Scotland Day 7: The one with the fishing

 This place is ridiculous. About 100 crofters (small farmers) got together, raised money, and bought 21,000 acres of land in the Assynt region of Scotland. They now farm it, manage deer population, and stock tons of trout/salmon in the rivers and lochs. So, for fifteen pounds anyone can spend a day just wandering across their land and fishing wherever they like. And I like. 

I went to the hardware store and got my permit, the guy was super helpful and pointed me toward a few lochs that were fishing well lately. Then we just walked. It's miles of peaty, heathery beauty and you just go wherever you want. We followed either a sheep or fisherman path to the first small loch and quickly got my first tiny trout. 

*note: the above outfit is the peak of fashion in Scotland. I'm very hip*

Cris was in the mood to draw, read, and write so she sat in one of the lochside boats (10 pounds extra to rent those, they just leave them half-filled with rainwater on the shore) while I moved on to the next loch. This one was over several hills following a fencerow for about a mile. Each step was a bit wobbly due to the lumps of grass and soft peat but I got there in one piece with only one muddy foot. At first it made me a bit anxious: there was not a single human within a mile of me and it was perfectly quiet. But then I settled into the peaceful focus of fishing. This loch had far more fish and about every 5th cast I got a bite. 

Of course I missed the monster fish and several bigguns came off near the shore, but I ended up with 8 pretty little browns by the end of the afternoon. I worked hard casting to every corner of the loch, walking through thick underbrush, and climbing hill after hill, but honestly I could have just sat in this one spot the entire day and been a happy man.

I was extremely exhausted by the time I got back to Cris, but we still managed to hike past a few more lochs and catch one more trout before dinner. I got langoustine which I guess are 'Norway lobster' but were basically just small lobsters that take forever to peel for tiny morsels of meat. Though this was basically just a fishing day I felt like we got to see the real, rugged Scotland that many tourists don't experience. I highly recommend just picking a direction and walking.