Sea-Trout and Silver colored spinners

[ArcticFoxFly]

I hope I have put this in the right category.


Every year I go on holiday to Scotland at a place named Ellary. It is on the Castle Sween estate and fishing is very close by. See website: www.ellary.com

Now every year I keep on catching small (about 6-7inch and 8-9inch) sea trout on small silver holographic spinners.

My question is: Do sea trout like silver things?

I have tried fly fishing for sea trout but I have had no luck in doing so, all I catch are very small saithe (pollack) on EVERY fly what I use. Or if they are big flies the saithe usually follow the fly.

I usually have to strip the line back quickly when I am fly fishing so that I do not catch a saithe. But If I do that the sea trout do not have the chance to grab the flies.

What other flies should I try with?

What are the BEST flies to catch sea trout with.

[Wiggy]

I catch most sea trout in the sea on white or silver flies.

My most effective pattern is a white and charteuse clouser, it's fantastic.

What are you doing using spinners after trout? Are you mad man or just a hethen?

[ArcticFoxFly]

I only use spinners because I cannot catch sea trout on any kind of fly.

Someone at the Craven Branch of The FlyDresser's Guild (Skipton, North Yorkshire) told me and my father that you can catch sea trout on fritz flies. So I am going to try it when we go to Scotland at the end of May.

You never know I might see a salmon or two again. (I have only seen one salmon just taking its time swimming up stream, just a few feet away from me. I cast a spinner or lure at it and as usual it took no notice of it whatsoever.)

[chaserkeywest]

Had to put my 2 bit's in about silver minnows
everywhere I have fished with a fly rod Canada,Key West Florida,South America,Bahamas I have used
minnow flys,Mylar.black,Mylar/green,Mylar blue
and caught Sailfish,Steelhead,Tarpon,Bonefish,Sharks,
Salmon and Sea Trout on them.
There are lots of species specific flys around the world that are great but, if I had to parachute out a broken airplane over some forrest or jungle I want a bag of minnows with me...and a Coke! mike
chaserkeywest.com

P.S. another great Sea Trout/everything else fly
is Boone Spoone www.boonespoone.com

[kingfisher]

I know Ellary Estate well. To catch the sea trout on a fly in lochead burn you need to get them up in the pools. Which is very difficult and requires some walking to get to the pools without tree cover.
My brother has caught them on a fly in the sea-loch not far from the mouth of the burn. He used a black dog-nobbler. However that year was a severe drought and the sea loch was teeming with trout and salmon. I fished for the rest of that week and caught nothing on the fly, so I guess my brother's fish was lucky.
TBH you're better off just spinning or worming in the tidal waters. I tried night fishing for them with the fly in the tidal waters and had a nightmare-what happened was a big tide came in with sea trout jumping all around me (I could see them so vividly in the moonlight) but the water rose over the banks and all I could see was water. I was totally disorientated and had to use my fav rod to probe and poke my way to safety. This took me about 2 hours! I was glad to be alive. I also once got chased by a bull on the Ormsary side of the burn. The same day I saw no less than 13 Herons lined up feeding on pollack in the burn. I was freaked that night too-kept dreaming about Herons dressed as priests and saying the last rites to me. Prob too much whiskey and too much Dylan Thomas poetry.

Maybe if you check the tide-times and fish extremely quietly you could fly-fish the tidal water. I took a couple of beauties on a no 2 mepp there a few years ago.
If you ask at Ormsary estate there is some seriously good brown trout loch fishing available. I caught a 4 pound brownie on an Ormsary loch in 1999. This remains my best trout on fly to date.

[Comply Tangler]

chaserkeywest


I think ArcticFoxFly is asking about UK seatrout, migratory brown trout, not speckled sea trout.
Have to agree that the spoon flies are great for specs and reds though.

[ArcticFoxFly]

Kingfisher, Thanks for your message.

M,y parents and I have been going up to Scotland for about 10 to 12 years now and nearly every year I catch small sea trout but no big ones.

Did you know that there are mullet there? My father and I thought they were BIG sea trout at first until one of them stuck its dorsal fin up out of the water. As the fish wasn't lively as the other mullet, my father caught it in his hands in the shallows and it had a big wound on its side.

Whenever we go to Ellary and I fish in the burn, I always think that I am going to catch one of the big sea trout when I see them swim casually past me near the little jetty (this is where I keep catching them ^$£^$"£ pollack on EVERY cast I make).

Now for the Brown Trout.

When my father and I first started fishing in Loch Arail, I caught a beautiful yellowish/golden-coloured brownie on a small spinner which weighed approx. 2-3lb. But since then, the fishing has been getting more and more terrible. In the past few years we haven't caught anything there even on fly. Well, OK, we have caught small brownies that weren't worth taking.

There is a loch just above L. Arail and I just had one small tug and I missed it while fishing on spinner...Since then we haven't caught anything at all on that loch.

There are two families who stay in the cottages at the head of the loch, near the chalets, every year and they say that it is worth trying the lochs opposite L. Arail for big brownies (up to 5lb). Whenever we fish the lochs, we never catch anything, maybe its the flies we use. I don't know.

Do you know how much it is to fish the lochs around Ormsary?

You do not have to tell me, but, what other flies do you normally use to catch sea trout, maybe mullet there? You can PM me if you like.

<<<<ArcticFoxFly>>>>

[Wiggy]

It was far too windy to fly fish today so I went out with the rapala. After a few fishless hours of rain and weed I got a 1 3/4lb Sea trout. A nice fish which I donated to my mates sunday dinner.

Just thought I'd make you jealous of my sea trout catching escapades

[kingfisher]

I've heard about the mullet there. Comes as no surprise that one was wounded. I had three sea trout one day at the junction pool (well that's what I call it) on the burn, and they all were damaged. It must be the seals. Although there are loads of mink around there too unforunately. Also a family of otters but they'll be after invertebrates no doubt.

The guy in Fyne Tackle shop in Lochgilphead told me about the mullet and suggested I try them with small flies. Some of the saltwater flyfishermen on these forums will be better qualified to give advice on fly choice than me. I used standard fly patterns for sea trout in the burn but as I said I was unsuccessful. Just keep spinning in the burn and you'll get fish. If you are bothered by pollack then go further upstream. Your best chance is during a drought when the trout nose their way up with the incoming tide-they'll snap at anything in their frustration.

The Ormsary lochs are not expensive to fish, I was working on the estate when fishing them though so didnt bother paying. There is one loch (which is by far the best) which they dont allow you to fish because they use the water for their fish-farming. I caught my beauty on a greenwells glory but bibio flies are your best bet.

I was there last year trying to catch a salmon out of the burn but the conditions were against me. It's a great place and I'm defo going back for the sea trout in the future.

[ArcticFoxFly]

Thanks for your message again kingfisher.

While 'trying' to catch mullet in the 'ditch' in front of the Lochead cottage, I heard a huge noise....water splashing about, I looked up and I saw a huge wake in the burn and realised that it was a seal. It made me jump out of my skin and I went back to the chalet...

Last year my father caught a large halibut on a spinner. He had his spinner at the side of the burn while sorting out a knot near his reel. When he caught it he said that it looked like the river bed was rising up.....It tasted quite nice!!!!!


I wish there were more salmon in the river at Ellary.

I also wish the owners would do something else to the "Salmon-Pool", 20 minutes further than Ellary House by foot.


Have you ever seen the otter, golden eagle and the dolphins that are there.

We see otters everytime we go up there.

Last May we saw the dolphins. But I cannot remember when we saw the eagles.


I will be trying Clouser Minnows in May this year to see if I can catch some sea trout, and maybe mullet.

I might try the flies in the sea too.


<<<<ArcticFoxFly>>>>