Scottish lochs, Irish loughs and the large natural lakes in Wales offer breathtaking scenery and the chance of great sport. Strangely, pike from these waters seem to fight much harder than their relatives from quiet, southern estate lakes. That said, catching them poses challenges quite different from those offered by smaller, more intimate venues.

The most obvious question to answer is “Where are the pike?” I have always stressed that the golden rule of fly-fishing for pike is: “First, find your pike”. Nowhere is this more crucial than on a large, natural water. The challenge can be daunting. When you’re faced with hundreds of acres of apparently featureless, windswept water, the problem is intimidating. The solution is simple to state but less easy to put into practice. Think of your chosen water as a collection of smaller venues within a large, single entity.

The key to success is to identify and locate features, which will help us to find the pike. In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to describe a selection of these features. Some of them will be evident on virtually every large lake. Often the best places to start are those which offer a combination of attractive characteristics.

Areas where feeder streams or rivers flow into the lake are always worth investigating. Sometimes, heavy rainfall can colour the water to a degree that the pike find unattractive but even then, the ‘mud line’ where the cocoa meets the clearer water of the lake can still be a productive place. Sometimes too, heavy floodwater will deposit great lumps of trees providing excellent cover for prey-fish and pike. Hook a good fish close to these snags and hang on! Pray that your knots were tied snugly and that your wire trace wasn’t weakened by your last duff cast.

Shallow flats and reed-fringed bays with their associated weed growth provide food and cover for the smaller fishes in the lake and a larder for the pike. If there is a distinct drop-off – so much the better.

Islands – particularly on the downwind side – will offer structure, weed growth and cover, for prey-fish and predator alike. Some lakes have sub-surface ‘islands’ – areas where the lake-bed comes close to the top of the water and the light penetrates well enough to allow for plant growth and its associated bounty during the warmer months.

Identifying smaller parts of the large lake to concentrate our initial efforts on makes the big pond suddenly less daunting. Remember, pike aren’t looking for an up-market residence in a prime location. For most of the year, their motivation for being in a particular spot is altogether different: food. If we combine our study of the topography of the lake with an understanding of how the pikes’ prey behave then we are well on the way to locating our quarry. As an example, lakes which contain a good head of brown trout will see a migration to the feeding streams and rivers at spawning time. The pike will home in on this concentration of available calories.

Coarse fish move into shallow water to spawn when the temperature rises in late spring. The pike have already completed their nuptials, are recovered from the process and are ready to eat anything that swims.

A 2,000 acre lake generally contains fewer pike per acre than a fertile, 50-acre lake or gravel pit in southern England. That’s as maybe – but it will contain far more pike. If you can pinpoint that special place where a high percentage of the pike are crowding the best restaurant, then you could have a day to remember. Get it wrong, however, and you could spend many fruitless hours on the lough. As with all pike fishing, success depends on getting the theory right and then building up knowledge specific to the lake you are fishing. To get to know a huge Irish lough or Scottish loch is a lifetime project for some anglers. Most of us (myself included) don’t have that long. Enlist some help – book a guide, talk to the local tackle dealers, try to obtain as much information as possible.

If there is a chart available for your chosen water, get it. If not, the Ordnance Survey map that includes the lake will be helpful.

Tales of monster pike from Loch Lomond, Lough Derg, Bala Lake or many other mighty waters may have kindled your desire for some adventurous fishing. You have gathered some information. Now it’s time to get to grips with how to fish the big pond.

Whilst bank fishing can produce some pike from some large lakes at certain times in the year, most waters are best tackled from a boat. If you’ve booked a guide, he’ll sort out the boat. Some lakes have boats available for hire but to get afloat on many waters you’ll have to bring your own. Choosing a boat for fly-fishing is a major subject in itself. Rather than go into a huge amount of detail here, I’ve posted some information on the FF&FT website (www.flyfishing-and-flytying.co.uk). I opt for a craft which provides stability over a boat purely designed to handle well. Frankly, if it’s blowing hard enough to demand a boat more suited to the briny, then I would question the wisdom of taking to the water! Fly-fishing is something we do for sporting pleasure rather than to indulge in a masochistic pursuit or to risk life and limb.

If you’re hiring a boat it’s worth checking what equipment comes with it – often it’s only a set of oars. My tackle room contains concrete mud anchors (made in buckets, using ring spanners for rope eyes) steel lump anchors and a couple of bruce anchors. I also have an electric trolling motor. It won’t power me across a big water at the speed of a petrol outboard engine but it does well enough to allow me to potter along – exploring as I go. It needs a slow release, leisure battery that is charged with a conventional, car battery charger.

A word of warning – anchor ropes should always be of a strength that you can’t break. If the rope snaps as you’re trying to free a stuck anchor, you will be at risk of falling overboard. Continuing the safety theme – I always wear one of the slim, auto-inflating life-jackets.

A piece of equipment I find extremely useful is a ‘fishfinder’. I can’t say that it finds me pike but it does give me a picture of the lake bed and helps me to identify likely holding areas. Some purists may regard use of such technology as cheating but if you’ve only got a couple of days on a big pond, then you need all the assistance you can muster.

Take warm waterproof clothing if there is the merest hint of rain or a breeze. Wear waterproof boots, as the bottom of the boat will nearly always get wet. Try to stow gear neatly at all times – there’s nothing worse than having your perfect cast stopped short by a tangle around your thermos, which you’ve left at your feet.

It’s rare to be blessed with a pleasant, gentle breeze that will let you drift slowly along a tempting, weed-edged drop-off. I generally fish at anchor and use two in order to be as stable as possible. The procedure is as follows – if the boat is facing into the wind, drop the front anchor first. Let the wind take you back and pay out some slack rope. With the boat riding tight on the front anchor rope, lower the rear anchor. Pull back on the front anchor rope whilst letting out some spare rope to the rear. This will result in the boat holding its position with the wind running front to back. Do this the right way round so as not to handicap your casting and close enough to where you want to fish your fly so as not to have to put in too much effort. A boat five yards closer is less likely to spook the pike than one which is rocking violently in time with your exaggerated casting action.

If you’re new to handling a boat on a big water, feel your way. Make your first venture on a calm day. Learn how to manage the craft. If it’s choppy, head the boat into the wind or run downwind – crossing the waves can be downright hazardous. Always stay within your limitations and the limitations of your boat.

I don’t have any special tackle set-ups for this style of fishing. My favourite 9-weight rod, seven or eight foot of leader, a twelve inch wire trace and a basic streamer pattern fly will cover most situations. Although I enjoy using a floating line, I will always have a spare spool with an intermediate line in case the breeze kicks up or I want to fish deeper. If conditions dictate, I may also take a fast-sinking shooting-head rig and some buoyant flies to bounce along the bottom of the lake.

Fishing big waters can be hard. I’ve had my share of difficult, frustrating days. By adopting a methodical, systematic approach we improve the odds and catch pike more often than not. There’s a special satisfaction to be gained from luring a mean, hard-fighting fish from these wild venues. The ‘real’ record pike for Great Britain came from Loch Lomond, not Llandegfedd Reservoir. The wild waters may not produce the same rapid growth rate for their pike but the fish tend to live for longer. I dream that one day, the savage take will be from a real monster, a fish to compare with the myths and legends that make pike such a compelling obsession.
 

Doorstep adventure
I don’t claim to be the nation’s top authority on fishing for pike on large natural lakes. Years ago, it felt like looking for the proverbial needle in a very big haystack. I learned that the best approach was to look for the bale of hay which contained the most needles. Every year, I like to venture into the wilder parts of Britain and try to catch the pike which no-one has hooked before and will make my 32lb specimen look positively puny. I haven’t managed it yet but I have caught a few 20lb pike and I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of tackling inspiring new waters. Fly-fishermen are jetting off to exotic destinations and ignoring the adventure that is on the doorstep.

This article isn’t intended to be a comprehensive guide to fishing Scottish lochs, Irish loughs or the big natural lakes in Wales. Rather, it’s aimed at giving the reader the confidence to a toe in the water and cast his/her fly for that fish of a lifetime.

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Don’t be knocked off your Perch
Hook: Partridge ‘Ad Swier’ pike fly hook, size 4/0-6/0.
Thread: Kevlar.
Underbody: UV Fritz.
Wing: H2O Slinky fibre and Krystal Flash constructed as follows. Tie in white at the bottom, then a few strands of yellow. Green forms the bulk of the fly. Use peacock Krystal Flash above the green then top with some black.
Pectoral fins: H2O Fluorofibre or Twinkle.
Head: Build with the Kevlar thread then Epoxy. Finish with nail varnish – pearl on the bottom, dark green on the cheeks and black on top.
Eyes: Orvis Prismatic.

Use a black permanent marker pen for the stripes. I tie this design with a dished, plastazote head as a popper, which I fish on a floating line.

I also tie it with a tapered plastazote head as a bomber which I fish on a fast sinking, shooting-head rig with a short (say, 3ft) leader. I fish the streamer on either a floating or intermediate line.

Next year, I may well try a wake-fly version with a clipped deerhair head. Remember, the pike will have the option of eating real live perch in preference to your imitation. Fish the fly very slowly with short, erratic twitches. Try to suggest a fish in distress, an easy meal, something that is worth the pike’s effort in chasing.

Perch are often a significant prey-fish on these big wild lakes and the water is often clear. A fly tied to imitate a perch comes into its own and will be far more successful on these venues than on smaller waters. The yellow and gold streamer pattern – so effective on southern estate lakes will still be in my fly-box but it will probably stay there. In clear water conditions, I usually favour imitative patterns over unlikely colour schemes which often prove successful in more coloured conditions.

Black and white patterns with some Krystal Flash or Flashabou may well get a wetting – they make good imitations of silver fish – but perch patterns will often be my mainstay. They’ve saved the day too often for me to ignore them. If I’m confident in my fly then I’ll fish the water in front of me and move to the next likely spot if I can’t get a take. Mobility is more likely to find the fish than continually changing the fly in hopes of finding something magical that will pull pike from miles away.

I tie perch imitation flies as basic streamers, bombers and poppers. I make sure I’ve got a good stock for my trip – there’s nothing worse than losing your last one when you’re catching well and there’s nothing else in the box which gives you that same feeling of confidence. There’s no such thing as the perfect fly but on big, wild waters, this is as close as it gets.I wouldn’t go afloat without at least half a dozen.