Written by Alex
The Ericht is a tributary of the river Isla, and appeared to be considerably larger than the ‘main’ river. With its unusually clear pools and bone-white rocks, it would not surprise me to find a glacier hidden away in her headwaters. After we’d roughed the near-Arctic conditions the night before, it almost felt possible.
Enormous Trout
The River has been known to produce some enormous trout, but the grayling population in the system has apparently dropped away in recent years. How ironic then that our initial forays produced a wee flurry of sport from pod of feeding grayling!
Freshly enthused and ready to ‘bag up,’ we did what all great anglers would
do…We cooked some sausages!
Refueled, we split up and fished different sections of water, Alistair and Mike choosing a stretch near our starting point, with Alan and myself plumping for some known salmon-holding pools further downstream.
Unaware of Alistair and Mikes exploits, we fished on but the hatch we had all hoped for never really came to fruition. To be fair, we barely wet a line until after lunchtime!, and our predisposed visions of four pound brownies noisily slurping down rafts of large dark olives were looking unlikely.
In reflection, it was one of those ‘really nice days to be down by the river.’ This usually means that the fishing was pants, but it was a great day to be out nonetheless. It was greatly appreciated when Mike and Alistair turned up to light a wee fire!
“Manshit”
We sat by the fire and mused about whether the heat would be enough to induce a localized hatch of olives. Hmmmm. The wandering mind of a frustrated fly fisher is an unfathomable stramash of desperation, pride, bloody-mindedness, and most of all, complete lunacy. A size four humongous was cast upstream at one point by a member of our party
After a generous scoop of whisky, and one of Alistair’s legendary pep-talks, we donned an extra forty layers of clothing and went to sleep secretly dreaming of catching in the deep, swirling maelstrom that is the Tay…
Alistair notes: What Alex failed to point out was the fact he caught more fish than anyone !Â
I can’t wait for the next installment!!
And the wife saw your comment! 😉 Good job she has a sense of humour….