As promised, Theo Bakelaar has sent along a photo essay on fishing the mountain streams and lochs (lakes) of the Scottish Highlands for brown trout.

The morning starts early. Today will be a walk into the high country lochs and the small streams that feed them in search of absolutely wild, native browns. The hike is not particularly long, but the country is rough and every hill looks just like every other one. A good map and a GPS assure that the evening meal will be at Inverpolly Lodge and not in the Highland wilderness. Many of the high country lochs are fed by briskly flowing streams, and the angler should spend time fishing both. On the crosscountry hike, one may encounter an old mill, a deserted farmstead, or other signs of former habitation in the region.

A little stretching in the early morning sun is a good idea before climbing the steep hills in the Scottish Highlands.

The climb into the hills reveals hidden lochs and streams populated by wild browns.The streams are small and rapid, and the fishing quick and exciting.

An ancient milll offers a great plunge pool to explore for wild browns.

Loch fishing is typically done with a 5-weight rod, and while a 9-foot rod works just fine, a 10-foot rod is even better suited to the fishing method. Angling in these lakes is still best done with a classic three-fly rig. The top fly is a high riding dry such as the Loch Ordy or cadis imitation. The bottom two flies are classic wets such as the Black or Blue Zulu or an Invicta. The wet flies are the “anchor flies” of the rig. Whether casting from the shoreline or perhaps a float tube, the cast is made and the rod held high so that the dry drags, skips, and skates across the surface. The browns love it, usually taking the dry, but sometimes eating an anchoring wet fly. The fish usually come only once to the fly. If they miss it, they will almost never come back. Often the fish are not big, but they are exceedingly wild and fight to their full potential. Occasionally, using a different tactic and perhaps a very different fly, like a scud imitation, one hits a big fish, and the fight will be hard and long. But then sometimes, the fish is hardly bigger than the fly!

The lochs vary widely in size from quite large to small ponds.

A light-weight back-packalbe float tube offers a geat way to explore the lochs of the high country.

Wading anglers should work the water in all directions, casting and holding the rod tip high and skating the flies along the surface.

The browns are not particulary large, but they are as wild as any on earth,

Highland browns of this size will fight as if they were several inches larger.

Smile, Theo. That’s a nice brown!

Bigger fish occasionally fall to unconventional tactics and flies. In this cast, a scud imitation.

Tiny fish only get bigger by being aggressive feeders.

Lunchtime is often accompanied by trout on a stick. The lakes contain many smaller fish, and are fished only infrequently. Consequently, eating a few for lunch has no impact on the year-to-year population of trout in the lochs.

Trout on a stick. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

The hours after lunch are spent probing the small stream with both wet fly and dry fly. The rises are lightning fast, and the fish fight beyond their size in the swift waters.  The fish are strongly colored with heather hues of golds and olive browns, splashed with abundant black  and red spots.

The stream trout take the fly–wet or dry–swiftly.

Fishing the swift little streams is a matter of “Picking the Pocket.”

Though not large, the browns are highly colored in their dress of golds, olive browns,  black, and red.

The small stream trout feed and fight with the darting swiftness of the waters they occupy.

And then as the sun splashes the western sky with the colors of the browns, it’s time to relocate to the Lodge for the evening meal, and perhaps a finger or two of the “Water of Life” (Scotch Whisky) to keep one warm and cozy by the fire. Tomorrow is another day, a day of the Atlantic Salmon.

Even the sunsets in the Highlands suggest the coloration of the wild browns they harbor.

A two-finger dollop of the Water of Life warms the soul and prepares the anglers for tomorrow’s fishing.