Around half a dozen times a season, my husband and I have what we call an “easy fishing day.” An easy fishing day for us entails fishing at a venue that is not difficult to fish and does not involve a lot of physical exertion. On these days we usually start fishing around mid-morning and often finish by mid-afternoon, especially if the fishing is poor. Usually, the highlight of the day is having a nice picnic lunch. This is bliss for me, as generally, you do not have to arrive on a beat at a specific time to meet the ghillie. You also do not feel obliged to fish until late afternoon if the conditions are poor. However, we have been quite successful on our easy fishing days in recent years. One of our favourite venues is Loch Faskally near Pitlochry. We fish the loch around two to three times a year and are usually quite successful. Loch Faskally is ideal for a relaxed day of salmon fishing. You can hire a boat for the day and troll amidst the beautiful Perthshire scenery. I know many anglers find trolling quite dull. However I find the concept of sitting in a boat relaxing a nice change to having to wear chest waders and scrambling up and down river banks.
Loch Faskally fishes best in late spring, after a decent number of fish have passed through the salmon ladder at Pitlochry. Later in the season, vast numbers of salmon are in the loch, but they become pretty stale and often tricky to catch. However, prospects are generally good in late spring when the fish are still reasonably fresh and new fish are arriving daily.
We usually fish on Loch Faskally in late May or early June. In the last two years, I have triumphed over my husband regarding tactical awareness of the loch. It has given me a strange smug sense of satisfaction that I generally try to keep to myself, but occasionally, I feel that I have to remind my husband. I know this might sound cruel, but I do get fed up listening to the same patronising comments he sometimes makes when we go trolling for the day. Firstly, he thinks he is some expert ghillie come boatman, which drives me mad. He also calls himself my ghillie and talks about how he will try his best to get me a fish! I can get my own fish, thank you very much. If that is not bad enough, he also insists on controlling the engine where the boat goes and where we fish!
It was two years ago in May, and a few fish were in the loch. We had been fishing all morning with no luck apart from a small pike, which we had lost close to the boat. As usual, my husband was controlling the outboard motor. I felt that he was trolling too far from the shore. I was also unconvinced by the choice of his lure. I said this to him several times, but my husband insisted that he knew what he was doing. However, after the third time around the loch with not as much as a sniff, I insisted that I was going to take control of the boat. With a lot of moaning and groaning, he reluctantly agreed. I also asked him to change the lure to a carrot coloured Rapala. I remember him mumbling something along the lines of the lure being too bright in clear water. I quite enjoyed controlling the boat. I was trying to get the lures to fish closer to the bank but without getting them snagged. Within ten minutes of controlling the boat the rod with the carrot Rapala buckled. After a good fight, I landed and returned a nice nine pound salmon. My husband appeared to be shell shocked! Unsurprisingly, he was happy for me to troll for the rest of the day. To this day, my husband still does not like to admit that I chose the lure against his advice, and I was actually controlling the boat when the fish took, which made me the ghillie!
The following year, we were fishing on Loch Faskally in late May. Again, there were a good number of fish in the loch. As usual my husband was coming out with his usual patronising comments, I had no hesitation in reminding him about the circumstances around the last fish we caught on the loch. This quickly shut him up! We had trolled around the loch once without success and saw very few fish moving. Generally, when we troll, we like to fish with three rods, with lines set at different lengths behind the boat. We call the rod the poker rod with the shortest line. My husband has a terrible habit of fishing this rod with too long a line in my opinion. This is despite me telling him repeatedly that the line on the poker should be at most 20-30ft behind the boat. So, I decided to put my foot down in this instance. I first changed the lure on the poker rod to a Pink & Pearly Tomic lure and then cast it a much shorter distance than before. We continued to troll with my husband on the engine. Within five minutes, the poker rod buckled round with a savage take from a salmon. I went on to land a nice ten pound spring salmon that was quickly released. I felt I had triumphed again over my husband in the tactical battle that constantly rages between us.
To be honest, I am sure it was luck on both occasions that we caught fish and not because of the changes I decided to make. But they do say that you make your own luck. Whatever it was, it was good to get one over on my husband. I think he knows now, who the real ghillie in our marriage is!
