No doubt : Sea trout!

About a week ago I had a job collecting some furniture from Oban to deliver to Dunbar and as always I had built some time into the job to allow me to fish! I took my LRF gear as well as my heavier setup and hoped to have a poke about Oban harbour and maybe try some of the rock marks along the way back.

Sure enough after I had loaded the van I dropped into Oban harbour to a bit we fished last summer. After forty five minutes of bouncing some dropshotted gulp sandworm about with no action I decided to move on to some rock marks to try for pollock. This also proved completely devoid of any fish that wanted to play so I decided that I would pop into Loch Etive on the way back. My primary target would be sea trout as we have had a few from Loch Etive before and I have a bit of a trout fixation at the moment!

It's spring but Loch Etive still looks wintery.

I decided to hit the small estuary where the river flows in to Loch Etive, so it was out with the LRF gear and on with a 7g hansen pilgrim. I began to work the tide races and currents searching for my target. The tide races out of Loch Etive like a river and I began to treat it like one, casting across current and allowing the lure to swing around before twitching it back in. After about half an hour of fishing my initial excitement had been replaced with a feeling that today would be an outright blank and I began to prepare myself for a fishless day. Suddenly from out of nowhere the lure was seized and a nice sized sea trout tore off in the current, thrashing on the surface then trying to head off down tide. With a loose drag and the rod tip low I gently played the fish into my waiting landing net.

A lunch hour sea trout, perfect!

Success, I was elated and a bit shocked too as I really had resigned myself to a blank, I quickly unhooked it and took a few shots before releasing the fish back to the sea. I carried on fishing and it wasn't long before I hooked a second which fought really well for its size before I had it in the net. This was a different looking fish and still had elements of its brown trout colouration but as it was caught in saltwater I can only assume it's a sea trout!

Another nice sea trout with its head still showing brown trout colouration.

I carried on fishing and made a few casts up the estuary retrieving the lure back down stream a little faster than the current while giving rapid jerks on the rod. This yielded almost instantaneous results with another trout grabbing the lure and tearing off in the current. The fish was quickly landed and again it showed another variation in colour. This one seemed to have some of its parr colouration but was starting to turn silver on its flanks. A beautiful looking fish but it leaves me scratching my head as to whether its a sea trout or not, even though it was caught in saltwater!

A brownie or a sea trout? Either way it was great to catch!

I carried on fishing for another thirty minutes or so and managed to hook and lose another two trout before I had to call time and get on with my delivery job. I drove back with a grin from ear to ear, to catch sea trout from such a magnificent sea loch is an amazing experience and to catch them whilst on a job just added to the satisfaction! Salmo Trutta is an amazing fish and whether I catch them in loch, sea, or river they always prove a worthy challenge. A challenge that is sometimes matched by trying to decide whether they are brown trout, sea trout, slob trout,or ferox trout. One thing is for certain I love catching them and can't wait to do it again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.