Brown trout in the Outer Hebrides, or lochs, lochs and more lochs.

Just got back from a week brown trout fishing in south uist off the coast of Scotland. Some things have changed. This isn't your grandfather's oatmeal.

But the fishing is still the same. The ghillies still wear deerstalkers. Here's Alastair O'Henley managing the drift.

You fish a team of three wet flies - green peters and dabblers are popular...

...as are the traditional scottish wets like the Peter Ross, Butcher, Dark Mackerel and Alexandra.

The brownies look up. You fish a floating line and most takes include a boil at the surface. The brownies from tannin lochs are dark. Here's a snail feeding fish we rolled in oatmeal and grilled for breakfast.

The brownies from clear water lochs have white or buttery yellow stomachs. Took this one on a size 14 Black Zulu.

Our best fish of the week (not mine) came to a size 12 Butcher.

A parting picture taken out the bedroom window in our B&B. I'll be back!

 

[troutpocket]

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

Can you speak more about the oatmeal?

 

[SculpinSwinger]

Classy as always Dave.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Billy]

Wow! incredible

 

[Dave Westburg]

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

Can you speak more about the oatmeal?

The oats were soaked overnight and then yougurt and nuts and seeds and bluberries and edible flowers were added. Have no idea what the red stuff is. It was delicious!

 

[Matt B]

The oats were soaked overnight and then yougurt and nuts and seeds and bluberries and edible flowers were added. Have no idea what the red stuff is. It was delicious!

Thanks for the report! Red stuff might be dehydrated raspberry. Is the B&B you stayed at primarily used by anglers? Do you fish a three fly trace from shore as well?

 

[Tom Butler]

That is such a great write up, has me dreaming. Always love looking in your fly boxes Dave.

 

[Robert Engleheart]

My dad was British (English/Irish) and his favorite breakfast was porridge and kippers. Try making it overnight in a slow cooker with milk, almonds, dried fruit.

 

[Dave Westburg]

Thanks for the report! Red stuff might be dehydrated raspberry. Is the B&B you stayed at primarily used by anglers? Do you fish a three fly trace from shore as well?

You fish three flies from boat or bank. My best flies were a zulu or claret bumble at the top, a mallard and claret or golden olive dabbler wet fly in the middle and a butcher or olive and mallard as tail. Size 12-14. 60% of fish took top fly, 30% took tail, 10% took middle.

 

[Dave Westburg]

My dad was British (English/Irish) and his favorite breakfast was porridge and kippers. Try making it overnight in a slow cooker with milk, almonds, dried fruit.

Sounds delicious.

We had kippers for breakfast one day. I learned that I prefer my herring pickled

 

[Dave Westburg]

Thanks for the report! Red stuff might be dehydrated raspberry. Is the B&B you stayed at primarily used by anglers? Do you fish a three fly trace from shore as well?

We stayed at wegg kimball’s b&b on the shores of loch druigebeg. Kinlochuist.com

 

[Chucker]

I used to fish South Uist fairly regularly back in the day. I am sure it has changed a lot! Back then, fishing in most of the “good” lochs was managed by the hotel, and unless you were staying there you were relegated to less productive water, though there were a few secret spots that could turn out a nice fish or two, or ten.

The lochs on the west side of the island have sandy bottoms and are neutral or alkaline pH. Machair is the local term. They are incredibly productive and can produce big fish (3-4 pounds is a big fish for there), or lots of fish depending on the quality of the available spawning sites. There were also a couple of good salmon lochs, where you could catch salmon and sea trout using the same gear you’d use for trout. Those may have gone now because of the effects of salmon farming.

All time best fly for South Uist was the blue Zulu. It would outfish everything else by a factor of 2, and sometimes be the only thing the fish would take. I had them tied in different sizes and weights so that I could fish three of them at once on those days.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Beautiful write-up Dave. Love the traditional aspect!

Those guys know how to name their flies!!

 

[Dave Westburg]

I used to fish South Uist fairly regularly back in the day. I am sure it has changed a lot! Back then, fishing in most of the “good” lochs was managed by the hotel, and unless you were staying there you were relegated to less productive water, though there were a few secret spots that could turn out a nice fish or two, or ten.

The lochs on the west side of the island have sandy bottoms and are neutral or alkaline pH. Machair is the local term. They are incredibly productive and can produce big fish (3-4 pounds is a big fish for there), or lots of fish depending on the quality of the available spawning sites. There were also a couple of good salmon lochs, where you could catch salmon and sea trout using the same gear you’d use for trout. Those may have gone now because of the effects of salmon farming.

All time best fly for South Uist was the blue Zulu. It would outfish everything else by a factor of 2, and sometimes be the only thing the fish would take. I had them tied in different sizes and weights so that I could fish three of them at once on those days.

We fished the estate waters for a three days. On one of the other days we were scheduled to fish the Estate's famous Loch Bornish but the wind stirred up the lake to make visibility so poor it was unfishable. Our ghille who was a member of the local sporting association took us to some hill lochs on his club waters. That's where our best fish of the trip came from. We had so much fun on those four lochs that we spurned the estate water and went back to the hill lochs the next day.

The ghillies love blue flies. At one point the ghillie had a blue zulu, a bruiser and a teal blue and silver on one of my friends casts. Here's a magenta/blue bumble the ghillie had me fish off my dropper one day. It worked!


Chucker, you prob know all about the weather. Late June and I was bundled up like I was fishing for november coastal cutts.

 

[Tom Butler]

You fish three flies from boat or bank. My best flies were a zulu or claret bumble at the top, a mallard and claret or golden olive dabbler wet fly in the middle and a butcher or olive and mallard as tail. Size 12-14. 60% of fish took top fly, 30% took tail, 10% took middle.

I'm curious as to how these were rigged if you would care to share. I'm picturing 20-24" apart on 6-8" blood knot droppers. I've noted before the knot tight to the hook, not a loop. Is that your normal rigging for stillwaters?
BTW, oatmeal is one of my favorite meals, that looks wonderful.

 

[Dave Boyle]

This makes me homesick, I’ve never had porridge like that either, fancy was a cut banana and brown sugar. I’ve always loved the fact that Dave fishes the flies that I grew up with there, my first fly caught fish was on a Peter Ross. I spent my teens by Loch Ness and fished a lot of the lochs around there. Some with loads of fish, 2 or 3 on one cast…others were dour but if you got one it was a real gem. A lovely repot and thanks for sharing, I’m really enjoying the memories it brings back.

Dave

 

[Dave Westburg]

I'm curious as to how these were rigged if you would care to share. I'm picturing 20-24" apart on 6-8" blood knot droppers. I've noted before the knot tight to the hook, not a loop. Is that your normal rigging for stillwaters?
BTW, oatmeal is one of my favorite meals, that looks wonderful.

This leader was similar to what I've seen you write about except the leader is longer. 12 feet of total length. 6 feet of 6 lb Maxima with a blood knot and I left one of the ends of the knot about 6 inches untrimmed and tied the top fly to that. Three more feet of 6 lb maxima and a blood knot with one of the ends untrimmed and the fly tied to that. Three more feet of maxima and the tail fly tied on the end. Our ghille did the same thing except he used a three turn surgeon knot, I think because it's easier to tie the surgeons knot in a bouncing boat in the wind.

My wingspan, fingertips to fingertips hands outstretched is 6 feet. Middle of the chest to the end of the fingers is three feet. That's how I measure the sections before I cut them.

I use an improved clinch knot to tie on all my flies.

I do most of my Washington lake and high lake fishing with a variation of the UK leader. 3 feet of 8 lb Maxima floro. 3 feet of 6 lb Maxima floro with a dropper fly attached to the blood knot. 3 feet of 4 lb Maxima floro with the tail fly attached to the end.

 

[Chucker]

This leader was similar to what I've seen you write about except the leader is longer. 12 feet of total length. 6 feet of 6 lb Maxima with a blood knot and I left one of the ends of the knot about 6 inches untrimmed and tied the top fly to that. Three more feet of 6 lb maxima and a blood knot with one of the ends untrimmed and the fly tied to that. Three more feet of maxima and the tail fly tied on the end. Our ghille did the same thing except he used a three turn surgeon knot, I think because it's easier to tie the surgeons knot in a bouncing boat in the wind.

My wingspan, fingertips to fingertips hands outstretched is 6 feet. Middle of the chest to the end of the fingers is three feet. That's how I measure the sections before I cut them.

I use an improved clinch knot to tie on all my flies.

I do almost all my lake and high lake fishing with a variation of the UK leader. 3 feet of 8 lb Maxima floro. 3 feet of 6 lb Maxima floro with a dropper fly attached to the blood knot. 3 feet of 4 lb Maxima floro with the tail fly attached to the end.

Surgeons knot gives a stronger dropper than the tag end of a blood knot, though it is slightly more likely to tangle as it doesn’t stick out sideways like a blood knot tag.

 

[Tim Cottage]

Great report as usual Dave but you really need to give kippers another try.