Afternoon all,

Here's a wee report from the weekend just gone which i spent in Glen Affric with my 2 brothers.

Saturday: Left edinburgh at 5.45am for the drive up to Cannich. Beautiful weather for the journey which didn't change as we set up tent and planned out first jaunt. We decided on a small loch off the beaten track to the NE of Cannich (Lochan na Craoibhe-fearna). I must explain that although i'm no expert myself, i'm far more experienced/capable than my two brothers who can boast 1 fly fishing outing between them, and thus finding a loch as secluded and beautiful as this first one was of great importance - it meant they could get to grips with casting etc with fear of looking too stupid and all the while appreciate the beauty of the area. The day remained very bright and warm and sure enough there were signs whatsoever of fish movement/activity. Still, it was a nice start and after a couple of hours we moved on.

Next up we tried a few of the lochs around Milton, which we'd heard also provided course sport with good pike and perch on offer (i thought a few lures might be worth a go). Again, not a sausage even with slightly imporved conditions as the wind temporarily got up.

We then decided to head into Glen Affric next and Loch Benevean where i'd had some luck last year. The conditions were still against us especially as we were mainly on the dries (i'll come to this later) but still we had fun amidst the wonderful surroundings. As the day wore on the conditions became better and a few fishing starting rising. A few rises were missed before the midges won over and we called it a day at around 8pm - a very long day in fact...!

Sunday: The forecast said clouds for sunday so we arose optimistically and were pleased when this forecast proved accurate. Again we headed to Loch Benevean and again a few early rises were missed by myself. Then after a couple of relocations both of my borthers landed beautiful strikingly marked brownies (one on the dry, one on a silver butcher which i'd provided!) from an island which had become accesible as the water levels had dropped. Bother fish were around 3/4 lb. Shortly after i hooked another which pomptly came off (much to my annoyance! Blanking was not an option!). We carried on around the loch before deciding to give the River Affric a go. This proved a masterstroke as i managed to land 8 beautiful brownies form a lovely pool - the biggest of which was around 3/4 lb - all taken on very small white moth dries. Once again the midges became too much and we moved on back to the campsite.

Monday: We had a couple of hours fishing after packing up from the campsite on monday morning and so we decided to head along the lovely track up to Loch Mullardoch. The conditions were again against us as bright sunshine quickly burnt through ealry morning cloud. Having been successful the previous evening on river Affric, we decided to give the River Cannich a go, given its proximity to the road here. My younger brother struck quickly on a small dry and then after another hour or so i had my biggest fish of the weekend when a stunning brownie of just under a pound snaffled my sedge as it hit the water on my first cast at a nice run. A bit more fishing was done before we called it a day for the long trip back to the capital.

It was a cracking little trip and reinforced my love for the wild brownies over anything else. Give me a 4 oz hill loch brownie over a 2lb stiocked rainbow any day of the week.

Now a couple of questions. I seem to have great difficulty getting much success on wets which invariably means that when conditions are on my side i'll struggle (i.e. the dries won't work). Over the weekend i tried 'classic' wet patterns (soldier palmer, zulu, butcher etc.) without even a sniff. A lot of the time the flies wouldn't even sink (i kept on the floating line throughout)! I find this increasingly infuriating especially when i read in books (such as lesley crawford's masterpiece) about how wets are the staple approach for wild lochs etc. I tried beaded wets/nymphs to get to the depths but still nothing. Am i missing something here or is it just a bit more perseverance? Is there a leader material which is better suited to wet fly fishing (i was on the sub-surface leader whci i also used for my dries...).

Cheers for your time in reading this and hopefully offering some tips...!

P

I can't help with your query but I had to respond to the thread.

Affric, for my money is the most beautiful Glen in Scotland. I spent a lot of time winter hill walking around there with my son when he was at St. Andrews.

We would load ourselves up and go down to the end of the Glen for five days at a stretch..I couldn't carry any more supplies or it would have been longer.

Thanks for reviving the memory,

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Roy

You're absolutely right Rovys - in places the area is close to perfection in my eyes.