Has anyone here ever fished for Arctic Char?I have no idea what Char fishing involves or how it's done so it would be very interesting to hear from someone who has.

I used to fish for them many years ago in some Highland lochs. They stay very deep so fly fishing would, I imagine, prove to be very difficult indeed!

Derek

I've caught a fair few abroad, and they;re lovely looking fish that fight well and taste better! Ive caught them on trout and sea trout tackle, usually by accident, but when you can see them, theyre not difficult to tempt!

In the UK i think theyre almost exclusively caught deep on trolled small flies and spinners. not much fly fishing for them i think...

Hi', Char seeker! My only experience of fishing,myself, for charr was on the Isle of Skye, in a relatively shallow loch, called Mealt. I caught 7 little charr, all about 4 or 5 inches long, on the wet fly in the margins, about 15 yards out from the bank, at about 7-00am. I had to get out of the cottage my plas and I were renting, as thie snoring was driving me barmy!!
On another holiday, on North Uist, with same two lads, my old fishing mate of many years caught a charr of about 12 ounces on a wet fly fished in the gloom one evening on a shallow loch, 'The Maiden's Loch' ( Ithink it's Meandaiddh, in Gaelic). The deepest part of this smallish loch was possibly only fiifteen feet. It lay alongside the road down to Benbecula.
These are probably exceptional catches, as most charr fishing that has occurred in our Lake District has been either by deep trolling, mainly commercial, or by bait fishers -- some of whom fished the margins of Coniston while charr were in their spawning season. One boat's occupants were appearently caught with over 200 charr, and that unforgivable act precipitated the control and protection of the species in the lakes.
Last piece:-- two old mates, now dead, alas, caught several small charr in the beck that runs down from Haweswater dam to the River Lowther, just a few miles from Penrith, where I live. The litttle fish had 'passed through the screens', was what I was told many years after they were discovered in the beck. Hope that helps a little. TerryC

i had a session at cound, where i caught 11 of about a pound and a quarter. It was really cold and so the char were high in the water. Pulling lures through them was landing me and/or my mate fish quite frequently. 1-11 degrees is their preferred temp, i think, and when they will be high up in the water. Fantastic fighters, and lookers as BB said. The lake is 60 foot deep in the middle. I'm going to wait til november/december and have another go!

Place I go to in France has them stocked and they are beautiful, hard fighting fish. Normally they are extremely hard to tempt but last time I caught 8 on an unweighted pink shrimp on a size 18 hook. The few other times I've managed to tempt them has been using a dark nymph fished deep or by provoking them with a black wooley B*gger with a bead head. Here's a picture of one in the water. Notice the white edge on the orange fins.



http://s685.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=DSC02105.jpg

I would love to catch some of these beauties as well.

I was chatting to a fisheries guy on Corrib this year who maintained char could be caught on Lough Melvin late in the evening on dry flies. He reconed it was very hard to hook and to keep hooked these wee buggers who took alot like roach.

Here is a link to an Irish website.
http://www.charr.org/fishing/eske.htm
I have fished for char afew times in Lough Eske outside Donegal Town, it's the only lake in Ireland where they are specifically atregted. They come in to spawn around halloween for about two weeks and they are caught on maggots very cloes to the shore, the fishing here isn't for purists the set ups are very rough and ready. On a good day it's not unusual to catch 30 or 40, even more. Occasioanlly they can be taken out on the lake in summer. Another smaller lake close to where I'm from has char and they are ocassioanally caught by trout fishers. At a competition years ago someone fishig beside me caught two on the bubble method. A neighbour once shot a small net init and caught them although he never knew they were present. I tried targeting them but I had no luck, there are a few other small lakes in Donegal where they are present includingone that only holds char.

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

The Tom Doun hotel on the banks of loch garry in the west highlands is a mecca for char hunters.If i remember correctly they have a web site with a great gallery containing some HUGE char,up to 9 pounds.The abnormal growth is down to the fact that the fish often lie beneath the floating fish cages belonging to the fish farmers,where they mop up any stray pellets which fall through.

Horrible looking fish the pellet pig Charr.

There has though been plenty of large Charr caught over the years with no resemblance at all to the pellet pig Charr you mention and also from waters with no fish rearing cages. Fish eating Charr most likely but we know little about them.

Scotland has a few Lochs maybe more than a few that are very shallow and contain Charr but most Charr are in the deeper Lochs. I know of two Lochs that are not recorded as having Charr but they are there. I think catching Charr on the fly is much more down to being there at the right time you may only get 2-3 chances in a season. I have had Charr on the fly from a very large Loch in a very deep part of the Loch but on a floating line why they come up at this area is anyones guess. I have fished a Loch that is nomore than 8-9ft deep quite a few times which has Charr present and never had a sniff of one. I suppose that's fishing.