The last North Uist Angling Club outing of the year always merits attendance – for the final season swan song, if nothing else. The forecast was not shaping up well in the morning with northerlies and increasing rain forecast, winds about 25-30 mph. Not particularly unusual fishing conditions for Uist.
Loch Dusary – both dreich and dour
Loch Dusary on the west side near Bayhead was the venue. A loch that purports to contain salmon and sea trout but in my limited experience, I have yet to be convinced. The rain hit as soon as we got out of the car and it was quite frankly Baltic and the most foul weather of all NUAC outings this season.
Not to be deterred, we started fishing at the north end of the loch where the outlet burn flows. A good start – my first cast was an out of season brownie which took my point fly – a large double hook blue fry mimic (droppers were a kingfisher butcher and a big muddler with red tail). The brown trout safely returned, I commenced fishing southwards down the west bank.
The wind swung WNW and this combined with the surface ripples made a long cast easy without the need to be concerned about presentation. Not that it mattered. With little water flowing through the outlet burn and no rain to speak of over the last week, it was clear any fish within would not be fresh and would have to be returned. This was confirmed later when one of our keen-as-mustard attendees returned a black 3lb fish.
After 3 hours without another touch and no feeling left in my left hand or my feet, we decided to call it a day. The highlight was the acrobatic display of an overhead merlin in pursuit of two meadow pipits. Apparently unable to decide which to target, like us, it left without success.
The day would have been a complete damp squib had it not been for surprise bounty of 2 greylag geese kindly gifted to us by a fellow angler. These will hang until Tuesday, so more on them at a later date.
Food and Forage Hebrides 