Pike Fishing Loch Lomond, Scotland
stewart mcgee
I am going pike fishing for the first time to Loch Lomond, can anyone
suggest a place to try and supply directions to get there.
Thanks
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Stewart McGee
Engineer
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Leon Roskilly
<stewar...@comcal.net> writes:
>I am going pike fishing for the first time to Loch Lomond, can anyone
>suggest a place to try and supply directions to get there.
>
Loch Lomond is a big water, and most of it is practically devoid of coarse
fish.
Basically, the northern end is a Highland Loch, very deep and mostly weedless,
though there are a few bays which contain coarse fish.
Draw a line from Balmaha, across the loch, and south of that line you have a
lowland loch, much shallower with good weed cover and plenty of islands and
features. This is where you will find the coarse fish.
At Balmaha, there is a boat house where you can hire boats. If you tell the
proprieter that you are going fishing, he'll probably let you have a boat for
much cheaper than the usual tourist rate :-)
The bay immediately outside of the boatyard contains a lot of perch and a few
roach.
The best pike fishing is to the south of the bay, toward the river Endrike,
where you are best fishing the drop off.
It's a big water and exploring it on your own isn't easy, you really could do
with some local knowledge.
If you are a member of the PAC, it would be a good idea to speak to somone from
the Glasgow region (Billy Noon, are you reading this?)
Tight Lines - leon
Ray Rogers
www.roger48.freeserve.co.uk\personal\newspersonal\venues.htm
"stewart mcgee" <stewar...@comcal.net> wrote in message
news:39eff...@news.cali.co.uk...
> Hello
>
> I am going pike fishing for the first time to Loch Lomond, can anyone
> suggest a place to try and supply directions to get there.
>
Rob Jones
I asked the same question here last year. Most people who replied suggested
Balmaha Bay area on the east side where I tried and had good sport although
no biggies were caught. You can bank fish (very boggy) to the south of
Balmaha between the reed-beds in shallow water but boat fishing is a better
option. I fished from a stage in Balmaha in deeper water. The roach anglers
were bagging up there so there were plenty of Pike about. Balmaha is not far
from a village called Drymen (4-5 pubs)where there is plenty of
accommodation. E-mail me if you need an address.
HTH Rob J.
Steve Burke
cabin
cruisers from the Inverbeg Hotel and fish in style. Up at dawn for a few
hours piking from the dinghy then back to the cruiser when the girls called
us
in for breakfast!
I was last up there 2 years ago with my wife and we found a superb B&B at
Balmaha, one of the best fishing areas. It's called Dunleen and run by a
Mrs
MacFadyen. Excellent accommodation and breakfast plus they put my gear in
their garage and bait in the freezer. The cost was very reasonable. The
phone no. is 01360-870274.
I've also stayed at the farm at Arden (comfortable and good oatcakes I
recall) but I can't find the no. in my B&B directory so the owners may have
retired or moved. I fished the nearby gravel pits about 20 years ago but
the
next time I visited I was told that the gravel company had stopped the
fishing, but it seems that it's on again now. The mouth of the nearby
Fruin, which runs into Lomond, is a good area as is the small bay
immediately to the south where the pike spawn in the spring.
Other places I've stayed at are the Inverbeg Hotel @ Inverbeg, the Colhoun
Arms at Luss and the Ardlui Hotel @Ardlui. However I find the farmhouses
and B&Bs offer the best value for money. For food there are excellent pubs
and restaurants at Drymen near Balmaha.
The most well known areas to fish are Balmaha on the east bank and Ardlui at
the extreme northern end. Boats can be hired from both these villages.
Ross Dhu Bay on the western side is another noted area.
The earliest I've fished is April just before the pike moved into the
shallows
to spawn. The well known spawning areas (Crom Mhin Bay just south of Balmaha
& the bay just across the river from Ardlui) used to get hammered. That
year we hired a cruiser and mainly fished the Balmaha area. We did well
off the drop-off south of Balmaha, the mouth of the Endrick and straight out
of Balmaha harbour on the edge of the moored boats.
If it's your first time on Lomond I'd recommend you base yourself at Balmaha
and take it from there. A couple of notes of caution. Don't take any
livebaits with you (we've found them easy to catch from the harbour or pier
at
Balmaha) or you'll be in trouble. Also buy a proper air inflatable life
jacket rated at 275 Newtons (not a foam buoyancy aid which are often called
lifejackets but are not, having a buoyancy of only 50 to 100 Newtons). If
you're wearing moonboots and a one piece suit you need the extra buoyancy to
turn you over if you fall in. In summer clothing you're O.K. with 150
Newtons such as the Fox Bodyguard lifejacket. If a friend of mine hadn't
heeded this advice he'd be dead. The brother of a very well known angling
writer was one of the many who've drowned in Lomond. The weather there can
turn from flat calm to big waves in minutes so don't take chances if you see
big black clouds approaching. However if you're sensible there's
absolutely nothing to worry about.
Most of my fishing on Lomond has been from boats as I've found this much
more successful on such waters than bank fishing. I'm sure others here can
help you better with bank fishing suggestions.
--
Steve Burke
Wingham Fisheries
www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm