Fly Fish Islay Packages 2012

I've been fishing since I was 7 years old when my Grandad used to take me fishing with a quill float for sticklebacks and small perch on the river Churnet in the heart of the Staffordshire Moorlands. I fell in love with the sport and the beautiful parts of the country that it took me to. I've fished for all kinds of species of fish throughout the UK but it wasn't until my work buying and selling whisky took me to the magical Isle of Islay that I began to truly appreciate what wonderful places that angling for wild brown trout can take you to. I still fish the pools and lakes for carp, perch, roach and all manner of fish but most of all I like to fish for wild brown trout and for grayling.

Islay is a small island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides with a population of around 2000 people. It is famous for the eight distilleries that it is home to, which produce some of the finest single malt whiskies in the world, and for its incredibly diverse flora and fauna. The island has many remote lochs and lochans full of angry wild wee brown trout that will give any angler good sport and there is also the famous spate river, the Laggan that has a very good run of salmon and sea trout.

I have been taking groups of people to Islay for a number of years now, whether they be anglers, whisky enthusiasts, or a mixture of the two, they've all enjoyed the experience immensely and many of them return year after year. I'm often asked what is included in the trips so I thought I would put together a list of what is included for those interested in joining us on one of our future trips.

In May 2012, we are taking a group of anglers to Islay, some of whom have enjoyed previous trips with us and are returning with extra guests. Here is what the cost of their holiday includes:-


Quality accommodation for 7 nights at Finlaggan House on the shore of Loch Finlaggan. 
Finlaggan is one of the most important historical sites in Scotland from there, the whole of the Scottish West coast was ruled by the Lord of the Isles. All towels and bed linen provided and a comprehensive range of facilities for the comfort of all guests. Accommodation for future trips will depend upon the size of the group.


Complimentary Islay malt whisky tasting. 
No visit to Islay is complete without nosing and tasting all 8 of the single malt whiskies that are distilled and matured there. For those who would like to take their interest a little further, visits to distilleries can be arranged.


Complimentary casting Lesson. 
For those new to fly fishing there is the opportunity to attend a complimentary casting lesson before the trip commences, hosted by Peter Arfield of the Bakewell Fly Fishing Shop. This gives guests a head start on the loch and means that they are able to spend more time catching fish than trying to master the art of casting. Guests will have the opportunity to stock up on any consumables that they may wish to purchase prior to the trip.


Fishing Guides
Whether guests are experienced anglers or new to the sport, one of our guides will be on hand to give help and advice and to locate the fish. Each trip will have one guide for up to 6 guests and two guides where there are 7 guests or more. Guides will carry extra consumables such as flys, tippet, leaders and floatant.


Equipment
We appreciate that for some guests this may be the first time they have ever been fishing, and others may have fished before but not for trout. Rods, reels and line will be available for those who wish to borrow them and consumables such as flys and tippet will be available to purchase from your guide.

For those wishing to sea fish from the rocks, there will be a number of spinning rod and reel outfits for guests to borrow. Consumables such as lures and spinners will be available to purchase from your guide.


Wild Brown Trout Fishing
Fishing for wild brown trout on a number of lochs will be included in the cost of the trip. For those wishing to venture further afield, or who wish to fish from a boat or fly fish for salmon, permits can be arranged. There will be the opportunity to take a brace of fish from the loch.


Other Activities
Other activities can be arranged for guests some of which will attract extra cost.

Stalking
Salmon Fishing
Wildlife excursions and sea safari
VIP distillery tours
Shooting





If you are interested in joining us on a fly fishing trip to the magical Isle of Islay, or you would like to discuss the trips further, please don't hesitate to contact me on 07875 405 980. There are more pics and info on our Facebook page, search for 'Fly Fish Islay' and click like to subscribe. If you would like to contact me by email my address is david@rarecask.com.

It would be great to see you on one of our trips.

Slainte

David

Make Way For The Supermarket

We have a new supermarket coming to Leek and it has caused quite a stir. When it was announced that the new supermarket was coming and the plans revealed that the intention was to build outwith the town centre, many protested saying that shoppers would be less likely to spend in the existing shops and that the independents would suffer as a consequence. Most fuses were blown however, when they announced their intention to make improvements to the road layout in town, and when it was suggested that the roundabout at the bottom of Derby Street, heaven forbid, might be removed.

Supermarkets are unfortunately a fact of life. None of us will stop them coming to our towns. We already have a Coop, a Morrisons, a Netto, an Aldi, and a Farmfoods, and the owners of the new supermarket are just after market share. Whether our businesses survive or not will largely depend on how positively we react and adapt to the situation instead of adopting a Canute style stance of trying to stop them coming at all. Certainly a bigger threat to all retail business is the increasing tendency for all of us to shop online rather than locally, the money leaving the local economy immediately and not even keeping local folk in jobs in the supermarket down the road. The message that we as retailers are shouting about through worthwhile schemes such as Totally Locally is don't do all of your shopping in the supermarket and if every adult in Leek spent just a fiver a week in a local shop then that would bring an extra 4.1 million pounds into the economy, safeguarding the jobs of local folk, and maybe even creating a few.

However.

When any business comes to town, they should be incredibly careful about how they treat the environment. Historically, Leek was a very important town to the textile industry. The town was at the centre of the arts and crafts movement, Morris and Sugden both having offices and businesses here. At one time, Leek factories were responsible for the dying of cloth for the entire Catholic Church right across the globe. Consequently much industrial waste was poured into the River Churnet and at one time it was said to be the most polluted in Europe. All this has changed and with legislation in place to protect rivers from industry, the Churnet has  found some of it's former glory.

I'm lucky enough to fish our great rivers in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, the Dove, the Wye, the Derwent and the Manifold being my usual haunts. Anglers throughout the world are jealous of us who fish in these parts because of how blessed we are in scenic countryside, and in the diversity of flora and fauna that exists here, especially our wild brown trout, our grayling, and now, our salmon. I can honestly say though that of all the fishing I do in this part of the country, the upper Churnet is my favourite of all places because it is simply beautiful.

The small stretch of water in the picture above is a bend in the river Churnet right by the side of the road beside the Churnet works where the supermarket and it's related developments are to be built. Before the trees were felled in this spot, I would regularly stop and stand and watch free rising fish dimple the surface of the water was they smutted after small insects that had dropped their or that were emerging from below. The river was under the cover of 2 or 3 trees whose canopy afforded the fish shelter from predators in the form of Herons, and their roots would be a safe place for the smaller fish to hide from the bigger. This canopy was the home of many birds, and regularly, down the tunnel formed by the overhanging branches, kingfishers darted about between their favourite fishing pegs, now disappeared, and so too the birds.

Whilst we are all arguing about not wanting more supermarkets (at least not the ones that sell everything dirt cheap, bring us an Aldi Megastore any day of the week), and about our roads and a roundabout, these people are doing whatever they like, and I fear this is the sign of worse to come. The Churnet in Leek is only just recovering from a major pollution incident that happened within the last few years, it's trout and grayling have returned and along with them kingfishers, salmon and otters that haven't been resident in these parts for decades. I fear for their future.

Angling Resolutions

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I've updated my blog, mainly because I've had very little angling or dramming related to talk about. 2011 wasn't a good year for my fishing in and around the Staffordshire Moorlands. Islay was superb, as usual, despite wetter conditions than usual, the lochs gave up their troot without too much of a fight. In truth, Islay is one of the reasons I've not been out on the rivers of late, it has totally spoilt me, I love the island for it's whisky and it's fishing and it is truly angling and dramming heaven.

I have big ambitions for 2012 and my new years resolutions are built around these. Firstly, I aim to take groups of anglers to Islay on a much more frequent basis. Many of the anglers who joined us on last year's trips have booked up again for this year, and they're bringing more people with them, once you've been to the magical Isle of Islay, it is difficult to get it out of your system. So from March to October, we'll be running a trip at least once every two months so get in touch if you would like to join us. There is sea fishing involved too now as well as the loch fishing for truly wild angry Scottish brown trout, salmon fishing on the Laggan and even a little stalking can be arranged if required....look up and like 'Fly Fish Islay' on Facebook and you will kept up to date of all of our forthcoming trips.

I also intend to fish more back home in the Staffordshire Moorlands during 2012. I really enjoyed my Islay fishing last year and each time I returned home, the rivers were either empty of water or in flood so it wasn't good for the trout season. I've had a re-jig with my fishing tickets, I really enjoyed the Wye but couldn't justify it again purely because I feel that it is just too far away for me to nip out for a couple of hours fishing, consequently I didn't get my money's worth last year. I'll be rejoining LTDFFA, the little syndicate on the Staffordshire bank off the river Dove at Dovedale ('The best parts of Derbyshire are in Staffordshire'), there is a good crowd of anglers in that club and I really enjoyed the craic last season. I've dropped DRAC, again due to waters being too far away, and I've kept LADFFA. This year, the plan is to get out and do a little more coarse fishing especially when the rivers are out of sorts. I want to get back to the waters where I fished when I was a lad and challenge myself to try new techniques and methods that I've never dabbled in before...help!! To this end I've rejoined Leek and Moorlands Fishing Association and Fenton and District so that I can fish Heron Marsh and most importantly, Knypersley Reservoir where I fished when I was at school and loved the place.

My camera has broken which is another reason that this blogger has been quiet, this is a situation that will be put right quite soon, when, with a little help from my mate Jason Snape who took the superb picture above at Dovedale in the autumn of last year, I will purchase a new one.

Here is to a 2012 full of angling and a little dramming ;-)

Slainte

David

Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Bruichladdich Ed XXXVII

I'm sitting in the bay window of lovely old house on Islay. The view over Loch Indaal towards the Big Strand and Port Ellen beyond is breathtaking. For the last couple of days I've been busy applying labels and duty stamps to our latest edition to the Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask range and it's been one of our most exciting finds to date, not least because of how we found it and what an extraordinarily beautiful dram it has turned out to be.

A couple of years ago, we were approached by a somebody who had been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to own one of the very first casks that were filled when Bruichladdich was taken over by it's current owners after having been silent, mothballed for many years. He wondered whether we'd like to buy the cask and offer it to our customers under the Rare Cask label. The whiskies that we bottle under our label always have to be the best possible example of each particular distilleries house style so, in order for us to approve it, excellent wood policy would have to be apparent. Back in September 2001, these first few casks at Bruichladdich were primarily first fill ex sherry hogsheads, very well made, clean, tight casks, the staves of which had all been seasoned with a fill of rich, dark olorosso sherry.

The original owner of the cask and I have kept a close eye on how the whisky has developed with the wood over the last couple of years. The first time I nosed and tasted it I new it had the potential to be one of the very best drams I have ever tasted under an independent label, and a Bruichladdich that hasn't been matured in wine casks which seems to be the distillery's cask of choice these days.

Bruichladdich whisky under the new ownership became 10 years old at the beginning of September, and so it seemed fitting that, provided the whisky had reached maturity, that we would bottle the cask shortly after. I'm convinced that this whisky is the first single cask single malt to be released from Bruichladdich since it's 10th anniversary of the new ownership....a proper wee laddie at 10.

So last Friday, my daughter and I made our way over to the Isle of Islay. All being well, the cask would be bottled that day too. There would be a long wait over the weekend until I could pick up the bottles on Monday morning so that I could get them all labelled up on onto the van and ferry to ship back down south.

On the Saturday night I thought we'd head down to the Loch Indaal Hotel to see if we could persuade the landlord to let us watch the football, my favourite Stoke City at home to Manchester United in the premier league, a game I was sad to be missing given the probability of an unbelievable atmosphere at the Britannia Stadium. All the local lads in the pub were watching the rugby but they kindly switched over and joined me watching the heroic potters hold boring Man Utd to a 1-1 draw. I was having a pint with a lad called Craig and I noticed he was wearing a Bruichladdich sweatshirt. He asked me whether I was holidaying on Islay and I explained that I'd just had a cask bottled at Bruichladdich. He turned out to be the very man who had bottled the whisky for us the previous day. Islay is a very small island.

Sherry hogsheads like these are very difficult for distillers to come by these days especially given the fact that they will often need batches of 80 to 100 at a time. Bourbon barrels have often been preferred by scotch whisky distillers because they mature spirit very consistently and because of their shape and size. Bourbon barrels are smaller, and easier to handle. They are also uniform in size so make warehousing more efficient. Hogsheads however, do differ in shape and size so can be difficult for small distilleries to use their storage efficiently. Most hogsheads are made up from staves from ex bourbon barrels and it is rare to find a hoggy that has been made up from the staves of ex olorosso casks.

Our cask was a first fill, and given that peaty whisky can mature exceptionally well in a second fill, it is destined to be filled again for another lucky private individual. We'll look forward to sampling that over the years to come ;-)

The whisky has been bottled at the natural cask strength of a whopping 62.5%. Bruichladdich don't tend to water the spirit down to 63.5% as other distillers do, and the casks tend to be filled at around 70% which is why our whisky's strength is so high. We have not chill filtered the whisky, nor have we added any colouring.

So, the whisky is bottled, the labels designed, cut and applied, we are just waiting for our printed tubes to arrive and then we'll be starting to ship it out to our customers. There will be 100 bottles available at The Wine Shop in Leek and 100 at http://www.whisky-online.com/ for those customers further afield. Whisky Online specialise in shipping overseas. Both the Wine Shop and Whisky Online have started waiting lists so that customers may pre-order their bottles. To avoid disappointment, please contact us ASAP to add your name to the list and secure your bottles.

Number of bottles: 200

Filled to cask September 2001

Bottled September 2011

Strength: 62.5%

Cask: First fill ex sherry hogshead

Price: £80 per bottle

Tasting notes:

"This is Bruichladdich as nature intended, honest and uncluttered by overt wood technology. The colour is a rich mahogany in the glass. Then come the aromas, intense raisins and woodland fruits at first, then sticky toffee pudding, simmering spices and a deepening complexity. The palate follows the lead of the nose but develops further with flavours of liquorice and salt. A keen oily mouthfeel keeps the whole in balance and paves the way for a toothbrush defying finish. An uncompromising, memorable and beautiful whisky."

We're proud to have been given the opportunity to bottle and sell The Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Bruichladdich Edition XXXVII....thanks Peter!

Cha'n 'eil e soirbh!

David

Conditions Dovedale 11th October

Had a quick look at Dovedale today. The river is carrying a fair bit of colour but clearing at the edges. According to the car park attendant, who apparently has a measuring stone (?!) the river is about 10 inches above it's usual levels.

Islay September 2011: Trip 1, Fishing

Last week I returned from our latest trip to Islay. I was joined by a very experienced group of anglers and a number of the group were as eager to give the sea fishing a go as much as the usual loch fishing for wild brown trout. Our bunch of merry men for this trip was made up of master of the dead drift Glen Pointon, John Tyzack, Ron Trevis, Andy Heath and Wesser. Andy was a very welcome member to the group, for along with his trusty hound 'Mooch', he provided much of the meat for the table, which in turn was prepared in such an appetising way by our brilliant chef Wesser.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon leaving mainland on the 1pm ferry having left the Staffordshire Moorlands at 3.30pm. All were tired but we knew that we would have to get a fishing session in on Loch Finlaggan that evening as the weather prospects were not good for Sunday and Monday as the tail end of Hurricane Katia would make a visit to the West Coast of Scotland. All had a fine few hours on the loch, and we caught on all manner of dry flys and one or two traditional wets.

The weather on Sunday wasn't quite as bad as threatened by the BBC but we still thought best to seek a sheltered spot on the Eastern shores of Islay, choosing Bunnahabhain bay as our destination as other anglers on previous trips with us had enjoyed quite a bit of success there.

On the point, just around the bay from the sad wreck of the Wyre Majestic, Pointon, Wesser and JT began to cast and it wasn't long before they were in to fish, mackerel at first, the biggest I've ever seen. It soon became clear that we would not be short of food over the days to come.

Every so often, huge shoals of small silver fish would make massive boils on the surface of the sea, thousands of silvery flecks being chased, cornered up by packs of hunting fish, and occasionally, these predators would leap out of the water, huge olive green pollock feet from the rocks where we stood. Quickly the lads focused their attention on the pollock, casting precisely with their heavy lures, and quite soon, pollock and laithe began to come in to the 3lb mark.

When we first arrived at Bunnahabhain distillery, we were lucky enough to watch a sea otter feeding close in, and earlier in the day, Andy, Ron and I had watched a pair of white tailed sea eagles hunt, kill and eat a hare near to our accommodation at Finlaggan. As if these close encounters with Islay's abundant wildlife were not enough, we were about to experience another of the islands rare inhabitants.

Andy Heath has long been a keen bird enthusiast, and I've never met anybody who knows as much about them, and as much about how to handle them. When we arrived at the rocks, he'd commented about the gannets that he'd seen fishing just a little way out from where we were, and we were all amazed by the way these gigantic birds were making steady rising flights to 80 to 100 feet above the sea then making a short flick of the tail and wings before diving vertically for their prey in the waves beneath.

JT had just made a long arching cast with his lure, a good distance out from the shore, and from nowhere, one of these huge gannets dived into the water, 20 feet into the water according to John, and reappeared seconds later with the lure in its beak. We would all panic, swear, and shuffle about on the rocks where we stood and we wondered how the hell we would avoid hurting this beautiful bird, all that is except Andy. Coolly and calmly, JT and Andy brought the bird in, and after a very careful retrieve (with no side strain), the bird was in Andy's hands and the hooks removed. They look big in the sky but you cannot truly appreciate the size of these graceful hunting birds. An event that I shall never forget, and neither will the gannet.

The gannet safely unhooked by Andy

The gannet takes to the air.

The tail end of the hurricane arrived on Monday and seemed to last most of Tuesday too but a good deal of fly tying, eating, drinking and generally being merry was achieved. I took Andy and Ron on a couple of distillery visits and I managed to make final arrangements for a cask of Bruichladdich Malt Whisky to be bottled in readiness for me to collect later this month. A few drams of this amazing whisky was enjoyed in the evening...more news about this to follow.

On all of the fishing trips I've organised in the last few years, there has always been at least one person who enjoys cooking for the group and the food has always been very good but this time we had Wesser. His attention to detail was amazing, whether he was cooking the brown trout we'd caught that day or local meat, all agreed that his food was incredibly good. All the veg was Islay grown from the walled garden at Islay House, all the meat was local and fresh. All washed down with a good Islay dram made for a truly unforgettable experience.

Can't wait to be back.....next week!

Thanks lads

Slainte

David

Islay Time

Well it seems a fair while since I've been to Islay but thankfully, the waiting is now over. I've been over to Islay a couple of times this year which is less than I usually do but now I'm set to visit twice this month. The first of the two trips begins today and is largely a fishing jaunt with pals Pointon, Wesser, JT, Andy and Ron. There is plenty of experience amongst the group and if this bunch can't bag up on the lovely Islay lochs, no one can. We're hoping to fish for Brown Trout, Sea Trout, Salmon and all manner of sea fish.

I'm also there to have a final check on a cask of whisky that we are hoping to bottle in the next couple of weeks for our Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask range. I've been keeping a close eye on it over the past couple of years, and this stunning Islay sherry matured whisky could be one of our best bottlings yet. If all goes well and It tastes as good as I expect it to from the cask, a few hundred bottles of this amber nectar will be heading back to the Staffordshire Moorlands with me in a couple of weeks time.

I have 5 spare seats in the van so anyone who would like a lift to Islay and back, please let me know...

Keep an eye on this blog, and Glen Pointon's to see how we get on with the fishing and how well we cope with Hurricane Katia and Pointon's bad habits.

Fly Fish Islay Video