South Uist
South Uist is the largest island in the Uists, and although only slightly larger in area than North Uist, it is elongated, about 20 miles in length, and its Atlantic coastline is therefore considerably longer.
Nestled behind the dunes along this coastline, is a string of machair lochs, which are a major contribution to South Uist's status as the top brown trout fishing destination in the UK.
A machair is a low-lying fertile plain found along the Atlantic coastlines of the Outer Hebrides. They are formed from small shell fragments that are blown up from the beach to form hillocks, which are then blown further inland from the shore.
Machair plains are therefore highly calcareous, with calcium carbonate concentrations decreasing further away from the coastline.
The inner side of a machair, behind the sand dunes is often wet or marshy, and lochs can form here. The calcareous shell sands provide alkaline water conditions and invertebrates, crustaceans and wild brown trout thrive.
The main north-south A865 road (and its B888 extension) that runs the length of the island, divides it roughly between machair and grassland to the west and peatland, moorland and hills to the east.
South Uist Estate, operated by Storas Uibhist, is the largest community owned estate in Scotland, comprising 90,000 acres across South Uist, Benbecula and Eriskay.
Along with the South Uist Angling Club, they control most of the fishing on these islands, with the Estate managing the cream of the machair lochs & migratory fish sytems directly, in tandem with Grogarry Lodge lets.
The best of the peat lochs are East Bi & Mid Ollay, with the principal machair lochs for brown trout being Grogarry, Stilligarry, West Ollay, Bornish and Upper Kildonan.
Fishing is only permitted on Sundays for brown trout.
There are 3 main salmon systems on the island, the Howmore & Kildonan systems on the Atlantic coast and the Bharp system on the east coast.
The Howmore system includes lochs Roag and Fada, once renowned salmon & sea trout lochs, and Castle and Schoolhouse which are predominantly sea trout fisheries.
There is also salmon fishing on the Howmore river when in spate, and sea trout fishing in its estuary.
The main lochs for migratory fish on the Kildonan system are Lower Kildonan, Mill and Upper Mill.
Most slide show images (the good ones) © Colin Riach
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