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TROLLING THE SCOTTISH LOCHS |
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This is the reports page for the season 2005, this will give information on the fishing trips we have (if the fish co-operate it might make interesting reading). I aim to publish details on where and if we catch fish and information on tactics, lures, depths and any other information that I think might relevant or could be of help to anyone planning a trip to the Lochs we will be fishing on. Above all I will be honest with the reports, if we have a bad day you will know about it!!.I will also try to include pictures on the lures we get fish on. Click here for past seasons reports Season 2008 Eeb Mon 11th Loch Lomond Went out on the Loch on a nice sunny and calm day i had my daughter with me
and we trolled round my usual route of the Endrick Bank/ Stables area. On
the Loch there were rafts of Ducks that would have been a Punt Gunners Dream, we
trolled round to the Cladich Shore and back up to Balmaha on out trip back the
Dipsy rod started bouncing with a good fish so my Daughter took the rod , and
after a good struggle she landed a Trout of 5lbs it took a dead
trout trolled on one of my new Bait Hoods i tried to get a pic of it but i got
the "battery exhausted" warning on the camera so no pic. We later had
a Perch on a J11 Rapala from the Downrigger 35ft down this was VERY unusual as
we dont normally get perch until May.
Friday March 7th Loch Lomond Went out with an Angler Chris on one of my Trolling days the weather was pretty wild with rain and high winds, Chris had been tying to organize a day since November but the weather has against us every time.We trolled round the Endrick Basin area but with the rain and winds we had a hard time just standing up never mind fishing, we sought shelter around some of the islands and trolled round Buchinch and Inchmoan but never caught anything on one of our trips down to the Cladich Shore we saw one of the few fish marks on the sonar for that day and it was huge, we marked the fish on the GPS and trolled round that area a few times but the fish had gone, never saw it again. Loch Arkaig 17th/18th April Took my son and one of his mates away for a couple of days fishing/camping we
arrived at the loch and it was a bit on the windy side so we headed up our camp
site and set up camp,we trolled a bit during the day and got one trout of 2lb
ish on a Blue Glow Tomic, i went out again in the evening but the boys
wanted to stay by the fire, after i passed the fishfarm cages i had a fish on,
the planer board staggered back in the water and a fish came somersaulting out
of the water behind it it took a Blue Glow Tomic, about 5 mins later i had
another fish of around 4lbs again on the same Tomic it was just like history
repeating its self (see last years report on Akaig) but this time it was only 2
fish. The next day we went out again but the wind was gusting all over the
place and making speed control very difficult i could ether go too fast or
too slow never my preferred speed of 2.5mph so we got nothing that day. Below are some pics of the fish and the lures that caught them. Season 2007 Feb Sat24th Loch Lomond My first day out this season it was only going to be a short day ,I went out and tried around the usual Endrick Bank areas I trolled right round the the Stables I saw a few other boats out but like me they had caught nothing as well. I went over to the islands to try there and saw a few big fish marks 40 ft down at the end of Creinch i trolled through them a few times and had a hit from a fish it was on for a few seconds and pulled some line from the reel and then got off, it had taken a Mino Mepps fished off a Dipsy I tried a few other areas but that was it for the day so i just packed up.
April 28th/29th Akaig and Lochy This is the first time i have managed out for ages, every time i try to go out fishing something crops up and i have to cancel , so i was determined to go this time. We arrived up at Arkaig on the friday night and decided to troll up to the camp site, we quickly got a Trout of around 3lbs on a Lyman plug fished off a planer board we managed another 2 before we got to the site. The next morning we got up and saw a boat just out in front of the camp site had a fish on when he landed it it looked a good size, so we quickly got the boat out in the water we trolled round the bottom half of the loch in the area of the fish farms where we got another 4 fish all on the Tomic or Lyman plugs fished off the planer boards we had a few fish take lures from the downriggers but they got off. That evening the rest decided to stay at the campsite so i went out by myself i trolled up the South shore of the loch and got 5 fish in 2 hours the largest was 6½ lbs and the rest were around 4lbs they were all on the Tomic and Lyman lures fished from planer boards again i never managed to get any pics of the fish as my jacket and camera were back at the campsite. The next day we moved down to Lochy were it was blowing a north easterly that made trolling difficult but we got a fish immediately again of the Lyman/Planer board combo we had a couple of takes on the downriggers both got off , one we saw and it was around 4lb'ish we had 2 other fish on the Board rods one on a Lyman plug and the other on Rainbow Trout Stumpjumper. After about 4 hours of bouncing about in the waves we called it a day and headed home. Here are a few pics of the trip I will try and get a better pic of the
fish!!. The Lures are Blue/sil scale glow Tomic, Lyman Pink Stripe, Lyman Pink/ white and a Rainbow Stumpjumper.
Monday 14th May Loch Lomond I managed to get a day off work to go out, i didn't manage to get to the Loch till 11am. I decided to stay at the Endrick basin area and troll round my usual routes it started off calm but the wind kept coming and going calm one minute and when i decided to go to more open water it would pick up again with white caps on the waves and i hate it when its like this, its difficult to control the rods or read what they are doing. I managed to get one perch about 2lbs, 30ft down on the downrigger with a Challenger Fluo Orange jointed plug. As i was heading back to the Balmaha there was a bit of excitement with a German Family as they came out from Inchcalliach and a wave flipped their canoe over dumping them all in the water there was a Ski boat closer to them than i was and i thought they would go and help them but it just buggered off !! so i pulled in the rods and went to help them there was a Father and Mother and Daughter all in the water with lifejackets on but struggling with the cold and wind. I got to them and threw a float cushion to them and a rope and managed to heave all of them into the boat, the back of the boat was just a tangle of wet and tired bodies, the boat "Marion" was also there and brought the canoe back in.When we got into Balmaha they went off to their B&B to dry off and the Mother who managed to impale herself on a lure while being dragged into the boat was off to the Docs to get the hook removed. Monday 4th June Loch Lomond Managed to sneak a day of work and had a day out on the loch, it was a nice day with better weather than my last outing i trolled round my usual areas and the only thing that was biting were perch I got 4 all on Planer board fished lures the Red Willies Worm catching all of them. The water temp was up it was reading 70degf at the surface and 65degf 30 ft down in Net Bay, maybe it was too hot for the fish. 31st August-8th September Lake Michigan This is the first time i have been out for ages, too busy at work and very busy getting the tackle shop section built up on my other web site but i knew i had this trip booked so i could miss out on some fishing for a while. 3 of us went out to Michigan for a week of Hardcore fishing we knocked it of from the start as out booked accomodation was not available so they up-graded us to a cottage double the price but only charged us for the one booked. Our first days fishing was in Rogers new boat a 25ft Chriscraft loaded with all the gear top of the range sonar all the rods and a great CD system. A typical days fishing starts like this, out of bed at 5 am, get in the boat, blast across White Lake in the dark, go through the channel to the Big Lake and blast out again for a mile or 2 start putting out rods with glow lures ( its still dark) troll about trying to keep a straight course (hard to do in the dark). We them sit back and wait for fireworks the fish usually hit before the sun gets up sometimes with multiple hits at one time we had one rod go off and then while playing that another rod kicks off and then there is two of us playing fish the average size of the fish is 10 to 12lbs for the Kings.
Above are some pics first, Doc playing a fish and then the fish a 15lb King, Paul playing a runner this fish ran and ran and ran we saw it approx ¼ of a mile behind the boat it was landed though the 3rd pic was 2 of the fish caught on the first day and the 4th pic was a Coho that took one of my Dark Side of the Moon spoons, a genuine catch, and the 5th pic (a bit fuzzy) was of fish we got out of the Port of Holland one night. We also had a couple of days river fishing the first was casting lures unfortunately the Salmon had nor arrived in thge river yet and all we got was some Bass and a Perch we hooked a couple of stray Salmon but they got off, the next day was on the Pere Marquette river. A cracking day drifting down the river in a float boat and stopping the fish the pools 3 salmon were hooked and one landed, one that got off was 25 to 30lbs in weight it was well worth going and i would do it again if i had the chance.
Some river pics,1, setting out,2, playing a fish,3, the fight,4, landing the fish,5&6 and stopping for lunch.
Some more pics 1,3 fish a King, Steelhead and a Coho,2, top of the range sonar showing fish looking at the lures, 3,ready for netting , 4,me with a Steelhead, 5, Sunrise and Sunset. In total we landed 32 fish for the week we were too knackered to do a days Combat Fishing but if we had we could have added another 10 fish at least, to the total. I will add some links to this report to places we stayed at and some of the guides if you fancy doing this sort of trip yourself. Monday 17th Sept Loch Lomond I took a Fisherman out on one of my Trolling trips, he was up on holiday from England we were lucky with the weather as the previous day was awful. Steve had bought some items from the Web Shop and wanted to see how they worked before going on the lochs Eck and Awe on his holiday. We trolled out round the Endrick Bank and Cladich area we saw a Salmon jumping at the Cladich area but all we managed to catch was Pike and Perch we had 4 Pike up to 6lbs and 3 Perch up to 2lb'ish the lure that worked were a Tomic Multi in Crystal Firetiger on leadcore and a Copper and Red spoon on the slider on the Downriggers and also a Red Willies Worm on the Planers. Pics to follow. Sat 20th Oct Loch Lomond I was out 2 anglers Iain and Andy who booked one of my "Trolling days" it turned out to be a great day. We took the usual route of the Endrick bank Cladich area it was a great day for the Pike we had about 8 mostly jacks but we had 2 of about 8lbs and 11lbs we also had 6 or 7 perch and a trout of 2 to 3lbs hit a lure fished off a jet diver it took off like a missile and threw the hooks the fishing then went a bit slow so i put on something to wake them up a bit a flasher and fly it was only on for about 1/2 hr when the downrigger kicked off and Andy took the rod and after a good fight a Brown trout of 12lbs was landed it was a cracking fish and built like a brick sh1t house, we also had another Brown of around 3 to 4lbs on a willies worm off the planer boards.
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