When you put your backpack on, and head up into the hills to fish another loch you’ve never fished before, you just wonder if this is to be the one, the Nirvana, the fishing paradise. Scotland is a country of uncountable lochs, some by the roadside which are fished by many, and some, more remote, that may go years on end without the company of an angler. The lochs in Scotland are typically inhabited by vast amounts of small trout, but there are lochs you hear about that, well, just might hold that big trout of your dreams. The trouble is you hear about these lochs, but you never get to know either their names or where they are. We did hear about this one though, and its name and location, and set off for the hour and a half walk which could take us to our Nirvana. Not a long walk admittedly, but enough to loosen the sinews and dampen the shirt. We walked past another loch, rippling invitingly, on the way up leaving its unknown treasures for the moment until the return journey.A typical Scottish day in July was unfolding. Intermittent periods of sunshine, menacing grey clouds ever present, always threatening, and sometimes delivering. Loch Nirvana? A small loch, one you could walk round in ten minutes or so. Stark, yes, but intimate with that truly wild unshackled feeling amidst some wonderful scenery, serene like a lady in waiting save for the calls of the birds, and the not so gentle whispering of the wind. Just for a day you feel that the loch belongs only to you, and in truth it does. I fished all day with a pair of dry hoppers, hoping to tempt up a monster from the depths. On a day where there is so much to hear and see however, the few rises that I did manage to elicit were invariably accompanied by me looking over the landscape, or trying to catch sight of a bird calling in the distance. I missed them all. Maybe next time I’ll try harder. We headed back down, and fished the other loch for an hour on our way back to the car, catching many of the typical Scottish hill loch trout of between six and ten inches. Small? Yes, but as wild as the wind. So was our loch our Nirvana? They are all Nirvana on a wonderful day out on the hills. Next time I’ll catch the big one.If you want to read more about wild fishing in Scotland read ‘Fish Wild!’, a subscription free online magazine at www.fish-wild.co.uk/