Santa arrived early

Santa arrived early, ordered a curado 301dsz, its a new style curado, my old one is excellent but they just brought this out in a new size so i have replaced my calcutta 201 on my dave lumb fooler. Managed to sneak in braid and a few lures as well without santa knowing about it.

Got some reaper tails, and spoke to dave lumb about how to fish them, gonna give them and creatures a blast next year, have mastered jigging other types of lures the last two years but gonna try these new ones next year. Just waiting for some stand up jig heads to arrive frm lumby then we are cooking with gas.

A river runs through it

Long ago rain fell on mud and became rocks,

1/2 a billion years ago,

But even before that, before the rocks, are the words of god

And if you and i and listen all our lifes we might just hear those words

Menteith 3rd November

26lber from Menteith, fantastic, Me and Si had a balls up of a start, pushed off couldn't get the engine down, ran into rons boat, the fuel pipe came off squirted about 2 pints of fuel all over the place, lost the cap of the engine, then we eventually got going.

We started trolling around the islands, Si had a few to 11lbs, then we drifted around the island where i got 2 on castaic sbt 8" rainbow trout, then we drifted past a hump and a dock and i got one on a platinum castaic 8" rainbow trout. Atfter this we found a wind line where it was very still i had a 16 then a 26 one a chartreuse squirko, Si then had a 18 (new pb) of a 6" kickin shad. After this we caught a few fish on the other side of the island Si on perch replicants me on the same sbt castaic

Caught a fish with a salmo skinner in its mouth, no trace or anything, a bit odd




New gear tested out

Squirko, got the 26 on it so canny complain

http://www.smokeysmuskieshop.com/RapidCat/catalog/pagetemplate.cfm?template=/RapidCat/catalog/productList.cfm&GroupId=4060&Current_CompanyId=1196

Creatures and Reapers

Tried to pour these moulds and it went pear shaped, the balsa blanks were painted with spray filler to smooth out there surface i used aerosol cavity wax as a mould release which never worked as you can see above as its all stuck in the mould. The top one was poured with one full pour of about 300ml of resin, it was so hot whilst the chemical reaction that cures the resin took place the cardboard around the mould was smoking. The second was done in three stages so as not to let the heat build up as much, however this worked the opposite and the heat of the second and third pours warped the first pour which is the surface the rubber gets poured onto.


I am going to try to put a bit work into these moulds to see if i can restore the mould surfaces, but i have another ace card up my sleeve to try before i give up.

Saturday Trip 20th Oct

Bloody lovely day, pike fishing was crap though, only managed one on a yellow perch Castaic, it was just a jack but at least it was a fish. Just after this a huge brown trout of about 5-6lb came up off the reef and looked at the same Castaic, bloody lovely fish, I would have preferred that than any pike of any size.


Later on in the day there was an almighty bang like a shotgun going off, it turned out it was a outboard engine, it banged then went on fire, and nearly took the boat out with it, the guys chucked the outboard into the water and put the fire out on the boat, we had to rescue them and tow them back to the boat hire place for them to tell the guy they had ditched his engine.







New gear tested out


6" Yellow Perch Castaic, This one caught the fish today so I can't complain, i was trying to save it for the lake, it will need extensive supergluing


8" Castaic Platinum Swimbait, the worked very well until i rigged a stinger then the action went from it, then the hook retaining magnet fell out of it, maybe write to Castaic and complain about this lure


Lindy Fish Handling glove, these gloves are great except they have changed them and put a big bloody seam down the index finger which makes them hard to use, maybe write to Lindy as well


Goretex XCR Trango Jacket, I have been trying to change my fishing clothes into mountain walking clothes as my pike fishing is going to take a different turn next year, i like hiking into the mountains to find my pike, fishing clothes are cheap crap and too heavy. This jacket is the ultimate waterproof outer shell, pockets, breathable pit zips etc etc, what more could you need

Old shads/castaics

I've been fishing a lot of shads and have loads of chewed up plastic kicking about, being a horder i knew there was no point in chucking in out, so i decided to make a couple of moulds to melt this plastic down and pour my own lures, here are two prototypes, one is more or less a creature, the mould will make creatures and creature spins, then the second is a reaper type lure but with the twist of an added tail for extra attraction

Custom painted ERC Tripple D's and Double D's

Menteith lure day is looming and so is the sale of my house so all my airbrushing gear is being packed asap, time to get the finger out and turn some white bits of plastic in to something remotely fishable. Got the blanks from musky mania along with a pile of others, good cheap way to buy them if you have the know how to paint them.

Alastair Mcphee rates these lures as some of his best so i got some colour patterns from him and knocked these up quickly before the Menteith day out.

Musky Mania Blanks http://www.muskymania.com/

My Custom Burts

Eventually got round to making myself some custom burts, have been doing this for everyone else except myself, so my lure box as ever suffers whilst everyone else's expands.

The top burt is a slow sinking one, it runs the deepest of them all, i like waiting a long time for this to sink to the bottom then working it back.

The brown trout one is a totally suspending lure, this was custom weighted for me by my mate John Blaney

The rainbow trout one is a factory weighted burt.

They were all painted by myself, then envirotexed to seal them

Big Ricky has been catching on some Burts i painted for him, below is a fish he caught on a fluro Popsicle

PAAS day out

Day out today on a wee loch near Edinburgh, me and Dougie were on the boat, Dougie took the helm which was fine for me as i usually drive. The loch was a small reservoir with no great depth, down to about 30ft odd we found but we weren't in the middle so who knows. We headed to the other side to a deep hole, drifted the point and hole and found loads of fry high up in the water. I had a hit on a Fox 6" replicant in perch pattern that was brand new (I colour the tail in with red marker), it came in with no teeth marks? the next cast a huge rainbow followed it up. We then trolled round by the dam back where i had a fish on a shallow raider then round the corner another fish on the same lure. We anchored by a couple of friends we knew and had another fish on a perch replicant. I managed another couple of fish trolling the shallow raider again, then we anchored up and put baits out, and a huge pile of rubby-dubby i had 2 fish on baits Dougie 1 then he had a fish on a SSR.

New gear i tested out today Baker hook out 9" and Knipex mini bolt cutters. The Baker hook out is really cheap cheerful and robust into the bargain, it worked great on little bait hooks as well, very impressed with this. The Knipex cutters in my opinion are overkill 9" high leverage ones are fine for this type of work but i can't get them from america so they work out £40 from UK suppliers, the crazy thing is I Imported these bolt croppers from Rollie and Helen's for £20 the are £50 rrp in the UK so it was cheaper to buy these than the high leverage ones even though they are over and above anything you would need. They are good cutters, I had to chop a Owner hook up, they did it in seconds, I need to dry them out and find a container to put them in with oil as they rust like buggery, dunno why Knipex don't do them in a chromed non-rust finish like the high leverage ones, madness, they would sell like hot cakes to the lure market in America.

Bolt Cutters and Hook out http://www.muskyshop.com/modules/web/index.php/id/1

Owner hooks to replace shitty hooks supplied on lures http://www.dlst.co.uk/

A River Runs Through it

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

The river was cut by the worlds great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.

On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops.

Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters.

A river runs through it, Norman Maclean


This is my all time favourite quote, and is a lot deeper and meaningful than just a bit in some old fishing book. In my humble opinion i compare the opening sentence as a fisherman's take on the English burial service

Ashes to ashes dust to dust - meaning - we come from dust we return to dust

Adapted from biblical text

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Eventually in our physical form we shall return to the ground (all things merge into one) and with a positive fisherman's slant we won't be far from what we love (and a river runs through it).

(On some of the rocks are timeless rain drops, under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs) I take this to mean the lives and memories of people who have lived and returned to the ground before us, where we will soon return to and our words will be heard no more.

This is my humble take on it, i love it so much i even had it put on my rods, I'd much appreciate and constructive criticism any one has on this to help me better understand it.

Handmade boat rods from http://www.dlst.co.uk/ Dave Lumb

Weekend Trip, 6th 7th October

Spent the weekend on a big Scottish loch whilst the troops were on the dam catching nothing, fish in the picture went 14.5lbs caught on a dead brown trout, about 1 hour before this Andy had one at 16lber on a ledgered trout as well, the picture is stuck on my crappy old phone, i can't text it or e-mail it from there AHH!!!

At night we had a slap up dinner in the local hotel, we were soaked through and glad of the heat and warm food, the beer was good as well, maybe too good.

We trolled a few ferox hotspots and Andy managed a 5lb jack off a hump of 30ft on a perch pattern baby depthraider.

This was my first trip on Andy's new boat, its a belter, he more or less rebuilt this boat from scratch, brand new 20hp engine, I'm jealous.



Tried out a few new bits of gear,

Berghaus Storm Goretex trousers - worked well, maybe not thick enough though

North Face Redpoint Jacket - Really warm and shower proof enough, glad of it in the cold

The Lake, Edgar Allan Poe

In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less-
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.

But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody-
Then–ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.

Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight-
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define-
Nor Love–although the Love were thine.

Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining-
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.

A Good Fishing Flask by John Forret

If there is one thing I like when I’m fishing its hot food, it cheers you up, giving you that little bit extra staying power on a miserable day. The only way in my opinion to get hot food to the fishing is in a flask. I hate stoves, they stink of petrol and are bloody dangerous, I nearly sunk the boat on Esthwaite one day when one spat burning petrol onto the inside of the boat, turns out fiberglass is flammable, not just that, trying to cook in a wave is just to dangerous for someone as clumsy as me.

The first serious flask I ever bought was what I thought at the time was the flask that would last me a life time. It had everything I wanted it was robust and sleek. That flask was perfect it was the right height, width and had all the things in the right places. Everything was right about us, we worked well together, looking back I still have some great memories of some fun times we had. I was convinced at the time we were so well suited that that was it for me and that flask would never be separated. But I was young and still relatively inexperienced in life.

My second flask happened by accident, as I mentioned me and my first flask were rock solid, we went everywhere together. But one day I was in a hi-tec camping shop and another flask caught my eye. This thing was tall, slim and sophisticated, it has a fancy pouring spout that was so flash, I knew when I seen it, that’s the type of flask you like to be seen out with, the type of flask you know other people would admire, if you never paid it much attention your pals would be off with it as soon as your back was turned. But as I said me and my old flask were rock solid this new flask was just to high maintenance for me with that sophisticated pouring spout. The thing is though, life with my old flask was just so effortless, everything was perfect, sometimes just to perfect, nothing ever went wrong, life was easy, no excitement no drama, it would never leak out in your bag, things would never get cold it was just right, it was dependable. The tall slim flask was always in the back of my mind but life was so perfect why change things.

Then one day it happened I dropped that old flask, there was no serious damage done, there was a small dent in the side. But I guess that was the thin end of the wedge, it didn’t seem as perfect as it had done; there was something not right about it, a chink in its armour. Don’t get me wrong functionally there was nothing wrong with the flask, life was just as normal and things went on as normal for months. It wasn’t until one night I was out late night shopping, I’ve got to admit in hindsight it was late, I was tired, my judgment was impaired. I happened across that tall slim flask, things just happened before I even knew where I was I was caught in the moment; the sophisticatedness of this new flask just suckered me in. Needless to say we went home together. I felt a bit rotten for the old flask after all the time we spent together but my life had changed I needed a little excitement, the old flask got put in the cupboard with my tuperware.

Well exciting times we had, a flask like that needs care and attention, its not the type of flask that would put up with the old bit Bovril or Tea, it needed that little bit extra, Thai style chicken noodle soup or something expensive like consume. We had some special times, it was lightweight so it meant we could have some really special times, we ended up hiking up to some remote hill lochs, it packed well to so we could get out high speed lure fishing, running and gunning the big lochs. These are the kinda times you get real experience from, bragging rights to your pals. In fact I think I took a couple of movies on my phone of me and that flask, the boys at work were very interested. Great times only have a short life expectancy and needless to say things had to come to an end, that flask was just to expensive to maintain, and I can’t be yomping up hills and running and gunning lure fishing all my life, I was kinda burn’t out, I spent a short while away from fishing after that flask.
Eventually I got the notion for getting back into fishing, I decided to take it easier than I had done. I decided to do a bit of bait fishing, chilling out behind the rods seemed to be what the doctor ordered, the thing was I did’t have a flask for the job. So I put myself on the market and went out looking for a new flask. I found a flask that wasn’t perfect but would do. It was a wide mouth flask, it was small and dumpy, not the best looking by any manner of means but I guessed it would do, there were plenty left on the shelf so it didn’t cost me much. In all honesty It wasn’t the best flask I had been with but I guessed that the small dumpy ones need to try a little harder so it would do for now, I’ll not be shouting from the roof tops about it but at least I was fishing again, as they say its like riding a bike, you never forget how. Things were fine for a while with that flask, it was comfortable, it had a sort of glow about it, the thing about it was it was like riding a moped, it was fine till my friends found out. I started to get a bit of a slagging about that flask, I could put up with it but then its wide mouth started getting me in trouble and that was the end for that flask. It turned out because of the wide mouth it was letting heat escape through the top end, I guess that’s what the glow was about, it was the heat escaping from my chips and curry sauce, as I said it ended up more hassle than it was worth, turning up to the fishing and my chips were cold.

Things haven’t been too bad since then, I have been without a serious flask for a while. I kept the tall slim flask, we were still fishing buddies. Anytime I needed a good hard serious fishing it was always there.

Well I can’t go on in life without a flask, now I’m older and wiser and have a bit of cash I would like something like my first flask but more elegant, something that could give me long term commitment, something like a Stanley Aladdin flask. I know they are expensive, but they look the part and I guess it could go the distance. The thing is if I go for a flask like that it will need real commitment, I’ll need to clean out the cupboard to give it space, there would be no room for quickies with the tall slim flask. I guess that’s what I need at this stage in my life, monogamy.

Summer Spoon Fishing by John Forret

I’ve been sat here at the laptop now for far longer than ever needed to start this story about spoon fishing over the last few years. I’ve been reflecting over the last few seasons where I have been fishing and catching my share of fish on a long forgotten lure that used to be one of the main weapons in a pike anglers arsenal. My fascination with fishing spoon started with collecting all things old. I collect antiquarian pike fishing books, a hobby that’s more expensive than my budget in the main. But then I guess that maybe one of the attractions, you always want what you can’t have. Its funny when you want something real bad it feels like everyone else wants the same thing but when you come to sell it there seems to be seldom buyers. I guess that most people with a kin ship for expansive hobbies and online auctions feel the same.

Collecting and fishing spoons is one of the cheaper things I do, its certainly cheaper than fishing plugs or Jerkbaits. I seem to have caught a few fish over the past two seasons with spoons and would like to think of myself as a little more experienced than most anglers in this method, most likely why I have sat down today and thought about writing a story about it. I think some people think that’s part of my eccentricity spending a lot of time messing about with bent bits of metal worth a couple of quid rather than a very fashionable Jerkbait worth 10 times the price, sometimes I think the money invested in one of these lures is the confidence that makes the lure work for some folk. I think when I explain to people the fun I have had and the fish I have caught on these little bent bits of metal it adds to my eccentricity, most just think you’re a bullshitter or don’t know what you are talking about, but then its worth letting them think that as they generally leave you alone and its not my fault as I tried to advise them before they ended up with a Plano box of expensive firewood. Occasionally its good to get your own back, I was out fishing recently with my friend and we fished the water all morning from different boats and had struggled on a relatively easy water, we began slow trolling in which was annoyingly very nearly the same contour, when as luck would have it my spoon pulled a few fish out the bag, even right under the nose of my buddy, its hard to be overly chuffed without showing of to much after all I held this guy with high regard being a very knowledgeable angler, but being younger than most folk I fish with sometimes its just nice to thing to yourself I told you so. Whose the eccentric one now.

During the last 30 minutes pondering before I started typing I noticed a few things, the type of things that sneak up on you, if your busy for other reasons than being out fishing, these things tend to sneak up on you as you don’t notice the season change, but looking about its apparent we are into the winter, dinners these days are of the robust winter nature, thick root vegetable soups and casseroles topped up with a hearty stout or ale, winter grub nearly makes it worth it. Its also apparent I have missed the tail end of the trout season a trip I usually make at least once before the season ends and it becomes to cold for any type of fly or lure fishing. One thing that’s apparent I nearly haven’t fished as much as I planned to last winter and its likely that I won’t now as the nights are too long for weekend trips and before long its going to be too cold for any serious time out lure fishing.

Its here unfortunately, and so is the realization, which just makes it worse, the boat’s in for the winter, the lures are in storage. I hate it; the winter torment is the worst time of the year. You’re a frozen relic of a pike angler. Lure fishing is out of the question as its far to cold, trailing all that bait gear out of the house for a mere 8 hours of light seems like you’ll put into it more than you get out, it’s a hopeless horrible situation. After work lure trips down some local water have been substituted for long nights on the phone talking to your buddies about next years trips, pre-baiting campaigns, pioneering new waters, even a foreign trip for some crazy Spanish Barbel, you know you have over committed yourself, but so do your buddies, the worst thing is most of it won’t happen and you all know it.

You just know soon that an island in this whole mess is coming, Christmas and New Year, time to get stupefyingly drunk for a week and forget about the torment that haunts you. Its funny how Christmas shopping always ends up in Glasgow, and invariably ends up in pointless trips to a shop somewhere near Possil or the Glasgow Cross picking up some very important piece of tackle like split rings or snap links. To make it worse on the sly you have mail order lures and rods and bivvies and braid turning up from all over the world that hasn’t exactly had the green light from her in doors.


Just now I have realized its winter, summer spoon fishing, now that wouldn’t make much of a story.

ERC Hellhound

Custom painted hellhound from Esox Research, just ready for epoxying

Afternoon Fly fishing

Was very kindly invited out for an afternoon trout fly fishing before the season ends. It was terrible weather i found a little hole with high banks, the wind was over the top of my head to my back, perfect, found some flys and matched them to dry Greenwells Glorys (Below). We caught a pile of wee fish and had twice as many fish come up to the fly.

Boat Gone

Sold my boat, this is my third boat so far, the first was a dory type effort, it didn't last long the fiberglass was full of water as it had lay in an estuary in barrow-in-furness for years, so 5 mins with a sandvik handsaw and it was en route to the dump, the second boat i had was an all singing all dancing Quicksilver Ali boat, it was good in theory, it was light and easy to carry onto places with no real slip way, however it got ripped on one of the seams and was practically unfixable, even all though i know welders and work in an aluminum repair centre it was going to be to a lot of hastle to weld it then re-seal and rivet the full seam, plus when you were out on the water it caught the wind like a sail, trolling was a bloody nightmare in it.

This was my last boat bought from my mate Ricky, it was a belter, everything i thought i would need, i never thought i would sell it, but the engine wasn't great it needed a wee bit tlc, and i had no where to store it, it ended up becoming more hastle than it was worth, very sad to see it go as it handled the water really well, it had a big long keel, perfect for trolling and slowed you down on the drift no end, great boat, sad day.

Last trip of the year to my summer pike spot

Made the last trip of the year to my summer haunt, I never knew this would be the last trip but its funny how other things come along that side track you. This river break is one of my most productive spots on this loch, the pike sit right in the slack water watching the minnows, Abu tormentors 13cm in brown trout pattern, gold jointed Rapala 11cm lures are the order of the day. My wife likes fishing spinnerbaits here as its so snaggy, Manns 6" brown perch shads have also produced double figure hauls. We had a pile of fish this day, it was bright and we were able to stalk the fish in the peat stained water, it was hard not to spook fish if you never noticed them, when you did about 5 fish in the same cut all spooked out as well, difficult fishing but well and truly fantastic.

I had a knock of a fish much further out than the drop off, it went wild it was out the water about 10 times, it must have been because of all the pike sneaking about, a beautiful wild brown trout.

Also was fishing 6" Mann's hard head jerkbaits, a lot like Sluggo's but more modern, and again in my favourite brown perch colour. What i want to know is how did the fish mangle it like this, it was turned outside in and took me a couple of minutes to work out how to fix it.

We had a barrel load of fish.

Man's lures and VMC Jig heads http://www.sovereignsuperbaits.co.uk/

Strike Pro Buster

Cut up a buster to see what was inside, love this colour as well but they were only £5 from Harris Sportsmail at the L.A.S. convention

L.A.S. http://www.lureanglers.co.uk/

Harris Sportsmail http://www.harrissportsmail.com/