Goldenloch feb-01-10
January at the Goldenloch hasn’t been a complete disaster due to the icy conditions, as one fisherman managed to catch 3 fish, all returned, what’s really funny is I can’t say who he was because he wasn’t supposed to be here, and I do hope that isn’t too much info that will get him in trouble, however we did have a big debate into what he caught them on, and that was a small orange/yellow blob, Its beginning to become a bit of a nunce when anglers are relying on these blobs to catch fish, its not that its against any rules its just plain not very sportsman like, especially after the fish have just come out from under ice for a month or more, tossing in a piece of fluff and sitting waiting for a fish to come and bite it, the reason it works so well is that for all the world it looks like a feeding pellet, yea I suppose we as fisheries should expect this, as of course we cannot breed our own stock and rely on fish from fish farms to stock our waters and yes these fish are reared on pellets, fly technology has leaped forward in the last few years and the norm was when anglers arrived to see the average catch of about 3 or 4 fish per session now I would say that this has increased to about 9 or 10 or even more, what’s the answer, I don’t know, but I do hope that this next season will be better than the one we’ve just left behind, as for the fishing well it is my intention to keep a record in the lodge of numbers stocked and numbers of fish taken, also the stocking dates and sizes of fish that are put in at each stocking, last year for example the total weight of stocked fish was 10296 kilos, or if a single fish was 1 kilo, 4680 fish, now what’s interesting is that the catches book adds up to 2900 fish removed, so is it that there are still 1780 fish in the loch, the answer is no because a lot of the fish delivered are a lot bigger than a kilo, so it means the numbers are less, for a good rule of thumb measurement we try to keep the loch stock at about a thousand, or 85 per acre, which is very high compared to other many other lochs ( Average recommended is about 10 per acre ) but as we have such a huge amount of natural bottom feeding available, we can easily sustain this figure, a point worth bearing in mind is that although the figure of 1000 seems high I have seen us put in a lot more when lets say it a Bank holiday weekend or if we know we are going to be busy it could easily be like this, i.e. 30 anglers per day for 7 days is 210 anglers each catching 3 fish = 630 fish in fact one week in 2008 saw nearly 800 fish removed, its easy to judge, but the problem now is that anglers seem to be more interested in numbers of fish caught, as opposed to catching big fish, now this is where for me I have to balance the economics what does the new age angler of 2010 want, is it Big Fish, good quality hard fighting kilo sized fish, or smaller half three quarter kilo fish, What we want is for anglers, beginners, experienced, young, old, male or female to be able to come and just enjoy a good days fishing we need to know what you are looking for, to be able to give the best we have to listen to what you want so please email or phone your comments, I am sure other fisheries are thinking the same as we are.
To Book for Fishing Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367. or email john@goldenloch.co.uk