News - April 2008

Unfortunately, once again, the coarse season has now drawn to a close, so the Pike Anglers of Cambourne made their final outing to Cobbinshaw Reservoir in Scotland. This incorporated the last round of the predator cup. The biggest fish to have been caught so far during the previous 5 rounds of this season’s cup campaign was 13lb 8ozs. This
had been caught on one of our few visits to Ardleigh
Reservoir near Colchester, Essex. We hoped to surpass this on our trip to Scotland.
Cobbinshaw is a very vast, open venue, but it does have some spectacular views. Its size is approximately 400 acres, and it lies about 20 miles east of Edinburgh.

We arrived in Biggar in Scotland on a Saturday lunchtime, having departed at 5.00am. The journey had taken approximately 7 hours with a couple of stops along the way for our canine companions… Shieldhill Castle was to be our accommodation for 3 days, before moving onto a B&B in Dumfries. Shieldhill is a magnificent country home, formerly a castle, dating from 1199.

I was not particularly amused to learn it has its own ghost, a “grey lady” who appears on the stone staircase and in certain rooms. We can attest to some tv interference and eerie chills, and I was not too happy that fellow angler Nigel and my own wife persisted in trying to tell ghost stories around the huge, baronial, burning log fire! My mood lifted
at a winter wonderland snowfall which arrived after our day’s piking. The dogs loved that too and we had some fine walking in the drifts. The fishing was chilly enough though, and, despite the presence of some dozen or more other boats with hardy anglers, nobody managed to land a pike. Not a sniff! This
also meant that the predator cup had now come to its final conclusion as well, the biggest pike caught over the six rounds was that fish of 13lb 8ozs, this had been caught by yours truly. We heard there had been considerably more success at the PAC’s event at Menteith on the previous day; A good number of fish – including some whoppers – were landed on that day. Maybe this could be the venue for us
next year?

 Having left Shieldhill to its ghostly goings on, we moved on to Dumfries & Galloway where I planned some further fishing at Auchenreach Loch. A boat was booked at the Loch View Motel which was on the bank of the loch; in fact it was to be the only boat they had at all.

Thursday soon came of that week, so with rods at the ready I made the short trip up the A75 towards Stranraer. On my arrival I began to wonder if I had made a good choice, the boat had no proper anchor -just an old breeze block- plus one oar, a shabby old length of rope and was full of water.

After half an hour or so I had finally made the boat
somewhat water-worthy and set off across the loch in hope of going home with at least one fish for all my efforts. The earlier part of the morning was taken up by trolling around just to find out what depths and features were out there and whether I could locate some shoal fish. Most of the loch averaged around 10ft, so after finding a deeper area of just under 30ft I anchored up and began casting some large lures. Not much was happening so I tried an old favourite, a yellow crackle replicant. On its second cast I was into a fish, and what a lovely conditioned pike it turned out to be. Ok it was only around 6lb, but it was one of nicest fish I think that I have ever caught.
 

No more pike came my way so I decided to try the bottom end of the loch which I had been told was worth a try. This advice that I had been given was fully appreciated but, after my arrival to this area, things didn’t quite go to plan. THE ANTIQUATED ENGINE I had been given decided to pack up which meant I was to be blown by the strong winds
into the reeds at the bottom of the loch. To say I wasn’t the happiest chappie in Scotland was a slight
understatement. Now “up the proverbial creek”, I had no way of getting out, especially as my only oar had also broken in half after countless efforts of trying to free myself!
Eventually I swallowed my pride and rang the motel for help only to be told that they had no means of recovering me from my predicament. “GREAT” I suppose I should have known what the answer was going to be. Anyway shortly after making my SOS call to the motel the owner actually made his way out by road then waded across the marshy area to reach me. The two of us managed to get the boat free and back up to the motel. It was then that I
was also offered a free day’s fishing for the inconvenience caused if I was to return in the near future. “Not likely I thought”, next time I will not take such a chance on a shabby old vessel, I shall just look for another loch instead!

 

I guess that’s all for this season folks, hope you have enjoyed our column this season. Maybe we will now get to see some new faces on the river banks come June for some summer lure fishing.



Until next time, keep well, Stu