lewis888

Thanks for the reply mate, thought that might be the case

Well I live in Edinburgh just now (university) but yes when I'm at home I live in Dumfries, I have a car and am more than willing to travel (within reason!) during the summer I regularly drive to the mull of galloway for a days sea fishing to ravel is not an issue p.s - are all replies viewed by a moderator or is it just because I am a newbie? And also I am unable to edit posts or display an avatar, and ideas? Thanks! I'm asking because I forgot to resize my pictures before I posted them and now I can't edit the frst post!!

Definitely lots of jacks, mostly in the 4-6lb bracket although I have seen an 18lber from there too. What lochs would you reccommend?

Hello all, due to internet/laptop problems I've been unable to post any reports for a while. So here's a short report and pics from my last two outings... 21/10/07 After a cancelled charter trip for tope because of the weather I decided to head to a local loch for a bash at the pike instead - after all I'd travelled home from Edinburgh with the intention of fishing. My uncle, Brent, was also interested in giving the pike fishing a go (his first trip) so we set out fairly early with the aim of being home in time for the last grand prix of the season. As it was short notice I was limited to what bait I already had in the freezer so it was a choice of mackeral or some manky old lamprey! Luckily mackeral usually fishes very well at the loch. We got set up, I fished 3 rods (2 deadbaits and one float) and Brent fished one deadbait rod. His was first to go after about 15mins in the water and resulted in his first pike...of about 2lbs. From then on the action was reasonably consistent...for him! (beginners luck - isnt that always the way!!!!) The final tally was one fish for me around 4lb and 5 fish for him (1.5,4,4,4 and a lovely fish of bang on 8lbs) all to mackeral baits. Brents 8lber All in all a great day. The weather was variable but the lack of wind made for a very nice, almost warm, day. The highlight of the day - other than the 8lber - was striking into a fish on my deadbait rod, turning around and seeing the float dissapear on another rod. Both fish of about 4lb, shame there was only two of us fishing, it would have made for a good photo 11/11/07 This wasn't such a great trip so I'll only do a quick report, same loch yesterday with my younger brother. 3 fish caught, 2 for me both around 3 1/2lb on deadbaits (smelt and mackeral) and one of around 3lb to my brother on a spinner. Absolutely freezing cold, so cold, windy and relatively fish-less we ended up heading home early No pics I'm afraid, my hands were too cold to work the camera!

I was thinking about trying this seriously at the weekend for pike, how do you rig the bait? Do you add any weight or just "freeline" and use the weight of the bait to cast/sink?

Hello all, I would be extremely greatfull if anyone could help me with a query...being a complete newbie to coarse fishing it would be great if someone could briefly outline how tactics change as the seasons change (its my first year!) In particular pike fishing. What differences - if any - are there between summer and winter fishing? And what tactics work when? For example, I like using surface lures for pike but will these get any response in the middle of winter?? This may well be a daft question but I am much more used to packing away the spinning gear and getting out the beach rods for cod when the winter hits! Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks for all the replies, gives me a few new places to try next week!

Mainly after predators: pike, perch and eels in particular but I'm willing to give anything a go!

Hi all, I'm fairly new to pike fishing but I'm starting to get really into it (especially lure fishing) but up until now I have been mainly fishing one Loch. A glance at an os map shows I am more or less surrounded by Lochs including Loch Arthur, Auchenreoch Loch, Loch Ken, Milton Loch, Castle Loch (Lochmaben). Could anyone tell me what Lochs in the area are worth fishing and any details on the waters (price, species available, successfull tactics?) Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I was thinking about what I had typed in my report last night and new someone would pick up on this, and no the bait rods were not in the water. We set up a small "camp" with shelters where our bait rods are, normally one person stays with the rods if the other is wandering around spinning. On this occasion there was very little action on bait and as a result we were both spinning. The bait caught fish came later in the day after the lure fishing had died down, you'll notice on the picture of my bait caught pike I have an improvised "bandage" over the cut from spinning about an hour earlier! Hope that explains the situation and gets me off the hook..no pun intended

Well it was 19th birthday today and what better way to celebrate than going fishing! Due to the recent weather I opted to go pike fishing at a local Loch not far from Dumfries. Sport started slowly with nothing to deadbaits - float fished or ledgered - but my brother Harris managed to pick up a few small (1lb-ish) pike and a perch on a mepps spinner. It was around 1pm Harris hooked a small perch, when it was on the surface the perch was nailed by a pike of about 6lb which ran around with the poor perch clenched in its jaws for about 30 seconds. Amazingly the perch was almost completely undamaged with only a few scales missing and it swam away strongly This fiasco prompted me into having a few casts with a yo-zuri surface lure. After about 30mins of thrashing the water with a surface lure I had my first rise, a jack of about 2lb hit the lure from below somersaulting through the air (great white shark style!)! I didn't hook it but to see a fish hit a surface lure was excellent and it completely renewed my faith in poppers! With morale at an all time high I was popping that lure with passion! with a wiggle/wiggle/pause movement. Bringing the lure along the shallow, reedy margins induced another take, this time a dark shape appeared and the lure seemed to vanish the hit was so quick! This was a much better fish and was giving a good account of itself, not expecting good fish we had left the landing net about 50yrds away with out bait rods so I played the fish as my brother ran for the net. I soon had the fish in the shallows, I guess it probably only weighed about 5-6lb but my heart was racing! There was no sign of my brother with the landing net so I climbed in and managed to get the fish out by hand. Holding the fish between my legs I managed to get the middle treble out, before I could start on the rear treble the fish gave a shake dislodging the hook...result! It was then I felt a dull pain in my arm, the fish had unhooked itself by digging the free hook point into my forearm :blink: To make matters worse, I had desperately wanted a picture of my first surface lure caught fish but at this time I was a little preoccupied with the hook in my arm and the fish slipped between my legs and back into the water. Needless to say there was a fair bit of cursing The hook was well past the barb but I managed to get it out by pushing it through and crushing the barb, not the most pleasant feeling and now I have a pierced arm My "pierced" arm! Still we both had a brilliant day, in total I had two pike (one lure and one bait) and an eel, my brother had 4 pike (all lure), 2 perch and an eel. And it was great to get a few rises to a surface lure. All in all it wasn't a bad birthday A small jack caught on a lamprey bait

Could anyone tell me if it is possible to use circle hooks for eels? So far using normal J hooks I have been ok mostly lip hooking but I have also lost more fish than I've landed! I was thinking circle hooks could possibly provide a happy medium between keeping the fish on the hook and preventing deep hooking of fish....any advice?? I'm guessing I would need to hair rig the bait if I used circles to keep the point exposed? And if so how would I do that as I've been advised to use wire for eels (can you make hair rigs from wire?). Any advice would be fantastic, I'm a complete newbie to this game so at this stage any advice is unbelievably helpfull :thumbs:

Thanks for the replies, not sure when I'll be out next. Maybe tomorrow depending on the weather. Looking forwards to posting my reports on here

Hello everyone, just joined the forum here, it looks ace. Some of you may know me from WSF where I use the same user name. Until recently I was a hardcore sea angler (with a bit of game experience from my local river and a bit of reservoir trout) but at easter I decided to dabble with the pike and eels in some of the Lochs that surround Dumfries and I have to say I love it! Its mostly been a case of making it up as I go along so if I mention anything that shouldn't be done or I should change please mention it....any info is a massive bonus! But anyway, I look forward to posting on here and to start it off here's a wee report from today ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This morning I decided to head out today to a small local Loch for pike and eels. What a day....unbelievably frustrating springs to mind! Fished two rods, one for pike and one for eels, quiet morning but the sport picked up towards the afternoon with a few missed runs and a small eel (about 1lb) which dropped of just before the net. It poured down for about an hour and I retreated to my shelter for a sleep, when I woke up after the rain and walked towards my rods there was a big swirl as a pike darted from the shallows, it must have been in raking up all the old bait I had chucked in - but more on that later Missed loads of runs and finally hit into a slightly better fish, at first I thought it was a small jack but it was a good sized eel (1lb 14oz) and my pb eel so far. Very good fight which surprised me, with lots of powerfull dives and frantic spinning and just as much fight on the bank...wow they move quickly in wet grass! (while trying to take a pic I had a run on my pike rod, in the picture you will notice the hanger is right against the rod before it dropped off the alarm was going crazy and the baitrunner was doing its job....unfortunately I didn't manage to connect with that fish! too much happening at once ) At about 5pm I was still blanking on the pike front, unusual for the Loch: whilst re-baiting a rod I threw a mackeral tail about 20ft out into the water and a few seconds later there was a big swirl were my bait had landed! I assume it was the same pike hanging about waiting for scraps. I threw in a few small chunks of lamprey to keep it occupied and reeled in one rod which I used to freeline a length of lamprey into the area where I'd seen the fish, I had literally just sat the rod in the rest as the bait sank through the water when the slack tightened up and started stripping the drag. Turned out to be a nice pike of 6lb 10oz and one of the most exciting fishing experiences of my life! :thumbs: The weather was variable, from lashing rain to bright sunshine. Should really have had more fish but I missed a lot of runs, from about noon onwards they fish were going crazy. Apologies for the poor pictures, I was on my own and so had to set the camera timer and dash infront of it, which explains why my head is cut off in one pic lol!!