It is that small pre-season window when members of LASAC are permitted to fish at Loch Coulter for Pike. This last few years the club has allowed us to visit the water in the two weeks pre-season and I think one week after the season ends ( would need to check that) and see if they can locate any Pike, and report on where they are being found.

While it may be controversial to some, it is the anglers choice whether they choose to take the fish or return them. There are arguments both ways, on one hand you might argue that removing any big pike allows the proliferation of Jacks, as the bigger pike tend to control numbers though cannibalism, on the other hand, the fish were maliciously introduced and should not be there in the first place.

Given the number of Perch in the water, ( you can barely avoid them when the water gets warmer) I am apt to believe the Pike are probably better in the water than not, to at least help to control the Perch numbers. One thing that is for sure, any argument that the Pike eat all the trout is clearly false based on my visit yesterday.

Pretty much most of the time I went up, yesterday, about 3 hours in total fishing, there were frequent hatches of small black midges off the water, and plenty Trout following them up to take them. In fact I saw more fish rising yesterday than I would expect to see in a normal “in-season” fishing day. So plenty trout have survived the predations of Pike over the winter it would appear. I also couldn’t help but notice the height of the water…Loch Coulter is full to the brim. Not seen it this high in quite some time which is also great, and slightly surprising. While we had an awful lot of rain in late autumn and early winter, its been quite a dry late winter, February was pretty mild and dry for almost the entire month and you would imagine water levels might drop a little as a result, but presumably Scottish Water aren’t taking water off the loch just yet.

I had a quick look in the book to see if many Pike had been caught. I know last season when I gave it a go I had no interest from Pike or Perch which surprised me. I was aware then of maybe one or two being removed and about half a dozen being caught. Not a particularly large tally for a loch that’s this size I wouldn’t think. This year so far it appears only two have been caught and in fact it appear more out-of-season trout have fallen victim to Pike lures than Pike.

I spoke to one other angler up there yesterday who took the opportunity to enjoy the conditions, it really did turn out to be a very pleasant afternoon until a band of rain swept in about half past four. He was fishing soft plastic lures and never touched a fish.

I tried a variety of spinners and soft plastic baits as well fishing in and around the weedier areas and never had so much as a touch.

Someone had written in the book that they didn’t think there were that many pike left in the loch, and I am inclined to agree. I have only ever caught one on a dry fly of all things, in the nearly ten years I have been a member. Yesterday will go down as yet another blank. I don’t have a fly rod heavy enough to fish the type of flies necessary to attract Pike, yes you can catch them on trout lures but then that would likely result in hooking out-of-season Trout as well. So it is spinners, spoons and plastics I use. I find it quite hard work, and a couple of hours is about all I can manage before I start to flag. I cannot deny my old arthritic joints ( especially my shoulders) really start to ache after chucking 22gram spoons at the water for an hour with a rod that’s likely too light really for serious predator fishing.

But it was nice way to kill a Sunday afternoon which was threatening the return into the worst of winter has to offer us….as ever the weather gives us a tantalizing glimpse of fine dry mild early spring weather then turns around to remind us that its still actually winter. We have yellow warnings for snow pretty much all this week and temperatures being forecast to fall as low as -6C this week as well, which isn’t a lot of fun. Hopefully, it warms up again quickly afterwards as the Trout season beckons in less than 10 days.