A Night on the Grimersta

On Saturday the 6th of July Donald managed his first fish of the season.

The quest for the first fish was taken up in earnest once again on Saturday, with a visit to two different systems that afternoon and evening. The first port of call was a small spate river, of whose flow has remained un impeded by the creation of man-made pools and remains in a truly natural state. The journey began with a long drive across the island and a further trek up an old ‘peat road’ used to take home dried turf to be used as winter fuel. Finally reaching the river he found it to be in good order, with a heavy spate occurring just two days prior the river had dropped to the perfect fishable level. The river runs through a vast landscape of open peatland, with a few sheep and the occasional wind turbine all that can be seen, alongside the old disused peat banks lining the river. The expectation of a fish was high, as reports of a few fish lost had filtered through with the arrival of the first run of grilse into the system in the days prior, and with a heavy cloud cover present the scene was set. He made his way up to the top of the set of pools he was hoping to fish, with a cascade on the point and a silver stoat’s tail on the dropper. The first few pools however were all quiet, with only the occasional parr or small trout making an appearance on his flies. As time moved on and he was progressing further down the river another angler appeared and told him of his woes in that he had just lost one! Hope was restored as they were on the take. Moving down through his favourite, streamy, fast flowing pools, which looked so appealing and had produced before continued to yield little and as he was approaching his time to depart despondency began to set in, maybe tonight wasn’t the night. A short prayer went up and as he neared the tail of the penultimate pool, in which he had never seen a fish before, just as the line was swinging round he felt it. The gentle tug of a salmon accompanied by a large disturbance on the waters surface. He was on! The fish quickly began to take the line from his hands, and before he had the chance to wind in it began to strip line from his reel and jumped clean out of the water, it was a lovely fresh grilse, but almost as quickly as it came it was gone. The realisation of what had just occurred just then set in as the adrenaline ran dry. There was a moment taken to check flies and calm the heart rate down on a stone, studying the river for a reference point to remember this lie for future visits. As he pondered what he may have done wrong another angler appeared, telling of his woes having lost 2 fish in quick succession further down the river. Following this conversation however his time was up, and back to the car he went with a spring in his step, ready to head to the next adventure. 

That evening Donald had booked a boat on the famous Grimersta system, the estate kindly gifted a few evening’s a week on the bottom half of ‘Loch 1’ in the chain, or to give it its official name loch Faoghail an Tuim, to the local angling clubs. Donald and his boat partner arrived at the meeting point across the island at 6pm, just as the session was about set to start, with rods hastily set up and the boat prepared, a few fish jumped off a point in the distance, Levers Pier on the western shore of the loch. Hope built and the story of the lost fish earlier in the day was relayed so expectations were high. Conditions looked promising, a gentle Westerly breeze was up with a good ripple on the waters surface. As Donald was the designated ghillie for the evening he went on the oars first. Loch fishing in the Hebrides for salmon has a very unique method. The ghillie on the oars manoeuvres the boat along the edge of the lie in a zig-zag pattern, tacking against the wind and moving the angler slowly down the lie until it has been covered. With the angler sitting on an elevated seat in the stern and fishing out towards the shore. Moving across a few promising lies nothing of any significance came to show, with a strong spirited brown trout providing a little excitement in its take. However as the boat approached Lever’s Pier, the lie in which we had seen fish earlier in the day, the mood became more serious and as the fly was stripped back to the boat, just a few metres off the shore a fish took. He was on, the angler was fishing a selection of traditional Hebridean migratory fish flies, nowadays which have fallen somewhat out of fashion for salmon, an Alexandria and a Claret bumble on the droppers with a stoats tail on the point. The fish had taken the Alexandria, and appeared well hooked. It fought very strongly, with the angler taking and giving out line for some time. The fish jumped a number of times and it could be clearly seen as a stunning grilse that had been in a short time due to the purple line across its back. However as the fish began to tire and approached the boat she ran under the keel, with a fly catching on the bottom of the boat resulting in the fish managing to shake itself off. A disappointing end to what was a spectacular fight. Loch salmon tend to fight particularly hard for their size as they are well rested due to the lack of any major currents in the loch. The loch that was being fished is only a mile and a half from the sea so it hadn’t had to exert much energy to reach its lie. A number of other fish were moved during this fight from their lies and began to show, however another drift across the lie produced nothing. There were several other lies around the shoreline of the loch so these were drifted over but to no avail, returning to Lever’s pier intermittently in an attempt to recreate the success of earlier in the evening. The wind remained up and the light was still with us, however as the sun began to set behind the hills the cold began to set in, typical of a Hebridean summer! Donald had began to fish and his partner changed onto the oars, drifting down a number of well known lies but to no avail. Just as the evening was drawing to a close and approaching Lever’s Pier for a final run Donald hooked into a fish. It had taken his tail fly, a holographic cascade, the fish was very strong and ran back and forth a number of times, gaining and loosing line in the process with much head shaking going on from the fish. It jumped a few times sending his heart rate through the roof, however thankfully the fish began to tire and was drawn closer and closer towards the boat, making one final bid for freedom before being brought in to the net. He’d done it! His first salmon of the season landed and a lovely fish at that too, it was in excellent condition, fighting fit and a bar of silver. Estimated to weigh 5 1/2lbs it was a great start to the summer salmon season, and it was indeed well hooked this time as there was some difficulties in removing the fly! A switch over on the oars again and a final drift across the lie expectedly produced nothing after the large disturbance created by the fighting fish. This brought to an end our evening and Donald’s day at the salmon. An eventful afternoon and evening with an excellent experience of a classic Hebridean day at salmon. 

Slàinte Mhath and tight lines,

Luke and Donald