The hunt continues

In my limited experience of Loch Ken I’ve found it to be somewhat of an enigma, full of promise of big Perch but also challenging, large and dour for the most part if I’m honest. Generally when I occasionally fish here with Stewart we trawl the loch with lures which is a standard tactic on big Scottish waters I guess, good for prospecting large areas and it generally delivers some results. On a trip last year I had suggested that we should try something different, by no means a new approach but something we've not tried. This trip was to be bait and wait, bring the fish to us in other words and then try some drop shotting when the Perch found us.

We did some trawling for the first couple of hours and Stewart picked up this battle scarred Pike with wounds on its tail and mid-section. 

Shortly after this fish we set up shop and put two anchors down fore and aft to stop the boat swinging in the wind so we could present the baits and groundbait accurately. Shortly after the mix started going in Stewart was into a run of small Perch before I had washed my hands which give or take a few quite spells set the tone for the day.

This greedy little fish took a prawn and  popped up lobworm cocktail

Then the Bream arrived. I’ve only ever caught a couple of small one’s in the past so they provided some entertainment amongst the stream of small Perch.

We ended up with about 15 in total

The amount of Crayfish attacking the baits was ridculious, even with popped up baits it looked like they were climbing along the running ledger snood and pulling the bait down.

I felt a tap and lifted into this 1 pound Perch which then looked to tear off under the boat and around the anchor rope? It soon became apparent that it had been taken by a large Pike. I played the fish for a while hoping that it would stay on. After a while I was optimistic it would, just as I was expecting to at least see the fish it let go! Not happy.....

We agreed to continue where we were till 6.30pm and then trawl our way back to the car. On the last drop of the day I had this fish which I was hoping was the big Perch I was desperate to get.

Not the intended target but the biggest Bream of the day. I had one a little smaller than this take a prawn but they seemed to love the lobworms.

We had some action on the way back and I landed my first Pike of the day, followed by losing a bigger fish and then another jack.

Stewart had another Pike and a Perch  before we put the boat to bed and hit the road. All in a nice days fishing where we caught more fish than we normally would and specifically more Perch than we would have trawling.

On balance I think we were unlucky not to pick up at least a 2 pound Perch but this approach is worth exploring again in the future, with a few changes we might catch a break. Another way to go about it might be locating the Perch and targeting specifics groups of fish, for this an electric motor and some upgraded electronics would be required, or maybe a kayak.....