Spinning plates

It’s been busy over the last month or so here at FishX and I’ve struggled to post as often as usual on social media, so I thought I’d do a quick blog to let you guys know what’s been happening.

My own fishing has been pretty none existent, other than some short pleasure sessions on my local trout water!

Proud Dad!
Being the father of five boys has taken over recently, the boys back at boxing post covid their training has took up a lot of time. But life lesson if you want something you have to work hard and the boys were rewarded with my second oldest Campbell winning gold at the Scottish schoolboy championships and my boy in the middle of the pack Ramsay picking up a silver!

I did manage a trip with the five boys in tow, whilst the good lady was away walking the west highland way! We headed off to chase sea bass on the coast but despite being out in the middle of the night, casting fly’s into the darkness, which is an experience itself, I turned up a blank! It’s a true saying you can’t catch what’s not there and the fish seemed to be out a bit further than we could cast our fly’s, feeding  in deeper water! The highlight was this cracking shot I managed to get of Neil Turner playing a bass he managed during the day, whilst we were fishing a pollock mark!Neil put the shot to good use and got a canvas done for his wall! Really nice buddy!

Loch Ken Perch Mecca

I had FishX regular guest out for a perch trip on Loch Ken. Mark now holds the record for number of species to the boat in a trip, catching perch, ruff, bream and pike!

Here’s Mark with some nice Ken perch, showing off at times catching two at once!

Even though I think we we’re a few weeks early for the best fishing I managed a few nice ones myself

the tourists return

it’s been great to welcome some tourists back and I had the pleasure of welcoming Maria and William from London, who were spending the weekend in Edinburgh for some short notice trout fishing. Neither of the guys had cast a fly before, we sorted that out but although we managed a few hooks ups Maria won the bragging rights with her massive perch! Great company and a pleasure to spend a few hours with!

I introduced some guys to pike fly fishing! Robert Kippen, already a pike angler took to it like a duck to water, having close to ten fish to the boat in his session!

Neal Annand (Angus)  and Colin Williams from Wales we’re both seasoned Salmon anglers, used to fishing a double hander took a bit of getting used to single handed rod and really having to rip the hook into the pikes hard boney mouths! But after missing half a dozen takes or so and Colin dropping a fish estimated over 20lbs after a five minute battle, the guys managed a number of fish to their boats!

Colin was with us for four days and was looking for a varied and wild experience! Time was split fishing highland rivers for trout, casting from the bank for pike and fishing from my own boat and a day on the lake of dreams! (Mentieth!) Colin been a keen bird watcher he was able to take in golden eagles whilst out with me on my own boat!

Our old friend from Essex Jon Bandell joined us again for his regular trip at this time of year! As usual, Jon fly’s into Glasgow Airport and we sort the rest from there. We we’re met with dramatic weather and skies, along with the pike being on the hunt it made for another successful trip for Jon.

This fish below came in text book fashion. Using the minn Kota spot lock, we set the boat up, right along a weed edge! First cast in the right spot, ah shot out and smashed Jon’s Miriuas Mouse! Great fight and the fish going 109cm

Jon had close to 20 fish for his trip, all on lures, going between casting and trolling at times when Jon needed a bit of a break from casting. Here he is below with another nice fish over 100cm and a double hook up!

Mark Wade joined me again and picked up where Jon left off! Good numbers of fish to the boat, including some cracking specimens, again all on lures!

This one took a liking for a 28cm westin Mike the pike!

Casting the 26cm savage gear line thru roach was doing well for me, numerous fish over the 100cm mark just about ripping the rod out my hand!

Fish hit lures and fly’s all year round, you just need to adapt your approach! Below are some double hook ups from Marks trip! Me catching on the strike pro guppie and Peter Temples excellent hand made glider, Mark nailing them on McRubbers

Mark finished off his trip with another around the 100cm mark!

The highlight off the year!

Due to covid Andrey Pramov’s trip has been delayed from early 2020. Andrey ( who I now class as a friend) from Bulgaria and his some Alex from Luxembourg have been super patient, as the trip was rescheduled again and again. But they arrived into Edinburgh Airport on Monday the fourth of October and their Scottish adventure began.

From the get go, it was great to see the relationship Andrey has with his son Alex. I can only hope when my boys are up and adults we have the same bond. We had a scenic drive up to loch Awe, stopping at angling active in Stirling along the way to pick up a few non essentials and the whisky shop in Callander to pick up the essentials!

Anyone who knows me, knows I do things to the highest standard and try to give my guests the best experience possible! Unfortunately when we arrived at our lodge at the Portsonachan hotel on loch Awe I was totally embarrassed and ashamed at what met us! Totally let down by the Portsonachan, the lodges on the website look fantastic but what met us, was like a freshly cleaned murder scene in dilapidated house! After two days we got upgraded into which could only be described as liveable conditions! I will put a separate post up on my social media showing what met us but safe to say! Lesson learned and I will never take a guest into the Portsonachan again! Thanks to Andrey and Alex for understanding the situation and I know the rest of the trip, although the fishing conditions were hard made up for it!

Andrey with a nice perch on a custom Bulgarian spoon

Andrey brought his own tackle which to me was like heavy perch gear! I explained to Andrey that Loch Awe pike are renowned for how hard they hit and fight! Emphasising that he must adjust his drag to suit! It wasn’t long before he knew what I ment  and in his own words, when asked how they fight in comparison to pike in Bulgaria he stated “times ten!”

Alex in on the action under the careful eye of his father! Pike Jedi and his padawan!

we shared some great times at the dinner table and shared experiences in the boat, like when this young Gilliemot swam 100 yards straight to the boat and came on board to say hello!

We fished in the backyard of castles, took in highland cows, red phone boxes and even fish and chips from Inveraray! Team pike paramedics was born!

I truly hope to meet these guys again and hopefully next time we don’t need to work as hard for the fish!

But that’s what separates the 5%! From the rest!

Here’s to the autumn and winter! Big crocs and lady’s of the stream!

#fishx

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Myself and long time good buddy John McInairnie and Eric Dey and man mountain Neil McKirdy taking up boat two!  Starting to get excited about it, at time off writing, it’s been storms here for three weeks so really just getting excited bout getting a rod back in the water.

Remember and follow our social media pages, to see how we’re getting on in the competition. Tight lines and I hope you guys enjoy the read!

READ ARTICLE HERE 

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We had a short break from the pike here at fish X this January. We chose to put a few sessions in to target some specimen winter Grayling .

Grayling

This was not going to be an easy task as water temps never really got cold enough to produce the best fishing conditions.  Water levels remained too high throughout most of the month. However, we picked our sessions and managed to net some trophy sized Grayling in a very short window.

Usually in the winter, as the temperature drops Grayling shoal up in deeper runs.

This was not the case this year and the fish were scattered throughout the river system. Fishing the duo and trio set up was the technique we found most successful. These big Grayling really put up some fight when they engage. That big dorsal fin in the strong current and a few had me running done the river to get below them, before they snapped my light tippet.

Brown Trout

Some nice out of season Brown Trout turned up too. We look forward to targeting these fish with our guests in a month or so, when the brown trout season reopens here in Scotland.

Spring is in the air!

I love being out on the river at this time of year as you start to see life taking hold again. Wild flowers like the snow drop (Galanthus) start to pop up and animals start to become a bit more active. Subsequently, Spring appears to be in the air as I write this.

Winter rainbows

Apart from Grayling fishing we joined our good friends Wes and Jen up at You Fish Scotland for some fun with the Rainbows! Having just got our new float tubes though from 12.bb which are now available to purchase direct from our online store.  We couldn’t wait to get out on them.

As you can see from the pics, we had a great time. With numerous rainbows into double figures and as always great hospitality from Wes and Jen. They had the kettle constantly on the boil throughout the day. The 12.bb float tubes are definitely one of the best in the market. That is to say as far as quality and safety they surpass any other belly boat I’ve used in the past.

If you choose to join us on one of our float tube safaris, you’ll experience this for yourself. These are what Fish X will now be using.

Guide style fly’s

As you can imagine, the Scottish winter can put a limit to your time on the water. However, we haven’t been wasting our time indoors. We have been replenishing and rebuilding our fly boxes for the year ahead and i’ll bring you some of these trusty guide style patterns over the next few months.

Get in touch to book your Fish X experience and Join the 5%!

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The post A Fly fisher’s Diary ( January ) appeared first on FishX.

Well the last while has been hectic here at Fish X! things have been really busy on the guiding front with us hosting Guests from all over the globe. Unfortunately, due to this the blog has been on the back burner! On the upside it has gave us loads of great content to share with you over the coming months, from fly fishing for wild brown trout to lure fishing for pike.

Over the coming months ill give an insight into how our clients have fared over the last year! sharing some of their most memorable moments and catches off a life time. I have some published articles that I can now share and make available to everyone and ill try and share some tips and advice, fly’s and lures that work well for me and how to fish them.
A freshly tied shoal of black Jacks! A simple but deadly pike fly!

We are currently adding stock to our website and ironing out the few niggles we had with the new site, so hopefully this will be running smoother over the next few months.

The traditional pike season is now upon us and to coincide with that, our winter boat is at the final stages of refurbishment. An Orkney 440 makes a comfortable vessel for winter fishing on the big lochs, the cuddy making it ideal for when the weathers bad, we can  sit behind the baits with a brew and wait for the magic to happen.

I am extremely proud to have  been taking on to humminbird / minn kota pro staff team. having access to technology like this is only going to lead to one thing and that’s more fish on the boat! fish X is also now the sole distributor for bobbers with a brain from Big Ten Tackle USA.

Two at a time last winter, using Bobbers with a Brain!

I have used these products for over twenty years and like all forms of fishing, simplicity is key, and when float ledgering baits for predators, you don’t get much more simpler than this.

Graham Faulds a repeat client with FishX used the service to learn the techniques associated with pike fly fishing.

Graham with a nice fat double on the fly!

Graham an avid trout and grayling angler is now competent enough to go chase the big green mamas himself. We converted him from dabbling his pike fly’s, to fishing them all the way to the boat and looking for follows. Another habit that was hard to break for Graham was just lifting into the fish when he got a take, which is obviously mandatory when fishing with light tippet. Soon he was hitting them hard to sink the hook into the pikes toothy and boney mouth!

You can view the tug is the bug article here.

look out for next weeks blog!
Follow us on our fish X page on Facebook  and @team_fishx on Instagram. You can now find us on twitter too!
Tightlines till next time!
join the 5%!

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In the lead up to the festive period myself and Euan Miller joined up with the Pike Anglers Alliance for Scotland on their organised events on the lake of Mentieth. We fished both days and it was a tale of two halves. The first day saw me land 10+ fish. Eight of which were into double figures, at one point having two doubles on at the same time. Euan had a few fish to doubles figures. The highlight of his day being when he struck into a fish and the rod, he had borrowed from myself exploded on contact. Euan seemed to find this hilarious! Me not so much! The second day was Euan’s turn, with not as many fish turning up but Euan managed a magnificent specimen of 26lbs.

Our man on the Isle of Bute John Mcinairnie, just as he always does, has steadily brought big fish to the boat, with numerous Pike over twenty pounds and this Rainbow Trout of 15lbs Looking forward to 2019, myself and Johnnie will be representing Team fishX at Perchmania on Grafham water on the 30th & 31st of March. This will be both our first exploration into the world of competitive angling, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.

Graham Faulds was out on a guided trip with myself. Graham is an avid fly fisherman for Trout and Grayling, never having had a go for pike before. After we got him out the habit of dabbling his fly on the surface (this might just work at certain times of the year but not at the start off December!) Graham took to it like a duck to water. He fished hard and thoroughly deserved the few fish he had, the largest being a mid-double.

Graham obviously enjoyed his day and was impressed by the tackle. So much so he’s now rigged himself out with a new Loop outfit from https://www.ffcentre.com/shop/ and seems to have joined the increasing number of fly fisherman, turning to pike on the fly! Anyone needing any advice on what loop products are suited to them and their casting style and type of fishing, or any other fishing related matter. Get in touch with us here at fishX and we will try to help you to the best of our ability. Advice is free, we enjoy nothing more than educating others and making their own fishing experience better. Hopefully though time, we can make the 5% the 10% or the 15%!

Myself and Euan Millar attended the organised Loop tackle event on the banks of the river Dee in conjuction with Aberdeen & District Angling Association, it turned out to be a great day. I was enlightened by the amount of work that  is going on towards salmon conservation.  When I see the issues were having in Ireland at the moment, I only hope through time, we will see the same value in our Pike fishing as we do in our game fishing .

 I had the Pike fly rods set up and many of the salmon anglers had a go. A days pike fly fishing can be a good addition to the start or end of a weeks salmon fishing. Euan done a fly tying demonstration and gave instruction on leader set ups for differnt styles of fly fishing, from french nymphing to pike fly fishing. I even managed to squeeze in a quick lesson from Gordon Armstrong on using the double hander.  Its hoped well see more such events organised across scotland in the upcoming year, so keep your eyes peeled. #loopaktiv

Below is a selection of pics, of some of  the clients we’ve had the pleasure to have taken out over the last few months.

I’m ecstatic how things have went since starting fishX, six or seven months ago. I’m still learning on my feet, I’m not the best with I.T. but I’ve got some good people around me and we will get there. Looking ahead to 2019 I can only say im like a little kid, buzzing with excitement about the things to come. The diary is open for taking bookings and already spaces being filled into September. Remember it’s not only pike fly fishing we provide. We cover all methods for pike and perch and fly fishing for brown and rainbow trout. You can even contact us for short, four hours session around the central belt. So if you find yourself stuck in a hotel on a business trip, get in touch and we can sort some fishing out for you. Hotel pick up and drop off can be arranged. You can now find us on Flymen’s guide locator and through numerous tour providors. fishX on tripadvisor, fishx@sportfishingoutfitters on facebook and @team_fishx on Instagram.

Tight lines to all the good guys in 2019 from fishX!

and  remember to get in touch to book your 2019 trip

join the 5%!

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We are really excited about the future and connecting with predator  fly fisherman around the globe and building fish X into a community for all to share ideas and offer each other advise . #fishX #loopaktiv  #Looppredator

We connected with fellow guide service You fish Scotland @ https://youfishscotland.com/ and enjoyed a trip with Wes Parke. To say Wes’s hospitality was second to none would be an understatement. I think its safe to say, this will be the first of many trips together and we look forward to returning the kindness and getting Wes down on some off our waters. Wes states the perch is one off his favourite quarry’s, so I foresee a trip for perch in the near future. As you can see those highland Pike are a bit camera shy but i’m not one to shy away from a tussle with a Pike and after a few rounds and some battle scars to prove it,  I subdued her long enough for a few quick pics before she slipped back off to her watery home. till we meet again! #noreleasenoglory.                                                                                                         

We have updated some stock to the website, with Euan Millar wasting no time at all in getting to the vice and whipping up some pike fodder with them. The quality of Euan’s ties are  off the highest quality, whether it be pike tube flys, bugs for grayling, up wing dries or salmon flies. check them out on instagram @vivadabbler. From time to time there may be some of Euan’s flys available for sale. We have done a few batches already but they have sold out immediately on social media, so the chance of them making it to the website is slim. So follow us on facebook

@ https://www.facebook.com/sportfishingoutfitters/ for your chance to own some of Euan’s flys.

Next time read about how John McInainie ( our man on the Isle of Bute) has been doing, some pics from recent guiding trips and  myself and Euan participating in The Pike Anglers Alliance for Scotland’s organised events on the Lake of Mentieth. Any interested in joining P.A.A.S. can do so @https://esoxscotland.co.uk/ I highly recommend anyone with an interest in pike fishing and pike conservation in Scotland support PAAS in the work they do to promote pike as the true sport fish it and and the conservation work they do, not only in Scotland but supporting our Irish pikers and throughout the UK! keep you eye peeled for some xmas bargains and Ill leave you on this! Team work, makes the dream work! Stick together, look after our quarry and spread the love! Join the 5%, turning dreams into reality! ( if your dreams catching monsters that is! 😉 #fishX

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#pikeflyfishing #looptackle #loopaktiv

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