Loch Morsgail lies in the wild interior of western Lewis, held in a basin of peat and rock under the Uig hills, and is one of a small number of Hebridean lochs where salmon and sea trout run in genuine numbers. Salmon enter the system from late June after a good spate; sea trout follow through July and August and hold in the shallower margins on the evening rise. The brown trout fishing is a bonus — dark, hard-fighting peat-loch fish that take a wet fly with conviction through the main season. Boat fishing is the standard approach: drift the traditional lines with a team of three wet flies on a floating line, concentrate on the leeward shores when the wind holds, and keep moving. The loch is managed as a let fishery with boat access through the Morsgail estate, and access to the glen is on foot or by Argocat. When Morsgail fires — which takes the right combination of water and wind and a dropping barometer — it produces the kind of day that has you booked back for the same week next year. Peat-stained moorland water defines this river. Atlantic salmon stocks are Category 3 (declining) — all salmon must be released.

• Loch
• Peat