Chappa's first scottish pike!!!!

[Rossthedon]

it aint a biggie but its his first pike since january and his first scottish pike (i think?)
he had another plus lost a couple but all in all i hope you had a good day chappa and next time your up my way gimme a shout

[Rossthedon]

BTW, congratulations on the fish, i know it wasnt the big scot you were after but i reckon you should win july fish of the month for that, seriously, its not just the fish that counts its the story, and the effort you put in to catch them elusive little blighters, il let you tell it deano, as it was quite a mission you had considering your circumstances, work, lack of sleep etc......
that was a well deserved fish my friend and i for one would vote that fish of the month (i know the story behind it tho)
so come on everyone, a BIG congrats to chappa for his first scottish pike..........

[blackwater]

well done,

It's a lovely marked fish and by the sound of things it was well deserved.

BW

[pingu]

somehow missed this post first time

yeah a sweet jack and nice markings

dave

[smarr7]

nice fish mate well done :)

[Chappa]

At last a few quiet moments to post a reply!

Thanks Ross, that fish did take a lot of effort to catch! I've had no joy at all with the pike since the weather warmed up, so it was good to get out with someone who knew what he was doing! Like I said, I live in Leicester and work in Manchester but was asked to go to Edinburgh for a few days work so off I went. The drive north took 6.5 hrs so I was knackered by the time I got to the airport at 3pm, ready for my night shift . Luckilly I got an early stack and was in bed at my digs for 12.30 am. Not much in the way of sleep followed as Ross said we needed to be at the water for first light, which up there is just before 4am, and it was a 45min drive away. So after my 2.5 hrs sleep I picked up Ross and we were at the loch (after a minor detour ) for about 04:30 I say at the loch, we then had to TAB (sorry mate ) half a mile or so to the swim we wanted. We sent out the deads to a likely few spots, 2 rods apiece and waited. After an hour or so I could see Ross was starting to twitch that after all the hype we might blank, but I had faith! Then from one of his float fished mackeral (I think) Ross had a ripping take which looked like a really good sized fish. He struck into it and it pulled for a while, only to drop the bait. Ross was gutted, but on the bright side at least we knew the fish were there. After another short while I looked up to find one of my floats was missing and the line was peeling right, accross the loch. (4/10 for observation, see me) I struck into it and had a nice fight from the fish pictured above, we nearly got a tail-walk out of it too but it didn't quite get clear of the water. My first pike for 5 months and although I'm not smiling in the shot, trust me I was chuffed.

Over the next few hours we both sat patiently, and both missed a couple of takes, but that's life. Around 11am 1 of my floats had drifted a bit close to a nearby buoy, so I began to reel it in. I hadn't even got 1 wind in when I got a definite and firm take, the fish must have been sat watching the bait. So in came my second of the day which was just brilliant after such a wait. Ross blanked but to his credit he genuinely wasn't bothered, he was just glad I hadn't travelled a 600 mile round trip and got nothing!

So a big thank you to Ross for taking me to his secret location, and picking up all the bait, a really nice bloke, knowledgeable about his fishing too, I'd recommend a visit to anyone thinking of piking north of the border.

Cheers mate

Chappa

[Rossthedon]

well done mate, you really did deserve them fish, i think the second was the bigger of the two was it not? you got that pic on your phone, if you send it to me i can post it for you if you cant do it yourself mate.
im glad you enjoyed the day, i worked all day and about evening started doing some work in the garden, then had a couple of PC's to fix, got all my fishing gear togeather and realised it was about 1am so i never even bothered to get any sleeep as i thought i would just be even more knackered! so i just stayed up till you arrived!

i think if we had both been a bit more on the ball and not like a couple of zombies we would have had a few more fish as there was definately plenty about, and as you said i was genuinely not in the least bothered about blanking myself, i was just pleased you got a couple and i am sorry you never hit anything bigger as there usually is a couple of decent sized fish in that swim (think that first one i missed was a half decent size, felt like it anyways) that was the first time i have blanked at that spot too! your half Irish right enough so you had all the luck that day!

well done mate and as i said before, if your ever back up this way then gimme a shout, you are a top bloke and a good fishing buddy (i had my ipod and a good book in me bag just in case, and i never even took them out lol)
Ross