Loch Leven, Highland Thornback Hunt!

The Easter holidays are here, no work, so it's time for a fishing trip!  Living on the North East coast of England as I do fishing is pretty poor at this time of year and doesn't really pick up until May.  So in April I like to go off and explore new places and target types of fish that we don't often catch.

Thornback rays are pretty cool fish that fight well and big ones really test your gear to the limits, we see very few on my stretch of coast, and although I have had some success on the Durham beaches, I can probably count on one hand the amount of good rays I've ever caught.

My greatest thorny success

It actually says in the news report that I'd tried a few times but the truth is often stranger. In fact this was the only time I ever tried for them on my coastline.  Well I am a lucky bugger, not the best of anglers if I'm honest with myself, just darn, darn lucky at times!

So back to my trip, Loch Leven is near Fort William in Scotland and is a sea loch stretching inland for aproximately nine miles. A mile at it's widest and 200m at it's narrowest point. I can't find information on the depth of the loch but many shore angling spots vary from 15m to 40m.  The great thing about the loch to is that the road skirts the loch on both north and south shores with easy fishing just off the road in places.

Loch Leven

I arrived in darkness a little later than expected and too late to actually see the loch and places to fish, what a numpty!  So I parked the car up in a layby on the north side of the loch and had a chuck from there. Mackerel, squid wraps for bait on a long pulley rig.  Two hours passed bite less and then I hooked into something big, in fact I quickly hooked into three big fish that I lost halfway in and to the kelpy foreshore. This was to be a very frustrating night, with no fish landed in the end but I now knew that something lived in the loch at least and boyed by that thought I returned the next day to see the area I had been fishing!

Pretty amazing spot!

It soon seemed that this trip was going to be a tough one, with nothing at all biting in daylight. Then the tide turned and we were on and into my first Loch Leven ray at 7lb 12 ounces. Get in!!!, a nice one for the loch.

Selfie!!!!

My second best ever ray, pretty cool I can tell you.

I fished on until darkness but no more fish were landed apart from very small dabs.

Time to call it a day on the loch to return sometime in summer.  Wild, wild country, you could well be forgiven if you believed that bigfoot roamed these woods and mountains.

I'd caught my target fish the thornback ray and as the loch wasn't fishing particulary well I headed south to the Isle of Seil and a rock mark where I've had success in the past with spurdog, dogfish, mackerel and pollack.

Isle of Seil

Deep, deep water here that could throw out a big flat surprise I reckon someday, unfortunately this spot is a long walk over gullies and rocks, not for the faint hearted fisherman at all!!

To the fishing, well....... Nooooo!!!! It was crab after crab here and my first ever blank at this normally great spot. 

Small spurdogs on my last visit in March 2010.

So to sum up the trip, my target fish caught, fish lost! Spectacular scenery, great weather.  Success or failure? I'll let you decide on that one.

More pics for you below, and until the next time.....Tightlines David.