http://portellenanglingclub.co.uk/

This page is to provide you with some useful info' on some of the lochs we have, simply browse down this page or click on the links on the right to take you to the loch you want. Any report is welcome, big or small, to enhance these pages, just send them to Fishing Reports

While on a trip to Islay, the highlight of Graham's trip was ........"a trout weighing 15.5 ozs which I took from Upper Glenastle Loch on the 12th June after I joined the club when I was over. The fish was taken from the bay next to where the boat is moored. The fly used was a size 10 gold head with a green palmered body and black tail."

During our fishing week (31/5/08 to 6/6/08) on Islay (14th consecutive year)
we had a day (5 June) on your lochs. All week the weather was bright,
virtually windless and quite warm. We left the car in the quarry and walked
over to the School Loch first where we all caught our first fish. Jim
Campbell actually caught and released one about 1lb 4oz (picture available).
We then tried Gillie Loch and found the fish out in the deeper water rising
to black and olive CDC - a good few fish up to 12oz. Finally we finished off
on Kinnabus and again had about 30 fish up to 12oz. Flies for the day were
Black and Olive CDC, Green Peter, Blue Zulu, Doobry, Clan Chief, Bibio,
Pearly Invicta and JJ Olive. During the week we also fished Skerrolls, Gorm
(3 days), Finlaggan and Ballygrant - similar flies and conditions. Looking
forward already to our 2009 trip!

Brian Turner             Pictures on loch pages - Gillie loch,
Jim Campbell            Kinnabus and School loch
Keith Orr
Charles Waldie

After just a year short of my big 40, I finally got to loch Gorm thanks to a phone call from my Colin Robertson who was going to head up and asked if I wanted to join him, obviously I jumped at the chance and I am so glad that I eventually went there.
We were to leave at 4.30pm and in Port Ellen there was not a breath of wind and the sky was overcast, this was looking good because Gorm is very rarely calm so the signs were that it would be a nice gentle breeze and that was how it turned out. Purely out of over eagerness to get to the loch, we parked at the "wrong side", the breeze was coming straight at us but there was plenty areas to fish on the walk round to the other side. Before we set off, 3 Australians had come of the loch and told us that it was dour and that the flies had to be "ripped" in! but they were on a boat and we were going to be bank fishing so that just went right over my head.
Off we went and after about 5 minutes of walking I couldn't wait any more for my first cast on Gorm so I was going to be over the left shoulder but that was good enough. The water was low and I had waded out around 25m into the loch (this would usually be about 40-45m if the levels were at its normal). I had started with a 2 fly cast consisting of a green tailed Katie and a ke-he which brought a lot of attention but no takes so I knew I had to change, so I decided to take the Katie off and replace it with an olive bumble and after 3 or 4 casts I was into a fish, my first on Gorm, and it was a typical Islay fighter of no great size but that was me happy now, although I wasn't going to object to any more that came along.
As I was getting a lift to the loch I failed to transfer my net from my car to Colins and this proved costly as although I had 5 fish for the evening, I could have had at least twice that, but I cannot for the life of me land a fish in the water without a net, but at least they were there and it was a great night. Colin got a good catch too with one about 14oz.
The loch was very low as I said and one of the islands on the loch is now the end a peninsula with a long broad sandbank as its body, the shoreline is a 15m border of black stone and golden sand!

Having got some flies that i had not fished before, I made for glenastle on the morning of 12/4/08 hoping to land one or two fish. After an hour without touching anything i had 8 fish in the bag, 3 of which were at least 8oz. After a lull of 20 min's, i got another 6 so that made me fish for another 10 min's. The flies that worked well were goats toe and malard blue and silver.

Sunday 20th April was the date for the club's first official gathering of the year and the estate welcomed 13 members on the day. Some of the regular faces were unable to make it due to other commitments but those who arrived at Tallant Cottage were happy to see the argo-cat arriving with Tam to carry them to the second loch, Loch Carn a Mhaoil, this being the furthest we would reach this year as Loch nan Clach was unavailable this year. Five anglers decided to just take the short walk to the closer Tallant Loch, a much smaller, deep peaty loch that does not allow you to enter the water because of its depth and structure. The other eight went along to the much bigger and more wader friendly second loch, the early arrivals gaining top positions on a restricted loch due to the easterly wind and a bit more weed this year than before!

There was not a lot of action on the second loch and the best rod on this loch was Peter Bartlett who hooked 3 trout at a total weight of 8 3/4 oz, Gavin Campbell, Bill Barclay and Ted Burkenshaw all avoiding a blank with one fish each. The overall winner on the day though came from the smaller loch with Colin Tocher weighing in 2 fish totalling 10 1/2 oz, there was no mention of what flies were working !. No other rods had any luck here though. So no big fish and no big bags either probably due to the cold easterly wind keeping the fish deeper in the loch where on a warmer day could have possibly been more within range and weed free with a floating line. Regardless of the lack of trout everyone had a great day out and the club would like to thank Ardtalla Estate for welcoming us on the day and thanks to Tam for his argo-cat services.

First day of the season on Glenastle

After waiting for what felt like forever, the start of the season had arrived and I decided to go to Glenastle as it was supposed to be the most likely place to get a fish on the earlier part of the season. The weather was slightly better than the same date last year, so there was not the need for the same amount of layers as then which meant that casting should be more enjoyable with less restriction. The winds were down to 15mph at the most, the light showers that came were few and far between and the temperature was about 8 - 9 C.

On arrival at the loch I saw that there was only 2 other anglers had been as keen as me to get fishing on the first day, Dod Dunbar and Colin Tocher were fishing on the north bank of Glenastle, the easterly wind was stopping them from fishing on their more favoured south side. It was now 1.30pm and I thought that there would be more people here by now. It turned out that this would be the final total for the day as nobody else turned up here, Ian Lawrie did however make the trip to Kinnabus where he landed and returned 2 brown trout. I set up my new rod, a Greys greyflex 10' #6/7, and loaded it with a wakesaver sink tip fly line as getting under the surface was the obvious aim. As far as flies were concerned, I was only going to us 2 for the simple fact that I hadn't cast a line for 5 - 6 months and the wind was going to test the rustiness. A green and white shrimp on the point with a yellow hot spot P.T.N. on the dropper, and I set off.

Just to get into the swing of things, I went to Glenastle loch (the first of 2 lochs, the second being Lower Glenastle) and had a few casts to get the feel of the new rod, and I was very impressed. A couple of dozen casts later and I was closing in on Dod and Colin so I went to see how they were getting on. Dod had landed and returned 5 healthy trout between 6 - 9 oz and Colin had a few good offers but nothing taken. It was noticable that Dod had also opted for the slimeline where Colin was trying out his new Airflo ridgeline. So it was encouraging to say the least that fish were being caught and I headed off to Lower Glenastle, just a 2 minute walk away, the 2 lochs are joined by a small outflow of only about 40-50 yards. The water levels were at their peak as you would expect and the ground around the lochs and in the fields were soaked as a result of all the rain that we had put up with over the last few weeks.

I started fishing at the near end of the loch and had no intention of going very far down because I could see that the wind was having a much worse affect on the water the further west it blew along. After only a few short casts, and just as Dod was arriving through the gate behind me, I was into my first fish of the season. Not a monster by any stretch of the imagination but a fish, and that was all that mattered to me at the time, the blank was avoided! A wee 5 oz trout with plenty of heart as it leaped and danced on top of the water when it was being landed, then shot off healthily as it was returned. I didn't move because I had not covered any water at all yet from where I stood so I continued fanning around and slowly increasing the length of the casts. I was getting more and more pleased with the new rod and I was starting to reach greater distances with ease than I would have done before, and this was with a lot of fine tuning still to be done on my technique.

About half an hour later and just about to move on when I got a good solid take on the line. a nice wee bend on the rod and I knew it must have been a good enough fish, and so it turned out. A nicely coloured trout of about 1lb was landed on the bank and, after a couple of photos, was returned. Again the fish shot off in great health considering it was on the tail end of a long winter, hopefully a sign of good things to come in the season ahead.

Both fish that I caught were taken on a green hot spot P.T.N. and i think by the tail on this fly that all the small bites that I had were more than likely to have been on this one too. So that was it, first day done and leaving the lochs very happy indeed. The lower loch at Glenastle does not really provide much more than a 1/2lb trout at best so to get one of 1lb was a bonus on any day, never mind so early on! but hopefully this is a good omen for the future on this loch and might encourage more people to take the few extra yards walk to it knowing that there are good fish to be had there.

Gavin Campbell 15/3/08

Please send your reports, big or small, to......

gavin@portellenanglingclub.co.uk

Johnnie Walker, part of the Diageo brand, sponsors of Port Ellen Angling Club