Pike I was saying
THE brown trout season has come to a close and the 2020 salmon season is almost done.
Some rivers such as those in the Clyde catchment have changed their rules regarding catch and release, and fishing methods, since the start of the month so check with your angling association to confirm the rules.
Any Marine Scotland recategorisation will have serious affects on your fishing so it’s definitely worth knowing the grades and making sure your club’s voice is being heard.
This changing of the season has definitely got the predator anglers prepping for the campaign. I got chatting to a well-kitted up and camo’d group on the bank while I was float fishing last weekend.
They were just getting started for the winter and had some big fish in their sights, although this one was more of a social to kick things off.
Pike are the top of the food chain in Scottish waters but they need proper handling and the right equipment to make sure they’re returned in good condition to grow even bigger. You should always have long wire traces to avoid being cut off on the sharp teeth, a heavy mainline – I prefer at least 30lb braid these days, and a reliable bite indication to ensure a quick strike and minimise deep hooking.
Also have decent unhooking tools for removing hooks, a large knotless landing net to cope with big fish, an unhooking mat to make sure you’ve got a safe, soft surface and small bolt cutters.
I’ve still got a bit of fluff chucking and perch fishing to do before I settle down behind alarms under a brolly, I’ve even been digging in the garden for some fresh worms.
If you had to choose one bait for the rest of your days, it’d be hard to go wrong with a worm. Garden earthworms are as good a bait as you can get and freely available in exchange for putting your back into it.
A bag of lobworms can be delicate and expensive, so try store them somewhere cool, ideally in a bait fridge, in shredded newspaper and compost to make sure they’re slightly damp and they should last a lot longer.
Cheaper, smaller dendros are much hardier and well worth having on hand. My last trip out, I was fishing the inlet stream at the top of the loch and getting sharp nippy bites that were hard to hit.
But feeding a skinny worm on to a size 10 hook and up the line, leaving just the point exposed, picked out a couple of bigger perch that took much more confidently, burying the float rather than pinching the tail.