Some bait and a wait

I seem to have spent more time than usual recently looking at Windguru and weighing up what my options are of a weekend. By Friday a one day window of opportunity opened on what seems like a relentless period of high winds. With this in mind I decided to get myself back afloat and put my first Bass trip of 2015 on the back burner for at least another week.

Arriving at Loch Ken in mid-afternoon I intended to fish till dusk, start off with lures and switch to some ledgering. It was a cracking day albeit not a great time to start for the predatory Perch so the first hour or so I didn’t have as much as a touch and decided to drop the anchor for the first time. A couple of hours later I made a move as even the crayfish were absent which is unusual for here. This got me wondering about the whereabouts of the clawed menace. I should take more notice of the bottom consistency. I would imagine like crabs they might be holed up in some areas with a rocky bottom moulting around now; it’s fair to say the Perch wouldn’t be far away.

I put the hook down in an area near a sunken tree which was painted clearly on the screen of my sounder and got to work with two rods.  Having made a start on a sandwich and a mouthful of water the rod tip typically hooped over while it lay in my lap.

This was the start of a purple patch which ended in a double hook up and a massive tangle which saw me switch to one rod.

The best of seven Perch

The Bream were like peas in a pod

A really fat well fed little Perch. Is there a soft Crayfish in there??

After getting sorted out I only had one other fish before it went quite. The wind had changed my position slightly and just as I got to thinking that there might also be a Pike in the vicinity the rod tip slowly folded over as if it was snagged. I backed the drag off as much as I could and the little drop shot rod absorbed the lunges of what felt like a sizeable Pike. I eventually got it to the surface and I could see the size 8 hook in its scissors. My intention when it comes to landing Pike is to chin them out rather than carry a net. On this occasion my rod was leashed to the opposite side of the boat and too short for me to get in position. This resulted in more pressure than I had realised on the 8 pound line and it popped.  I would think the fish would be fine, using a bunch of worms can catch Pike but it’s not something you can really account for. I decided to wrap it up shortly afterwards but not before I had a few jigs around the boat to see if it was still in the area.