First day at School

It was time for the first fishing session on my Outback at the weekend as Lynne and I hit the shores of Loch Ken. With the sunny conditions forecast I had planned an early start on the Saturday morning. This would let me make the most of any dawn feeding opportunity and get back to Lynne at a reasonable time.


The hard overnight frost made for a fairly cold nights sleep in cabin but I was on the water for 5.30am. I fired up the Lowrance in anger for the first time and was glad to see it was working. I was soon under way zig- zagging around a bit and getting a feel for things. Fishing on Loch Ken for the first time with no engine ticking over in the background was a different experience. As I made way along the shore I could hear Cuckoos, Woodpeckers and the noisy arrival of Geese, what a great time to be on the water. 

I was marking fish and structure in detail that I’ve not seen first-hand before. The broadband sounder and downscan really gave me a great view on what was down there. In particular  the separation of structure and fish was a real eye opener with the downscan marking fish sitting behind things like sunken trees, the questions was what were they?  I worked along various contours and it was clear to see that in anything less than 15ft it was barren, between 15ft-25ft there was more happening. I came across vertical columns of fish 10ft high, most likely Roach and sitting below and behind one or two bigger different looking marks , most likely Pike.

I turned the kayak around in a circle and came back up wind and cast towards where I reckon I had marked baitfish and made a few casts and Das Bite was eventually christened. It took SG double blade/tinsel spinnerbait on a slow retrieve.

As I travelled a little further there seemed to be less sign of activity but occasionally I would come across a shoal of fish,  travelling past one of these the rod arched over  and I had my second fish of the morning. Not a great example of fish handling but it looks worse than it is due to angle, just the same I need to be better organised. Even on a spacious rig like the Outback it was easy to get in a muddle. The guys that fish in more traditional shaped kayaks must be super organised.

I made it back out for two hours on Saturday afternoon and the only thing I caught was sunburn. The shoals of prey fish were certainly harder to find although I did take a look over a different area.

When I arrived back Lynne opened a bottle of wine, we had a barbecue and that was the fishing over for Saturday. 

As a result of the night before I was pretty knackered on Sunday morning getting up about 7am dehydrated, slightly hungover and sunburnt but got underway anyway. My intention was to find likely looking targets and cast some soft plastics at them. I did this off and on for three fishless hours. If I can get this outfit working in a targeted manner when the fish are in the mood I’m sure it will be very effective. I had enough when the breakfast bell rang in my head and it was time for home.

So, not a bundle of fish on my Kayaks first outing but interesting nevertheless. There are large expanses of void water but I was surprised at how thick some of the shoals of fish were, Roach, Bream and I’m pretty sure, here and there the ones I’m after, Perch. I can make some assumptions on which of these targets might have been Perch but till I start picking off one or two I won’t know for sure. They might well be spawning at the minute but that should be over for my next visit. I won’t be able to use that as an excuse next time. It was like the first day at school for a lot of this trip but it will get easier.