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

Islay Trip May 2011: A Week of Angling and Dramming

It's just over a week now since we got back from our amazing trip to Islay. I thought I'd post the remaining pics on the blog and once again it's thanks to Jason Snape for most of them.

Right through the weekend, the weatherman had been warning us of a gale that would hit us on Monday, and he wasn't wrong. I was up at 7am to get myself ready for a day's work at Caol Ila Distillery's festival open day, where I'd be pairing Caol Ila 12 year old single malt with smoked salmon and Caol Ila Distillers Edition moscatel finish with Catriona's amazing clootie dumpling. As ever, good old Terry was up making sure the stove was fired up with a good sized tray of sausages cooking within. Outside the wind was blowing and it was sure to be a wild day. It was gusting up the loch straight towards the house and the trees around Finlaggan House were bent right over in the 80mph breeze. It was sure to be a wild day, a day for folk to be at the tying table in front of the fire I thought...we'd got no one mad enough to fish on a day like this with us this time.....

Later in the week I was invited to a whisky dinner at Lagavulin Distillery where I was chatting to a whisky enthusiast. I told him that my party was staying at Finlaggan and he said that he'd visited the castle on Monday during the storm and he remarked that he'd seen two crazy anglers attempting to fish the loch amidst the chaos of the storm....it was Pointon and Kev....desperate to get on the loch to prove that a fish could be caught in such conditions, and they did. There were a few times during the week when I found myself thinking that there would be no way on earth that I would be fishing in some of the conditions we were experiencing on Islay, on our rivers back home, it would be pointless. However, when the wind is up and their are huge waves on the loch, the fishing can be spectacular. There's no problem getting a line out and the fish are on the hunt for terrestrials blown off the heather on the banks of the loch. These were ideal conditions for the lads to try the newly developed LTD 'mouse pattern', a scary looking fly that you would imagine using to catch huge angry Rainbows in the wild rivers of Kamchatcka or Alaska. Sunday and Tuesday, for me were ideal conditions and it saw all the lads taking fish. They were certainly my best two days and I wouldn't be surprised if we had a 100 fish between us.

Sometime during midweek, 'Islay time' prevents me from pinpointing exactly which, we headed out in search of a little small stream fishing and ended up gazing at the Atlantic rollers on Saligo beach. It is always a beautiful place to be but we'd just hit conditions right in the early evening for the light to be beneficial to our resident photographer, Snapey, who ran about all over the dunes taking hundreds of snaps.

It wasn't long before Pointon was seen gazing West into nothingness and beyond like a lost poet....posing for the camera basically but some nice pics were had nonetheless.....

We'd asked the landowner if it was ok for us to wet a line on the narrow Saligo river that spills out onto Saligo beach. A river that when in spate has a plentiful sea trout run. Today there was a fair amount of water in it and it's many small, dark, peaty pools made sure that my heart was in my mouth every time an angler gently flicked a wet fly into them. Pointon turned to me whilst drifting a tiny fly through the depths of a pool with a look of excitement on his face...."you know what could happen here brother!".

A take from a sea trout holding up in one of these small pools would give a fisherman the run around of his lifetime. If one of these strong fish of 3lb or more smashed at one of our flys, all hell would break loose.

It wasn't long before Glen got a take. Alas it was no monstrous sea trout but it was the most beautiful tiny wild Islay river trout that I've ever seen, and a real achievement to catch it in such a snaggy small stream.
 Later on, James missed a take from a much bigger brownie that came up from the depths and displayed a swirl of gold as it smashed at his fly. We were all gutted that we never saw the fish come to hand, but there would always be another day.

The wee troot gave Snapey some great opportunities and he's hoping to get something out of Greys and Loop for this magazine cover shot.....

Later on in the week it was time to get Herman on to the loch for the first time. It was a real dreach day but he was determined to catch a fish, even though it had been years and years since he'd wet a line.

I set him up with a single fly set up with a bibio on the point, a fly that had been performing well all week. He soon began to get takes but struggled to connect with the angry wee Finlaggan trout. Glen spent a good hour with him which saw Herman drop a good size trout and then, finally, his first Islay trout.

Ace Islay angler David Morris was on the loch preparing for the open competition that was due to take place at Finlaggan a couple of days later. He was keeping his team of 5 flys a secret, incase we told any other of the local lads what he was catching fish after fish after fish on. I was lucky enough to be taught the basics of fly fishing by David way back when I first started to visit Islay, he had me out on Finlaggan, Skerrols and Ballygrant and it was fishing alongside him that I caught my first wild brown troots. There's no pretence about these local anglers no Orvis gadgets, no fly fishing fashion just all the stuff that is required to catch and dispatch a fish quickly and to win the competition. He is a regular choice as a ghillie by the Scotland fly fishing team when they visit Islay to practice for their own competitions.

And so the final pic....and it was always going to be one of GP with the biggest fish of the week...although not the best for that was the wee one from Saligo. This fish was taken from a stretch of bank renowned for harbouring a few bigger trout. Whilst only being around the 1.5lb mark, these angry loch trout put up a huge fight and landing one is a real achievement. Well done youth!

Another great week spent with a fantastic bunch of lads, who, I'm happy to say, should all be returning with us next festival time when we'll reunite to fish the lochs of Islay and Jura, and have a laugh and a drink or two along the way!

Slainte

Woody

Wood and Pointon Go for the Grayling In The Highlands of Derbyshire...At Last

This was a day that had been coming for weeks, and well over due. Well, a week overdue. Last week, Leonie and I even booked into the Peacock in Rowsley so I could fish the Wye in and around Bakewell, in the right Royal Highlands of Derbyshire, twinned with Pitlochry don't you know. But it turned out that it was a charity day, so, I wasn't allowed.

And so, once again, I'd been lucky enough to be invited to fish the Wye with none other than my old chum Glen Tarquin Pointon of Haddon. (Formerly Lord Rocher of Oshbonk, previously a member of Leek and District Fly Fishing Association and Derby Railway Angling Club, but now moved on to pastures new)

I'd been looking forward to the day's fishing immensely. I hadn't been able to get out onto the rivers at all over the last couple of weeks through one reason or another and was ready for a laugh with Glen. And so, I was pretty annoyed when, at 5.30 am, I was awoke when, basically, a gale happened in our front garden. Crap. Tarquin and I exchanged a couple of phone calls at around 9am, would we go or wouldn't we, and eventually, we decided that we may as well have a run out and at least have a look at the river.

More often than not, one hears Glen before one sees him and this morning was no exception. I could hear his van and his accent as he drove down the track towards chez Wood. Wisps of B&H smoke rising from the crack in the off side window, "American Idiot" shattering the still, Sunday morning, autumnal air.

We packed up all of our kit into the back of Glen's van and we were all set for the off. All I needed to do was to negotiate my way through the Pointon debris and into the passenger seat, a feat easy than one may first imagine. It's full on advertising for Bensons, MacDonalds, crisps and disposable coffee cups. By his own admission, Glen isn't the most organised of chaps, and on top of this, the heaters were on full bore, "arr lark it worm" he explained. It was a bit like sitting in the middle of a council waste incinerator.

So we sped off up the Buxton road, through Buxton itself and on down the A6 towards Bakewell. Here and there we had a peek at the river and it didn't look promising at all. In places, the river was nearly onto the road, full of foam and colour and looking totally unfishable. However, as we got towards Bakewell, things started to look up. We stopped near Ashford and to our amazement, the river was only slightly up and had a faint milky tinge. Confidence started to grow.

Confidence started to grow even further when we decided that it would be rude not to start off by discussing tactics over an unfeasibly large breakfast, accompanied by the hottest coffee we'd ever, ever tasted (it had a half life of 150 years), and 14 rounds of toast. The waitress looked at us as if we were a bit odd.
Anyway, Glen read me the rules. No wading, barbless hooks, avoid hooking a trout at all costs, and off we went into the town stretch. The water was colouring up more and more as the day went on and I remember thinking that this could make picking out Grayling from the Trout a little on the tricky side.

Anyway, on my first cast, somewhere near to the cricket pavilion, I hooked into my first Grayling of the day, kindly modelled here by Glen Tarquin Pointon himself.

I had rigged up with a duo set up, a balloon caddis on the dropper, with a weighted pink shrimp about 2 1/2 Feet below on the point. I took a risk in the morning and packed my 6ft 6 Streamflex, wondering whether I would not have the length I might need, but it turned out to be perfect and great fun with the smaller fish.

To compare methods, Glen had decided to use his 9ft 5 wt Streamflex as he would be nymphing with a team of bugs.

Throughout the day, we both had success on our methods and we'd exceeded all our expectations. We set out in the morning thinking that a fish a piece would be good and we ended up with about a dozen or so between us.





It was another great day's fishing. Our usual haunts on the Dove further South would surely have been flooded and the Wye had given us a brief, 3 or 4 hour window to get some top quality Grayling fishing in. As well as the fishing, we'd also had a good laugh too as we always do, and we'd had a chance to put the world to rights.




The last fish of the day was this mini-lunker that took the shrimp on the lower reaches of the stretch in Rowsley and was the perfect end to another great angling session.

Cheers Glen for a great day's sport.

David