Our 2015 Season So Far – Late Summer Update!

Well what a year it’s been so far for Scotia Fishing and our clients! We’ve had many memorable days and some great catches.

Apologies for the lack of updates, we’ve not been able to post as regularly as we’d like. Here’s just a few small snippets of a few of the fishing highlights in 2015 so far!

In early Spring we had some real mixed weather, one week it was warm, one week it was cold and to be honest the whole of Spring was much colder than usual. Not that we were complaining though as the fishing throughout Spring was epic! & Grayling in the latter half (post spawn) were feeding hard and we managed some great catches during this period

First time lady fly fisher Jayne from Australia had never picked up a fishing rod before, never mind a fly fishing rod! That didn’t stop her from landing this cracking 3lb plus Grayling!

scottish-summer-fishing-2015

Star pupil Jayne from Australia with a fish of a lifetime for her first ever catch!

Australian guest Joe was a great laugh and although we couldn’t get him into some big Grayling he managed this stunning Trout on the dry fly after 15 minutes of figuring out what he wanted – a special catch.

Spring-trout-fishing-scotland

Joe wasn’t the only one delighted!

Young Jaco had three specimen Grayling in the one day and also hooked two Salmon by accident! A little superstar angler in the making!

jaco1

Little star Jaco from Italy – one of my personal favourite days of the year!

Mats from Sweden managed this stonker at 3lb 4oz in early Summer. The river was gin clear so we had to apply stealth tactics. The New Zealand indicators came into their own during this period and I climbed up trees in order to pick out the fish and avoid spooking them with blind casting – great fun!

DSC_5184

3lb plus grayling – keep em wet…

South African guest Richard managed this superb river brown trout on a waterhen bloa.

big troot

A river Brown Trout in peak condition!

 

My guest Lucas from USA Brian had this outstanding Tay Trout just over 5lb. Here it is displayed using the famous “rock the baby” goal celebration grip…

DSC_4891-Recovered

Bars of gold…

 

 

The Spring Salmon fishing was excellent in April, May and June so our clients managed to get into some bars of silver on both the River Tweed and Tay.

Mick Duggan managed two in the one day fishing the Tweed with Loop & Sakura endorsed guide Callum Conner.

 

 

DSC_4149

Numero uno…

 

 

No doubts about it, the Australian’s are the luckiest!

DSC_4183

Spring Tweed Chrome…

Mark from Australia managed an epic Salmon on the Middle Tay.

saumon-ecosse

A beezer as we say…

 

See what I mean now about the Aussies?….

Said from Jordan picked up Spey casting very quickly and had a great time despite not landing any Salmon – his wife however did lose a cracking fish on the Lower Middle Tay.

DSC_4114

The stunning Lower River Tay

 

DSC_3784k

The famous Islamouth pool

 

Pike fishing was slow to begin with but did pick up towards the latter half of spring. The fish were late to spawn in our local waters but they didn’t half go on a feeding frenzy soon after this!

Said managed a cracking Pike in the mid teens – caught fishing jerk baits aggressively just sub-surface which is one of the most exciting types of fishing you can do in the UK.

big-pike-in-scotland-uk-23

Proper chunky Scottish Loch Pike fight like demon’s…

Dylan from Down Under managed this nice Pike in amongst a bucket load of fish for their days sport.

DSC_6024kk

Aussies again….

Ed managed his first ever Pike on a surface fly – the best way to do it! The fish were on these big time for a few weeks and we had some amazing fun fishing poppers during this period.

DSC_5650kk

Pike hits on the surface – it gets no better!

Ryan & Sao from Dubai had some great sport – Sao had most of the luck though, had to be said Ryan!

DSC_5330-2k

Sao was nailing the Pike all day fishing soft plastics…

I managed to get myself out for a days Pike fly fishing from the float tube on our local loch and managed this only fish of the day at 20lb 3oz – epic battle!

20-on-tube-fly-fishing

He aint lost it…

That’s just a little catch up, we’re now hitting peak Salmon season and the back end run is shaping up to be a cracker! Let’s hope for some rain and some more epic days to call in the remainder of the season!

Stay tuned for some interesting news from Scotia Fishing soon…

Tight lines!

Cal

“Wee Vic”

Sad day today at Scotia HQ, said a final goodbye far too early to a man who leaves a lasting impression on my life. A wee legend in my eyes.

vic 2

Vic enjoying one of my venison burgers

Pre Scotia days I had the pleasure of first meeting Vic in what was then my local tackle shop, the old Angling Centre Stirling. We later went on to become colleagues when I went to work there for 4 years and became friends outside of work when we both went our separate ways.

Vic was your classic ‘Scottish character’, very warm, welcoming, helpful, chatty, full of the jokes, didn’t take anything too serious and always had the ability to see the best in people.

A natural salesman and a knowledge of Scottish fishing that was huge across all genres, I learned loads from him over the years, not just about fishing.

Vic-1

My last ever trip fishing with him for Perch on Loch Lomond – he caught more than me that day too

I had some great days fishing with him, and the funny thing about when you fished with him is it didn’t matter what side of the boat he was on, the bugger always wanted to cast onto your side and poach your fish!  When he did catch more fish or bigger fish than you, you could be sure he would let you know :).

Wee-vics-20-pounder

I took Vic up to this Loch for the first ever time and showed him the areas, he obviously packed this fish out my swim that day too… Classic Vic reply after this when I said ” do you want to try the other side?” – “Aye, I catch fish anywhere mate eh”

I’ll look back at a few photos from fishing together with fondness tonight and toast a wee half in memory of him!

RIP Wee Man x

Trout and Salmon Magazine!

Great to see our client Adam in this months Trout & Salmon magazine, Salmon fishing on the beautiful River Teith! Adam never managed a Salmon on this day but took up Spey casting very quickly after some tuition from Founder, SGAIC and Loop Ambassador Callum Conner!

trout-and-salmon-magazine

Trout and Salmon magazine double page spread.

Trout & Salmon is the UK’s number one, leading game fishing monthly magazine, an institution in fly fishing literature so it was great privilege to be asked to provide this image for the current issue.

One thing we take the great pride on is the images on our site are taken and copyright owned by Callum Conner Photography bar a couple of himself.

Fishing has been excellent this past few weeks and you can look forward to a write up very shortly!

Tight lines!

Callum & Lennie

March and April Guests Fishing in Scotland 2015

The fishing in March & April in Scotland 2015 for Scotia Fishing clients has been particularly productive despite the cold temperatures, let us share with you a few highlights. March was mostly cold with spell of rain to keep the rivers at a good height, but the Salmon just didn’t arrive in numbers and if truth be told, the start of the season was very slow throughout Scotland. The Tay continues to be Scotland’s number one river at present with consistent catches throughout March and April.

In April we saw hotter than average temperatures but it was mostly dry and cold the remainder of the month which did effect the Salmon fishing, especially towards the latter part. We also had snow and lots of hailstones – proper Scottish spring weather!

Unfortunately Ron got washed off the river and we headed to fish a Loch as a backup. The weather was typically early spring like and we endured a rather bizarre few hours of fishing.

fishing in scotland-in-scotland-in-march-and-april-2015

Not a bad day…

fly-fish-april-march-scotland-2015

Uh ohh…

And sun, this would repeat itself over the next hour before we decided to opt for shelter

And sun, this would repeat itself over the next hour before we decided to opt for shelter

 

73 year old Ron from USA was a remarkable man, he told me a rather touching story of why he is still working at 73 and I instantly admired his attitude and drive. Due to the horrendous weather we had to move Ron’s day to try avoid the bad weather and managed to get a day Salmon fishing on the Tweed.

Ron had never cast a spey rod before and took to it impressively, within an hour he was throwing some lovely loops like this!

Ron Circle C Cast

There has been a rather cold wind lingering around most of the March & April which has halted back the fly hatches and it has seen sporadic surface activity on the rivers. This is usually the best time of year to catch big trout feeding on early season hatches of Large Dark Olives and March Browns. When they’ve been on it has been very worthwhile with special Trout like this one pictured below making an appearance.

march-april-fishing-in-scotland-2015

Proper Wild Brown Trout

Our clients had some great days fishing for Trout & Grayling throughout March & April. American singer & songwriter Chuck Ragan managed to fit in a short day session in between his busy european tour and was rewarded with a few grayling and trout on the River Tay.

chuck-ragan-fishing

Chuck Ragan with his first ever Grayling

 

Tattoo Artist Ed from New York managed an awesome treble of Grayling over 2 pounds including this one which was pick of the bunch!

kiss-the-ladies

Show the ladies some love…

 

First time fly fisher from England Chris fished with his son in tough, low & clear water conditions but landed a few fish including this pristine 2 pound Grayling!

keep-em-wet-hashtag

Recovering well after spawning..

 

The wildlife on the river banks in Scotland is impressive, with many beautiful birds, otters, minks and now beavers in the Tay system. On Tom’s river day we had Deer roaming along the opposite bank whilst fishing for Trout, making for a special atmosphere. Birthday boy Tom managed 2 great fish over his days with us, including an absolutely stunning example of a river brown trout that had the most awesome blue markings down it’s flanks.

tweed-trout-fishing-narch-april-scotland-2015

A chunky river trout

 

Tom also managed this nice Pike on the final day of his trip to seal of a memorable fishing holiday in Scotland.

pike-fishing-uk-march-april-scotland

Great bunch of lads from Lake Como!

 

 

 

I had a ball with Mr Garrity from the USA who was an ex guide and a good joker. He spent a few days in Scotland fishing for Salmon and Trout with us. The Trout fishing during his time was particularly tough but this fine example of a River Tay Spring Salmon certainly made up for the lack of Trout!

salmo-salar-1

Camera shy Mr Garrity shows of his prized catch!

 

When the fishing is tough in Scotland, it’s not a bad place to spend the day is it?

river-spey-fishing-guide

Stunning light on the River Spey #holygrail

 

I even managed to get out fishing myself and fished up on the spectacular River Dee managing a baggot (last year running salmon that hasn’t spawned) under the guidance of good friend of mine and resident ghillie Al Peake. It fought very well and we both were surprised after it surfaced to notice it couldn’t be counted.

river-dee-salmon-guide

Al throws a nice line at the neck of the pool where I caught my baggot!

 

I managed to land this chunky river brown and lose a Salmon on the Tweed…

big-brown-trout-scotland

Proper chunky Brown Trout – I was on the receiving end of some great guiding from resident ghillie Scott

 

Then eventually I got my own Salmon account off and running also with this fine example of a Tay Spring Salmon,  nice deep fish and a solid fighter.

salmon-fishing-march-april-2015-scotland

A fine example of the calibre of Spring Salmon the Tay can produce!

 

May is one of the best months of the year for fishing across all Scottish species, the water temperatures are on the rise, the pike and grayling have now spawned, the salmon are running hard and the trees are starting to look more green every day, everything is coming into it’s own. We can’t wait to get amongst the fish with this months clients!

If you are looking to book a fishing trip please get in touch using the contact buttons at the top and bottom of each page.

Tight lines

Callum