Fisherfield
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 02 December 2007 14:47
- Written by Sandy Birrell
Fisherfield Forest lies to the North of Loch Maree in Wester Ross. If you look at the map, it is the area behind An Teallach (“The Forge”), and it's about as wild and remote as you can get in Scotland.
OS map #19 1:50,000 series
It was our usual start to a trip: up at 4:30 AM, work till one, get everything ready and into the car. 
A six hour drive got us to the Corrie Hallie lay-by, just south of Dundonnell, at about ten o’clock just as the light was going, so we decided to sleep and start walking in next morning. After an uncomfortable night on the reclined front seats of the car I woke just as the grey light of dawn was creeping over the horizon. I eased myself upright and looking out of the side window I was amazed to see a pair of partridge scrabbling about in the loose gravel just beside the door. I watched them till they wandered out of sight, it was the first time I had ever seen partridge in the wild.
I woke George. We had a quick snack, got our gear together, boots on, rucksacks on our backs and crossed the road to the start of the path; it was about 5am. Not long into the walk it started to rain, we stopped long enough to put on waterproofs and carried on.
At first it's a long steady climb through trees on a good landrover track but before long you reach the first real climb. We were still on the track, but it was a killer. We soon got into our stride though and the ground just fell away behind us. We came to a fork in the track where we turned right; this took us over the end, and round the back of, An Teallach with magnificent views of the glens and mountains all round us. The path isn’t too bad until it follows a burn down a deep cut in the hillside and before long we had to do a bit of scrambling. Not easy with a rod in your hand. It wasn’t long before we saw Shenavall bothy bellow us. The bothy and surrounds were quite busy with climbers and walkers so we stopped long enough for a bite to eat and a chat
Did I mention it rained?
It wasn’t raining when we were at the bothy, so after a pleasant interlude we set off down and across Strath na Sealga. We crossed the Abhainn Strath na Sealga without too much bother then crossed the marshy ground between it and Abhainn Gleann na Muice, where we looked for a place to cross. The first place we looked at we thought was a bit too deep; we walked down to a riffle that looked alright but it too was deeper than it looked, and wider. We walked back up to the first spot and it looked even deeper than ten minutes ago. The river was rising, and rising fast. It must have been raining hard farther up the glen to cause that rate of rise.
It took two hours for the river, which was in spate, to drop far enough for us to ford it, but I didn't waste my time. I had a few casts and caught the first brown trout of the trip, all of 2inches. Once across we started the next climb, a long slow trudge of six hundred feet up the side of Gleann na Muice Beag. As we reached the top we could see the path going on up for another six hundred feet, so we decided to call it a day. We camped at Loch Beinn Dearg, knackered after a ten hour walk in.
It was still raining.
After a night of howling gales and torrential rain the tents were still up and dry inside. We decided to fish Loch Beinn Dearg, as it was closest. We started to fish down the loch from the tents, but, as the wind was blowing in our faces we decided to walk down and fish back up. All the time we were fishing we never saw a fish rise. Eventually I rose, and after it jumped a few times, lost one on the iron blue dun.. George finally landed one on a floating hill loch nymph. Both were 6oz bars of silver. It was very hard fishing.
Did I mention the strong winds and rain? Temp 10ºC.
The next day, as if we hadn't done enough climbing, we headed up to Lochan Feith Mhic'-illean. There is a good walker's path all the way, and after the first bit, six hundred feet in the first half mile, it is reasonably flat for the next two.
This loch is actually three lochs strung in a line east to west. We fished the western loch right down at the west end and worked our way round the north shore. The casting is quite easy as the hills are well back from the shore and there are some nice sandy beaches. I fished my usual combination: floating line, an intermediate braided leader, and a Maxima Chameleon cast with three flies. I rose two, and lost one. George caught two, 8oz and 1¼lbs.
We then moved up to the middle loch. This looked better. There were fish rising here. I fished where the burn between the two lochs runs out, and worked my way round this shore to the reeds. I missed five on all three flies. I watched one head and tail to the floating nymph. George lost one.
It was still windy and raining but beginning to clear. Temp 8ºC.
Day four and it was sunny with showers this morning, the wind was also lighter. We climbed back up to fish the middle loch of Mhic'-illean. We started at the west end and round the south shore to the reeds. The fish were in a good mood today and were rising now and again just to let us know they were still there. George was soon into a fish and I went to watch as he brought it in, or at least he tried to. The fish wasn't having any of it and it took him quite a while to bring it in and release it. It was a nice fish of around a pound. I worked my way round fishing behind him but he was soon off into the distance following more rising fish. I picked up a few fish on the way. I even caught one in the middle of a heavy hail shower, it head and tailed right over the dry fly.
The sun was beginning to drop below the surrounding hills as we reached the far end of the loch. At night the fish were rising all over the loch, in a flat calm, but we still managed a few. George found that some of them were taking at the extreme range of his cast and others were taking the wet flies as if they were dries, splashing and head and tailing to them. By that time George had returned seven fish ½lb - 1½lbs, and I had six fish ½lb - 1¼lbs. My fish were caught on floating nymph, dry fly, iron blue dun, hill loch nymph and George even had one on a carrot fly. These fish fought way above their weight giving a good fight even on our ten foot rods. The only naturals we saw of note were some olive spinners. Temp 6ºC.
Day five. It was bright sun all day although there was a cold west wind, and it didn't start raining till we went to bed.
Having decided on another rest day we fished Loch Beinn Dearg again. We fished all round the loch this time but saw nothing move all day. Finally I caught one at ½lb; it head and tailed to the dry fly then took the hill loch nymph. George rose and missed one, and that was it. It looks to me as if this is a late loch as the other lochs were fishing well. Temp 10ºC.
Day six. We went up the hill again today but this time we fished Lochan Cnapach. This small loch is in the hills to the North of Mhic'-illean, an easy climb for a change. When we arrived we dropped the rucksacks and I started fishing in the first bay, George deciding to fish farther round. There was nothing moving but then I noticed one or two fish just breaking the surface. I covered them and after missing one or two managed to get one.
We fished right round the loch. I missed three caught two, 6oz and ½lb, on the west side. George missed three, caught one 4oz. We saw fish but didn't catch any on the east side. Dry fly, suspender nymph, hill loch nymph and iron blue dun were my successful flies.
We moved down to Lochan Mhic'-illean and had lunch. We fished the west end again but this time we fished round the south shore. I caught and returned two at ½lb; George caught one of 1lb. At the end of the loch we moved up to the middle loch. The fish were obliging enough, still rising. I missed one, and George caught one at 1¼lbs. By the time we had to leave I had missed a few and returned two at ½lb, George had missed a half dozen more.
It was sunny all day but the temperature dropped to 2ºC during the night. Temp. 10ºC.
Day seven. Pack up time. The walk out was a lot easier than the walk in as most of it was down hill! We managed to do it in just over six hours, stopping a couple of times for something to eat and drink, and it didn't rain so no hold-ups at the river crossing.
The trip was certainly worth it. The fish were well mended after the winter and fought way above their weight. The walk in was hard, 8.5 Miles and over 2000 feet of ascent, with a 20 kilo rucksack, but once there the scenery was breathtaking. I would certainly go back, I don't know about George though - these young ones have no staying power!
Alexander Birrell has been fly fishing for nearly thirty years, concentrating more on the wild side over the past twenty, which he says he will continue to do as long as he can climb the hills. After that he'll start on the more accessible roadside waters! Sandy ties and fishes only his own flies getting more satisfaction from doing that than with shop bought or flies tied by others. He enjoys reading old books about fishing. Sandy is also an occasional salmon and grayling angler and fishes both loch and stream.