Tell you what I have been thinking about the last week or so……….”Pike” that’s what !
Usually it is only at the end of the trout season I turn to the toothy beasts however this year the urge has got me early.
Oh yea baby, and with Pike size does in fact matter – I always wonder about why I am happy catching tiny trout all day on a dry fly however with Pike it has to be bigger bigger bigger…
I think a wee after work trip down to my local canal is called for within the next week or so. I have even talked a fishing buddy into taking a boat out on a loch – it should be a whole lot of fun.
Hello from the other side of the world,
I’ll be chasing pike soon – in about a month – in a series of interconnected pike lakes just north of where I am. You’re not the only one with pike on the brain!
Be sure to keep us posted on your toothy adventures,
FT.
Like the pics but make sure the pike don’t snap back 🙂
Man, those pikes are just perfect! Very nice!
Regards.
Hi Alistair, piking sounds great!! Something iv not done since i was a boy on the canal!! Tell u wat iv been thinking about!! The Salmon!!:D
Stil to bag my first this season although lately iv seen some crackin double figure fish from the allander and heard a story yesterday about a dozen or so guys that took 20 salmon of the same stretch on saturday alone. When surprise surprise i had to work!! Gutted!! Looking forward to doing a bit this week if the rain eases a bit!! Keep us posted on the pike m8
Hi Frank,
Got to admit I have mixed feeling about this – I do enjot hearing about people catching the Salmon however I cant help but feel that now 20 Salmon will be unable to spawn for the next few years – all those good genes of the doubles will not be handed down for future runs.
Hmmmm – I wonder how our resident Salmo fisher (Charlie Dunn) is getting on he is keeping a low profile these days. Would be good to hear his views.
Taking 20 salmon in one day is absolutely unacceptable!! It only makes me wonder which Hotel or Restaurant these salmon were destined for. The Allander is a small stream which gives the salmon access to their spawning grounds and , in my opinion, fishing for salmon should not be permitted on the Allander after the 1st of August, if at all. What methods were these characters using? Did they even have permits? The Kelvin stocks could be seriously comprimised if this kind of slaughter is allowed to continue. I have just returned from a week on a very productive East coast river where i was fortunate enough to be blessed with great water and a river stuffed with fish. After the second day of my week ,i began to realise that the fishing was shaping up to be soemthing quite special and i caught fish, plenty of fish. However, i was not greedy, i did not fish all day, chosing to fish for three hours in the morning and then spend time with my family and see the sights. More importantly , i made a point of killing no more than my family and i could eat. All the fish i caught were sea liced and the only one that was showing any colour was a sea trout that my son caught. I hope that other fishers reading these posts will feel the same about the taking of 20 salmon, on their way to the redds, in one afternoon. This is unacceptable and those responsible should hang their heads in shame. In saying this, the post above was perhaps not entirely clear if all 20 fish were killed, so , at the moment , those consernced must be given the benefit of the doubt. Whatever the case as we get increasingly wet summers, and runs increase there must be a strengthening arguement for increased permit prices, baliffs with teeth, catch limits and associated tagging system.
Hi Alan – aye – it was a dozen guys so I suppose most of them got one or two fish – I can see their thinking though as it could be there only couple of Salmos for the month…..still twenty salmon that we know of – what about the ones we dont ?
Fair enough Alistair, perhaps i have been a tad hasty in condemming the killing of 20 salmon by 12 fishers. However, it is not clear whether there were 12 fishers on the river in total or if those concerned arrived en masse. Perhaps, there should be a limit to the number of rods fishing the Allender on any particular day given the small nature of the stream. Again, any such measures can only be implemented with the backing of a strong and pro-active committee and a dedicated team of baliffs, so not much hope there then!
Has this been confirmed or is this just fishermans stories? Local anglers or visitors?
@C Stewart – who knows – I would imagine with all the water the Kelvin has in it just now there will be plenty salmon around.
#mutters# bloody stupid fish – damn things dont even feed.
Nice to think that salmon are returning in numbers, but a shame if they all got clobbered.
Would be nice to have a proper Bailiffing system.
Any reports on Seatrout?
Campbell
What a beautiful fish in that second picture. I’ve been checking out your site for a while and enjoy all of your posts. I’d really like to do some pike fishing with the fly myself. To date I’ve only ever caught one and that was by mistake while trout fishing on Menteith.
Campbell – yea it would be nice however I think the club would have to radically alter to actually get it.
Tyler – thanks for dropping by – once you get over the initial shock of them being big green toothy beasts they do have a certain charm :-)There are some monsters in the Lake – I think they only let you fish for them a few times a year – and then you have to be in the PAAS
The pike are coming into their prime over the next few weeks and i cant wait to get into them, had three on the fly last night around kelvinhead, pity in total they weighed about a 1/2lb haha ( i was perch fishing). Ive spotted some really nice fish cruising near the surface, perhaps it would be worth trying poppers or other surface flies just now?
Hi Alistair and all the guys that i have seemed to upset with my last post!!
Unfortunately I wasn’t there that day however i was informed by a very good friend of mine that he fished the allander from 4:30am til dark and and although him and a friend both caught and kept 1 each, he reckoned that 7 other fish were taken and the rest (caught by 5 of the guys on the fly) were returned. Like i said i wasn’t there so cant confirm but i would like to say between a dozen lads, you give yourself a bag of 2 each which they are more than entitled to (if you have a ticket hmm hmm)! Why else is your rod in the water!!
However i totally agree with all that proper rules and guidelines should be put in place and enforced but to be honest, the one’s with the balls to do it are probably the same people poachin the river!! Sad but true!!
Hey Frank – no problemo – nothing wrong with a good debate 🙂 By the end we all worked out what probably happened anyway !