on the cake

Tight lines

I was up near Alness a couple of weeks ago and fished the same loch everyday for a week (wish I was back in that heaven right now!) most of my fish were around the pound. Though had a tiny brownie on the dry fly on a muddler sedge that was about a quarter it's length... that one made me smile the most.

Had one that was not sure of its weight but measured 17 inches long... put up a good fight, took that one on a goldhead damsel.