Hi folks, well I have just returned from a week’s hard graft up at the Balmaha Camp. Willie Caldwell and I set off on Friday 27th June 2003, which just happened to be one of the wettest days this year, to set up this year’s camp. The main thing was to get the hap up followed by the tents. So armed with Skin so soft and other brand name midge repellants, we set about the tasks and got everything nicely set up. On the Saturday morning I set off from the camp and trolling past Eagle beach my inside rod screamed off line, a fish right away, I couldn`t believe it, but unfortunately it never stayed on, after a couple of leaps it parted company.

On the Monday Davie King Senior and Junior were out and caught a 15lbs Salmon just north of Loch Sloy Power station. That was the only fish caught up at the top end until the Wednesday when Brian Follett, got a sparkling 13lbs Salmon at Rowchoish. By this time those of us that were up there had either seen fish or hooked and lost fish, like Gerd Eilsweiller, who was trolling past Doune Bay where Ernie and the Balloch boys have set up camp. He hooked a nice Grilse that decided to show off its acrobatic skills and waited till Gerd had wound in all his rods before parting with the Zebra Toby still attached to its mouth. That’s what you get for not changing your nylon on a regular basis, I think Gerd had been fishing that nylon since 1982.

Frank Donnelly was unlucky not to land a fish he skillfully found, out in the deeps whilst crossing from the Caves to Loch Sloy on the road shore.

All these mishaps only added fuel to the fire for Duncan Ferguson`s mate, Noel, who spent a few nights at the camp. After hearing the detailed stories of how we saw and lost fish he was of the opinion we were real experts in that field.

As the week progressed so did the weather, that is it rose into the high 70`s, and pleasant though it was the fishing chances took a nose dive.

I headed back to Balmaha on the Friday night and got a couple of phone calls early on Saturday morning to say that there was a big fish lost right outside our camp after Davie Millar played it for some time. Jimmy Raeburn who was also up for the week called me to say he passed a Balloch boat with a fish of 11lbs, claiming it was caught just north of Rowerdennan.

So time to stock up on more midge repellant and head back up the loch.