Club Trips (most recent trip at top of page to oldest at bottom of the page)

March

Loch Maben in South West Scotland

Andy with a new personal best of 14lb, caught on a half mackerel.

After a disappointing January and February, were the trips had to be cancelled for various reasons, it was nice to get on the bank. Unfortunately only 4 members could make the trip. We occupied 2 of the platforms on the Dalton road, hoping that the pike were on the feed after spawning. Unusually the pike hadn't finished spawning yet, possibly due to the snow and frosts in early March. The weather conditions were not to bad, with a gentle to fresh wind which switched from southeast to southwest.

The only fish that was banked was a new PB for Andy Wood, he's only been piking for a couple of years and this 14lb'er certainly put a smile on his face. The pike was caught using a legered half mackerel.

It was encouraging to see how well Loch Maben is being run now, don't go if you don't have the right unhooking equipment or barbless hooks, you will be stopped from fishing if you haven't got them. If you are a coarse angler don't bother taking a keep net, you won't be allowed to use it.

 

December

A large Loch in South West Scotland (if you hadn't guessed it was Loch Ken)

A slightly better turn out for this trip compared with the last one, with 4 members venturing out, Neil baker, Bruce Turnbull, Gavin and Robert Murray.

It wasn't the best of mornings for travelling with the roads effected by fog and black ice. This weather continued for most of the day, the ice lifted early on but it took till midday for the fog to start to lift. With thick fog not being our favourite fishing conditions hopes were not very high, however Neil managed a run but missed it and Bruce had a run and landed a well marked 15lb'er. As the fog started to lift around midday Rob Murray had 2 runs in quick succession producing well marked fish of 6lb and 5lb. This raised our hopes but nothing much happened till nearly 2pm when Rob Murray had another run, and after a good tussle Rob handed out a beautiful 15lb 10oz pike. After that things went quiet again, Bruce and Neil had a few bleeps from their optonics but no joy and Rob had a double run as a pike trailing tackle from a previous angler swam across 2 of my lines, resulting in a lovely bit of knitting. the hooks must have been rusted as when he struck he was left with the tackle that had been hanging from the pike including some remains of rusty hooks. Unfortunately Gavin had a blank but his day will come. By the time we started to tackle down the fog was coming down again and there was a layer of ice on all the tackle. Productive baits on the day was Sardine, Half Herring and Lamprey, all legered.

November

Small borders waters

Unfortunately there was only two members fishing this trip, Gavin and Robert Murray. After looking at a couple of waters they chose to fish a water near Selkirk. They managed 5 pike with the best being exactly 10lb, caught on a small dead roach. Hopefully more members will attend the December trip and someone else will catch a pike.

 

October

Wakefield

13lb Pike caught on half a large Mackerel

This privileged access event organised by Peter Green, the Yorkshire Liaison Officer, is very popular with a lot of the PAC members in the North East. This venue has produced a lot of personal best pike to over 24lb.

Five members of the region turned out on the first Sunday, on a day that started overcast and damp and got progressively wetter. Before the rain started Rob Murray managed to get one definite run on half a mackerel (which was at least half a pound in weight). This run produced the 13lb pike opposite. Shortly after the fish was landed he had 2 other suspected runs, but there was no bait on when he wound in. So there was no chance of looking for pike teeth marks.

On the second Sunday another 5 members attended the Wakefield event, on a day that had clear blue skies for most of the day. A strong wind picked up for the afternoon, which caused a drifting weed problem for some areas of the lake. On the day 2 pike where caught, a 7lb jack for Neil Baker and a 4lb jack for Bruce Turnbull. The results over the first couple of weekends were a little disappointing, with the general opinion being that the weather was still to warm and the pike had not started the usual Autumn feeding. Hopefully the Darlington and Teesside Region will have better luck on the 4th of November. The next monthly trip will probably be into the borders.

 

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