I got a bit of Bucket List fishing ticked off this week, my friend and I managed to align days off and borrowed a Lomond style boat for some Loch Lomond style drifting for Sea Trout. I’ve caught relatively few Sea Trout the only regular catches have been when I’ve been fishing the Galloway coast for Bass.
According to Scottish Government Publication of salmon and sea trout fishery statistics for the 2020 season Published 26 th May:
Total reported rod catch of sea trout (13,313) is the lowest since records began, and 74% of the previous 5-year average, although the impact of the coronavirus pandemic complicates comparisons with previous years. Sea trout catches have fluctuated around a general trend of decline since the 1960s.
Of reported rod catch, 88% were released, the second highest proportion since records began.
The rise of catch & release and accurate catch returns are vital to maintaining our Sea Trout population we might not see a return to glory days but some lochs are holding their own.
Loch Lomond has a 100% catch and release before 1 st May and after 1 st September and all hen Sea Trout over 3lb must be returned throughout the season, policies like these and voluntary catch and release by anglers throughout the year has seen something of a recovery in numbers. Thanks to the efforts of the LLAIA’s they’ve never fallen to critical levels in the big loch. The loch’s major tributaries Endrick and Fruin, and the River Leven, can produce up to 1500 salmon and a similar number of Sea Trout. Almost 1000 Sea Trout were reported in a recent season’s catch return which bodes well for the future.
So with our fingers crossed we set off in what feels a very wee boat onto the twenty one mile long 17,500 acre loch! There’s a superb colour Angling Map of Loch Lomond available through lochlomondangling.com which includes a wealth of valuable information. Dapping is covered as well as extensive fly and trolling areas so it’s pretty much the only map you’ll need.
It might be enormous but one of the advantages of Lomond are all the islands that offer shelter, features and places to have lunch. We headed in around Inch Lonaig, aiming to come off the island and cover the rocky lies and banks along the north shoreline. We were mixing up pulling flies with a bushy bob top dropper and having a go at dapping with a daddy long-legs to try and draw fish to the surface. We didn’t have a full dapping setup, but skittering and dancing a fly over the waves is a fabulous way to fish and something I’ll need to practise.
The first fish we saw came crashing out of the shallows missing the top dropper but waking us up, seeing a single fish makes the world of difference to your concentration and the next swirl was struck in time and quickly turned into the first fish of the day!
We rose and caught a couple under some cloud cover nothing big but much more than I’d hoped for, not venturing too far from the drifts that had produced. As we both watched bumblebee flying across our drift, seemingly emigrating from Rowardennan to Ardlui it signalled the end of the fishing. The wind dropped off, the sun started to bake the day and the afternoon was more of a sightseeing trip along the bonnie banks.
Fish of the Week winner - July 2, 2021
" This week's Daiwa Fish of the Week Winner is William Kiltie with a beautiful Bass from the Solway Firth. Caught using a King Ragworm bait, it weighed in at 8lb. "
