It's not a competition... but...

I met Jon and Jane at the Kingshouse hotel near Glencoe early doors on sunday for a bit of hill loch fly fishing.

A perfect wee hill loch brown trout

Jon was experienced, but Jane had only cast a fly rod a couple times before, but was sneakily competitive, so the game was on!

We walked for half an hour or so across the heather until we found the sheltered bay I was planning on. The water was a bit higher than usual, and the wind was up with gusts of about 40 km/h, so it was 7 wt rods with very aggressive tapered floating lines to enable a shorter back cast.

I set Jane up with static roll casting which we developed into spey casting later in the day, which she smashed, with casts easily making 45 feet, and over the shelf where the fish seemed to be laying today.

I watched for a few casts with a Kate Mclaren fly, and the first fish was in the net after a handful of casts.

It was a small one, so I put on my favourite resin fry fly for the bigger trout and headed down the bank to sort Jon out with the same fly. I had only just tied it on when Jane was into another fish, so I dashed back, number 2 in the net!

Yet another brown trout for Jane on the fly

Back to Jon to get his casting optimised for the conditions, but I had just got there when I had to run back again for Jane. This time I showed Jane how to net the trout herself, keeping the appropriate amount of line out the end of the rod, and after landing her 3rd trout, I showed her the unhooking technique, and left the net clipped onto her wading belt.

After a great start, the sun came out, and the brightness seemed to put the fish off for a while as we worked the bank for a while. But sure enough, Jane's rod bent into her 4th brownie for the day! not bad for a beginner.

With the morning nearing the end, Jon and I went through the box of flies, and a trusty size 14 zulu did the trick to break the blank.

We had a great day again in Glencoe, with hectic fishing to begin with, and then a bright day with great scenery to finish with (although it put the fish off a bit!)

Stunning scenery for some guided fishing in Glencoe!