pike fishing

[Karl]

This weekend we are going to give loch Urr a go ,i have been there before and found it to be quite a nice and comfotable place to fish,with many places to fish all the way round the loch . Will post photos of the trip when i get back, i am going to take my fly rod with me to see if i can get a pike on the fly,which should be quite interesting, hope the weather is going to stay wind free, looking forward to the trip,

[willywetegg]

Best of luck Karl, I hope you have a great trip, looking forward to your report and pictures.

Jim.

[drof46]

Loch 'Urr'

Where's Loch Urr, Bonny Lad?

It's a new one on me. The only Piking I've done in Jockland is on Loch Ken.

Anyway, tight lines.

Drof.

[Karl]

Loch urr is in the dumfries and galloway 13 miles from castle douglas, the deepest part of the lake ,according to the bathymetric chart, is 42 feet but you can cast into 18 feet of water easily from the shore line, it has pike, perch ,roach and as far as i have heard it also has trout, it is about 106 acres,with good areas to fish ,as for size of pike ,we will have to wait and see.There is 4 of us going up so we should catch something ,but i will post pictures when i get back so you can make your own mind up if you think it is worth a visit--Karl

[mick dunn]

Best of luck Karl. Seen the lures on tightlines. They just look like big salmon/trout lures.
Mick.
I have never caught a pike-but there and again i have never fished for them.

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Go for it Karl ,i was gonna go to our usual spot on Sunday with my mate and chuck some lures from the boat but the sea fishing won ,so it's out to sea in the morning , good luck mate ,looking forward to the report.

[Iva-Cod-on]

Tight lines have a goodn!!

[sandworm]

Loch urr is in the dumfries and galloway 13 miles from castle douglas, the deepest part of the lake ,according to the bathymetric chart, is 42 feet but you can cast into 18 feet of water easily from the shore line, it has pike, perch ,roach and as far as i have heard it also has trout, it is about 106 acres,with good areas to fish ,as for size of pike ,we will have to wait and see.There is 4 of us going up so we should catch something ,but i will post pictures when i get back so you can make your own mind up if you think it is worth a visit--Karl

Are you allowed to bivvie up over night there.I fish loch Ken and surrounding lochs but never tried Urr....

[Karl]

Sorry for the long delay to respond to the forum ,but here we have the days account of what happened.
We all met at my house at 5.30am as i had to take her indoors to work, so that is the earliest we could set off.We made our way to Scotland, a1m past metro center,then a69 all the way to the motorway then off on the a75,followed that road until you get to crockerford,turn right and follow that road to cossak i think that is how you spell it, turn right and follow the road for about 20mins ,you will see the lock on the right hand side.I have definitely seen people over the other side of the lock with bevies last year ,but i don't know if they had stayed overnight ,i surmise they did as we got there about 4 in the morning[last year] and they were fishing with bevies already up.
Well about the fishing ,i will make it short and sweet. We arrived at about 8.30pm ,to find that there was a few lads already fishing ,but they were just far enough away from the spot we like so we were ok. Set up the pods and rods etc ,put mackerel on one smelt on the other and made myself comfortable ,after about 5 mins the alarm sounded and we were off and running ,waited for it to stop ,picked up the rod and waited for the second run,and sure enough off it went ,struck into it and we were connected to a good fighting small but very nice marked 2lb jack, released it back into the lake ,only to hear Micks alarm going off, he did the same and it was another good fighting 2lb er, just as we were unhooking that fish,i heard the gate open that gives access into the field,i looked over and saw the farmer making his way into the field with his pickup,he came straight over to us ,at which time i was having another run , so payed more attention to the run than the farmer,until he started shouting get off the lake ,i couldn't believe what i was hearing, as i turned around to speak to him he said get packed up and get off the lake , i tried to talk to him in a civil manner,but to all of my questions [IE why and what have we done ] was met with an irate farmer who said that there was a sigh on the gate to stop people fishing and was ranting that it was still on there at 6.00am this morning and we must have taken it down , to say the least this annoyed me ,as we had not seen any sign or we would have gone to a different lake, he then went over to the other lads and said the same to them .We then found out off the other lads that they had removed the sign and so no wonder the farmer was irate as he possibly thought we were there together,anyhow after 15minutes of fishing we had two fish and a dropped run followed by a run in with the farmer. We found the sign which just said "no public access until further notice"
We decided to go to castle douglas as i was near and is renowned for lots of runs .WE DIDN'T GET A SINGLE RUN ALL DAY,can you believe it ,well that brings me to the end of my belayed report,of a very eventful days fishing ,that started off so well and went straight down the toilet,hope we have better luck next weekend

[drof46]

So what happened to the Scottish 'Right-To-Roam/Right-to-Camp' laws, then?

Drof

[Karl]

Well you tell me , i just didn't want to make the situation any worse,but i was also not sure about the legal side of the matter,and so did not press the issue, if ,on the other hand ,i new my rights,he would have been told,the legal suituation and we would have stayed,but, when you are not sure,best not to argue, but any legal advice would be very welcome,and will be used in he future---Karl

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Hard lines that Karl ,it never suprises me how stupid some people are mind you ....why would anyone take down a sign like that .

I have to say mind you having seen the mess some people leave behind there would be no fishing on my land if I had a Loch , I thought that things might have been different with the freshwater anglers but it seems to be the same all over ...Lock Ken and Loch Foot are a disgrace in places.

Good luck for next weekend mate.

[Karl]

I tend to agree with you on the point of litter,and the sign did only say,the near future , and so will have to put this down to experience,however there is the other side of the loch ,which is quite a walk,but it is not his land and have read on the internet that this bank can be used for fishing ,but i would hate to think that you travelled all that way to be confronted and told to leave on my say so ,so my advice is to check first ,or have a second venue already planed for such a situation as we had

[The Great Wallsendo]

Have a ganders here...

Scottish Outdoor Access Code - Welcome to the Outdoor Access Scotland Website

I've only skim read it - as I looked at it when we went to the Mull last year but I'd imagine that if the land owner feels that his private land is being used as a tipping ground by inconsiderates then it's his/her prerogative to curtail the access etc etc

[Karl]

A very good bit of information that ,and i have contacted the people in dumfries and Galloway about the situation, i have explained what happened and i am waiting for a phone call off them to see how we stand,will let everyone know who is interested as soon as i know ,but thanks for that info---Karl