lochan beinn charach and loch ba

[andy m]

fished these two lochs last friday. me and my pal eck and his nephew harry. chose the first loch as i had read on hear that it was good loch with plenty of small trout so walked down through the old forest plantation was tough walk down trying to avoid the bogs that seem to be every where on rannoch moor. eck and harry set up and i decided just to walk round with harry keep check on the young man. he started to move fish right away but they were a bit fast for him. i changed his flys to larger patterns size 10s bibio ,soilder palmer. and instructed him to retrive them faster as there was a wave on the loch, that worked for him and he caught four small trout, eck who went the other way round the loch caught two but it was weedier where he was, we met up and decided to strike over the moor to loch ba. it did not look to far from lochan beinn chaorach but again burns some realy deep and bogs turned into a fair wee tramp, when we got to loch ba we were a good bit down the north shore i . i set up a floater with a clan chief muddler on the bob bibio and grouse and claret point. i left them and started fishing still down towards the end of the loch it was hard going not as much as a offer. come to a large peat hag that took some time to cross desturbed a large owl from peat hag hope it didnt have a nest think it was a short eard owl. i managed three fish all on the bibio and all within ten minuets all about 6 oz mark. eck got three about the same harry got one brownie and a cracking perch i would say nearer the pound in a half mark i did not even no that there were perch in loch ba. so a good day out on the moor but a tough walk, no rubbish down the end i was fishing but when near the boat house on loch ba it started to turn up large plastic cider bottles beer cans folding seats bloody shame such a stunning place cheers andy m

[ianmck]

Sounds like a good day out. The burns to the west of chaorach are a nightmare and make fishing it problematic. If I fished there regularly I think I would end up taking planks of wood and building a wee bridge of sorts  :lol:

Always a nice bonus with the perch. I have a soft spot for them although yet to catch one in those waters.

[andy m]

aye ianmck i like perch as well lovely looking fish , the young lad told me that he had let his flees sink down a bit and when he retrevid he thought that he had snagged up in weed before it gave him a good fight. i saw the fish from the picture he took on his phone and it was a bright fish with right bright orange fins . i have caught perch very small ones from loch eaigheach and loch laidon and they were very dark wee fish i suppose due to the peaty water so i was surprised to see such a bright looking perch from ba as some of the trout are blackish from here cheers andy m

[andy m]

yes tony it was looking at the faq pages that i seen that you had good fun on beinn chaorach before so with the young lad new to the fly fishing thought it would be a place for him to catch a few fish and he did. the shore that you walk down to from the road looks deep right in but with the water very dark it was hard to say, never caught any without spots as i was wanting to see one. nice wee loch have you tried any of the other lochs that you can see north of beinn chaorach seen them as we turned the car just up from the old forest plantation cheers andy m

[andy m]

thanks for that tony, yes plenty of fishing out that way might have another trip up there before the end of the season. see what the troops think we were all done in after last friday but its days like that out on the moor home hot bath cold beer that it was all worth the effort cheers andy m

[ianmck]

nah-achlaise on the other side probably offers the best chance for biggest average size out of all those lochans. The further you walk from the road the better and if your hitting bandies every cast keep walking.

[Bobfly]

"The Burnt Forest" .... Some folks may have been wondering why for many decades there has been this deer fenced section of mixed conifers put down for no obvious reason amongst a very large area of open moorlands beside the road over Rannoch Moor.  It was one of many high elevation species and provenance trial plots laid out by Research Branch of the Forestry Commission from the 1920s to the 1950s. These were extensive trials to test the suitablity of various conifers on difficult sites and with high levels of exposure. Laid out on a randon grid were replications of different "provenances" for, say, Lodgepole Pine plants grown from seed  and collected at different elevations mostly back in British Columbia and at different latitude from Washington up towards Alaska. Assorted species and provenance selections for each species were grown in plot trials all across the UK on lowland and upland sites to help refine understanding of what did best where, and what levels of site quality and exposure might be tolerated. These old experimental trials have now gradually been removed and the Rannoch Moor one is one of the later ones to go since it grew pretty slowly ... which is hardly surprising given the poor quality of the site !!!!

[andy m]

thats interesting bobfly about the burnt forest and the history and trials , was it burnt down by some one been careless or by the forestery after the trial .when i was fishing loch ba i said to my pal look at the islands they have lots of trees on them some a good size. i found that strange as the rest of the area a round the lochs i never seen any trees. i noticed in some of the large peat hags lots of tree roots and stumps bleached almost white could they be from scottish pine forest that were once all over scotland cheers andy m

[free the bees]

thats interesting bobfly about the burnt forest and the history and trials , was it burnt down by some one been careless or by the forestery after the trial .when i was fishing loch ba i said to my pal look at the islands they have lots of trees on them some a good size. i found that strange as the rest of the area a round the lochs i never seen any trees. i noticed in some of the large peat hags lots of tree roots and stumps bleached almost white could they be from scottish pine forest that were once all over scotland cheers andy m

Always noticed Ba islands with the large trees.  I wonder whether it because they were free from any grazing from the deer and/or sheep (although not seen sheep up that way)

[Bobfly]

There is a section of fairly recently planted native woodland on the way up from the Achalader bridge to the moor above. That was just a typical roadside fire from some fag end or whatever. Up on the top and 3/4 mile after the parking usually used near the track to the boathouse where the litter often lies about is the old trials plots enclosure that has been felled and cleared.
The islands on all these lochs, and most everywhere else, illustrate quite nicely what we would have covering most of these moorlands if the grazing by deer and sheep and so on was not taking out the native scrub that is present. In many locations there are actually lots of heavily browsed down mini bonzai in amongst the heather and it only takes a deer fence for all sorts of things to seemingly come from nowhere. The same will often as not apply in places like the Ochils or Borders grassland hills because there really is nothing left now except in innaccesible gullies that is similar to what can appear up out of the rough heathery ground elsewhere. If Rannoch Moor was entirely covered in dense scrubby woodland we might well be complaining that we can never walk anywhere!  :roll: :roll: