Pikewithtwist
I’VE been trying to get out for a fish with a friend of mine for a couple of years.
All anglers make plans over a few beers and we’ve plotted for grayling in the winter to salmon in the autumn on successive years.
But this summer, we booked up time off from the family and got ourselves a boat on the Lake of Menteith.
“The Lake” is a one of the top trout waters in the UK, with superb fishing set in magnificent scenery, it’s a fishing haven which attracts anglers from all over the country.
In the lodge, one of the regulars recommended fishing the Pink Snake deep for trout that were lurking in cooler water.
I picked a couple up along with our permits, just in case, but our target for the day was pike on the fly.
I’d been banging on about them and although he slated me for the Christmas decorations in my box, my pal was keen to see what the fuss was about.
A few days of rain and cooler temperatures should have woken the fish up a little, I figured. The resident perch fry are now growing on and we were hoping the Pike would be actively hunting them in the bays.
The boats on the lake are perfect for drift fishing, loch-style, so after a couple of false starts we checked the wind and started a drift around Dog Isle using a drogue to slow the boat to walking pace or less.
Starting with slow sinking lines to fish over the open water, we got takes closer to shore and swapped to floaters, focussing on the shallow water with baitfish patterns.
It wasn’t long before Neil hooked up on a bigger fish that was definitely not getting away, spooling line off, taking him all around the boat and back again – diving dangerously close the prop and fighting hard all the way to the net.
Pike are aggressive when you cover them. I was wondering if my hooks were sharp though as I kept turning fish but not hooking up.
I’ve inherited a habit of leaving lunch until after I catch so while Neil was delightedly brewing fresh coffees to go with his success I kept thrashing the water.
Finally, the smallest pike in Scotland charitably threw itself at the fly and I settled into the afternoon with a full belly and at least a fish each to the boat.
We managed a few more, explored the Lake and made some fresh plans for fishing missions before the weather closed in.