Anybody Catching

Yes I've had a look could it be a stab hole from a cormorant that's become infected ?

seen the same wound on two waters tat i fish a long way apart. it does not seem to affect the fish at all but doesn't look to pretty.

adie1200 wrote:Yes I've had a look could it be a stab hole from a cormorant that's become infected ?

thats exactly what we thought too adie, and cormorants were seen periodically through the day

They say god loves a tryer Adie lol.  keep at them and they will come.   well done lads,  that rez has some nice looking fish in it for sure.   My 2 days were a bit slow.  Freezing fog both days and water down to 4C.  Day one deadbaiting for a 5lb jack,  today trolling deads super super slow in 30ft of water produced 5 fish to 16lb 14oz and I missed 2 also.   happy fisherman

Unlucky Adie, well done lads on your fish! I can feel a big un coming on . One of us is going to get lucky . 👍 Your 30 might be on its way to you Andy

It doesnt feel like it craig lol. they are getting smaller each week. fishings real hard now the waters cooled right down. In a few weeks when they are used to it they will feed like hell, but until then doubles will do very nicely

silkmen wrote:keep at it adie they will come soon enough.
been out wjth rozzo today we had 3 between us and rozzo lost 1..been a nice day on the bank..caught a fish with some kind of ulcer thing on it and blind in 1 eye poor thing.

hey Jacob, thanks for today,, was lovely to see you and Lou again. and thanks for helping us out lou after i forgot the god darn petrol lol. hope you have many pb's with the pod and alarms
great day in great company,, oh and i ended a run of four blanks

rozzo wrote:

silkmen wrote:keep at it adie they will come soon enough.
been out wjth rozzo today we had 3 between us and rozzo lost 1..been a nice day on the bank..caught a fish with some kind of ulcer thing on it and blind in 1 eye poor thing.

hey Jacob,  thanks for today,, was lovely to see you and Lou again.  and thanks for helping us out lou after i forgot the god darn petrol lol.  hope you have many pb's with the pod and alarms
great day in great company,, oh and i ended a run of four blanks

she is a top wife mate so far anyway lol..i was showing her how use the alarms last night lol its getting her on the bank now as she aint a keen piker prefers carping in summer.

Well its my first time out this winter
I didnt catch any live bait which i was hoping to but one jack will kick me of for the start
They can only get bigger

went out this morning early , really up for it..... got to the lake and the boat was ready and waiting for me ,
set up with 3 floats in 22foot of water everything looked spot ...cast out my half mackerel dead baits and waited, and waited and waited
never had a twitch or a sniff , normally there are jacks on offer and a very good chance of a biggy too.. but nowt happened , that's piking for you.. still cant wait till the next outing

lowdouble wrote:They say god loves a tryer Adie lol.  keep at them and they will come.   well done lads,  that rez has some nice looking fish in it for sure.   My 2 days were a bit slow.  Freezing fog both days and water down to 4C.  Day one deadbaiting for a 5lb jack,  today trolling deads super super slow in 30ft of water produced 5 fish to 16lb 14oz and I missed 2 also.   happy fisherman

lovely fish pal maybe I should have fished the lures today perfect conditions just a slight ripple on the water

We never had a touch on the static deads either stubbo. all the fish were covered in lice as they were laying static on the bottom. a bottom bouncer rig produced 8 out of the 9 takes trolled at under 1mph, they just arent hunting with this cold snap. but slowly place a bait past them and they couldnt refuse a free meal lol. a bit like me

lowdouble wrote:We never had a touch on the static deads either stubbo.  all the fish were covered in lice as they were laying static on the bottom.  a bottom bouncer rig produced 8 out of the 9 takes trolled at under 1mph,  they just arent hunting with this cold snap.  but slowly place a bait past them and they couldnt refuse a free meal lol.   a bit like me

was it the bottom bouncer with deads or lives and what size weight do you use pal if you don't mind me asking..

No livebaits allowed in the republic Stubbo 6oz leads and mono used as the stem. deads work nearly as well as lives. keep moving super slow and just trip the bottom, I use a catfish rattle on the lead too so as to make a little noise every time the lead hits a pebble or swan mussel etc. They seem to like the presentation anyway lol.

stubbo wrote:went out this morning early , really up for it..... got to the lake and the boat was ready and waiting for me ,
set up with  3 floats in 22foot of water everything looked spot ...cast out my half mackerel  dead baits and waited, and waited and waited  
never had a twitch or a sniff  , normally there are jacks on offer and a very good chance of a biggy too.. but nowt happened , that's piking for you.. still cant wait till the next outing  

had a fair few of those days stubbo just minus the boat.

No pike during this morning's roach bashing (or indeed any sign of them), but did get a nice 5lb 10oz brown trout on twitched roach deadbait. Largest brownie I've had to date.

Different water today,me and my mate had 5 fish between 9-13lb

silkmen wrote:

stubbo wrote:went out this morning early , really up for it..... got to the lake and the boat was ready and waiting for me ,
set up with  3 floats in 22foot of water everything looked spot ...cast out my half mackerel  dead baits and waited, and waited and waited  
never had a twitch or a sniff  , normally there are jacks on offer and a very good chance of a biggy too.. but nowt happened , that's piking for you.. still cant wait till the next outing  

had a fair few of those days stubbo just minus the boat.

first session back on the lake up your end pal infact its the first proper session this season apart from the odd stint spinning earlier on in the year , a nice fish came out on the bank opposite me on the boat

J Robinson wrote:No pike during this morning's roach bashing (or indeed any sign of them), but did get a nice 5lb 10oz brown trout on twitched roach deadbait. Largest brownie I've had to date.

went pike fishing in Nottingham a couple of years ago on a trout water and caught a 14lb rainbow on half mackerel it gave me an brilliant fight too.... no pike just trout were caught:D

stubbo wrote:

J Robinson wrote:No pike during this morning's roach bashing (or indeed any sign of them), but did get a nice 5lb 10oz brown trout on twitched roach deadbait. Largest brownie I've had to date.

went pike fishing in Nottingham a couple of years ago on a trout water and caught a 14lb rainbow on half mackerel  it gave me an brilliant fight too.... no pike just trout were caught:D  

That's a chunk of a rainbow!

This brownie didn't fight that well unfortunately. On the pole on 4lb 12oz line it would have been a good fight, but 50lb braid, even with a forgiving clutch setting makes fairly short work of it. I'd swear blind the pike fight harder, pound for pound.

What was entertaining is that I saw the trout in question 20 seconds before zip across my swim chasing a roach just under the surface. Quickly set the pole down and lobbed the roach in and it went away immediately. Quite satisfying casting to (and hooking) a fish you've just seen.

The brown trout run to just about 10lb in there, so I expect that I'll get a larger fish in time.

the bat wrote:Different water today,me and my mate had 5 fish between 9-13lb

is that the same venue we spoke about last week pal..... well in

J Robinson wrote:

stubbo wrote:

J Robinson wrote:No pike during this morning's roach bashing (or indeed any sign of them), but did get a nice 5lb 10oz brown trout on twitched roach deadbait. Largest brownie I've had to date.

went pike fishing in Nottingham a couple of years ago on a trout water and caught a 14lb rainbow on half mackerel  it gave me an brilliant fight too.... no pike just trout were caught:D  

That's a chunk of a rainbow!

This brownie didn't fight that well unfortunately. On the pole on 4lb 12oz line it would have been a good fight, but 50lb braid, even with a forgiving clutch setting makes fairly short work of it. I'd swear blind the pike fight harder, pound for pound.

What was entertaining is that I saw the trout in question 20 seconds before zip across my swim chasing a roach just under the surface. Quickly set the pole down and lobbed the roach in and it went away immediately. Quite satisfying casting to (and hooking) a fish you've just seen.

The brown trout run to just about 10lb in there, so I expect that I'll get a larger fish in time.

if you like that , why don't you try fishing for pike on big pike flys it is heart stopping when a big pike takes your fly/ lure on the surface

one of those micro jack days. 20 takes maybe 8 landed to about 5lb. where oh where do the big girls go sometimes

lowdouble wrote:one of those micro jack days.   20 takes maybe    8 landed to about 5lb.   where oh where do the big girls go sometimes

probably not far away from the shoal bait fish bet you have vast shoals where you are pal needle in a haystack comes to mind.

stubbo wrote:

J Robinson wrote:

stubbo wrote:

J Robinson wrote:No pike during this morning's roach bashing (or indeed any sign of them), but did get a nice 5lb 10oz brown trout on twitched roach deadbait. Largest brownie I've had to date.

went pike fishing in Nottingham a couple of years ago on a trout water and caught a 14lb rainbow on half mackerel  it gave me an brilliant fight too.... no pike just trout were caught:D  

That's a chunk of a rainbow!

This brownie didn't fight that well unfortunately. On the pole on 4lb 12oz line it would have been a good fight, but 50lb braid, even with a forgiving clutch setting makes fairly short work of it. I'd swear blind the pike fight harder, pound for pound.

What was entertaining is that I saw the trout in question 20 seconds before zip across my swim chasing a roach just under the surface. Quickly set the pole down and lobbed the roach in and it went away immediately. Quite satisfying casting to (and hooking) a fish you've just seen.

The brown trout run to just about 10lb in there, so I expect that I'll get a larger fish in time.

if you like that , why don't you try fishing for pike on big pike flys  it is heart stopping when a big pike takes your fly/ lure on the surface

I see the appeal, but fly fishing just doesn't do it for me (not in any form). The extent to which I enjoy lure fishing is creeping along rivers flicking spinners into swims, or drifting on a boat across weed beds fishing shallow diving plugs. Otherwise it's deadbaiting, or other coarse fishing.

I think the issue for piking up here is perhaps that there isn't the stock density you find on the more productive waters further south, so finding fish can be tougher. Couple that with the inclement weather, and fly fishing becomes unappealing. On the loch I deadbait from the boat, I nearly always get blown off the water come mid morning. Follows the same pattern most days - dead calm at sunrise, with the wind building over the course of the morning.

I'm enjoying my roaching/occasional piking at the moment. I'll get back to boat fishing for pike come late spring - I've always found summer to be the best season by far up here for piking.