Planning time
BY LOUIS FEROX HOW’S the New Year been treating you so far? Have any of you been out and started your 2022 catch returns?
Around now I’ll sit down with my wife and a few beers and we run through some plans and ideas for the year.
Among the holidays and home improvements there’s always a species list on mine to give me something to aim for.
A proper pilgrimage or a big trip to plan is something to look forward to. Even if you don’t get them all done, it’s good to set up a WhatsApp group and fire ideas back and forth.
For years my friend made a point of catching a spring salmon. His tradition was to head north on the train to Pitlochry and fish the Tummel for a few days, taking shots of iced-up rod rings and hopefully toasting a clean bar of silver in front of an open fire somewhere. Kicking the year off with that kinda success.
This week another squad have been prepping for a 30lb pike hunt, an expedition to the Isle of Bute. A few years ago one of the guys blew our “biggest pike of the year” contest out of the water on the 3rd or 4th of January with a fish that scooped a Drennan award and prizes in a few publications.
The last few years have put a dampener on these first trips of the year, but they’ve been stocking up on thermals, deadbaits and marking hotspots on the map of the loch. Sometimes the planning is half the fun.
The biggest fish they’ve had came a few years back and weighed in over 36lb, and it came after a quick change on the bank.
When we got to the loch we’d already chosen a swim in their head, but it had already been taken.
Luckily me and my fishing partner made the choice to fish the far side of the loch after that, a decision that ended up with him catching the fish of the lifetime! He had a bit of trouble because we were fishing close to a wooden jetty which she kept going for.
Luckily I managed to wade out net her out in the water, and once on the unhooking mat the trebles just dropped out, meaning we could have lost her if it had been played right to the bank.
If I’m going to get close to the species target for the year I’ll need to get a few trips booked in – no sense in waiting for perfect conditions.
One hundred per cent of fish caught are by folk that go fishing,
Also definitely 100 per cent more blanks, times soaked to the skin and wasted diesel trooping about – but you don’t take photos of those days so who’s gonna know!