http://portellenanglingclub.co.uk/

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!

The School Loch, on the Oa, Islay was a loch that, untill this year, I had ignored to an extent because I never really heard much about it so thought that maybe it just was not worth the walk. This year however I have been a few times and thought it was about time that I done a wee report on it. Smile

The weather looked good enough when I left Port Ellen and was still ok as I walked the mile or so from Kinnabus car park to the School Loch but as I arrived the heavens just opened up Sad

the contrast in the 2 pictures will show the difference in a space of 2 minutes........

So there was probably twice as much water to get out off the boat now after that. Mad

The wind was up now too and the boat was maybe not going to be as much fun as first thought, and so it proved. I had no sooner rowed to the top of the loch......then I was at the bottom of it !! Rolling Eyes

I wasn't going to row all the way back up just to be blown back down again so I dropped the 12ft heavy chain that moors the boat over the bow to hold me back as much as possible (I thought there was a drogue in with the lifejacket box, but no!) and this worked quite well.
I was casting into the edge of some weed now and there was still no fish showing, I had set up with a 2 fly cast with a Picric Peter Bumble on the dropper and a green hot spot PTN on the point (as called by the supplier and tier, Caithness Quallity Flies) but the all green set up was not working so I took off the PTN and swapped it with a black zulu. As soon as I cast it back toward the weed I had a take. a wee brownie about 6oz on the zulu.....

And so it went on, but now, for whatever reason they started taking the picric peter now too... Confused

I had another 4 about the same size, one of them maybe 1/2lb but the time was getting on and I had a tough row 2/3 of the way back up into an ever increasing wind so I had to make a start.

I got there a bit quicker than I thought so I had a wee 15 minutes that I could cast back along the bank toward Kinnabus. I walked far enough away from the boat where I had probably spooked everything in sight then started casting out over the left shoulder. Same flies, same result. 4 fish along the wee stretch with both flies sharing the honours, again the biggest being about 1/2lb but all of them really good fighters.

Now that I have been a few times with varying degrees of fortune, I will definetly be back some more this season because it does provide great sport. The day was bright again ant the walk back to the car was easier having hooked a few trout in great scenery.