Trout Season 2026 Underway!

I have had a bit of a turbulent start to the year, missing the first couple of weeks, and then a couple of blank trips braving the hail, snow drizzle, pouring rain and wind.

Doug contacted me late last year looking to get to know how to fish the River Orchy. Being on his doorstep, he has the perfect opportunity to hit it when its right, and head down in the evenings when conditions are looking ideal.

A beautiful morning. Couldn't ask for more!

Doug had never fly fished before though, so it was starting from scratch. After scraping the ice off the car in the morning, we headed up to the hill lochs to get some still water to get the casting lessons in. We were greeted with a fabulous morning, the sun breaking through the mist to allow a few buzzers to hatch, but nothing was feeding on them as we thrashed the water into foam getting the casting underway.

After he got the hang of it, getting a good 30 ft of line out, we headed to a different loch which always fishes well early season, even when there is still frost on the ground. I was very impressed with how well Doug took to casting a fly, and he was quickly into casting quietly with a bibio and twitching it slowly back through the growing weeds as sea eagles flew overhead. It didn't take long from then for Doug to be into his first wild brownie in scotland, played beautifully into my waiting net, and it was the first fish of the year for both of us. It was reassuring after the last couple of sessions to see a fish!

Dougs first!

We broke for lunch, and walked his stretch of the River Orchy that his locals permit covered, throwing a few casts into the current to get used to handling line as it rushes away from you, making it much more difficult than a stillwater!

We settled on fishing back up to the top of his beat where there was a good deep slow pool that was most likely for this time of year, especially with the water being so cold.

After an hour or so of casting and getting the hang of managing line in the current, we saw a few fish rising in the middle of a foamy feeding line coming down the middle of the pool. We couldnt quite see what they were feeding on, but I saw a small grey fly come past me on the bank, so I tied on a size 16 grey duster that was duly fired over the top of the rising fish, it obviously matched close enough, because instantly a fish came up and took the fly confidently.

We decided to wrap up the day on a high from there, it was a great day with Doug, and he was chuffed to bits with fish coming out of his home stretch giving him some confidence for his solo trips, and discovering all of the hill lochs on his doorstep too.

a River Orchy Brownie

More fish to come this year I'm sure!