Tackling Glacial Lochs By Dave McGowan

What is a Glacial Loch I here you ask? Well it is basically a loch that has been formed many moons ago by the movement of glaciers. Ok, that was obvious, I know, but that is what most of the fishing available here in Scotland, is all about. "How should I tackle one of one of these lochs" I hear you ask. Well first and foremost: Tackle In my opinion there is no excuse for 'snapping off' whilst playing a fish in this day and age. Scottish fish fight the hardest that I have ever experienced, therefore the strongest tackle you can get away with is the only way to go. On the waters I usually fish, 50lb braided line with 28lb wire, is my personal choice of tackle for bait fishing, and the minimum of 65lb braid for lure fishing. I also use the strongest hooks I can get my hands on. I use extra strong Owner trebles for bait fishing and Eagle claw for all my lures. If anybody else has any recommendations please let me know. Ultra lights have NO place on waters like these, and it would be irresponsible to use such tackle, it only risks fish in my opinion, besides which, you will have enough of a job trying to subdue these fish on 'normal tackle'. A clutch that has been set to allow the fish to easily take line is essential, as it is not uncommon for these fish to go for long runs when hooked often stripping 10 yds and sometimes more, even on my heavier lure set-ups!! Proper indication and instant strikes are also essential, as the larger fish tend to wolf baits down.
My personal choice for baits is usually for 'natural' baits such as roach or wild brownies (available from Neville), and the occasional joey mackerel and lamprey.
My lure choice would include most of the usual favourites, such as Dolphins, Castaic's, Burts etc. Mostly in natural colours such as perch patterns and silvers, golds and the occasional black.
This is because the majority of the waters I fish are usually crystal clear. I also take couple of patterns in orange just for a change. Most of my lures are plastic, less chance of plastic lures splitting, or the paint shelling Perhaps one of the most important pieces of tackle that is most overlooked is the humble anchor. I do most of my fishing from my boat.
. I use 4kg grapnel style anchors with approx. 3ft of really heavy chain.
(see pic.) Sometimes your anchor position can be critical, but holding it can be even more so!!! These large open waters can get very rough at times and there is nothing worse than being on fish when it starts to get rough (some of the best times in my opinion) and not being able to hold your position. The waves can also get rather large, and you also have to watch out for rough waves that are caused by other boats passing, they can easily catch you off guard. Location. The first thing that I look for on these waters would be the 'classic pike swim'. By that I mean a nice shallow flat leading to a drop off into deep water with plenty of cover for pike and prey fish alike such as weed or rocks. On one of my favourite waters Loch Awe however, there are far too many spots like this on this water! It takes time to search out the good ones out. There is no substitute for experience, I only I wish I had more sometimes!!! You will find that the most productive areas are close to the shoreline as normally the centre of these lochs are very deep, but don't be afraid to explore the deeps however, I recently had a fish trolling shallow over 52ft of water .
. This picture shows one of my favourite swims on a 'small' Trossachs water. If you look closely you can see a line of lilies just in front of the sailing boat, the bottom gets deeper from right to left, much like the lie of the land behind it. At the left hand side of this lily bed the bottom drops away to 15ft only inches from the edge of the lily bed, that is where I took the big girl in the other picture, on a home-painted Squirrley Burt, cast almost into the lily bed, two taps, then BOOM! Accurate casting is essential for these swims, as is strong tackle, to get the fish away from danger a.s.a.p. There is one thing however, that I feel that most pike anglers avoid and because of this are losing out, and that is fishing shallow. When I say shallow I mean shallow. (depths of 5ft and less!) There has been many a time when I have shared a bay with another boat and we have both been fishing deeper water, then I have pushed into 3ft of water and the chap is looking at me as if I have three heads or something! Most pike anglers up this way are obsessed with fishing deep! Going deep does work, however, I usually out-fish him in the shallows, especially at night. This is one of my favourite tactics. Fish shallow at night, then slowly push out as the day progresses. When the weather allows it, I always spend the night out on the water. When the weather starts to turn cold, either early or late in the year I always use this approach, start shallow then move out deep, sometimes in excess of 40ft, but never too far away from productive areas. Safety Safety whilst afloat is paramount and comes before any fish. When I fish, I usually fish alone, which can have it's problems, but when you do it at night, you double them. Therefore the only way to sort this problem out is with organisation. I have at least two different sources of light on my boat. A deck light as well as a headlight. I always have a set of forceps clipped onto my lifejacket at all times. There is always an un-hooking mat in the bottom of the boat as you will see from the fish pics. The scales, weigh sling and other un-hooking gear are always within arms reach. My digital camera is always in the same place under the rear seat of the boat in dry storage. Usually this means I can get a photo of my hard earned catch within seconds, but, recently I had just played, landed and unhooked a 19.08lb fish in the dark and went to take a photo, only to find that the batteries didn't have enough power to take a photo. So rather then risk the fish just for a photo, back she went, with only my memories to remember her by.
The moral of this story is; ALWAYS BE PREPARED!
. I had an 18lber which you can see in this pic which helped me get over the fact that I didn't get a photo of the 19. They were part of an eight fish haul over the space of an overnight trip on Awe, and they all went like stink!!! Last but not least, I mentioned earlier, that I always wear a lifejacket. I cannot stress enough, the importance of wearing a lifejacket, especially up in the 'wildernesses of the north'. I can think of at least a half dozen instances that have been in the press in the past year, where people have lost their lives on Lomond and Awe because they didn't have any kind of buoyancy aid on. You can buy a self inflating life jacket these days for the price of a few lures, so, what price do you put on you life? You can be miles from any kind of professional medical help. So don't take any stupid risks. The waters up here can be very, and I mean very unpredictable. They can get very, very rough within the space of half an hour then back to flat clam in just as quick a time! This is why I would not recommend these big, wild waters to the novice boat angler, on their own anyway. However, sometimes the rewards can outweigh the rain, wind and even the long journey involved, and you make contact with some of the hardest fighting pike that this country has to offer, just make sure that you are ready for it!!

Back