This Scottish trip I decided to start my fishing again above Bonar Bridge in Easter Ross area. My ghillie, Walter, has moved on in his retirement to the north coast so I am bank fishing solo. I collect my ticket (£5.00) from Kenny, the water bailiff for KOSAA ( Kyle of Sutherland Anglers Association) and pick up some hints on where to fish and with what. I am on map o/s 21 and fishing Loch Buidhe and An-Lagain, the weather is wet and windy so I start on Buidhe up the single track lane with passing places for approx. 9 miles towards the Tulchainn mountain range, and now I am driving in the clouds. The Loch is very accessible and the lane goes its entire length 1½ miles long and 400 metres wide, water temp 15.5º, both these Lochs towards the end of the season you can catch Salmon and Seatrout depending on the water conditions coming from Loch Fleet before they reach the Dornoch Firth.
Loch Buidhe
Loch An-Lagain
I was fishing a 10ft x 7weight, Rio dry line 10ft leader with one dropper. After 2 hours, I had no takes at all, then realised I was being watched by an otter at intervals about 50ft out. Not a fish in sight, so rod on the car roof and off to the other end of the Loch. Here only one fish, an 8/10oz Trout, and after an hour again an otter is out there, so time to check the other Loch. Through 3 sheep gates, this is about a 2 mile track, I fished it at its west end and caught 2 trout approx. 8oz, hard fighting fish. This Loch is the same size as Buidhe. For flies, anything small and black along with Silver butcher on the point. The other fish fell to a Blue Zulu size 14. For my next visit here I will try and fish Loch Laro. This Loch can only be fished by a boat, so this needs more investigation on my part. The sun is out and the wind is horrendous so I am back in the car heading back to base at Dornoch before heading North to Helmsdale tomorrow, where I am hoping to fish Loch Choire, the Mystery Loch and Loch Arachline also Ruathair, but as always it depends on the weather and if I get the estates permission off Paul my Ghillie. Over the years of fishing in this part of Scotland you hear of many tales like in my past reports of the WW2 aluminium manufacturing factory that was bombed by the Luftwaffe on the east side of Loch Ness, (see my 2023/2024 reports). It took me 5 years to understand the history of this installation and what happened to it. In my 20 years of fishing in this area if I asked Walter (Altnaharra hotel ghillie) can we fish Choire, he would say “no we don’t fish there” and if I asked the younger ghillie he would say “no, it’s a dour Loch, difficult to get to and boats are all damaged also no fish there”. It’s a strange place full of strange, weird stories about its past.
The stories come from the older generation age 75+, such as Loch Choire, if you get into conversation with them some may recall stories about the mystery Loch Choire, probably handed down from their father, and they say, when in WW2 Germany invaded Norway and Finland, the Norwegian resistant fighters could only escape to their very isolated rocky coast line, where their fisherman friends would sail them to Scotland, (ref the Shetland Bus), away from certain death from the nazi regime. So Winston Churchill formed the SOE (Special Operations Equipment). These man were trained in hand to hand combat, some were prisoners. They were serving life sentences but when offered a way out even if only to die they took it, bomb makers, murderers, generally very bad people etc and many other occupations. Their sole aim was for them to disrupt the German war machine by blowing up trains, factories, ships, rail lines, damage water and power supplies. This was all done on a need to know only hence Winston Churchill needed a remote area to train his teams of operators. Now the Choire estate, 50000 acres of wild mountains with only a 5 mile track in and out suited his need, it had a deep loch tall, vertical loch cliffs and a very wild, unforgiving remote location with its own hunting lodge, and out buildings. It was ideal and was commandeered for the duration of the war for this training purpose. The SOE used this base for a while and very successful it was with its subtours doing a lot of damage to the Germans. While all this is going on, the crossing of fisherman’s boats from Norway to Shetland was in full swing, light arms, ammunition and materials and fighters going both ways it was named the Shetland Bus and could only operate when the Luftwaffa were grounded due to bad weather. The Shetland Bus book is a very good read and is still in print, so you can see why there are stories about Choire estate In fact the SOE were very successful in their operations and joined forces with other resistance groups both male and female throughout occupied countries. After the war the Hunting Lodge all burnt down and was rebuilt to a nice shooting lodge offering shooting and fishing across its mountains and Lochs. The owners changed many times and then in this last decade it all burnt down again with the out buildings, and on both occasions it was reported as unexplained fires. The problem now is you can’t reach the loch without an argo cat as the track is so rough and I believe they are having a compulsory deer cull as the estate has been left to deteriorate. They were very brave and courageous people both the Shetland and the Saboteurs as many never came home or were lost at sea. After a few years the SOE base was moved from Choire to the north tip of Shetland where it served its growing operations and was ideal for the Shetland Bus sailings.
So back to fishing, the wind from the west is too strong for the boats both argo cats are out of action, so we can’t reach Loch Arachline this visit, instead we take the 4×4 Nissan to fish Loch an Ruathair and have a very good day. Very windy from the west, we fish under the protection of the high bank and Creag Bhathaich mountain (1500ft). I am fishing the same rod 10ft7w, but back to 2 droppers, the advantage of boat fishing away from the wind. The only problem is the back cast, you only get one chance in the wind otherwise you get the knot of all knots. My total fish for the day was 12, none lost! Flies all on size 10 Butcher, Alexandra ,Blue, Black, Red Zulu and natural deer Hair Muddlers and my own creations all based on muddlers. Unfortunately on the return we broke the sheer pin on the engine so oars only, very hard work in the wind. I skip the next day as although I have a boat seat it’s still very tiring and I say it every time, this very fast retrieve takes it out of you. O/S map 17. Water temp 15 degree.
Nicely Coloured Wild Brown On Loch Ruathair
The next Loch to fish Is oars only and the boat has no keel flat floor the Loch is called Culaidh it’s on the Achentoul Estate again. I always stop off at Tesco Inverness for 2 crates of Tennant’s Larger for the estate manager for argo cat use, only this time no argo, so he said I could fish this special loch and take a small outboard engine to help with the wind, hand carry the out board to the boat. We are in the 4×4 Nissen, wait to get permission to cross the rail line, drive the 3 mile track and then walk for 30mins. As you approach the Loch the boat is in its own cut away berth 6ft straight down, I am thinking “well I can get down but how the hell do I get out”. He did say watch the weeds and water moss and the boulders under the water, apart from the wind it was a great day, coming through the weeds I had 2 together both 1lb+ and then a further few more fish. The best was a 4½lb, my best wild brown to date and especially for a hill lock. It took one of my own colourful flies on the point, and on the dropper I had a high winged green dry may fly. This is a shallow loch 10ft to15ft so the leader was only 5ft below the dropper. Same rod with only one short dropper and the point fly. Flies used on this loch were dry on the dropper Hogg, Green-drake, and Muddlers with different colours deer hair the best colour was red and black with JC cheeks or Goose Boits painted Kingfisher Blue, anything that made a good wave on the point my own creation black and red with jungle cock cheeks all on size 10.
Loch Culaidh
Beautiful Spotted Brownie on Loch Culaidh
To add a further twist to this story one of the estate workers on hearing my story was telling the story to his wife over an evening meal and she said another myth/tail from the old people of the estate, until he then explained about the Shetland Bus. She said do you know the old lady that lived at Beni croft, she had 2 pictures, one was a painting of a sea man in his fishing boat wearing a black cap and black sou’wester smoking a cigarette, done by a Polish POW. I always thought how strange being black not yellow so they could be seen, and the inscription on both of them were dated 1942 A Shetland Bus. When I asked who it was and what did it represent, she dismissed the question and said it was a long time ago. Unfortunately the local people with that history knowledge are now few and far between. So it makes you wonder if my story was not so far of the mark. With Pauls friend now in charge of the shooting on Choire it’s looking good for fishing it next time.
As for wild bird life, I saw a pair of Black Throated Divers, A pair of Hen Harriers, I never realised how pale these birds are, Golden Plover, Oyster Catcher, Dunlin, Curlew. Ravens while waiting at the rail line, if you click your finger out of the door window they come to your door, Red Grouse, and Red Deer. As driving along the Helmsdale River Salmon were jumping, only possible because the estate in the 1900 dammed their lochs so they could control the water level in the river for the salmon, and the Otter at the 1st Loch.
The down side is the lack of water from the River Garry up to the Helmsdale.
In the local tackle shop they said they had run out of Trout flies as the Salmon guys had no water in the river so went trout fishing instead in the many Lochs. Some of the waterfalls and streams are empty some not even a trickle, photo of some of the best flies I used not pretty but effective.
Notes on journey:
Total 1565 miles
Average 68mpg petrol
Total Fish 25,
Unrealistic amount of accidents on the motorways.
On the way home the amount of people lining the motorway bridges, young and old and the thousands of motor bike on the Davi Meyrs procession brought a tear to your eye, a very popular gentleman and a wonderful tribute to him. They estimated about 46000 bikes took part.
Next year Train or Aeroplane to Inverness and then hire a car, thoughts in progress as age may be a problem for car hire.
Andrew Ayres June 2025.
Grayling Society, WFD, C&GFD, Ludlow Fly Dressers & FDG member
Worcester Fly Dressers 