Spring & Early Summer Season Fishing Scotland Report 2018

It’s Mid July! We’re half way through the fishing season in Scotland and I find myself with an office day… I must update our blog!

Firstly apologies for the lack of content, we’ve been so busy! I hope our Instagram has kept you excited with all things fishy in Scotland!

March started off well for us with a Salmon landed for my American guest!

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Luke with a Springer from the River Tummel!

This one had been in the river a few weeks and was taken from a very fruitful lie for us this season. We had just lost one here the week before – same fish? Who knows!

Despite the well documented poor spring run of Salmon, we’ve had our best season ever! April into Mid May saw us land 11 Salmon for our guests and only lose two!

The biggest of the bunch was this 16 1/2lb stunner for returning guest Brant (Lefty) Weil.

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Brant with our seasons largest Salmon so far!

Regular readers of our blog may recognise Brant fished with me on the Tweed last October and also managed a Salmon on the fly!

It is fair to say the Spring Trout fishing hasn’t been as productive as recent seasons. This was partly due to the cold start to spring.  This followed a surge in temperature which saw a couple of weeks of great fishing before it fell away.

We still managed some stunning Browns though!

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His first ever Brown Trout – bravo sir!

Here my English guest displays a pig of Brown Trout! This was caught nymphing in early April amidst a sleet shower!

This Trout was landed 500+ yards downstream of where we hooked it! Yes, his first ever Brown Trout would you believe it!

German guest Stefan made the most of a lift in water and topped off his Salmon from the Tay (after losing four in one day!) with this yellow bellied beauty!

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Butter bellies!

The Grayling fishing in early pre-spawn was great! We haven’t seen the numbers we would normally see, but the quality is excellent!

 

We managed some epic fish to 2lb 10oz for our guests and head guide Callum Conner managed a stunning 2lb 13oz Tweed Horse!

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Early season the guides get to fish!

 

The Pike fishing through late winter and spring was ever consistent. We managed lots of Pike up to the 15lb mark but no sign of the big mammas!

As the water warm up and the lack of rain continues, the Pike fishing will really come into its own.

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Chunky one for Paul visiting from the USA

Here is a nice double caught last week for our American Guest Paul.

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What a fighter this one was!

And another American guest Catherine with a nice one too.

As we come into the warmest part of the year we are still experiencing low and warm water conditions on our rivers which makes fishing conditions a bit more challenging.

Hopefully there is some rain soon to freshen things up. I have a good feeling about later summer and fall fishing this year!

Tight Lines!

Callum Conner

Trout & Salmon Front Cover!

First of all Happy New Year to all our readers! As the title suggests, this is my first published front cover image!

I was delighted to get a call from Trout & Salmon magazine about one of our Grayling images they’d like to feature on the front cover of the February issue of the magazine.

Trout & Salmon is undoubtedly the UK’s No.1 fly fishing magazine and features some of the best in the business in their appropriate fields.

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                                             Yeah boy!

It needed a little tweaking to fit so I had to wait anxiously before receiving a reply from Andrew Flitcroft that it was all good!

It’s been a goal of mine in recent years to achieve this so I am delighted to finally get there. I’ve had a few inside the magazine but including a double spreader but this is the first front cover!

The images is a first Grayling for a client I guided on the River Teviot. It is definitely one of my favourite Grayling images!

Also great to see our sponsor Loop Tackle on front cover too!

What a positive way to start 2018!

Returning Clients

One thing we take great pride in at Scotia Fishing is the volume of returning clients we’ve had – this year alone!

We feel this is better than any Tripadvisor review or testimonial. It proves the level of service we provide is of high standard to make people fly back from all corners of the globe to fish with us again in Scotland.

In four years Scotia has grown to become one of the leading providers of Guided Fishing Trips in Scotland. We’re now Scotland’s highest rated guided fishing service on Tripadvisor, receiving a certificate of excellence in 2016.

Here are some photos of returning clients and a bit of story about them!

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Nice Winter Pike for Mr Penrod!

Mr Penrod from Chicago has fished with me every year since day one of Scotia! We’ve been out for Pike and Grayling and then back on the Pike – Salmon next..

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His first fish on a fly rod – not a bad Grayling!

A larger than life character he is an absolute pleasure to spend a day with and I look forward to seeing him every March!

Young Jacopo from Milano!

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Young Jaco with his third big grayling of the day!

What can I say about this young man, a superstar! Jacopo fished with me two years running. First year he landed some great Pike and Grayling, and lost two Salmon whilst fishing for Grayling – crazy day!

On his return visit he fished for Pike and had two days at Salmon. The first day resulted in nothing despite an impressive effort. I asked Jacopo if he preferred to chase Pike the following day or come back for another try at Salmon, he answered without hesitation “I want to catch a Salmon”.

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A perfect late summer run River Tay Salmon!

Ten minutes into day two saw us land this magnificent River Tay Salmon at 18lbs – one of my favourite ever guiding moments!

Jack and Joe from Canada fished with me in Year two for Pike and had a blast! Catching over ten Pike in a day to modern lure techniques.

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Young Jack the Pike slayer!

They returned in 2017 on a new quest for Jack’s favourite – Grayling, and on the fly!

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Jack putting a nice bend into the 3 weight on a Scottish Grayling

Despite tough conditions they managed to fulfil this goal and land some Scottish Grayling on the fly! Young Jack is a great little fly fisher and I hope to see them back again in another few years to target Salmon!

Hiroshi from Japan was working in Scotland for Mitsubishi and decided to do a day with us to see what fishing in Scotland was all about!

First day was a search for Salmon on the River Tay. Despite a sterling effort we never managed to hook any on this day.

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Beautiful River Tweed Brown Trout

Hiroshi then came back for a return trip  couple months later to fly fish for Brown Trout & Grayling.

This day was a lot more productive and Hiroshi (a first time fly fisher) had a great day with around two Trout & Grayling all on fly.

His next trip he wanted to try my recommendation of Pike!

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A very respectable Pike for Hiroshi

What a day he had with over 20 Pike from 4lbs up to 15lbs on baits in the middle of winter – a great days fishing by anyones standard! Hiroshi enjoyed it so much he booked another two trips a week later!

Tom from the mighty USA fished with me in my first year. We spent a day on the River Tay in final week of the season fishing for Atlantic Salmon. Tom had already fished with a guide the previous year for Salmon but had a fruitless day.

Well, he got of to a flyer with us and in the first ten minutes landed this Salmon despite the river being 7ft above summer level!

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Tom off to a flyer – not a great photo but look at the smile!

He also managed another later in the day, a fresh run Grilse.  Two Salmon in a day is a great result by anyone’s standards!

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Tom’s second of the day – a sea liced grilse!

This year Tom managed to sneak in a day whilst on vacation with his good lady. This time it was late spring on the River Tay.

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Tom on the Tay again!

Fishing was tougher on this occasion, despite seeing a number of Salmon (they were bounding about everywhere), we couldn’t manage to hook any!

Jonathan has fished with me twice over the last two years, opting to do a casting refresher and sharpen up his skills for the coming seasons efforts.

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Circle c’ing like a boss!

I have had an absolute blast helping him improve his spey casting and now he has progressed onto the snake roll cast!

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Justin the show off! Look at that backdrop!

Louis & Carl fished with me in 2016 of Salmon on the last day of the season at the River Tay. River was big but the fish were in the mood and they managed a few hookups and Louis landed a nice Sea Trout

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Nice wee sea trout for Louis!

And Carl landed a coloured Male Salmon, typical of end of season.

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Carl’s first ever Salmon in full spawning livery!

In Spring 2017 they returned to try fly fishing on the River Tweed! This time they fished hard all day with Suszy (mum) losing a belter of a Brown Trout!

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Louis the little legend!

Louis saved the day at the last cast with this stunner of a Grayling!

Dan & Kate fished with me in my first year for Pike and had a great day using spoons they had custom made with their wedding date on them! How cool is that?

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A proper chunk Scottish Pike!

In 2017 they returned on a mission to catch Scottish Grayling and do a day on the Pike lake again!

The Pike wasn’t as productive as their first year but they manage a few Trout & Grayling with this one the highlight of the trip.

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Lovely grayling for Dan the man!

This is just a small selection of the clients we’ve had return over the past season. We will look forward to seeing more in 2018!

Tight Lines

Callum Conner

MD & Head Guide @ Scotia Fishing

2017 Fishing Season So Far Report

Wow where has this season gone! It’s mid September and I am getting a small break in between moving homes to write a little update/report on the fishing!

Spring this year was a strange affair. April became the driest April on record for Edinburgh. This had an effect on the river fishing, undoubtedly.
We endured a tough period of fishing throughout April and May with temperatures reaching 27 degrees celsius up on the river banks some days. Such periods of heat and low water do make for tricky fishing, particularly with Salmon.

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Worth falling in for mid-fight.

However, there were a few still getting caught and our guest above Will from California done well to land this beauty after falling in mid-fight! Don’t expect any sympathy from the guides until the Salmon is landed folks! 🙂

The Trout fishing for us was a challenge in Spring but did improve into the summer. We did manage a few nice ones but none of the real big Trout we often encounter at this time of year on the dry fly.

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Erin had a blast with trout on the Tweed system!

Before and after the Grayling spawned saw some great sport but there were some tough times in the low water conditions. Stealthy anglers were rewarded with fish up to 2 1/2lbs.

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“That fish Gray”

The Pike fishing was pretty reliable in spring. It did take a while to get warmed up at the Pike loch before they really switched on !

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Ken displays Mrs McMillan’s excellent Pike! Look at those markings!

We also had the pleasure of guiding culinary legend and all round gentleman Mr Albert Roux (O.B.E).
I had the pleasure of four days with Albert and two members of his team. I enjoyed the breakfasts and lunches and will savour those bank-side chats!

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Canelou, Vytas & Albert enjoying some Pike fishing in Perthshire!

As we moved into summer the rains came and the temperatures dropped in typical Scottish summer fashion! This done wonders for the fishing and we endured some of the best fishing of the year so far in July/August.

Ian managed this proper Tay Salmon after losing one earlier on the fly. A quick change of tactics resulted in this fine specimen.

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Ian’s second Salmon on his second day of fishing. He lost one shortly before on the fly also!

Dave from Cape Cod managed a nice fresh Grilse on the fly during two days of fishing on the River Tay.

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All the way from Cape Cod Dave managed this beauty on a fulling mill cascade fly

Also worth noting was the Sea Trout fishing in early summer. Alexis had this little spanker from the Tay on the fly when fishing for Salmon.

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Beautiful Sea Trout for Alexis from France!

The Grayling really switched on in the bigger waters and we had some really good fish on the nymphs not shy of the 3lbs mark.

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Medwin displays a rather thick Grayling!

With high river conditions we brought out the streamers for the Trout and I saw a few fish well over 2lbs lost by clients during this period. A real sickener but that’s fishing! There were a few nice ones though including Mr Shintani from Canada below.

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Nice trout for Eric on the streamer!

The Pike fly and lure fishing was pretty good when we had settled weather conditions and some nice fish came to both methods. Pick of a bunch would be Jeff’s pictured below. He fished away solidly all day with nothing until the last ten minutes. Landing a 8lber closely followed by this 17lber and an awesome fight!

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Pike are just awesome on a fly rod!

I even managed to sneak in three days of fishing myself up in the Highlands and managed a Salmon each day.

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Sometimes I get to fish too! 

The fish of the trip however was my friends first ever Salmon, what a way to start your Salmon career with a 9.5lbs sea-liced bar of silver. They don’t come much more perfect than that!

Ewe Beauty – My First Salmon from Scotia Fishing on Vimeo.

It feels very Autumnal now here in Scotland and the river banks are looking splendid as the leaves turn. This is a truly special time to fish in Scotland – cannot wait to update you on the rest of our season in the coming weeks!

Tight lines

Callum