This is another report that is a bit of a cheat as there is no hunting but I know that many visitors come to fish as well as hunt so it seems reasonable to put it here, if you want hunting then you can check out my report from the start of the year where I reported on some wonderful stalking as well as fishing :-)

I'm a keen angler and like nothing more than to walk the moor and explore the remote trout lochs that lie in there hundreds across the island of Lewis. This season the trout started very slowly with the fish thin after the winter but as the season progressed I found the fish in excellent condition. However, everything must come to an end and the trout ends on 6th October so this is my rod and gear after snipping off the flies and calling the trout done for another year:



There is always a certain sadness in the passing of another season but all you can do is reflect on the days past, and the fish brought to the bank:







In September I was lucky enough to get to fish with a few visiting anglers and we had some great days out. With one visitor I walked many miles to two remote lochs, one is something of a mystery while they other used to produce big trout but now seems to be changing character and is producing good numbers of quality trout from 1/2lb to about 1.5lb. The visitor and myself had about 30 fish between us for the day with the bigger ones around the 1.5lb mark but both of us lost what we are certain were bigger fish plus we enjoyed tea and lunch lying on the bank:



Another day out with visitors for trout saw us, once more, walking to a remote loch with some features of interest. This loch has a shelf of big stones that reaches some distance out into the loch before it drops away to much deeper water. In some places the shelf is maybe 40 yards wide while in others the drop-off is within casting distance of the bank. On the day we had the most wonderful changing light with sun, and heavy rain, and rainbows. The visitors enjoyed their day out and we all had fish up to the 1.5lb mark with one of the visitors losing a bigger fish that dropped off the hook after a short time:






In my view this is real, classic, game fishing for trout that have been here relatively untouched since the end of the last ice age. Many of these lochs lie unfished for years at a time and in as far as I can establish the loch in the last two images has been fished 3 times in 3 years, and on two of those occasions it was me who walked out.

We are also not stuck for rivers and had some good water this Autumn to keep them looking their best:





Where we don't have water we also have areas that are tidal and the fish will move in and out with the tides. Sometimes high tide is the key, and in other areas low tide is the key. This river gets great sea trout, and the occasional salmon, but the big tides can flood what is normally solid ground and so great caution is necessary as there are many channels and big holes out there to catch the unwary:



Although it wasn't a great year for sea trout I didn't have some visiting anglers join me for a cast and we had great days out, plus one got his first brace of sea trout. It is always nice to get a fish but it is also the case that on some days you can't beat just being by the river and enjoying the experience and the day out:







I'm very much out for a day out and for the experience of being on the moor and enjoying the views and interesting stuff. This year I walked to an old shieling by a remote loch. A shieling is where people would live while there cattle were on the summer grazing. I'd always promised myself a cup of tea in this one as, unusually, I am aware of who once lived in it. This was occupied by a local who was an expert in the Scottish adder, a photographer, a writer and also one of the founders of the Scottish Police Federation! How he had time to go to the shieling as well I don't know but he died in 1949 and I thought it only right to go out and make tea in his shieling as it might be nearly a century since anyone has had tea out there:



As ever I was treated to some great views when walking the moor to the trout lochs and for me that is a big part of the reason for going out there:



Lewis is also famous for its salmon fishing, in fact that is probably what it is most famous for in terms of sporting opportunity, and while I don't consider myself a salmon angler I do make an attempt to chase after a salmon now and again. This year I thought I might try to take some photos of me playing a salmon but that didn't really work out well, the salmon seemed reluctant to take a break while I tried to work out how to hold the rod and the camera:





All told when salmon fishing alone it is best to keep photography to more simple subject matter, or at least to have the salmon subdued before you attempt to take a photo:









On the last day of my season (the season closes in most places on 15th October, though my last day was a little earlier) I like to visit two local rivers. They are only a short distance apart and so I like to spend the morning on one, and then drive round to the other for lunch and to finish off my day. One of the rivers had, in the past, a reputation for a late run of fish and it certainly still gets sea trout running right to the end of the season. This year, however, it hadn't been fishing so well but I took a run up just to see out the season:



It was a lovely Autumn morning, though too bright for successful fishing, and the midges were out as it was relatively calm. I bumped into another angler and we spent most of the time talking and just enjoying being on the river bank on a nice October day. We didn't see or move any fish, but then that is hard to do if you are sitting talking and drinking tea. The moor, however, hadn't been sitting still and was well through the process of changing into its winter colours:



Once it was heading towards lunchtime I moved to the second river, and the day changed! In a most amazing turn of events thick cloud rolled it and it became overcast and almost dark. However, there was decent water in the river:



I went up the river to a traditional spot for making lunch and got the stove going:



Once lunch was over I walked up to the Junction Pool just to see out the season, it is a pool that I don't actually much like but there are often fish lying in it and it sort of marks the top of this section of river. By the time I'd finished on the Junction and started working back down I'd still had no fish:



On the way up I'd been thinking about where the fish might be lying and as I walked back down I had a cast in a few likely spots and managed a fish from a run at the top of one pool:



With a fish on the bank I snipped off the flies and called it done for the season. It was time to get back to looking for sheep on the moor rather than chasing fish in the rivers:

I forgot that I'd hacked together a little video as well, it is about 4:30 long and has lots of general views of the area around Shawbost (mostly). A lot of it was shot in January, April and October with a few bits in August and September as well and, of course, there is some fishing content:

https://youtu.be/UbWcB6Jb7aM

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Super report and pictures - as always!

Lovely looking beach at 3.40 in the video.

Is that a 9' rod you are using ?

Thank you for posting and sharing.

Charlie

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The rod is an 11 foot Leeda for a 7 weight, a very cheap rod but it works well under the conditions and is ideal for everything from trout to salmon, I use one of those Rio Versitip lines on it to give flexibility. In late September Steve Greist one of the Sage materials designers was on the island and he dropped by and gave a little talk, very interesting and a really nice man. I was trying to convince him that he needed to start making 11 foot rods that we could fish with rather than casting poles :-) To be honest I don't think he bought it. Actually I also use an 11 foot 6 weight rod built on a Sage blank for me by the great Dave Lewis but Sage designed these blanks to have a much softer action for the UK market, and it throws a 7 weight line just as well. If you are interested in rods and fishing then be sure to take a look at Dave's page, he's dead nearly 10 years now so there is nothing actually for sale but his wife preserved the page as his Journals in particular are a wonderful way to spend a few hours:

http://www.davelewisflyrods.com/

Most of the video was shot around the Shawbost area, the beach is Dalbeg, and although I fished for 8 weeks I really didn't travel far with the occasional run over to the Gress river being the extent of my travels. Hence why there are no pics or video of the really spectacular spots or of many of the "big name" fisheries.

Fine looking country. Great pictures and
some dandy fish too.

The whole area looks: "Fishy".

Thanks for sharing with us.

George

Very nice! Love your pictures and descriptions, as well as the video!

Looks like Alaska

Love the photos, excellent report

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Looks like Alaska

It is a lot smaller, maybe 60 miles by 40 at the extremes :-) Actually somewhat surprisingly bits of Lewis are as far north as a few bits of Alaska - it is about 58.5 north so just about level with the north end of Bristol Bay. The most northerly parts of the UK, the Shetland Islands, reach to just short of Anchorage. In terms of temperatures then I think our climate is more moderate but Lewis is said to be the most windy inhabited place on earth, I've no idea if that is actually true.

Glad you liked the video Use Enough Gun, I'd been playing with a drone just for my own amusement so thought to throw together some video. To be honest I prefer the still photos as when out fishing it only takes a second to snap a photo whereas it can take quite a while to shoot video, and much longer to get the drone up and get a shot. Also Lewis is generally too windy for a drone so it isn't many days in the year that it can fly. Luckily salmon fishing generally benefits from a good breeze.

Magnificent stuff, and many thanks for taking the time to share this as well as a recommendation on hunting on another thread. I'm sold on a trip to Lewis. Next year or the one following, I'll have plans to travel to Lewis. As my mother is from Glasgow and I have family there I haven't seen in decades, it's time.

Cheers, and thank you again, sir.

Thanks so much for posting this, your photo's are wonderful, as was the video, would love to spend some time exploring, fishing and hunting your country, thanks so much for taking the time
to do this.

Beautiful! This thread has given me ideas....already inquiring with JRH for a combo grouse/salmon trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Norton:
Beautiful! This thread has given me ideas....already inquiring with JRH for a combo grouse/salmon trip.

Russell (I'm assuming it is RJH Sporting you mean) will look after you well I would be certain, I occasionally bump into him and his guests while on the moor and they always have a ball. The only thing I will say, and what I always tell visiting sportsmen, is come for as long as possible as most people are only catching on to the vast range of sport available as they are packing up to leave. Once you get on the island you can extend a holiday at very little cost: add a week of wild trout fishing and it would only cost you the accommodation and you have to live somewhere anyhow.

I don't know if you saw a previous report I posted on some stalking:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...5421043/m/2751013932

That might give you some further ideas as might this little video compilation of some stuff I did last year, most of this was shot in January, April and October:

https://youtu.be/UbWcB6Jb7aM

Lewis used to be such an exclusive destination that getting access was simply not possible, many of the old fishing books pass over it with comments to the effect of "you can't get fishing there..." but that is no longer the case and the problem these days is not getting fishing but rather deciding where to fish next.

Yes, I meant RJH. I'll be doing that trip either this year or next. Thanks for the additional info.