Brian Turner, aka islayfisher, travelled to Islay with his fly fishing friends for their annual trip. This was their 20th year, 18 of which have been on Islay with occasional forays onto Jura too.

Arriving the week before Feis Ile the guys were quickly on the waters of Loch Gorm on the sunday taking out the boats of Jim McHarrie at Ballinaby. The day was to be quite benign by Loch Gorm standards and trout were taken and returned quite freely up to 1lb. The days fishing and start of the week activities were toasted with a dram of the Kilchoman new bottling “Loch Gorm” which seemed appropriate.
The first port of call was on Loch a Bhurra where after an hour or so a number of small trout had been caught and returned by all of the team. From there a cast on a small lochan brought more success and the mist was beginning to lift and the sunshine brought out the splendour of this north Jura landscape. Lunch beckoned and Ewan suggested moving up to the high ground of nearby Clachaig Mhor to enjoy the views and the fantastic venison pasties supplied by Claire Fletcher. What a delight to take lunch and a sloe gin whilst watching Scarba appear from the mist into beautiful sunshine.
On the Tuesday they were back on Loch Gorm on Islay but this time the breeze was a little more challenging and although a full day was had on the loch the number of trout landed was about half of sundays catch of 95. The Islay Estates lochs at Cam, Drolsay and Leathan were the target on day 4 and after the drive to the shore of Loch Cam, Brian and Jimmy set off for Drolsay and Keith and Charles made for Leathan. The latter proved to be the best choice as on a windy and cooler day Drolsay had the better of Brian and Jimmy who drew a blank! The other lads had more luck taking 23 nice wee trout on Leathan up to 12oz. The four rods then met at the north shore of Loch Cam where a token 4 fish were landed.
Luckily on the following day the weather had improved and on this their final day the waters of Port Ellen Angling Club were visited. It was a bright sunny day although still a little cool. Splitting up again Jim and Keith were dropped off at Glenastle whilst Brian and Charles drove round to Kinnabus, parked up and walked over to Ghillie Loch for their first cast. The Ghillie Loch like Drolsay earlier in the week was to prove fishless however on moving over to the School Loch the fortunes changes and a fantastic 2 or 3 hours brought 48 trout to the net for returning. Keith and Jim walked over to Ghillie Loch and did manage to take a brace of fish. Finally to close off their week all four rods had a last cast on Loch Kinnabus where 28 trout were landed. The aforementioned flies and Jim’s own “Blackbird Fly” seemed to be best. At the end of the day the lads met up with Tam Dunn from Port Ellen Angling Club who told them about the work, competitions and committee changes in place this year.

All in all a great week again on Islay and Jura with a final tally of 372 mainly small trout taken and released to fight another day”
How lovely this is. Well done, Brian and all of you.
Thanks Annimac and to Ron for sharing our day out on Jura. It really is a special place and are very lucky to have visited such a remote part of the island and experienced the beauty of the landscape, flora and fauna. Memories to last a lifetime! Made possible by the good folk of Ardlussa Estate.