South Uist Fishing Reports - from The Anglers' Retreat
As at Sun 23 Aug 26
April/May 26
And we are off! First day of the 26 season was with Mark James on U Kildonan. Bright sunshine, flat calm and hot but despite this we managed 7 to 1.75lb, 3 of which were caught on dry flies during a hatch. We missed a further 10.
Next up was East Bee with Mark James and MarkFreeman. I haven't fished Bee much in the last few years due to low water and weed issue, but water levels are good across the island at the moment due to the huge amount of rain we had in the first 2 weeks of April. First drift - the hole, and Mark James hooks this monster that put up a hell of a scrap 6.25lb beauty! We then had a great day with a further 11 inc 4@ 2lb and 2 @1.5lb, to top the day off our last drift was the hole again and Mark Freeman caught a lovely 3.5lb fish. Great day - fish it quickly before the weed becomes a problem.
Grogarry proved more challenging with just 7 small fish, again in quite difficult sunny conditions. N Olaphat did its usual and produced 21 nice fish and great sport. The sun then came out for 2 days with flat calm conditions so Stilligary and Bornish did not fish well with just a few small fish each. Caravan was a wash out despite decent conditions although they both lost/ moved big fish. The final day for Mark James was Mid Ollay, first on this season we moved about 35 and landed 18 best 1.75lb in a freezing cold NE blustery wind, great fun.
As predicted last week was also very cold and bright with northerly winds, fishing was really hard on some days. The best fishing was on Stilligary where Callum and George Thompson were casting to rising fish and managed 14 with the best at 2.5lb. Colin Poton and John Watson matched it the following day. The week started very well for George who landed a superb 4.5lb brownie on the second drift of the day on E Bee, he following this with a hard fighting 2.5lb fish and we ended the day with 5. N Olaphat was below par with 11 to the boat, but they raised a further 25. Mid Ollay fished well for George and Callum with 12; Callum had some good bank sport inc a 2.5lber. Three days later Colin and John only managed 3 on there as conditions deteriated.Druidibeg Skipport produced 29 small fish for Callum and George. Colin and John had 5 to 1.5lb on Grogarry, but only 1 from Hallan which is now unfishable from the boat. On E Bee Colin had a fine 2.5lb fish on the second cast but nothing after that, They all worked incredibly hard but conditions across the island were tough. E Bee is now very low and will be unfishable soon due to weed as the level drops. No rain now for nearly a month.
Last week was by far the most challenging i have experianced here, with a 'feels like' temp still in the 6-8deg region and biting northerly winds, in bright sun, and with stirred lochs, the fish were just not in the mood anywhere. John Archibald battled on and managed some fish everyday, all around 1/2lb mark. His last day on Stilligary, which was not stirred, we saw olives hatching and between us managed 12 best 2lb. It was fun watching the Sand Martins feeding on the loch and they clearly showed the hatch areas so we followed them and had success each time casting to rising fish.
The better weather promised last week didin't materialise and guests Simon Barnes, Rich Knight, Paul Dixon and Nick West battled on regardless and produced some good returns. Paul and Nick started well with 35 on both sides of Druidibeg and followed this with 14 on Stilligarry, 2 on Grogarry, 16 on Dun a Cille, 15 on Mid Ollay including a lovely 3lber, and 4 on U Kildonan, they had a number of 2lb fish and did really well given the windy and cold conditions. Simon and Rick started well with 12 on Mid Ollay and 12 on Stilligary but the weather got the better of them on Grogarry and Bornish (where a moved to Caslub produced some good sport to 2lb). Even N Olaphat only produced 13 in a howling gale. Tough week allround and while the south basked in 25+deg we had gloves and 4 layers on!!
Last week was a right mix of weather and fishing fortunes. Graham North and Duncan Brown enjoyed great sport on East Ollay with 10 nice fish, Altebrug (10), 16 cracking fish on Mid Ollay inc a 2.5lber and a wonderful 4.5lb fish on W Ollay and much excitement on Dun a Cille (19) which is fishing very well this season. Niall Morrison and Tony Ronan had mixed fortunes but had good days on Mid Ollay (6), Caslub (8) and a memerable day on Dun a Cille in wild conditions which produced 19. We still hav'nt seen the sort of weather that the mainland has but next week looks good.
June 26
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With a marginal uplift in the weather last week the fishing improved, especially during brighter and warmer conditions. Regulars
Martin Bamforth and Colin West had mixed fortunes but managed 16 on E Ollay, 7 on Mid Ollay in foul weather, 19 on Druidibeg Skipport and 12 on U Kildonan but their days on Bornish and Stilligary were very poor for no apparent reason.
Colin Campbell and Gerry Bannister faired better and had a total of 129 fish for the week. Good days were had on Drudibeg Skip with 35, U Kildonan 20, best 2lb, W Olaphat 19, 25 on N Olaphat and a super day on Mid Ollay with 18 to the boat but around 40 moved/ lost inc some big fish. Their only duff day was on Bornish which is being tempremental at the moment. There is a total lack of fly life everywhere at the moment and fishing is being hampered by low temperature and variable wind. We need a summer!
It's getting very boring now but for the last 2 weeks the weather has yet again made life very difficult for the anglers. Long term regular Reuben Girling was joined by 2nd time this year returner Mark Freeman and his pal Dave Ingham and John Nolan who has also been coming for years. Between them they had some notable days but also some poor ones. Reuben and I sarted well with 28 on Druidibeg Drimore and 13 on N Olpahat which are both always reliable, Upper Bornish with only 2 in a gale less so but 7 on U Kildonan whilst still stirred was ok. We tried SUAC Loch Lasgair one am and moved 8 fish but only landing 3 to 1.5lb, nice 1/2 day loch though.
I took Mark and Dave on Druidibeg Drimore as well and they had 13 (should have been loads more). Mid Ollay was poor with only one fish.....but what a fish 3.5lb and it fell to Dave to get the best fish of the week. West Olaphat and Bayhead were medioce but their best day was on U Kildonan which produced 8 good fish to 2lb. John Nolan predominantly fished the bank and had a few fish in most lochs he tried. For all of them it was challenging
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Last week Mark Eversleigh and Dave Campbell came up from London for their first trip to the Uists. They got the full experience with yet another week of poor weather and high winds. Despite this they did well with a dozen each on Druidibeg and West Olaphat (great quality fish this year). They had a 3 loch day and had just 2 on Caslub but 6 on Lasgair and 14 on Dun Mhor. A Salmon and big seatrout were caught on Tuesday in Roag so we ventured out on Fada on Thursday, sadly it was empty so we went to Bayhead and had a fun afternoon catching 8 good sized fish. They really enjoyed a couple of half days bank fishing a couple of local lochs and moved over 20 fish and caught a few around 2lb.
Colin Biggs was also in for part of the week to fish the sea pools and banks but also enjoyed a half day on Druidibeg catching 8.
I'm now taking a break and the next report will be on 9 Aug.
Aug 26
After our well deserved break we were back with a bang and truly awful weather last week - 4 days of over 35mph wind and solid rain! Despite this ouriintrepid guests battled on valiantly. They started with both boats on N Olaphat and managed 19 but as usual quite a few got away. Castle and Schoolhouse followed and Andrew Yonger had a good day with a 3lb and 2.5lb seatrout on Castle plus a few more raised by Richard Winstanley. Schoolhouse was poor by comparison. Wind forced us all off early but I took Richard and Andrew to Loch Lasgair a SUAC loch and they managed 4 trout to 1.5lb, they also had a few fish from the bank on my favourite bank loch. David Chalk and Neil Cosburn also moved to Frasers and had 11 nice trout.
L. Kildonan and Mill were pretty dissappointing but they made up for it on Fada where David had a superb 8lb salmon and a 2.5lb seatrout along with another 6 finnock, Roag produced 4 finnock.
In the last 2 weeks we have had a tremendous amount of rain (lucky us!) so all lochs are full. We have alot of weed and the migratory fish have been in in numbers but i suspect many have now run.
This week regulars Simon Barnes and Rick Knight started on W& E Olaphat with me and we had a calm, sunny, warm, day with a huge hatch of flies. The fish were rising everywhere, they managed to land 11 but missed about 30! On Roag we had 1 take all day, thankfully it was a lovely, very hard fighting 4lb seatrout for Simon. Iain Lowe and Howard Smith had 22 on Dun a Cille (such a good loch) and just brownies on L Kildonan and Mill. Fada however produced 6 seatrout and 2 salmon of 5 and 7lb for Iain and Howard; the first time 2 guests in a boat have each caught a Salmon - well ghillied Ali O Henley! Meanwhile on the other boat Simon had a couple of seatrout on Bharp and they had 6 on Fada during a hot hour period..Trout fishing was below par this week, especially on the machair lochs but faith was restored for Simon and Rick on the last afternoon with 15 on Druidibeg Drimore plus loads missed and lost
Visitors should be aware that Mid Ollay, Stilligary and North Olavat are badly weeded.
Regulars Julian Williams and Gareth Richards had a good week last week. Starting on Schoolhouse/ Castle they had 6 finnock all at 1lb and 11 trout. West Olaphat produced 8 to 2lb but alot of fish were lost missed. Druidibeg Skipport honed their skills further with 31 and many many more moved/lost. Next came Mill where they had 12 browns before moving to Caslub where they had 3 including a lovely 2lber for Gareth. We also spent 30 min in the sea pool further up the road which produced 3 nice pollack but 2 much bibber fish broke their 8lb line. Fada came good and they had 6 seatrout with a nice 3lber for Gareth and a lovely 2lb trout for Julian. Their final day was on E Bee where the water levels have increased enough to allow limited fishing. We had a great time and they managed 9, it was Julian's day and he had cracking trout of 3.25lb, 3lb and 2.75lb plus another 4. They experianced 5 more occasions when very big trout surged to their flies but failed to take.
Sep 26
Best catches to Date
6.5 lb Brownie - E Bee - Mark James
4.25lb Brown - E Bee - George Thompson
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