Harelaw Trout Fishery Open Boat Offer

Alex Cairnie at Harelaw has made a very reasonable open boat offer to fish Harelaw Dam near Neilston after the brown trout season ends and before the winter pike syndicate on the dam starts on Nov 1st the details of which are as follows:-

There are five boats available each day at Harelaw Fishery on October 26th (lure only) and 27th (deadbaits) for priveliged access pike fishing in conjunction with the Pike anglers club of Great Britain.

2 anglers per boat 8.30-5pm £50 per boat pm me for details payment required in advance to secure. This is a rare chance to fish prior to the winter syndicate opening on nov1st.

Non members welcome

Highly recommended that you snap up a boat while they are still available to give yourself a shot at one of the Harelaw pike the calibre of which can be seen below.

Snypes Fishery - James Lockard Memorial

Looks like a great weekend was had by my pal Alex Cairnie and all who attended the James Lockard Memorial Fish In at Snypes Dam near Neilston, Glasgow, in support of the St Vincent's Hospice and Brightest Star.

Folk from Scotland, Ireland and England attended, with raffle prizes being donated which helped contribute to a great sum being raised for the cause.

Here's some photaes

Well done guys !

Harelaw Dam

Myself and Chris C went up to Harelaw Dam today to meet our pal Alex Cairnie. Alex is the fishery owner and was our host for the day. A very fine host he is too.

The weather on the way up to the Dam was very sunny with a fair blow going so we knew it would be a bit choppy when we got there. This however was not a deterrent as any decent angler knows that a bit of wind when you're fishing can produce some of the best conditions with hammering takes.



After spending some time putting the world to rights over this and that with Alex we tackled up and headed out in one of the two Coulham boats Alex has on the water. I think he has about eight fully functional boats a the moment which to be honest for a water the size of Harelaw makes sure you don't get any of the usual boat etiquette crap with tubes who don't know how to handle boats i.e. move onto your drift in front of you etc,.( Ahem :-))

Anyway, back to the fishing. I as usual was on the engine with Chris getting a free Ghillie for the day. We headed for the shore opposite the lodge and I set us up on our drift. I opted not to use the drogue and the Coulham boat performed very well. Giving a long slow drift in maybe a force three wind. The drift in these boats is unusual as they seem to slide down and across instead of the usual. You've got to hand it to these Irish bhoys, they know how to build boats.

Well, my chosen line for the day was a fast glass, fifteen foot leader and three fly cast. Hothead black dancer on the point, one of Brians sparkley dabblers on the dropper and my Black Dabbler on the bob. First drift through the markers and I had a take. Drifted to shore set us up again and just as we came through the markers again, Bang ! fish on.



It took the Black dancer if you want me to tie you some up please leave a comment.

These Harelaw Bows can fair scarp and I actually though it was a Broonie I had on. Chris did the honours with a photae while I played it and it was brought to the net after about 5 mins. Did I say these Harelaw Bows can fair scrap ?



Finished the drift, set us up again and I'm sure it was about the fourth drift that I got another. I played it well and brought it to the boat for a few photaes by Chris and then messed about again trying to get another but it got off.



This one took the Sparkly Dabbler. Really gotta tie some more of these up.

Anyway shot a photae of a coulple of Canada Geese ( apparently they're vermin Alex, big wink ). Headed for lunch where we had some of the pie mans finest - they really are very good. He makes good pies.



We went back out and covered more of the Loch but things had went pretty quiet so no more fish. To be honest in an East wind I was actually very lucky with two very regular and experienced locals only managing SIX between them.

Resorted to a bit of ornithological photography and got some very nice shots of the resident Canada Geese, goslings in tow.



Another great day at Harelaw and there's nae flooer's in this report.

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Harelaw Trout Fishery

Here's a link to Harelaw Trout fishery http://www.harelawfishery.com/# and here's a report I've lifted from the Fishing in Scotland discussion Forum link here http://fishingscotland.forums-free.com/forum.html

Had a trip down to Harelaw fishery today close to Nielston, near Glasgow with a good bunch of guys. I was supposed to travel down with Cumbrian Fly-Fisher and Jock Scott but could'nae get out of my bed so arrived around eleven after going all round the houses. If you've not been there before, make sure you've got directions before you go. It's a cracking place covering approx 120 acres. Well serviced with decent boats and at £35 for two men in a boat for ten fish it's well priced. Alex Cairnie, the owner seems a pretty decent type of guy and was a great host.Here's some photo's.



The Venue


The Fishing Lodge.




This was my first Rainbow of the day taken on a home tied Black Spider on the middle dropper four casts into the outing. The fish weighed in at 3lb 9oz and gave a great scrap.



A bit further up the drift after I got sorted, four or five casts again and I'm into another about 2.5 lbs on an Ace of Spades on the point. I reckonned I was going to bag up for 5 in about an hour but it went quite so I headed back to the lodge to meet the lads.



Back out and four casts on it's a repeat of the morning session with this cracker at about three pounds on a Zulu with a front red hackle fished on the bob again.About half an hour later it's happening all over again with another fish just under 3lbs on the Red Hackled Zulu on the bob. All of the fish were taken whilst lifting the cast into the surface layers and the set up seemed to allow for good searching of the feeding levels. All the fish gave a great scrap.



Jock and Cumbrian



A fine broonie from Jock caught on an orange cat's whisker variant.


I finished on four fish for 12.5lbs and headed back to the lodge after it went quiet where I had a bit of banter with Alex and the lads and headed home for tea.

Situated 600 feet above sea level I reckon the setting is quite stunning but make sure you're well wrapped early and late in the season.

Couldn't recommend this place more and will definately be back.

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