Pike fishing Loch Lomond

The anglers who specialise in fishing for pike in this, the largest area of fresh water on the British mainland had inspired me and my good friend Dave to give the loch a try ourselves. After pike fishing Loch Ken last year (October 2007) I really fancied Loch Lomond, not just for the pike but also for the fantastic scenery Scotland has to offer- (The trip went on...)

I arrived at Dave's house at 4am already for the off, after a quick brew, Dave asked me to charge the 'Sat-Nav' up in the car, (I'm rubbish with directions so therefore it was vital we took one with us) As it happened, two weeks prior to us going to Loch Lomond I was bumped in my Golf. To cut a long story short we ended up with a hire car while mine was being repaired (08,VW, GTI, very nice) which happened to have the 'sat nav/cigarette lighter in place only it was disabled. Dave had only charged it for 20 minutes the night before so we ended up hanging around for an hour while it fully charged in Dave's car, (a fine start to the day, LOL). I was feared death of it running out of charge and getting lost somewhere on the motorway..

I have to mention at this stage Johnny of Glasgow Angling Centre, was really helpful and sent me first class information by post on where we should go fishing on Loch Lomond. We choose neither of the places Johnny suggested, instead we sought a place where we thought others would perhaps struggle carrying their fishing gear and not venture round the Loch like we did-What a struggle it was too, I twice nearly ended up on my arse by standing on slippy rocks.

After pitching the bivvies, which was a nightmare alone, we sort to locate the where-about's we intended to fish using a marker float. Not many pike anglers use a marker float when pike fishing, not from what I've seen anyway but I think its an essential part of your armory, just like one is when locating possible feeding spots for carp. Setting the bivvies up was hard due to the lack of pitch space we had, yeah, we got two bivs on that little patch of grass/rock.

We had around 3 hours of light left after pitching the bivvies so we used the marker float with what day light we had left to find what we thought were possible feeding places for pike. We were looking for drop-offs and deep water complemented with heavy/light weed, Dave was lucky and found a good spot on the first couple of cast so he quickly baited up and before long, he was fishing in 13ft of water just on the edge of the weed bed (See what I mean about the marker float? You will be surprised at what features you can find when using one). I was fishing in 10ft of water and amongst light weed using a popped up herring tail. We both used 3 rods but for the first night only 2 was used due to the fact cray fish where present, I remember Loch Ken very well, LOL..

A nice picture I took whilst pike fishing on Loch Lomond, shots like this one please me.

Loch Lomond is the biggest water me and Dave have ever fished we was also aware the very best of anglers had put big time and money into getting pike from Loch Lomond over the years and all the 'possible spots' had been fished - it was hit and miss but we did have a plan. After setting the rods we stood and admired the scenery- A far cry from what we are both use to looking at, what a treat!

Just as the night was drawing in, Dave had a bite on his left hand rod, (a polaris set up). He shouted... I think I'm in Andy! Hell he was. To be honest with you I weren't expecting anything until the following day, how wrong I was, Dave landed a really nice looking pike, not the biggest in the world but it was a pike truly welcomed, especially so early in the session.

Watch Dave catch a pike from Loch Lomond.

Great fish Dave, I was well made up for you. You anglers can imagine how our spirits were lifted after that catch-it was 'stand by your rods time' LOL! As time past with no further action we decided to get or heads down, after only an hours sleep we was awoke by the sound of my alarm going off. Mary Poppin's! We both jumped out of the bivvies 'nearly banging heads in the process' to reach out for the running rod, it was kaios, te hee! Dave's shouting... Its your rod Andy! I'm trying my best to get there I replied LOL, them rocks are really slippy. I hit the run only to find nothing attached, I was gutted, are well, back out with the rod only this time it was dark and a 'guess cast' was in order. Nothing further happened that night so now we wake up to the morning view of Loch Lomond...

The following day seen us explore with the marker float, again just to give us a chance to see what the Lochs bottom was indeed like. We found prospective deaths from 6-14 and sometimes 18ft with drop-offs, gravel and weeded areas, we even had harbored boats to chuck at but it never happened, not until Dave shouted... I'm in Andy! Mary Poppins, he was. Dave ran to his rod, taking care not to slip on his ass and hit it like he meant business, the run was pulling him all over the place until he brought it to the top (around 80 yards out) it was a Cormorant and what I struggle it was to get it in.

Un-knowing to us the Cormorant had dived on Dave's bait without us seeing it. Please note: The video below shows a Cormorant being brought in from 80 yards with a hook attached to the web on its foot, this clip can be distressing to some viewers however the bird was safely released back into the Loch as soon as it was possible to do so. Click here to see the video

After 2 days of fishing in the same place we spoke about renting a boat, so the following day I hiked back to the car and drove about 3 miles to a boat yard situated in Balamha. Once there the owner informed me the Loch was too choppy to take the boat over to where we was fishing therefore that idea fell flat on it's face.

We decided to sit it out for a 4th day but nothing else showed other than Dave's pike, on this occasion it was me coming home with D.N.S (dry net syndrome)' and not him - makes a change Dave :). Although we never caught anything spectacular we did enjoy ourselfs and met some really nice people whilst we was there, hopefully in the not to distant future I will be visiting Scotland and it's Lochs once again and with a bit of luck we might just get that 30lb pike we have been after.