Move over Rover...

My final session of 2013 turned out to be a trip to a new loch in search of perch and pike.
With no first mate available for the boat I had decided to do a bit of reconnaissance by shore to try and get an idea of how to tackle the venue on future trips. The drive to the loch seemed to take forever but eventually I reached the road that runs alongside it and found a place to park.

The weather was fairly grim and with the cold wind howling down the valley it meant using my ultra light gear was out of the question. Instead I went with my heavier set up; Shimano Yasei Red Dropshot rod, 20lb Sunline super PE braid, wire trace and on the business end I rigged up a baby Manns 1minus plug.

The wind was really ripping across the loch as I waded along the shore casting and working the plug. I battled the elements but to no avail and after a couple of hours I found myself at the top end of the loch with the wind roaring behind me. It had been a real struggle working the lures with the wind blowing across me as it kept catching the line and putting a big bow in it.

Finally with the wind behind me it meant I could keep in contact with the lure so I rigged up a 9.5cm Savage gear soft 4 play on a 7g 2/0 jighead. I waded round the top end of the loch jigging the lure along weed beds and likely looking spots but the crystal clear water was devoid of fish. After a while of wading and casting I came across a small burn flowing into the loch. The flow of the burn had made a small gravel spit that jutted out into the loch creating a nice steep ledge into deeper water. I made a couple of casts around the mouth of the burn then I worked the lure slowly along the drop off. This did the trick as the lure was seized by a pike and it put a fine bend in the rod as it powered off heading for cover. I quickly bullied it back towards me and as it got within a couple of rod lengths out it suddenly dived hard for the bottom whereupon everything went solid. I could see the fish flashing greenly deep in the water but I couldn't feel it through the rod. I tried applying pressure from different angles but I still couldn't feel or free the fish. I really wasn't sure what was going on so I poked the rod tip down towards the fish, I gave it a wiggle and the pike seemed to come free. The pike had manged to roll the trace around itself and it came in without fighting. What was surprising was that the pike was clutching a large tree branch in its jaws! It wasn't the biggest of of pike being about 4lbs but it was right up there for cleverness. I have witnessed chub and wrasse freeing the hook by biting onto roots and weed, magically transferring the hook from their mouth to the branch but never a pike.

The pike had grabbed a large mouthful of sticks.

Chompy the pike really didn't want to let go of the stick

I quickly untangled the fish from the trace and grabbed a picture. Getting the fish to release the stick was another story altogether. The pike hung onto it like a terrier with a bone and I began to wonder if its teeth had got stuck, but eventually it opened its mouth and released the stick before bolting for the depths at top speed.

The wind howled and I continued to fish on until I heard a loud crack followed by a splash. A large branch had snapped off the tree behind me and I decided to call time and head back before I got brained from flying branches.

All in all it was enough to show me that I certainly need to come back and spend a bit more time on this loch and I hope to take the boat for the next visit.

Tight Lines
Jake

Autumn Silver

November, I managed to take a break from hunting Perch and decided to go after their silver sea faring cousins , Bass. I haven't really been that bothered about fishing for them this year as I have been enjoying the challenge of fishing for other species. Change is as good as a rest they say so when I found myself with a free morning before work I decided to hit the coast and try and bag some silver before work. As I only had a brief 2.5 hour window to fish I couldn't pick the best tide state or weather It was just a question of turning up and fishing the conditions I found before me.

Luckily for me conditions were perfect for the mark, calm with a rolling swell and a rising tide surely meant the Bass would be stalking the reef.

I was using my 9ft Shimano Yasei Red Dropshot rod, 20lb braid,18lb fluro leader and on the business end a 10.5g #2/0 jig head rigged with a 4.5" Sluggo in Arkansas shiner.

I was using a variety of techniques from a simple sink and draw, to dead sticking and hopping and twitching across the rocky bottom of the reef.

All these techniques produced bass and indeed the fishing for me at least was intensely good fun ,with Bass from 36cm to 48cm all desperate to hammer my little Sluggo. I caught fish after fish and by the time my little session came to a close I ended up with 24 bass. I had kept 3 for the table ,releasing the other 21 and feeling only slightly guilty for taking some fish for the table I headed into work with the cheesiest grin imaginable!

The first fish of an Intense session,brilliant!

It was about a week later when I found myself with a whole day available to devote to fishing and with no first mate available for the boat I decided to go for Bass again.

The conditions at the mark were a little rougher than my last session and I arrived as the big spring tide was starting to flood.

Armed with my trusty sluggo jig head combination I started to work the channels and slowly flooding gulleys of the reef. As I expected I was into fish quite quickly with a couple of Bass in quick succession, the fish were around the 40cm mark and whilst not massive put up a good fight in the strong swell. The fishing went quiet for an hour or so and I continued to work the Sluggo around the reef, there was a brief flurry of activity and I manged to hook, land and release another 3 Bass. Again the fish moved away and another hour or so passed without anymore action. As the tide got higher the fish started to push over the reef and I began to get more flurries of bass and by the end of the session I had landed 13 and kept another 3 for the table.

Another bass can't resist my subtly twitched Slug-Go.

Whilst not as insanely productive as the last session it was still very enjoyable with the majority of fish being over 40cm it certainly gave me some good sport. It was certainly easier than the perch fishing had been and it was great to feel that rather special excitement of constant action, something I had been missing from my previous loch sessions.

As things turned out that was to be my last bass session for the year and had taken my bass count back up to a respectable 50. Considering I had only targeted them about 6 times I was really pleased with the years final silver tally.

Now it's 2014 and I will be targeting the bass again over the next couple of months, I have some new lures to try out on them and if they are half as good as the sluggo then it should prove to be another fine season!

Tight Lines

Jake

The fickle loch

October and November last year saw Ritchie and I heading back to hunt perch with the boat. We managed two sessions, the first was a couple of weeks after our ridiculous perch haul a session that resulted in over 80 fish between us. So needless to say we were really looking forward to it. This time we were armed with a new second hand 2hp petrol outboard and I was really keen to see how it would perform.

When we arrived at the loch we quickly got our gear stowed and launched the boat. As we drifted out from the shore I readied the engine and gave it a single pull and it roared into life. This produced a couple of whoops from Ritchie and I, as we hadn't actually got over rowing speed with the boat before! Our powered elation was cut short 30 seconds later when the engine lost all power and cut out, stubbornly refusing to live again.

We were a bit disappointed we couldn't continue our speedy journey across the loch but luckily I had my electric outboard and this was quickly put into place and we continued to our perch marks.

As we slowly whirred our way to the place where the perch had been on our last session the rain began and with nothing but thick grey cloud cloaking the land it would be there to stay. We arrived at our chosen mark and began the first drift. Both of us use our LRF setups for perching and I went with my standard dropshot rig. This consists of a 3 foot 8lb fluro leader with a size 8 offset wormhook, tied via a palomar knot halfway down. I then clip a 7g dropshot weight about a foot from the hook and rigged a Lake Fork live baby shad. Ritchie meanwhile had rigged a 3" Sluggo on a  2g Xesta jighead and he began to work all areas of the water column while I concentrated on working the deeper reaches.

After about 20 minutes we drifted past the opening to a burn and I saw Ritchie's rod suddenly snap upwards as he set the hook on a fish. The rod tip bucked about as the fish thrashed erratically on the end of the line. This instantly aroused suspicion that it wasn't a perch as they tend to try to bore down deep when hooked. Indeed, as the fish came closer, we could see it was a nice brown trout, the first one Ritchie had had on the sluggo and his first from this loch.

"Do you want the net?" I asked

"Nah, should be cool." said Ritchie .

"Bugger that!" said the trout, promptly spitting the hook and with a gleeful flick of its tail he disappeared into the depths.

We laughed off the loss of the trout and soldiered on with not even the rain dampening our enthusiasm. We searched and searched for the fish, hours passed with not even a bite for all our efforts. By this stage we were slumped soullessly at either end of the boat, our conversation had descended into a few wheezed expletives of frustration punctuated by damp coughs. Cold, wet and miserable we decided to start making our way back to the slipway.

We stopped off for one last drift in the rocky bay, an area we had steamed passed without trying. Pretty much as soon as we cast out we were getting bites but with our numb hands and damp spirits it took a while to connect. Eventually we manged to land a couple of Perch each and with honour saved we damply motored back to the van and with the heater on full, headed back home.

It was hard going but we each managed a couple in the end.

A couple more weeks passed and we had another window to get the boat out onto the loch and I for one was looking forward to the challenge of finding where the perch had gone. When we arrived at the slipway conditions couldn't have been more different, flat calm and clear blue skies, a lovely Autumn day. Again I had come with another new outboard engine except this one started first time and kept running! The little 2hp engine got us to our first mark really quickly and this gave us scope to really get around the loch to search for the fish.

Using the fishfinder and my knowledge of the loch we tried all the usual perch haunts but all were devoid of fish. We then started on new ground trying bays we had never been able to reach before but again with the same result, nothing!

Flat calm

We went through a host of lures and it was about 4 hours in when Ritchie manged to finally get a bite and promptly landed an out-of-season brownie. He had tempted the fish on a 5g Xesta After Burner jig tipped with white Isome, an innovative and effective approach. We grabbed a picture then he released the trout while I carried on fishing.

Ritchie managed to catch an out of season Brownie

We had drifted into the rocky bay where we had caught perch previously and I had changed lure to a Jackson Cymo vibe lure. I was hoping a noisier more aggressive lure may get some reaction and it wasn't long before a fish nailed the lure. This turned out to be another wee out-of-season brownie which, after a quick pic, was put back. We fished on for a bit but with nothing else doing we called it a day and headed back.

I managed one too!

What a contrast to our previous trips, where the water had been thick with perch and it was a fish a chuck on any lure! I have my ideas as to where the fish have moved; one is that they may have headed to the bottom end of the loch where the flow is greater. This is one of the puzzles I love about getting to know a loch's seasonal fluctuations and these two relatively fruitless sessions should prove more valuable in terms of getting to know the loch.

I hope to put that knowledge gained to the test on my next visit!

Tight Lines

Jake