Central Scotland piking

Hello all,

The carp fishing season is coming to an end and I'll really like to rekindle my love of piking. Having exclusively fished one loch that I don't really have access to any more for 3 years, I'm at a bit of a loss for where to start when it comes to finding some relatively local pike fishing.

I know that there is a no naming policy on the forum for venues, but anyone would be so kind as to PM me locations to try, I'd be very grateful. I'm ideally looking for a venue in central Scotland (between Glasgow and Edinburgh) that's not enormous (I don't really want to fish any of the massive lochs) and would be described as a 'runs' water rather than a specimen water. I'm happy to catch smaller pike and more of them than wait for ages for a better fish.

Any help is gratefully appreciated.

What about local canals have you tried them ? you can mention canals and rivers as long as the are decent sized and long as long as no particular areas are mentioned

I see there's Forth & Clyde Canal runs through Glasgow are there any in there ?

go on Google Earth and have a good look around the areas you are ok to travel to you will be surprised what you might find

I've tried the canal off and on, but have no confidence in it. There will be fish in it somewhere, and when they drained a local stretch last year there was a fish over 20lb netted. The issue is that the fish stock density is so low that I think that large pike will be very few and far between. I'd ideally like to fish a trout loch where pike are present as they'll be a bit bigger. Pike anglers have a dreadful reputation up here due to a significant minority who seem to treat the banks as a rubbish dump, so many fisheries are quite hostile towards us.

I am in the process of scouring Google Earth. I'm desperate to try to find somewhere fairly pristine. The presence of litter or evidence of chav/ned anglers puts me right off.

On monday i was at that canal on the outside of Glasgow,didn,t catch anything but the banks were ok.
Just paid for my yearly membership for the canals,dirt cheap.

I pay my annual fee to the Scottish Coarse Angling Federation, not because there is any chance of having it checked (no bailiffs, as far as I'm aware) but because that money goes on running kids angling days. Money well spent.

I don't hold much faith in fishing the canals here to be honest. There are big fish in there somewhere, but it's really hard to find them. A few spots are worth the effort but the stock density in the canals is so low that large pike are few and far between, especially considering poaching.