Get on yer pike
EVERYONE must know the feeling of finding things you’d really like when you’re shopping about for other people’s Christmas gifts.
I was buying someone gift vouchers for a fishing trip to the Lake next year and having a scroll through the Lake of Menteith feed, they’re catching some impressive bags even in the cold conditions, when I saw Nick Main’s recent capture from the Pike Angling Club’s outing weighing over 30lb – an a absolute fish of a lifetime.
Trout loch specimen pike are sometimes controversial, plastic 20s I’ve heard them dubbed. My biggest pike on the fly is from Lomond but my biggest ever is from Loch Fad and it didn’t feel any lesser for me knowing that the loch has stocked trout.
Plenty of Scottish pike anglers have made a bit of a pilgrimage to Chew Valley in search of massive fish but as Nick’s catch shows there are giants to be had in the much more striking Scottish scenery! When you look at the records of large pike caught in the UK from the past 20 years, an astounding proportion of 30lb plus fish have been captured from trout reservoirs. From a piker’s point of view these huge, deep, mysterious waters provide any resident pike the perfect environment for attaining huge weights.
Trout lochs don’t just hold the stocked fish, places like Menteith and Chew have a huge head of coarse fish all of which offers a protein rich diet for pike to pile to fatten up.
With a big water like these it’s important to seek out the features, always try to find what or where is likely to hold pike. One of our favourite swims locally has a broken down wall extending into the water, it’s a magnet for snagging tackle but also offers cover on a fairly featureless water and it’s often the starting point for working that shore.
Flooded waterway reservoirs can have roads, bridges and the like while natural waters have skerries scattered across then, or rocky outcrops from the shore and peninsulas reaching out into the main body of water. Shelves that drop off precipitously offer patrolling areas and ambush points for feeding pike.
The difference I found when fishing these bigger waters was targeting open water, rather than focusing round the edges or fishing back towards shore along the bays and slopes. In a large water the hidden features mean you can feel a bit in the middle of nowhere but when you know there’s a huge weedbed or a crannog under you.
With pike fly fishing being open all winter on Menteith and Loch Fad just a wee boat trip away, I might ask Santa for some heated socks and new scales!