Time for plan B to kick into place. I had been scouting a local loch for a while but did not have the chance to fish it as often as I would have liked. I now had 4 days off work, a kayak and fishing gear to hand so now was the time.

On my first day I paddled around the bays, up and down the river banks and spent a good eight hours trolling up and down.

For my efforts I landed a nice 20lb plus pike, the fish at first felt like I had hooked unto a branch of a tree. Slow and heavy return until it saw the kayak and then it went berserk. Jumping over the bow of the kayak several times. I noticed at this point it was too dangerous to try and land on the kayak with the treble hooks and the temper of the fish. I paddled into the bank to land it.

I did not have a means of measuring the fish and my adrenalin was pumping so I took a picture with the fish and a set of pliers. I later measured the pliers and the measure just over 14cm.

Day two I done the same, paddling around the bays, trolling up and down. Fly fishing, lure jigging, mepps and surface lures. This day I was only producing perch up to about 1lb. I missed a good perch of around 2lb at the side of the kayak which managed to shake itself free.

The third day I invited my friend Chris Clements along with me, he had never fished the loch before, he is a great match fisherman and loves to catch perch.

I took him round to the first bay and on his second cast he landed a very nice wild brown trout over 2lb. I was very happy for him but at the same time very jealous as brown trout are very hard to catch in this loch.

We continued to paddle around the first bay, catc

hin

g jack pike nearly every cast. We had mastered the jacks but it was the perch we were after.

We paddled down the connecting river where I cast into a nice pool and hooked into what I thought was a big pike. After I played the fish for a while I noticed it was a giant brown trout again, this time bigger than Chris’s :-). I was over the moon, the two brown trout were stunning and the chances of catching one, never mind two are slim.

We both agreed that we could have went home there and then happy men but we fished on.

Paddling up and down. Catching pike after pike. I lost count after 10. We still wanted to catch the grand slam, pike, perch and trout. The perch are normally the easiest to catch but today were bein elusive.

We paddled further along into another bay. Trying different tactics and fishing the drop offs until we found them. Once we had mastered catching the perch we were hauling them in. Loads around the 1lb mark and I had one just slightly over.

A great few days fishing in some great scenery with great company.