Feature on Loch Katrine

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Spinfish Angling Features

Loch Katrine

A Trossachs gem opens up to angling after years of closure. What has this fabulous loch got to offer?

For further information go to http://www.lochkatrinefisheries.co.uk/index.html

Factors Island Loch Katrine

At 13km long and 1 km wide, an eerie 120m deep, nestled in the glacial glen of it's birth, Loch Katrine is no mean location to go fishing. The famed water supply for Glasgow has been coddled, quite rightly so, to keep the water quality of the highest standard. For 10 years no one has been able to fish this iconic loch. The absence of anglers is about to change in the next few weeks.

Simon Cranefield and his wife Carole, proprietors of the Tea Room at Stronachclachar Pier are able to offer access to the fishing on the loch for wild brown trout. For the pike angler it is also a happy day for Simon is able to allow pike anglers fly and lure fishing from his boats. No bait, dead or live, I'm afraid, we wouldn't want alien fish intruding on that pristine loch.

So what about the the fishing? Last September Simon gave me a call and asked if I would like to test fish the loch. Would I! I was off at the first opportunity. Conditions were not great for fishing, an other too-too situation, too bright, too sunny. With a fish finder on board we found that there were concentrations of fish where you might expect in bays, around features and near inflow streams, but they were all at 30 feet or deeper.

Drifting around the loch down by Royal Cottage I picked up a couple of nice hard fishing fish on a gold head hare's lug. My first impressions of a Loch Katrine trout when I had a take cannot be printed in a polite online magazine. They hit like heck and fight well above their weight. Half a pound to about three quarters seems about average. Gorgeous fish, built for speed with over sized fins and bold spotted flanks

A perfect Loch Katrine fish I had a few fish over that weekend, all picture perfect specimens. My second visit saw us out on the loch in what appeared to be a hurricane, mad, crazy, testing a Coulam 15 boat brought to Loch Katrine by Ronnie Orr for Simon to try out. I was alarmed to say the least. Even though we were in a relatively sheltered bay, the main loch had white capped rollers crashing down it's length, trees were coming down on roads and sane people were cowering indoors.

The boat did wonderfully well, we survived. A big Scottish loch needs a boat that can take a kick when the wind gets up and the Coulam 15 handled the roiling swell with an electric motor and a bit of help from Simon on the oars. In more pleasant conditions these boats are stable, roomy and easy to row, designed to drift loch style. Simon is looking to put 6 of them on the water each with an electric motor and fully charged batteries.

Top end of Loch Katrine May this year saw me back for an other try at the trout. I had 9 trout in total fishing an intermediate on a slow retrieve with a traditional three fly cast of Greenwells Glory, Peter Ross and a Bloody Butcher on the tail. All the fish were in the same half to three quarters of a pound range. The fish finder showed many fish were still down deep, not surprising given the cold winter we had just experienced. There were concentrations below 100 feet between the pier at Stronachclachar and a drift ominously named The Hanging Tree on the opposite bank.

Coming back into condition these fish were, if anything, even more frenetic when hooked. On more than one occasion I was convinced I had hit a big fish until I saw it jump. These fish are mean, mad feeding machines and I can't wait to get into an above average fish. It's a long time since my hands were shaking as I unhooked a three quarter pounder.

Favoured flies were Kate McClaren (fished on the bob) and a Bloody Butcher having equal honours. It's certain that my favourite flies for the Highlands will be perfect any time of year factoring in on the bob a Black Pennel or March Brown, Invicta or Wickams when the sedges are about.

A 12 oz brownie from Katrine Look for features, inflow stream, rock faces, over hanging trees, submerged rocks or shallow bays. Drift close in, casting almost to the bank. This loch can drop of to 50 feet just yards out from the shore and even the fastest sinking fly line won't get you down to 120 metres! Feeding fish will be in close cruising edges looking for hatching flies, bugs, terrestrial flies, moths blown from trees, or fry.

Loch Katrine will astound you. If you have never tried wild fishing at it's wildest or graduated away from your loch fishing roots to the calmer climes of stocked fisheries Loch Katrine will reignite your flame for fishing as it was meant to be.

Don't go looking for limit bags, don't go expecting bags of fat fish, do go in hope for the unexpected, the exceptional. A hammering take, a leaping trout, some days a lot of them, some dour days not a lot. Do take heart pills with you for these fish, for their size, are heart stopping and some day who knows, one of the big boys or girls will come out to play.

Informal reports form chaps who have 'strayed' onto Loch Katrine suggest that trout to about 4lbs have been taken and pike in the 20 or even 30lb bracket have been encountered, but this is informal, isn't it lads?

Simon is working as we speak to get the fishing sorted, when he says he is ready - get in there, the first folk on the loch will find the best fish after the 10 year absence of the angling fraternity. The fine details are yet to be worked out, they will be posted on Spinfish as soon as they are available. In the means time you can contact Simon or Carole at the address below. For those of you looking for a longer visit Carole has the Old Smiddy for let, picture perfect, right on the loch edge with a view down the loch past Factors Island (see the picture at the top of the page, nice eh)

Old Smiddy Cottage, Loch Katrine, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park

Contact: Carole Cranefield, Laverockbrae, Balmore, Glasgow, G64 4AQ
Tel: 01360 620967 : Mob: 07930 309159

E-mail: enquiry@oldsmiddycottage.co.uk

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