Last week, a very nice fishing family was staying at Manse. As the river was low they made several journeys up to our trout lochs to catch wild brownies, mostly of one-bite size.

Loch nam Buidheag is the northern of our lochs, and a fair walk up from the road, but it is always good fishing. We had known that it had been fished in the past for sea trout and I have seen respectable fish in the water. But I’ve only seen them in deep water and had assumed you would need a boat to get close to them.

As the picture above shows, this is not true. This fish weighing around 4lb (and safely returned) was caught fishing from the bank on a small dropper. Well done to Vicky because I’m sure it struck hard and gave a great fight on a small trout rod.

The experts tell me that it probably a sea trout which returned early, perhaps in April. It is taking on some brown trout colouration but it s too big and its fins too large for it to be a native brown trout.

Anyway it is a good reminder that exciting fishing is not just to be found in the river!