How did my fishing holiday on the beautiful River Spey in Scotland pan out?

After the long drive to Grantown-on-Spey from Bolton, my first stop was to admire the River Spey from the Old bridge. Its level had started to fall after Saturday’s spate, which was an encouraging sign for Monday.

Fly fishing the River Spey at Grantown.

Overnight the wind had picked up and the first day was spent battling against the 20-25mph wind with the fly. 

I saw a few salmon moving through the beat, but they weren’t interested in anything I offered during 8hrs of fishing.

The wind had dropped on the 2^nd day but overnight rain in the Dulnain valley had turned the river dark. While fishing I saw a couple of running salmon, but it turned out to be another blank day for me.

On day 3, I was joined by friend Buddy. We both fished the River Spey all day but again we ended the day empty-handed.

It was now time for a change of plan…

Fly fishing Loch Bunachton near Inverness 

After overnight rain, on Thursday morning the River Spey was in fully spate (2ft 10″). Therefore, I was glad of the opportunity to fish the Loch Bunachton with Buddy.

The loch is a private fishery containing plenty of big fish: rainbow trout, brown trout, and pike.

Eager to start fishing I set up my 9’6” 6wt rod to fish a tan foam daddy on 10lb copolymer. 

From the jetty, I cast the fly out and Buddy insisted that I left it there because he wanted to see if I could catch a fish on the first cast.

After a minute there was a large swirl at the fly.

Hooked, the fish took off for the center of the lake, stripping line from the reel. After a two minute tussle, the fish snapped the line.

I replaced the leader and tied on another tan daddy. My second cast produced another take and the fish stripped line from my reel. However, this time everything held and after a few minutes I netted a beautiful rainbow trout (ca. 8lb mark).

Next, we headed off to fish the clearing at the northern tip of the loch, where a few fish were rising. Buddy covered a rising trout with a black dry fly.

Almost immediately, it snatched the fly and took off, stripping line from the reel. After a few minutes, I netted Buddy’s first rainbow trout of the day.

We fished on for a while but the other rainbows had been spooked and were rising out of casting range. Therefore, we set off to explore the wooded shoreline on the southeastern side of the loch.

Fishing towards the southern end of the loch wasn’t easy and we were being plagued by swarms of midges. 

I noticed a fish feeding on fry quite close to the bank. So quickly, I changed the fly for a size 10 silver butcher and cast towards it. 

During the slow figure-of-eight retrieve, the line was yanked out of my hand the fish took off for open water. After a few minutes, I got things under control and guided a beautiful rainbow trout safely to the net. (ca. 10lbs).

We fished on for a while without any further action. So, wet and eaten alive by midges, we headed back to the lodge for food and refreshments.

In the evening the weather brightened up. So, we took a boat out to the reed-lined, southern end of the loch to fly fish for pike.

After a fruitless hour of pike fishing, I switched back to fishing for rainbows with a team of phesant tail nymphs.

After a few casts, my line tightened and the rod bent into another beautiful rainbow trout, which had fallen for the pink beaded PTN on the point.

We fished on until dusk but didn’t land any more fish, just missed a couple more takes.

Fishing Loch Bunachton had been a great break from trying to fish a swollen River Spey. Wes kindly invited me to Loch Banachton on Friday and with the River Spey still unfishable I jumped at the chance.

Another day fly fishing on Loch Bunachton

Loch Bunachton contains plenty of double-figure pike and was our focus for the morning session. 

Buddy and I took the boat out and headed for the southern end of the loch. We tried several approaches and pike flies, but none stimulated any interest. It just felt like all the pike were sulking on the bottom of the loch.

After lunch, we reverted out fishing attention to rainbow trout, which were rising for very small dry flies. I tried to stimulate their interest with a tan daddy but it was just ignored.

I switched to a size 16, CDC Olive, which did the trick…

After a few casts, a large rainbow trout snatched the fly and took off. Once under control, it was guided to the net, and safely released to fight another day.

Buddy switched to fishing one of the CDC Olives I’d tied. Then after a few casts, he hooked a large fish that stripped line from his reel. Unfortunately, the line broke, the fish was gone, leaving us wondering if it was one of the large brown trout in the loch!

The CDC olive produced two more rainbow trout before they stopped taking any dry flies we offered them. At this point, we called an end to another great day fishing on Loch Banachton.

Back salmon fly fishing on the River Spey

I’d been invited to fish the Loch again, but today I decided to have a last throw of the dice on the River Spey before going home.

The river had dropped to 1ft 9” and water clarity had improved. After my full Scottish breakfast I headed down to fish the Long pool from the right bank. 

Fishing through the pool with the Cascade (10D) on a sink-tip line a couple of times didn’t produce any takes and I didn’t see any fish moving.

I’d seen a few trout rising towards the tail of the pool. Therefore, to avoid going home without catching a fish from the Spey, I set my 10ft 7wt rod to fish a team of wet flies (point: size 14, March Brown spider, middles dropper: size 14 black hopper, top dropper: size 16, medium olive).

After missing a few takes, I hooked a feisty brown trout that had fallen for the medium. Pleased that my River Spey fishing trip wasn’t going to be a complete blank, I reverted to fishing for salmon.

Varying my approach while fishing through the pool a couple more times didn’t yield anything. The anglers on the other bank, who’d been fishing there all day, also hadn’t caught anything.

At 5pm I went into town for dinner, before returning to fish the Lurg Pool for sea trout. I fished through the pool until midnight but drew a complete blank and went home feeling dejected.

Overall, this year’s salmon fishing trip to the Spey had been the worst I’d experienced. I suspect the main cause was the unsettled weather and river conditions.

On the bright side, I did get a wonderful opportunity to fish Loch Bunachton with my friend Buddy. We both had some great sport dry fly fishing for hard-fighting, rainbow trout. Over the two days, we caught plenty of wonderful rainbow trout. The best fish weighed about 10lbs and the smallest was 5lbs.

Finally, I have to thank Wes at YouFish Scotland for the kind invitation to fish the beautiful Loch Bunachton.

Anyway, tight line until next time, Andrew