Lochside

A great finish to July – and the start of August.

Like everyone else, including the birds and animals, I’m still waiting for summer to arrive, instead of endless cloudy, wet and windy days! So on the last day of July, it was either staying in again, watching athletics, or going out fishing in the rain. An easy choice for me, so out I finally went at noon.

Arriving at a spot on the loch where I had seen signs of pike movement earlier in the week, I cast out a large, whole Tesco mackerel which had, with a couple of its mates, been in the ‘bait department’ of my freezer for almost a year!

Within a few seconds of it hitting the water and as I put the rod down in the rest, the float vanished. Thinking it had been pulled under by the wind on the choppy water and needed an adjustment, I picked up the rod and surprisingly felt a pull on the line. As the line continued through my fingers and with no sign of the float, I still had no idea of the size of the fish on the other end. Any pike from 3lbs up could have grabbed the bait by the head and made off into the weeds.

As I only have the welfare of the pike at heart, I first use one single hook in the tail of the bait so when swallowed head first, as all pike do, the hook is invariably in its jaw, not in its throat and stomach area, as occurs when numerous hooks are festooned into a bait!  (Real anglers take note, please!)

Finally, the line stopped a good 50 yards away. I struck, the rod was bow-shaped and a very large fish was on. The weight on the line became increasingly heavy, picking up a mass of weed as the pike went up and down the loch 100 yards at a time. By this time I had seen the size of it as it leapt high, shaking its head, with the bait hanging outside its mouth. I could also see just how much weed was attached to the line. Would the line break?

But at last the pike was in the net, the hook in jaw removed, weight 9.5 kilo, photos taken (weed weighed 14lbs!) and back ‘she’ went (all the large pike are female). Half an hour later, using the same bait cast in the same spot, another pike was produced, weighing 15.75lbs!  Pushing my luck, I cast the now tattered mackerel bait into the same spot and had three runs in twenty minutes, all of which were dropped (probably just a small pike or a trout having a go).

The next day, August 1st, saw me rowing down the loch for a couple of miles with a light spinning rod, hoping to catch a trout. I watched an osprey scouring the water for fish for nearly an hour without a catch, flying high and low over the area by Lochluichart Station. I also had no luck spinning and had seen no sign of a fish, although on such a nice evening, trout should have been rising for flies all over the place!

On the 4th, another 20lb-plus came to the net, the only bite all day. This required a 1lb trout given to me last year but it did the trick, on a breezy, overcast day.

On the 12th, pulling into a reed bed, a duck flew up.  Taking a closer look, I saw its mate on a nest, staring at me with her bright red eyes but making no attempt to move. I carefully backed away and left this brave little duck to sit on her eggs in peace.

Again, I’ve had no sightings of otters although their spraint is obvious in places along the lochs. A few weeks ago an eagle was seen along the River Bran where I came across three dead sheep and a deer, but I haven’t been back since.

Friday 13th proved to be unlucky as another large pike was on, only for the trace to break, very unusual, but a kink in the wire was the likely cause.

Opposite where I was sitting, six crows were hovering over the heather and bracken, making the usual ‘cawing’ sound. All was peaceful  until suddenly all hell broke loose and they appeared to be screeching at and ‘mobbing’ something on the ground. Five of them flew up several feet. Then the sixth tried to take off from a mound of ledge in the heather with what looked like a small rabbit.

It became clear that an animal was clinging to the crow and bringing it down.  The crow couldn’t take off and disappeared out of sight into the heather, while its five mates were swooping and screeching. They eventually gave up and flew off.  Number six never reappeared. Whatever had grabbed it was too small for a wildcat and too big for a weasel – maybe a stoat or a mink, who knows?

I left my rods and had a walk around to the other side but only found three feathers! Two things were unusual about the incident:  I’ve never seen six crows together, nor so low down.  Usually one or two just fly high overhead so it will remain a mystery!

I finished the week fishing in gale force winds one minute, then blue skies and hot sun the next! Also, the wind changed from the east to the west around 4.00pm and three pike, 19.5lbs, 9lbs and 20lbs respectively, came in the period between 4.00pm and 5.00pm.  A phase in the moon?  Or just the old saying, “The fish bite best when the wind’s from the west?”

More next time.
David Willis