Loch Morie
Loch Morie
Loch Morie lies at an altitude of 193 metres, is 3.6 Km (2¼ miles) in length, has a surface area of approximately 234 hectares and reaches a depth of over 80 metres.
As well as brown trout (which include large ferox), the loch contains Arctic char throughout the year, and salmon arrive in the loch in mid-summer. Some very large ferox trout have been caught in recent years, and as a reminder, a mounted 14lb specimen sits above the fireplace at Braemoray.
There is good bank fishing available to us at the South and South-East end of the loch, but generally we use a 17ft ‘clinker’ style boat, equipped with both a Honda 4-stroke engine, and a Minn Kota electric motor. Top of the water ‘loch style’ fishing is the norm for brown trout, though the boat also has a fish finder to help us determine water depth and structure, and locate both ferox trout and the shoals of char on which the ferox feed.
Ferox trout are non-territorial and can move significant distances around the loch during the day. Their movements show both seasonal and daily variations. In late spring the salmon smolts pass through the loch on their seaward migration, and in late summer, the shoals of char come into the shallow bays to spawn, and can be caught on the fly – in both cases you can be sure that the ferox won’t be far away! Studies have shown that during daylight hours ferox typically lie in just 5-10m of water, occasionally making deeper dives, probably to prey on char. At night they will move closer to the shore into shallower water.
Ferox are notoriously difficult to catch, but the conventional means is by shallow trolling of plugs, spoons and deadbaits. We have invested in a ‘Z-wing’ downrigger that allows us to also present these baits and lures at deeper and more precise depths. We also have specialist fly fishing tackle that allows us to present large flies on very fast sinking fly lines down to the appropriate depths.
