South Uist Fishing Reports - from The Anglers' Retreat

We were away on holiday for most of July but I can report that the Salmon and Seatrout are in in numbers.

Aug 24

First guests after our break were David Lonsdale and Dave Martell. They endured some pretty bad weather but had some memorable days as well, chief of these was without doubt the best day on Roag I have ever had in terms of numbers of Salmon and Seatrout showing. David managed his first Salmon, a 3.5lb Grilse, a 5.25lb Seatrout and a couple of others in the 2.5lb region, Dave managed one on 2.5lb but both missed more and must have seen 50 fish moving. Two good days on Druidibeg estate sides produced 54 trout and a lovely 3lb Seatrout to David besides Dun Raghhaill. Machair lochs were badly churned but N Olpahat and Dun Mhor saved the days with 14 on both. By the time we fished Fada on Saturday the heavy rain had pushed up the spawning burns twice and all the fish have run up the system.

No guests this week so I ghillied Ian Jones and his friends Gerald, Dave and Alan. We started on N Olaphat in a howling gale and heavy rain and between bank and boat they still managed a dozen trout before it got too dismal. Druidibeg club followed and we had a great day with over 30 caught between boat and bank mostly at the southern end. On Fada during strong winds Dave Lythgoe had a lovely 5lb Salmon around the burn mouth and Gerald sadly lost a nice seatrout in the west bay. Last day was on Dun a Cille were they had 22 by lunch and only 6 afterwards when the temperature dropped and cloud/ rain came in.

Generally its been a week of very high winds and loads of rain, all lochs are nearly full and the spawning burns have been in constant flood. Ghillies are reporting lots of Salmon and big Seatrout being caught, Ian Kennady says its the best he has seen in 30yrs!. Machair lochs have been unfishable however.

Simon Barnes (Simba Rods), Alan Craig and Douglas/ Ian Lowe just had a very challenging week with constant high winds but persevered and did quite well considering conditions. Best days were an incredible 35 on Bayhead, 30 &17 on N Olaphat, 31 on Druidibeg, 17 seatrout to 3.25/ 4.5lb on Fada (loads& bigger lost/ missed), 10 Seatrout on Roag in 58mph wind, 2 nice brownies to 2.25lb on West Ollay from the bank and a big one lost, 20 on East Ollay, 8 on Caslub and 10 seatrout from Castle best 3lb. 

Last week Jim Gray and pals Bob, Jon and Roy endured the worst week of weather i have experienced here in 8yrs, everyday wind was above 42mph and heavy rain storms. They persevered but clearly had a difficult time despite there being a fair number of migatory fish in the system. Only 2 small seatrout and 32 brownies for the week but the highlight for me was watching total beginner Roy beat his friends on the last day on Druidibeg. 

Full winter levels on all lochs now and I am confident that East Bee will again be fishable. Coming week looks good and finally the machair lochs will be fishable. Despite the weather, some very good Salmon and Seatrout were caught last week in what seems to be a bumper year.

Long time South Uist visitors Clive Lunn and Iain Whitehead had a difficult start to their trip with vv high water levels. The Roag burn burst ists banks and every loch at full winter height. Roag was a wash out on day one but they had 3 seatrout to 2.75lb on Fada the following day.. Another 2 seatrout to 2lb and a 3.5lb grilse followed on Schoolhouse. Castle produced a 2lber plus lots of brownies. Out day on West Ollay was largerly unprodutive until Iain had a loely 3.5lb fish and Clive lost a fish of 5lb plus. We had an outstanding day on Bharp with 16 finnock and 6 seatrout best 2lb and on Bayhead they had 2 finnock and 23 brownies which averaged over a pound each!