The past weekend I was determined to catch a trout from loch Awe no matter what! So on Saturday I woke up at 06:30 AM and headed off after some coffee and breakfast. I reached the loch about 07:45 and started making casts while walking along the bank. I was using my medium LRF gear for fear of encountering another salmon but this limited the choice of lures I could use as most of my spinners and spoons for trout are less than 4gr. Nevertheless I stuck to #2 spinners and two spoons, one 5gr Yo Zuri Altima and the other 8gr by Aquarius.
I was expecting the trout to be most active early on but this wasn't to be and apart from one caught at 09:15 it was a while before I caught more.
Due to the morphology of the mark being like a deep channel with abrupt edges, it was difficult working the lures in straight retrieve as they would ride too high on the water column and from what I could see there was no surface activity. I then started working the spoons (snagged the spinners!) in a yoyo jigging fashion trying to initiate spinstop after every lift of the rod and letting the lure touch bottom.
After hundreds of casts (maybe thousands!) I finally found some fish in quick succession but of course also lost a few that either didn't bite properly or shed the hook in the fight. It was midday and the fish seemed to be getting more active then surprisingly. But after a few the bites became less frequent. On the last casts something hit me hard near the bottom and for a second I thought it was another salmon! Instead after a while the fight indicated that it was a pike that hit the Yo Zuri spoon. it fought well but I was bullying it as I didn't have a trace on and the fish could bite through any moment. As I brought it near the bank, I grabbed the line and it then snapped by the fish's teeth but I was quick and got my hands on him! A nice jack that provided some entertainment in a very long and tiring session as the gear was too powerful for the little trout.
I then moved to the shallow bays in order to target the pike as it was already 4 in the afternoon!
The bays were stuffed with other anglers and after wading long and fishing hard, I got no pike and the only bites I got seemed to be from perch. I persisted targeting the pike on the large lures hoping for one but it didn't come. In retrospect I think I should have targeted the perch...
The rest of the weekend didn't go as planned as the weather turned sour with continuous rain and strong winds that didn't let me have a proper session. Since then I have also encountered some sea trout in Loch Etive and they seem to be getting very active now. I wasn't targeting them going instead for the pattern that I stumbled upon, pollock on blade baits, that I will go on more detail in a following post.
Overall it was a tough weekend fishing wise, and I also didn't manage to visit the new marks I wanted but instead Ive been having good fun on the short sessions for pollock. I am preparing some videos as well with my new Sony action camera and will be posting them soon.
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft KG Evolution KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g
Reel:Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f.
Mainline: Seaguar Kanzen braid 10lbs. Dragon fluorocarbon 8lbs leader
lure: #2 Aglia and Comet type spinners, 5gr Yo Zuri Altima spoon, 8g Aquarius spoon.
I was expecting the trout to be most active early on but this wasn't to be and apart from one caught at 09:15 it was a while before I caught more.
Due to the morphology of the mark being like a deep channel with abrupt edges, it was difficult working the lures in straight retrieve as they would ride too high on the water column and from what I could see there was no surface activity. I then started working the spoons (snagged the spinners!) in a yoyo jigging fashion trying to initiate spinstop after every lift of the rod and letting the lure touch bottom.
After hundreds of casts (maybe thousands!) I finally found some fish in quick succession but of course also lost a few that either didn't bite properly or shed the hook in the fight. It was midday and the fish seemed to be getting more active then surprisingly. But after a few the bites became less frequent. On the last casts something hit me hard near the bottom and for a second I thought it was another salmon! Instead after a while the fight indicated that it was a pike that hit the Yo Zuri spoon. it fought well but I was bullying it as I didn't have a trace on and the fish could bite through any moment. As I brought it near the bank, I grabbed the line and it then snapped by the fish's teeth but I was quick and got my hands on him! A nice jack that provided some entertainment in a very long and tiring session as the gear was too powerful for the little trout.
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| The first one. |
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| Beautiful fish! |
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| micro spoons and spinners do the job. |
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| A nice distraction. |
I then moved to the shallow bays in order to target the pike as it was already 4 in the afternoon!
The bays were stuffed with other anglers and after wading long and fishing hard, I got no pike and the only bites I got seemed to be from perch. I persisted targeting the pike on the large lures hoping for one but it didn't come. In retrospect I think I should have targeted the perch...
The rest of the weekend didn't go as planned as the weather turned sour with continuous rain and strong winds that didn't let me have a proper session. Since then I have also encountered some sea trout in Loch Etive and they seem to be getting very active now. I wasn't targeting them going instead for the pattern that I stumbled upon, pollock on blade baits, that I will go on more detail in a following post.
 |
| Little trout on spoons.. |
 |
| ..along with codling on the same presentation. |
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| They are getting more active and Ill need to target them soon... |
Overall it was a tough weekend fishing wise, and I also didn't manage to visit the new marks I wanted but instead Ive been having good fun on the short sessions for pollock. I am preparing some videos as well with my new Sony action camera and will be posting them soon.
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft KG Evolution KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g
Reel:Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f.
Mainline: Seaguar Kanzen braid 10lbs. Dragon fluorocarbon 8lbs leader
lure: #2 Aglia and Comet type spinners, 5gr Yo Zuri Altima spoon, 8g Aquarius spoon.
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