Esox elusive.

As my few trips to target pike this year have sadly resulted in not much action and only one pike hooked, that I managed to lose due to not having a net handy, I fancied getting the growing green stripey monkey off of my back. A quick text to see if Jake was free and an hour or so later we hit the road. Arriving at the Forth & Clyde Canal a short drive later we were soon fishing and both decided to test out some Gulp! Alive Swimming Eels that Jake had procured recently.

Like most Gulp! lures these stink but have a fantastic swimming action. Surely the pike wouldn't be able to resist?

We thrashed the basin in front of us and cast around the pontoons and moored boats but no bites were forthcoming. After about an hour or so we both scaled down to smaller lures. The water was slightly murky so I went with a Savage Gear Soft 4Play in Firetiger. As we wandered along the canal a bit further we spotted hundreds of tadpoles in the margins and I then switched to an even smaller lure, a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in Golden Shiner. This again yielded no results unfortunately. By this point Jake had switched to drops shotting Gulp! Sandworm sections for perch, which normally results in pike being caught but this didn't seem to be having the same effect for a change! Heading all the way back to where we started we were both pretty fed up with the lack of action when Jake finally hooked a fish and after I carried out netting duties a nicely coloured perch was on the bank.

A nice golden hue to this spiky little worm gobbling predator and it had nice bright red fins too.

Encouraged by this we carried on fishing heading in the opposite direction along the canal. I scaled up a bit and went with a 3" Kopyto Shad in Roach like colour. Casting to the pontoons and boats on the far side I slowly worked it back across towards me using a slow steady retrieve keeping it close to the bottom but imparting the odd twitch just to try and hopefully illicit a response form any fish it passed by. Plodding along about a metre at a time I finally felt a couple of sharp little tugs and hooked a fish. It soon broke the surface and I could see it was a small jack. I could also see that it didn't look very well hooked. I didn't apply any real pressure to the fish and called along the canal to Jake who had the net. Unfortunately whilst he came along with it the fish took the opportunity to thrash in front of me and spit the lure out before slowly swimming off. After several of hours of fishing with no action at all I was pretty annoyed to lose a second consecutive pike due to not having a net handy! With only a short time left before we had to leave I went back to my methodical approach, standing on a pontoon and casting to a long section of reeds opposite me and with pretty much my last cast I was rewarded with a second bite at the swimming croc cherry. Being a complete idiot though I suddenly realised that the net was further along the pontoon, a fair bit away from me. I had to quickly decide whether to play the fish along there or chance lifting it up the short distance to my hands. I opted for the later and luckily the fish was well hooked this time and stayed on.

My first pike of 2013. Hard earned to say the least!

We headed home, both quite disappointed with the fishing overall, but at the same time glad to have avoided a blank. I was pleased though to get my first pike of the year and whilst canal jacks are good fun I think perhaps we need to start trying some new stretches to try and locate some bigger specimens to work the Gulp! Alive Swimming Eels past. Maybe a less uniform stretch would be nice with a few more natural holding features. Some lily pads would be great as well because after seeing all the tadpoles I'm keen to try some frog lures soon as well for some surface fun.

Tight lines, Hutch.

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.