Lunch hour session : Forth & Clyde Canal.

Last Friday I had a job collecting some antiques from Dunblane, this would take me right past the Forth & Clyde canal. I would have an hour to spare before I had to deliver the furniture so the LRF gear was stowed in the van. I got to the canal about 1pm and made my way to some pontoons. I rigged up with a short wire trace and a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in Alewife, mounted on a 3g #4 AGM Finesse jighead and began to fish the lure around the pontoons and along side the moored boats. After about ten minutes I watched a small perch follow the lure up from below the pontoon and grab it. A flick of the wrist and the little perch was hooked and quickly landed!

Small, stripey and greedy!

A quick photo and back it went. Excellent, I do love to see the fish taking the lure. I carried on working the lure with a slow twitched retrieve and picked up a further four small perch .

Eyes bigger than its stomach!

I then had a more aggressive bite this turned out to be a jack which did its best to try to get back under the pontoon before it played away from it, landed, photographed and released.

This jack swallowed the lure whole.

With lunch hour nearly up I managed to catch another smaller jack of about 8" just to round the session off. It was a fun packed hour of opportunistic fishing and although the fish weren't big it was a great way to spend my lunch hour!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 9 : Carlingwark Loch birthday present.

Last Monday was my 35th birthday and I wanted to celebrate it with a spot of wrassing however it had rained heavily during the night and was quite windy in the morning and I really didn't fancy fishing rock marks so after checking the weather forecast further inland Ross and I decided to settle for a for a spot of piking instead. We packed up our gear and headed up the A75 to Castle Douglas to fish Carlingwark Loch. I've had some great fun there with jacks in the past and there are fish in there to over 20lb so our fingers were crossed for some fun with the jacks and maybe a big girl or two. When we arrived Ross couldn't wait to try his luck around the large lily pads and weed beds the surround the loch. As we moved around the edge we realised there were a few guys deadbaiting in some of the best spots I normally fish so we opted to move and headed to the bay at the top of the eastern side of the loch and work or way down the eastern side.

Action was slow to start with but as we made our way down the loch exploring all the small bays and reed beds we soon had a few jacks nipping at our brightly coloured Relax Kopyto shads. They are super supple and have a fantastic action due to their thin body and oversized paddle tail, even at very slow retrieve speeds. Fellow The Lure Forum member and big Kopyto shad fan Rob Pope very kindly sent me a few to try and I'll certainly be getting a few more in various sizes for use targetting a variety of species in both fresh and salt water.

Whilst watching jacks attack is exciting and hooking them before they thrash about wildly and throw the hook is great entertainmaent both of us were getting a bit frustrated by not being able to actually land any of the fiesty pike. We split up slightly and fished two areas quite close to each other. Casting along the bank in front of some reeds I watched a fish follow my lure out. As it got closer I realised it was a perch. It was almost right at my feet, so close I couldn't believe it really. I just stood still and dangled the lure in front of it and after a short pause inspecting it the perch lurched forward and with three chomps worked its way up the lure. It appeared to now have the whole lure in its mouth so I struck thinking it must get hooked but incredibly I managed to pull the lure clean out of its mouth and startled it quickly shot off. I was dissapointed but this wasn't long lived as shortly afterwards I hooked another jack and despite his best efforts, leaving the water completely at one point, I finally got my first present of the day.

Barely hooked in the corner of the mouth. Amazed that I landed it.

Next cast I hooked a better fish but again it threw the hook with a violent headshake on the surface. I toyed with the idea of adding a stinger but felt it would ruin the action of the lure. I called Ross to tell him I'd landed one and he came along to join me. He too had landed a jack and had enjoyed a fair bit of action. Unfortunately he'd left his camera in the car so he didn't get a photo of it. We continued working our way down the loch and the jacks continued tormenting us. When we got to a large bay covered in lily pads we both agreed that there may be bigger fish lurking underneath and switched to lures fitted with trebles. Ross had a missed take just in front of the lily bed but after spending a while trying to get another with no joy we had to call it a day as Ross had to make the drive back down to Chester dropping me of at Carlisle train station on the way.

Our extraordinary week's fishing had just come to an end, but Ross was already talking about coming back to Scotland again as we drove to Carlisle! Who can blame him really? Great locations, great fishing and great company, what more could he want? More species hunting of course with a two spotted goby and a common skate from the shore at the top of his list!

Tight lines, Hutch.

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 8 : Species hunt aboard "Go West".

Last Sunday morning and we headed up to Port Logan again to meet up with local skipper Spike whose services and boat "Go West" we had chartered for a days species hunting. We were keen to see how we would do on lures and had taken a wide selection with us to try although Ross and I had also smuggled aboard some ragworm to use should the lures not be as effective as we were hoping. We would also be targeting tope in the afternoon so first up we fished for mackerel to use for bait for them. After a few drifts we soon found a shoal of two and soon had enough in the bait box so we headed to a pollock mark. Spike dropped the anchor and we were soon casting out various soft plastics. Jake of coarse stuck with his beloved Slug-Go whilst Ross and I tried a few different lures. We were all soon into pollock and enjoying catching them on our light gear. Jake was catching the most fish and got the best pollock at 6lb 4oz but unfortunately the skipper threw it back after weighing it before we could get a photo of Jake with it.

Best pollock of the day. Worst photo.

Before we left this mark we tried for wrasse. Bites on the Power Isome and Gulp! Sandworm tipped Sabiki rigs were few and far between although after a while Ross managed a female cuckoo wrasse. After a while I gave in and tipped half of my Sabiki hooks with small pieces of ragworm. Quite quickly I had a few bites and when I hooked a fish I was willing it to be on the soft lure tipped hooks but it was on one of the ragworm pieces.

A female cuckoo wrasse took Power Isome on a sabiki rig.

Soon I repeated the feat but on a small section of ragworm.

It went a bit quiet after that and Spike suggested a move, so we headed north and tried a few drifts over a sand bank to target flatfish and gurnards. We caught a few fish here starting with a grey gurnard on Gulp! Sandworm tipped Sabiki for Jake followed by one for me on Power Isome tipped Sabiki.

Another new lure caught species for Jake.

A smaller one for me too to add to my 2012 tally.

We also picked up a few fish on bait too, I had a nice coalfish and a ballan wrasse. No sign of any flatfish though which we probably would have had if we had fished a running ledger setup close to the bottom. We then headed out into the bay to target tope. Rubby dubby made up, dropped down with the anchor and our mackerel head sections ledgered down tide, the waiting game began. Whilst we waited for runs we fished the bottom for other species. Ross managed a few more grey gurnards and then caught a red gurnard.

A lovely brightly coloured red gurnard. The only one of the day.

Ross had a tope pick up his bait and go on a short run before dropping it again. I managed to hook a whiting on a set of unbaited Hokkai but as I was lifting it into the boat it shook itself free. With no further action on the tope rods despite regular fresh bait offerings we decided to end the day with a few cod species. We headed further out to sea and drifted over some ground that holds a few. It wasn't long before we were catching whiting, haddock, cod, grey gurnards and a few lesser spotted dogfish.

After dropping one on lures this one took a small strip of mackerel on a Hokkai rig.

A double hook up with the whiting. This dogfish also took a mackerel strip.

Some angler hate them. I like them. Lovable little rogues!

Ross gets a grey gurnard on a sabiki rig tipped with Power Isome.

Ross catches his first ever haddock on a mackerel strip.

Time was up and we headed back to port. Eleven species in total caught and whilst some of them had been taken on bait the lures had accounted for a few of them too with all three of us also ticking a few new species off our 2012 wanted list! Jake had to head home at this point so Ross and I bid him a safe journey home before he headed up the road and we headed back to the caravan. We did intend heading out again at night but all the fishing had caught up with us. Having a generously portioned meal in the Clashwhannon Pub was lovely but just made us even more tired and we were falling asleep watching TV in the caravan so we had an early night so we could be re-energized for the following day as it was my birthday and I fancied a spot of wrassing to celebrate before Ross and I would head home too.

Tight lines, Hutch.