AbhainnABhradainSporting: Inver and the North-west (August/September 2019)

I have been out of the habit of blogging on my fishing for quite a while now, but one of the silver linings (the only silver lining?) of the heavy cloud of pandemia currently rendering life fairly tedious in many places is that I have found some time to revisit my blog. I've had a few pretty memorable trips and days since I last checked in, but I'm going to report on a late Summer/early Autumn trip to the North-west last season.

John and I had two weekends sandwiching a full working week off to play with and set off northwards late on the first Friday with a plan to fish a small, unfashionable spate river in the North-west on the Saturday. We made it as far a Kincraig before we had to stop for the night and so, by the time we arrived in the plague of midgies that is Wester Ross on the Saturday morning, it was already 11am. We stopped in, picked up our permits and had a quick flick through the book, before tackling up with our single handers and jumping into the boat on the small lochan that is the focal point of the system. The river either side of the lochan was very high (possibly 3' above Summer level) and so the lochan itself and the inflow to it was our main fishing for the day. We fished hard all day with fairly little activity, covering a lie where we knew a couple of fish had been caught in recent weeks, before taking a break for a dram and to dry out the sodden and miserable looking cocker who was ready for the car.

There was a good looking spot which we'd saved up at the outflow from the lochan, where the river makes a break for the sea over some old weirs. John very sportingly ghillied me into position a few yards from the certain death of the steep 500 metres of rapid flowing out of the lochan. I cast my flies (a subtle pairing of a Grouse and Claret on dropper and a Bibio on point, which were believe it or not chosen with migratories in mind due to the dark, peaty water) across the draw heading for the outflow weir and, just as the flies came onto the dangle, the line tightened. The fish held deep but for a good minute or so I was sure it was a decent brownie; however, after a good acrobatic fight it turned out to be a small grilse which had been in for few weeks or a month. It had taken that classic highland salmon fly, the Bibio! A great start to the trip, catching a first fish from an old Raine Family favourite holiday spot.

We had a good and successful day's trout fishing on the Sunday also after an equally successful night in the pub, before heading further North to Assynt. I managed another smaller grilse from another small, local spate river in between two unproductive but enjoyable days on the lochs around Lochinver (a few nice trout but nothing more). We then moved onto the main fishing for the trip; our three days on the lower River Inver.

We had fairly high water for our days, being at the uppermost extremity of the levels where fish were reported in the book. That said, whilst the Inver is not as spatey as other West Coast rivers, it is still water dependent and so better too much than too little. At this level, fishing the gorge which runs from the famous Star Pool down to Carpenter's and the Sea Pool at Lochinver was not really worthwhile. The vast majority of our time was spent on the beautiful pools upstream to the lower middle beat and we were fortunate enough to share four further fish between us and to have hooked a few more. Most were good, strong, classic Inver fish with strong shoulders presumably for navigating the various waterfalls and heavy flows between the sea and the spawning grounds in the tributaries and up at Inchnadamph. We also remarked that it was nice to have caught these fish from some of our favourite pools on the beat, Cow, Pollan and the unspeakably good Whirl Pool.

Here are some pictures and clips of the outside world to keep you going for now; hopefully Covid-19 will set us all free to go and enjoy the rest of the 2020 season soon enough! Best wishes to all, for now.

Calum