North of the border

A trip to Scotland to visit some friends was on the agenda for this weekend and after much grovelling with headquarters i managed to get a pass to squeeze a spot of fishing in whilst we were up there. Space in the car was pretty limited but i still managed to shoehorn a couple of lure rods in there! Our destination was Lockerbie and a quick bit of research on the net to see what piscatorial opportunities are available in that area pointed me towards Castle Loch at Lochmaben, a water that seemed a reliable bet for a Pike or two i hoped.
Saturday morning was my allocated fishing time and i was Lochside at the first opportunity. The first thing that struck me (apart from the god awful rain) was the lack of fishable swims on the water. At over 200 acres youd think that there would be plenty of bankspace but the vast majority of it was surrounded by thick beds of reeds and there was only maybe a dozen fishable swims! Most of these swims already had  bivvies in them belonging to the local Pikers and i wasnt filled with confidence when they revealed the fishing was extremely slow. One guy had been there for three days and only had a solitary Jack! I eventually managed to find some fishable water and set about trying to tempt something regardless.

A bloody long way from home!

The weather upon my arrival was pretty dire

Most of the lake was surrounded by this

 

There was some interesting woodcarvings dotted around the lake ........

..... and some great wildlife to be seen aswell

I even managed to catch something! not big but very welcome considering everybody else was blanking, good old Mepps never lets me down!

After finishing at Castle Loch i headed into Lochmaben to grab a bite to eat before heading to another nearby water called Kirk Loch. This place was much smaller compared to Castle at around 30 Acres id say and is set slap bang in the middle of a golf course. Despite being told the place was free fishing there was no other anglers present and as i made my first cast i was half expecting to be chucked off at any minute. Kirk loch, although deeper than Castle loch was a lot weedier but the fish were certainly more obliging. In about half an hours fishing i managed to hook 3 fish, all jacks and landed two of them. Id have loved to have given it a couple of hours more to try and tempt a bigger specimen but sadly my time ran out and i had to leave, i know where ill be headed next time im up there though!

Kirk Loch

I was bringing this back most casts

The fish seemed to be feeding though!