first catches of 2014

I have recently picked up a wee car which will hopefully allow me to get out fishing more than I did last year, honestly, sometimes I went out like a pack horse carrying loads of gear in case I needed it.

Now with a car I can take everything I need without any bother at all, although its a small car I can fit all my gear plus other things in it, lovely.

my first outing by myself was local, well, Clydebank is close enough to be called local. Anyway I headed down to the Clyde at Clydebank college on a sunny evening around 4.30pm 10th June, and caught 2 wee flonders on a squid and sardine bait..

I went back again on thursday 19th and caught 2 more at the same spot.

Friday 20th June was a scorching day so decide to head over to greenock with the intent for a bit of bait fishing when I saw a couple of asian guys start to pull in mackerel, so I got a set of fethers out and quickly caught two before losing my feathers and weight on the cast. it was the only set of feathers I had so I settled for a bit of bait fishing.

I got talking to two guys from Johnstone and they kindly gave me a set of feathers, nice guys they were, one showing pics of some of the huge carp one of them caught.

I started fishing the feathers and soon had 25 mackerel which I kept for bait.

It was a great day out in the car, meet some good guys and caught enough bait to last me a while.

I;m going to go back over to greenock and try for some different smaller species with a small rod and small hooks and weights.

Late present for myself..

I treated myself to some new fishing clothes, a late christmas present to myself.
I picked up the Jack Pyke hunter jacket and trousers, along with a Jack Pyke skip cap with leds on it and a pair of TFGEAR extreme boots. picked up some Greys Prowla super viz floats, wire traces and some bait. so I just need to get out and do a spot of pike fishing now.

Xmas over.

Well, that's Christmas over for another year and so far we've had a not to bad winter but things always change for the colder in Jan and Feb.
I need to look for some winter wear to keep me warm when I go out fishing, hopefully straight after the new year, probably on Friday.
I think i,ll go for pike, I will head for the hills and try a loch that I tried a couple of weeks ago and blanked, I got a few bites but never got a hold of anything.
it hasn't put me off there, although the walk up those hills kill me, but I think I know where I went wrong and hope that I'll do better this time . I believe there are decent pike there and intend to get one or two.
The last time there I thought I was prepared for the cold but I wasn't and have been thinking of getting new fishing clothing.
I like the look of jack Pyke hunting clothes and may pick some up in the next day or two.

Wee sea scorpion

I managed to get out for a few hours on saturday and decided to head over to greenock at the custom house quay.

I caught a couple of wee codling and another first for me, a long spined sea scorpion. This was one ugly looking fish, although it had a nice pale blue underside. I have since been told that these can give a nasty sting but not sure if this is true or not.

species list for 2013 is..

mackerel

flounder,

brown trout,

LSD, lesser spotted dogfish,

codling,

pollock,

pike,

sea scorpion.,

biggest of the year was the Pike at 8LB 7oz.

I don't think i,ll be getting out again before the new year.

One of those days...

I finished nightshift and instead of going to bed for a sleep before starting my next shift I decided to try a new venue.
As the area, a good sized loch, was about 6 miles away I decided to go by bike.
I got to the area in about 45 mins and found that the only way to get to the loch was up and over a couple of hills, not easy pushing a mountain bike.
As i got to the top of the hill I saw that I now had to go over a bard wire fence (bike too) and then through a muddy slopping field full of cows.
I eventually got down to the lochs muddy shore and set up, I was using a ledger rig with mackerel bait, and cast out.
Nothing was biting so I moved over a bit and tried again.
still no bites, I decided to try a float.
After 2 hours without as much as a sniff of a fish, it started raining, then it just got heavier and heavier till I was soaked through. yes I had waterproofs and an umbrella but being in scotland they didn't do me any good.
I was baiting up under the umbrella and then standing up to cast out, which took about 10 secs, but the rain was that heavy that this was all it took to soak through my clothes.
when the wind started to pick up and my fingers started to get numb, I decided to pack up and head home. back up the muddy cow filled hill over the fence and then peddle home in the rain before getting a quick bath and back out to work.
it was just one of those days when I should have went to bed instead of going fishing, but it wont deter me in any way because as soon as I have another day off i,ll be heading out fishing again... no pain no gain.

New pike rod.

I picked up a new pick rod today, a Ron Thompson pike rod which casts up to 1.5 LB. Although this is a cheap rod, the quality is good, I already have a Ron Thompson spinning rod ( which I caught my first pike with) so had no hesitation buying the same make again.
The rod is 11 feet long.
I look forward to using it at the start of the week when I'll hit the local canal again.
I also picked up a couple of  

30Plus Twin Treble Rig Snap Tackles -Size 4  so will try for pike again.

Pike fishing.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours today and thought i,d try my hand at fishing for pike in the local canal.
I was using my spinning rod with a wire pike trace on it and mackerel heads as bait.
I managed to catch this little beauty, it is my first pike and was around 30 inches long and about 8 1/2 LB.