'Watten long way'

By way of a change from the local fishing Jon Perry and Peter Macconnell drove 750 miles each way on a trip to Caithness in the far north-east of Scotland for the week 22nd - 29th June. The fishing was exclusively for wild brown trout for which the region is famous. It was an interesting and challenging experience and, what with the journey to and back, travelling between lochs and the towns of Wick and Thurso, we covered 1893 miles in the week. Was it worth it? Read on:

 

A brace of Loch Watten brownies

Jon and Peter based themselves in a caravan by Loch Watten which is one of the more famous trout lochs of the area but which, on its day, can be either very productive or very dour indeed. For our week Watten was mostly in a dour mood and we only managed to extract six trout from three visits. Though very lovely looking and tasting trout they were.

Peter's best Watten trout

 

Plenty of room for two anglers and their kit

 

Home for the week 



Watten at sunset



Heading out to fish 



In addition to Loch Watten, which is nearly three miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, we also fished the delightful Loch Toftingall and the windswept St. John's Loch by boat, and Loch Calder from the bank. All these and half a dozen others are within reasonable driving distance of Loch Watten and Central Caravan's site which was our base. Each of these Lochs had a different character, Toftingall was secluded in the middle of a forest, down a long unmetalled track at the end of which was a boathouse and three rowing boats. It's unique quality, from our point of view, was the massive and seemingly constant hatch of mayflies.  Loch Calder was, by comparison, a vast and windswept place with a population of seemingly smaller but easy rising trout. Here are some more pictures:

 

Mayfly at Toftingall

 

Typical free rising Calder trout

Toftingall Trout



One of the minor highlights of the week was Jon's Ghillie Kettle (a variation of the Kelly Kettle) which meant that at appropriate points in each fishing day we could put ashore and within minutes have the most refreshing cup of freshly brewed tea. It kept us going in the more dour and frustrating moments!

 

Teatime at Toftingall

 

Jon working wonders with a few twigs

 

In the end Jon caught around thirty trout and Peter ten. Mostly they were from Lochs Calder and Toftingall. We had only three each from Loch Watten. So was it worth it? Well personally speaking I can hardly wait to go again, but Jon may have a more sceptical view - Peter Macconnell