Graham McIntosh, 12th June 08

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."

Good day on Glenastle

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.

Neil Carmichael

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.

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