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Angling and Fishing in Caithness and Sutherland

Angling and Fishing in Caithness and Sutherland

Come to Caithness and Sutherland of unsurpassed beauty and solitude, and enjoy an unforgettable angling holiday with fine fishing, fresh air and the freedom of the open hill and moor as many bends in your rod as you would wish for, and ask only that you enjoy our fishing in a way which will enable future generations of anglers to do the same. As most of our angling visitors will confirm, this is an area which will capture your heart and make you want to come back time and time again. Boat on Loch Whether you're an expert angler or a beginner, you can easily escape from the crowds to enjoy superb angling backed up by easily-accessible advice and instruction, tackle and boats, and a range of accommodation to suit all needs and budgets to get the most from your angling holiday.

Angling Techniques and Helpful Tricks For Successful Angling

Brown Trout

brown trout Angling and Fishing Holidays in Caithness and Sutherland
The native trout of Scotland is Salmo trutta L., the European brown trout. Our damp, but equable, oceanic climate, varied geomorphology and clean, well-oxygenated water, provide very favourable conditions for their spawning, growth and survival.

Found in almost every burn, river and loch in the country, Scottish trout show a remarkable variation in growth and age span, in colour and spot pattern and in life history traits. Mature specimens can weigh from as little as 10g to well in excess of 10kg. Their growth rate and ultimate size are dictated largely by food availability and ambient water temperatures. Thus, growth-stunted, but often highly-coloured, trout are the norm in hill burns and in heavily-populated, low-nutrient hill lochs. In these lochs, most of the trout feed almost entirely on small aquatic invertebrates and on flies blown from the surrounding land.

However, particularly in deeper lochs in the Highlands, some trout develop the ferox habit of feeding on other fish, especially the commonly-occurring shoals of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus L.) and then they can grow very large. Better growth of the average Scottish trout can occur when they have more space to roam, or when they migrate to feed in more fertile lochs, or into rivers, brackish estuaries, sea lochs, or the open sea.

Two broad types are commonly recognised; freshwater-residents called brown trout and anadromous (sea-running) migrants called sea trout. Trout living in estuaries or brackish sea lochs, intermediate between these broad types, are referred to as slob trout. Once they mature, like salmon, all of these forms of trout possess a remarkable instinct to return to their natal areas in order to spawn in early winter.
in early winter Angling and Fishing Holidays in Caithness and Sutherland

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