The first session of the week there was a strong westerly wind blowing and as I walked across the dam I noticed a dramatic change had affected the lake. The weed, previously so thick and reaching the surface so it looked more like a golf course, had now sunk down so that the lake looked…

Travelling in silence he skirts around the back of their encampments, making his way quickly up to the overgrown bank at the far end of the lake. Setting down his rod, net and small bag he scans the scene looking for signs of fish. The odd grey back, looking to all the world like tiny…

So it was that in hot sunshine the gate once more creaked open to the car park. The difference this week was that it was my last week on the water before moving on. There were a few people already there fishing, a contrast to March and April where I had the lake to myself….

After running around on numerous wild goose chases over the years the dream of finding a magnificent unfished spot is slowly diminishing. I know that such places do exist and have found a few, but they are rarely quite what they seem. As for the stories of uncaught monsters, well I tend to switch off…

On some waters it is almost impossible not to lose some fish, as the weed becomes so thick that it is often easier to retrieve a rig with a fish on the end than it is without one! These days, I will tend to fish some places early in the year before the weed takes…

I made my way on the long walk round the lake. I was worried that there might be a massive increase of weed but this seemed unfounded as a huge part of the estate lake that had been weedy seemed to have cleared. It was still hot but there was a gentle easterly wind, which…

The wind was getting back to a westerly so I wondered if the carp might have moved back up the lake, into the channels between the big weed beds. I raced down the hill eager to get my first look at the lake for 4 days.Despite the wind and rain I still did not like…

This picture is not really surprising since the river trout of Scotland have long been overshadowed by their apparently more glamorous counterparts, the salmon. In the glory days when migratory fish were prolific, trout were regarded as low status fish, at best a lesser substitute for the table should no salmon be caught, and at…

March 15th is a very special event in the calendar of the brown trout enthusiast. Those months of waiting and wondering, of tying up deadly patterns and of dreaming about big bends in the rod, suddenly come to an end with the opening of the new season. Up in my northern neck of the woods…

Articles by Lesley Crawford Lesley Crawford Lesley Crawford has been fishing for wild trout in Scotland for over 40 years and her enthusiasm for the sport shows absolutely no signs of diminishing. She is a well established highly respected author with three major titles for Swan Hill, notably the highly acclaimed ‘Scotlands Classic Wild Trout…