My third trip to the amazing


Islay...


Wess, JT and myself met the night before and fished on the river Wye to get ourselves ready for the long trip to the hebredies,
As usual the Wye did not let us down and the usual flushes of olives gave us some great surface dry fly action, there was a tinge in the water and slightly raised which can turn this river into a dry fly heaven..
We did not hammer, we picked out hard fish and generally just chilled out in wait for our islay session.
I took a stroll with jt to the woods section and went straight for a fish that has pinged me off on two occasions over the last two years.. This fish is a wrt that is around the two pound mark, It has never moved from ita willow tree overhang and is the one of the hardest fish I have ever tried to raise..flat calm flow with a tiny food lane over the other side of the river and to make it worse I have never seen it take Duns, it locks onto midge pattens so small it's impossible to raise it with anything lower than a size 20..
I have tyed some new midge patterns on a bait hook that is lighter and thinner than any other hook I have used..on a spade end hook!!!
The fish did not let me Down and was sipping away as normal... Second cast was perfectly placed into the lane.. Jt stood watching as it calmly sipped my fly down just like it real food source... Like a man possessed stuck too hard and pinged the line!!! The fish rattled it's head and sunk to it's hole..


Third time and my over reactive strike has done me again, the problem being that my heart pounds as it rises to my fly and I lose all control in what I should do.. I think many of us suffer from this...
Jt went home to cook us a curry and Wess entered the town and landed a 5lb rainbow in absolute perfect condition.

So it was off to manc land stopping Jt's house and at 4 am we left for islay...
The trip is always a special one, the sights seen are top draw but on this occasion the weather was horrendous and arriving at the ferry port there was a chance of no sail to bad weather..
Arriving at the house was woody, Andy Heath (peak passport) Ronny Trevis ( DCAC) JT and Wesser..
We unpacked and got straight out on the loch... After a slow start I heard a cheer from jt as he landed his first islay brown.. other cheers came all around the loch as we all got stuck into these rising wildies...
The next day we decided to go and fish the sea, something I was looking forward to as I knew this area was full of fish, we had fly gear and spinning outfits for any conditions..
One thing I will say is that it was to become one of the most memorable fishing days of my life for all sorts of reasons..
The tide was out of our bay and I selected a dexter wedge with my old carp rod.. A hand made armalite made by Kevin knash himself over 15 years ago.. It was so nice to feel this 12 ft 2.5 lb tc rod after so long,
Within a few casts I was whacking my dexter wedge further than any carp rig I ever use to cast!!
Before long I felt a solid bump with that electric bolt down the rod!! I was into my fish and was hammering it to keep it away from the kelp..
A big cheer came from the lads as I landed a beautiful pollack around a pound.. The fight of sea fish is just pure magic, we talk of wild trout but a sea fish is just as wild as you get and the fight is something else..
I was then hitting into mackerel 70 yards out which gave me great sport, these were huge and performed amazing fights..
Wess and Jt got amongst the fish and it was becoming too easy as we all were getting a fish a cast..


Heathy was at hand as we swung them in and he despatched them quickly..
Later on jt gave the shout that a gannet had taken his wedge, it's had dived so deep to take his wedge we wre shocked.. Luckily we had andy heath with us and he guided jt to bring the bird in carefully which jt did superbly, we all were gobsmacked and scared at what this huge bird would do when handed in.. Istood well back..
The bird started to freak out and heathy acted superbly as he grabbed it around the neck and got it under control..
Luckily it was hooked in the bottom beak and jt had already debarbed his treble so a quick lift was all it needed to realease..
This was a seareal moment and all of us could not believe andy was holding such a rare bird..
Andy laughed as the gannet sunk it's beak into his thumb!! Blood pouring from his finger.. I then realised how hardcore heathy was and we were all so glad to have him around...





I passed my rod to ronny,woody and heathy as they had no sea gear and they all got amonst this mental action of pollock..
Jt hooked a 2lb pollack that gave him the run around and Wess came up with one that was pushing 3lb on the scales that stripped his line!!!





Bagged up at the end of the day we had over 20lb of fish!!
Woody gave some away and it was Wess who cooked us a superb meal in the evening..the nicest meal of the week...
We all sat in the evening back at Finnlaggen house with a wee dram and talked of one memorable day!! Top draw

The next days we had severe weather that knocked the fishing off and we stayed in the house tying flys, drinking and some severe top crack..
One evening I got my cutthroat shaver out for my fly tying and andy ended up giving me and Wess a full Turkish shave!! He told us it was his first time ever using one!! The talented Heathy did a perfect job and I was expecting him to give me a massage and a wank afterwards but this never happened lol...maybe next time bro pmsl...





The loch fishing we did was hard going in the first few days but jt and ronny performed superbly on dry fly in the back end of a hurricane!!! Landing excellent numbers of fish..
One thing that i learnt from this trip is how the fish move so quickly..
Once fishing twenty yards away from Wess I was catching a fish a cast to the dry and Wess never got a take, a hour later the roles reversed and I stood an watched Wess take loads of fish while I just stood without a rise!!
So do these wild browns shoal? I think there is a good chance.. Jt is convinced.








You get to meet so many people in this fly sport and being away with two more lads was a pleasure...Ron Trevis is a rate sound bloke who just happy fishing or chatting, more laid back than myself!!
And Andy Heath is a one off, talented at anything he does and a true game man, not a wannabe we are all so used to seeing, I learnt alot from him about his way of life.
They all got the Pointon treatment and I might of taught them a thing or two outside of fishing!!
If you ever get to meet Andy or Trevis around ask them to sing my wedding song as I think Andy is singing it while strolling his passport beats!!
A top organised trip again by woody and superb meals by Wess and top advice from JT as always..


On the pollack


Cuttroat


Wankers





Zee Germans are coming


Woody and Harry potter


ltd
Glen















'living the dream'