River Aline

Today was to be the highlight of the trip, fishing for salmon and sea trout on the River Aline. When I booked our party onto the river I spoke to the ghillie who in fairness said that if the weather was in our favour then this would be one of the prime times to fish the river. The river is deemed to be a spate river which means that it needs rain to make it run/fish well. Of course it had not rained for weeks so the river was almost bone dry and as such no fish were running and hence no fishing for us.
The bridge into the estate, photograph below, shows the imposing Ardtornish lookout tower where you can see that the current owners have built their home on top of the tower. I'm sure the views looking down Loch Aline will be stunning but they didn't invite us in so I cannot say for sure.

The river has declined from its heyday and as such the Ardtornish Estate are trying to bring it back to its prime. One of the initiatives is its own salmon hatchery which functions by stripping eggs from a salmon caught in the river, growing them on and releasing the fry back into the river. Most of these will die through natural wastage but those that survive will return to their place of birth in the future thus creating the circle of life and ultimately more fish running the system.
The picture below is taken from the bridge looking upstream. This was taken about a month later and would have been ok for fishing, when we were there the water flow was a trickle.

River Aline looking upriver

A few of us walked the river and it looks a lovely place to fish. All of the river can be fished mainly from the bank with normal single handed rods. In places you can see where the estate have created rock dams but leaving a space for the salmon to come through thus controlling the runs. I'm sure it looks very different in a spate and much more fun.
The picture below, again taken from the bridge, looks down Loch Aline but in the foreground is the pool where the salmon will hold before making their way upriver. This pool is out of bounds to anglers.

Looking downriver to Loch Aline

Oh well off to a loch again.
As an aside, in the hotel bar that night, I was speaking to a farm worker who was out herding cattle that day alongside the river. He mentioned a large pool close to where we were where trapped salmon were leaping out of the water. They must be frustrated beasts. He wasn't for giving us the exact location which is fair enough. I wouldn't have wanted to fish these pools under these conditions but it would have been nice to see.
Another one of those, I will be back, situations.

Penwhapple May15

2 men in a boat looking back to the dam

This reservoir is one of my favourite fishing spots despite the introduction of wind turbines covering one side. If you fish with your back to them you can pretend they are not there as on the other banks you only spot a blade edge over the top of a hill.
This remote reservoir is a hidden gem as being in the middle of nowhere it is only lightly fished. This week was my first trip of the year and it only opened to visiting anglers this week due to the ongoing works to the dam and the carpark. I'm glad I had not driven down earlier in the year on the off chance.
As it is up on the hills the water usually has a good chop on the surface, if not sea going sized waves, depending on the wind strength. I prefer the bank fishing rather than a boat and with some of the waves I have seen here the ones on the boat anglers are either experienced, mad or both.

The horrible turbines

So to my surprise I climbed the 50 odd steps up from the carpark to discover the water was flat calm mirror status. I could see the ripples of good fish rising to sup the hatching insects stuck in the water trap just under the surface. A few sweary words were uttered as I intended to fish dries today but that would be difficult in this flat calm gin clear water.
A boat was just edging away from the hut, a few greetings exchanged, no idea who they were but nice and polite. No engine on the boat just the clanking of the younger one using the oars.
I walked down to where I wanted to start fishing and put on a pair of wet flies, a small Kate McLaren and a small Black Pennell. I cast out out and retrieved without success. Next cast I put out the line and looking over the water I decided to take a couple of pictures on the phone to show the guys later how calm it was. Photos taken and phone safely back in zipped pocket I lifted the line to recast to find I had a rainbow attached to the pennell fly. Once the line tightened it realised it had a hook in its mouth and shot out of the water like a rocket launched from a submarine, spinning and twisting it dislodged the hook. I could do nothing about it as I had too much slack line. What a surprise and a good fun start.

After 10 minutes the fish were rising steadily and as the wind rose slightly the chop appeared on the water, excellent conditions. Two guys appeared one chatty the other not and started fishing fairly close to me. This is a huge water and a bit ignorant of them but hey. Even more frustrating they both pulled in one quickly but thankfully then started to walk round away from me.
I changed to a two dry fly cast for about 90 minutes, changing flies regularly. The fish were still feeding away and although I was getting interest I could not match the hatch enough to catch any.

The slack line to the left that caught the fish

Two ospreys appeared overhead with a buzzard in tow, just for a look, they were showing really well but might have been a mating pair as they were showing off to each other and too high for serious fishing. My favourite bird so a bonus point for the day.
A change of tactic was required and back onto wets, a bibio on point and a variety of flies went onto dropper. Well, for the next two hours I had fun, I landed 3 rainbows all to the bibio, I lost another 3 and had well over a dozen good tugs at the flies. I had intended to release all my fish today but the one below took over 10 minutes to land and was bleeding by that time. It was a cracking rainbow weighing 4.5lb certainly bending my 6 weight rod in half as it fought. The fish here have always been good fighters for their size especially the blues. I was surprised that I didn't catch even a small brownie today only rainbows.

The one that didn't get away

In my previous visits my experience is that the fish go off after 1pm for a siesta or whatever and catches are significantly reduced. This happened again today with the occasional fish breaking the surface, far fewer than earlier and further out beyond bank casting. The wind had also risen considerably as well as changing direction, now right into me which in turn made casting harder. This might also have contributed to the fish going down.
The 2 anglers reappeared and whist one stayed his distance the non speaking one again came and started fishing close by, what an ignorant prat. The friendly one came around for a chat but not a word from the space invader. I did catch and lose one during this period until I left at 3.30 but compared to the morning session it was night and day. Also a single osprey appeared much lower this time and I watched it dive down towards the water on the far bank but I don't think it caught anything, too far away to see clearly.
Another angler appeared for a chat so in total only 6 people fishing so far on a Saturday, unbelievably quiet.
So all in all I had a really enjoyable day, great fishing and scenery and for a tenner for a days sport, with a 4 fish kill if you want, a bargain.