Newyeargear
BY LOUIS FEROX HAPPY New Year everybody, hopefully you all got new fishing toys under the tree.
I brought in New Year with a wee trip to my local loch to see off a touch of a hangover.
It’s not quite a stone’s throw but I could walk there on a good day. I wasn’t up for a long stroll on January 1 though, the car was loaded up with some of the comforts of home and my deadbaiting gear.
There have been some superb pike coming in on the Fish of the Week competition so I’d picked up a Pike Pack of frozen baits on Monday ready for my first “double” of 2019.
With a bit of a wind forecast I’d brought a drifter float to try and cover lots of water from the bank. The top of the float acts like a sail and drags your line out across loch towing a bait underneath.
The wind didn’t materialise though and I was left holding my float like Charlie Brown with a kite string, best laid plans and all that so I set up some simple float ledgers and settled down in my chair. If I couldn’t drift the baits about I’d have to move them myself to try and see if I couldn’t pick up a hungry fish.
The swim I’d set up in didn’t have the best access to the deeper water directly from the shore so I was hoping that as the shallows warmed a little in the sunshine, some pike would come up the shelf on the mooch, I planned to move my base along the shore and reset the floats regularly, laying down baits on likely holding spots.
There were a few other anglers down, one making slow searching circuits of the loch trolling baits while the other had his Christmas float tube down for her maiden voyage. Being out on the water can definitely give you a huge advantage but dipping yourself in a Scottish loch in January is dedication I didn’t have.
Being cosy and close to coffee on the bank does mean that you can tend your traps and last the long run from the shore rather than hunting out pike with lures and cold fingers.
My debut double for the year didn’t make an appearance. The biggest fish of the day wasn’t much larger than one of the frozen baits I’d brought so my scales stayed packed away.
Big fish or not being out in the sunshine on the first is a great way to work off leftovers and have a peaceful think about the year ahead.