out at last

me and fishing partner Stevie had planned to go chucking big flies for pike today but the water was still frozen and with having not been out for a while , before Christmas in fact i as well as Stevie were going daft with cabin fever so it was decided to go chase rainbow trout as id not eaten any fresh trout for a while and it was just good to be able to chuck some flies .

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after a quick ring round and looking on the net we found that our first choice markle fishery was frozen (we later found out it wasn't update your bloody website mate) so we decided to go to a cracking little water called the whiney loch about an hour away from Edinburgh close to the English border , I've fished it a few times and have always been amazed at the quality of the fish and how bloody tasty they are

the loch itself isn't big around 3 acres and its not cheap to fish either but the owner doesn't crowd em in on the bank far from it and he limits the number of people fishing it , it is a fantastic water for nymphing and dry flies

when we got there it was quite cold and frost on the ground but there was still fish showing all over the place so the signs were good for fresh trout for my tea , even though there was fish showing the first few hours were bloody tough i tried all sorts of nymphs and natural patterns but just wasn't happening really quite frustrating when theres fish showing right in front of you

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so after a few hours standing on the cold bank i decided to go around the corner to the sunny side to get a heat and of course as soon as i cast i looked over to the other side to see Stevie into a fish bloody typical but i preserved for a while and i decided drastic measures were called for so i put on a sight indicator with a holographic nymph with a fluro orange head at least they would see it and they wernt interested in naturals
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my hunch was right with the disco nymph and the indicator had hardly settled when of it went and i had a healthy bend in the 5wgt lamiglas rod courtesy of grill king extraordinary Brian price from VT cheers buddy , I've been wanting to get a bend for a while in this rod and it really didn't let me down throws a fantastic line as well

a fine fully fined rainbow trout lies in the net , gorgeous colours and funnily enough when i filleted it later on it was full of tiny mussels so probably spent a bit of time on the bottom during the cold snap


after going to get the fly out i was really surprised to find i was really very lightly hooked and just after i took this the hook fell out in the net

my fishing buddy Stevie sporting the latest in designer head wear (he is a bit follicle challenged) and needs to keep it warm hes also got a pair of battery powered socks to keep his feet warm all mod cons is Stevie despite all the technical gadgetry and posh hardy gear i still had to lend him a fish pimp .......lol

and the end result a couple of gorgeous trout fillets now i know trout isn't everbodys favorite but i love the taste of quality fish from quality fisheries should you wish to try it here's the recipe i use

fillet the fish (hopefully better than i do it)

place skin side down on a grill pan

sprinkle on sea salt and cracked black pepper

a knob of butter

place under a hot grill until the fish starts to turn brown put on a plate and enjoy , i sometimes have crushed new potatoes with garlic on the side tasty ........

enjoy

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)