Back to Ice
It’s back to ice at the Goldenloch, before the last two frosty snowy winters we often had a really mild spell at this time of year and into January, we were kind of hoping it would be like that this year so I took a gamble and ordered our last load of fish for 2011, at least they will still be there when it thaws, two fish are tagged and they were supposed to be a Christmas surprise for the guys that caught them, however I have since learnt that these tags do not stay in for long so we are hoping the ice goes soon, At least when the loch is frozen we don’t have to worry about cormorants, however it is alarming to see the amount that are about just now, with each bird capable of devouring up to 3 fish a day, its easy to see the damage that can be done i.e. 10 birds daily consume, lets say 2 > 2lb trout that’s 20 fish eaten over one week, that’s 140, and that is a pickup load of fish costing £700, SNH say that there is no viable reason why they should grant me a licence to shoot them, and that we have to provide them with a count of birds over 6 months in the last two years, Just shows you how totally ignorant these people are, as we like everyone else, frozen for most of the winter, but on the days that we were not, we were getting hammered, any day when anglers were present they tended to stay away as they do not like people, our swans are still here and it seems like the smallest signet which has never been able to fly is the reason, all of the signets are fully capable of flight barring this one, and it seems that they just do not want to leave it behind, surprisingly as well the parents are not chasing them away, but a big threat must be the foxes as we have three at the moment and they are really getting quite brazen, one walking past our house every morning, it is never in a hurry, stops and stares and will often come into the garden looking for scraps that the birds haven’t eaten. To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367. or email john@goldenloch.co.uk or visit The Goldenloch
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Christmas 2011
Anne and John wish all their clients and anglers the world over a very Merry Christmas and a gid new year, it’s another season under the belt and in the end it’s been pretty good for all, > fishing wise, 6000 fish stocked this year and 5100 removed,( which includes a 10% fiqure of loss to birds, natural, causes etc) with no shortage of water this season and no algae, OK a little bit of weed, but with no weed killer used or allowed, there is none that’s licensed for use now, and with the strict penalties that’s in place if operators get caught, its not worth it, now’s the time to apply for next years licence to stock fish with Marine Scotland, without the licence NO FISH, but see trying to get a licence to shoot cormorants well that’s a whole new story, anglers in Scotland never had it so good at least they don’t need to apply for a licence to fish, YET. We will try and hold our prices for another season at the same level as last year, as we are well aware that this is a sport for pleasure and relaxation but most of all it is a form enjoyment, everyone is having a hard time, so there no point in making it harder to enjoy oneself, so just all have a good Christmas if want to go fishing we don’t mind when you turn up, on boxing day we will see a few perhaps for a mince pie Cheers John and Anne
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Its 2012
Another year passes at the Goldenloch and we are now into our 27th year as a commercial fishery and there has been a lot of changes over those years, the way we operate has changed dramatically, mostly to suit peoples lifestyles, in the beginning like many others we worked a system of set hours, then it was £12 for 4 hours with a 4 fish limit, the fish we stocked then were like all other fisheries about a 1 lb, a stocking of fish was generally around 250 fish and cost £212.50, it was an easy and profitable little earner, no Public Liability, no general insurance, no legislation of any kind and people just turned up to fish, which more or less is what it is still now except instead of set hours an angler can arrive at any time and fish for as long or as short a period as he or she wants, the cost to-day is £15 for approx 5hrs and a 2 fish limit with the added bonus of being able to return a further 7 fish, the fish size has also increased from an average of 1 lb to an average of 2lbs per fish introduced, that’s got to be a pretty good deal, the last week has seen a few hardy lads fishing and to date no one has caught a tagged fish, so they are still in the water and basically the deal is bring me the tag that we put in some fish and the reward is a 26 week or a summer season C & R ticket, with more fish due soon I think we may tag some more as I am just not to sure how long these tags will remain in the fish. Its been cold in the last week and that coupled with the wind has put the fish down but it was interesting to see a lad from London out fishing in a float tube in the sleet on old years day, not deterred by the weather he was just enjoying the sport and had a few hardy tugs from the fish. Wishing everyone a happy new year I am sure we will see you in 2012.
you say you are getting a 90% catch rate of the the fish stocked...... are you assuming the loch is now empty?? How many of the other 10% are still in there??
I would have thought a 90% return on fish stocked would be happily accepted by most fishery managers?
maybe some of the other fishery owners will correct me if Im wrong??
In the record book we keep at the loch (which is our only form of identifying what happens) we have recorded 4580 fish removed or rather declared removed in the last year, (but I will admit it’s a bit woolly) however we were hit by poachers and restocked by an extra 600 (which I kept out of the calculation) over three weeks, this to cover what we thought could have been our estimated loss, it may be that I have not given enough of a loss to natural causes but this year has been a particularly good one as regards not having to pick up dead fish, I would say that I do have a good environment here and that the clients who fish are particularly careful in returning fish our biggest loss if any comes from predators in the form of Osprey and cormorants, we always make the assumption at this time of year that the loch is empty and start the counter at zero this I would imagine is how other operators work as well, especially as trying to get numbers right at this time of year is concerned, we know we have a head of fish but we don’t know how many, even the Inland revenue wont allow them to be counted either as after they go in the loch they are deemed to be wild and as such are not able to be used as stock or even a value as stock, as of Wednesday however the first load for the coming season is going in and can only look forward for some better weather.
Date: Monday, January 16 @ 09:25:26 UTC Goldenloch Report
Goldenloch January / 09 / 2012 Week 2
Out side temperatures at the Goldenloch this past week have risen by at least 10 degrees and the effect is that the fish are moving again, however they are not really visible on the surface until late afternoon, but some lads are getting plenty to catch and getting them on nymphs and buzzers Mark Hill, Strathmiglo 6 all returned, A Grey, Perth 3 and G Law Perth 3, Alec Burns, Kirkcaldy out for a quite relaxing day had a couple caught on a green Viva. The wind over the past few weeks has really stirred up the bottom of the loch making the water quite cloudy but it was quick to clear however there was benefits and observations by anglers was that the fish are absolutely stuffed with bloodworms the wind has been horrendous and a fair bit of damage was done, New visitors D Graham had 2 returned whilst his pal G Rautus had 3 for 9lbs both lads having a nice days sport and enjoying bank angling, The cormorants are not so frequent this week, mostly I think due to the much milder weather, and we have managed 6 days without any visiting, and interesting the fishing has been so much better, morning anglers are catching more or less straight away, I am convinced that the fish are terrorised by them any day that they visit and it takes hours for the fish to get brave enough to start swimming about after they visit. To Book for Fishing,
The last week saw the temperatures drop at the Goldenloch by 12 to 15 degrees wiping out the previous rise of the week before, a big pity as the fishing was just starting to take off, anglers on Monday of last week had a really good day but it was on that night that we had a really hard frost and the effect was that the fish just went down, however on the Tuesday we had a beautiful day with a very warm sun for this time of year and by late afternoon we actually had fish rising, however it was to be short lived as by the next morning the loch was completely covered in ice, but anglers during those days did pretty good, Ewan and Dave Birrell, Pittenweem using Montanans’ and various lures had 3 each, Martin Carnegie, Glenrothes 3, B Kemp, Glenrothes 4 using bloodworms, Steve Smart, Strathmiglo 2 and C Peattie Glenrothes 2 using dabblers, not bad considering the weather being so challenging, but these last few days has seen us wake up to varying amounts of ice on the water however this morning we are back to being completely covered,
The tagged fish we put in are still in the loch, and with none caught yet, I think I must formulate a new strategy here, the original idea was simple in the beginning we put in a few tagged fish and offer a prize (which was to be a summer season ticket) but now however as we are not sure whether the tags will still be in the fish, as none have been caught and we want people to catch them, we are now thinking on putting in some more tagged fish and changing the prize to a voucher worth, say ten sessions, this is because at the moment there are six fish with tags in them, if I put in another six then I cannot possibly offer 12 season tickets, it’s a bit like 10 people winning a million each or one person winning ten million, as we are now ice bound and unlikely to be putting in any more fish until it is ice free, then please email me with your suggestions on what you think we should do, one or two winners or loads. To Book for Fishing,
The last week has not been the best of weeks at the Goldenloch, I am not sure whether it’s the huge variation in temperatures’ which has been as much as 15 degrees in a day, and that’s been every day, or if it’s the wind and the cold, but whatever it is, its affecting the anglers ability to catch fish, or if not that it must be that the fish are not interested in anything and are well and truly hiding deep down in the depths, add to that, the cormorants are back with several trying to land most days with the odd one getting onto the water now and again, I am convinced that they must do something to the fish whether they terrorise them by chasing them or if the fish can detect them by vibration or noise, but whenever we have cormorants the fish are really hard to catch, so I am daily shooting to scare, which is not as satisfying as shooting to kill, but it is just as satisfying to see how close I can get to them without actually hitting one, the last weeks results are, Mark Hill, Strathmiglo, 3 returned, A Grey, Perth, 3 for 7lbs, Alan Downie, Grangemouth, 1 for 2.5lbs, W Peattie, Leslie 1 for 2lbs, Steve Smart, Strathmiglo 2 for 4lbs, Don Stewart, Glasgow, 1.
Nice Surpise This Morning
After a few days of hard frost and with the forecasters’ saying more on the way, it was a big surprise to wake up this morning and see clear water, and on venturing out, find that its quite mild outside, the cormorants never miss a trick with five on the water at daybreak, a few anglers over this past weekend, but with a frozen loch not a lot of action, the good part was that we actually had a spot of clear water, where the swans work hard all night to keep it from freezing, it was about the size of a football pitch and the anglers visiting all took the opportunity to wet their lines, I am not sure what the results were but it seems that they were all happy just to be outside, one day last week an old fishing friend arrived out of the blue, on asking if he could try out some rather obscure flies and lures basically things he had collected over his 40 years fishing, these were the sort of things shops put on the counters to attract the attention of anglers, they included poppers, bunny leaches ETC, well would you believe it, he caught five, but the really interesting part was he came here to give me all his fishing stuff rods, reels etc, so as I could give it to someone that would appreciate it, as he felt he was no longer going to fish anymore due to family circumstances and health problems, however with a hip operation due soon he might just hang on to his stuff encase he felt fit enough due to the fact he really enjoyed his day.
To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367.
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Computer Fixed
Goldenloch February 6 / 2012 Week 6 Loch is frozen all bar a bit the size of a football pitch at the far side Jimmy Armstrong, fished on Sunday putting 2 back but said that after an hour he could hardly feel his fingers, his other problem was that the eyes on his rod kept icing over but it was good to be out and even better to be on his own, Computers, you either love them and get really into it or like me you enjoy using them for work, last week our kept shutting down, and refusing to start sometimes and as its for business I have with PC world a business account and backup should something go wrong not cheap but useful to have and we’ve had it for years, so phoned them up, there answer was, bring it in and we will have a look, it sounds like the hard drive cooked or corrupted, it’ll take a couple of weeks to fix as we are really busy, went to shop with PC, and waited 20 mins to get served as the guy was on the phone but I could hear him talking about getting his kids picked up from school as he was going to a night class, anyway he asked what was wrong with it and I explained that I had a maintenance contract with them and his answer was that it didn’t cover this machine as they stopped selling them 3 years ago, but they would have a look and see if they could fix it but I would probably be better just buying a new one as the cost of fixing this one would be high, now at this point he hadn’t even tried mine far less opened it up, at that point the phone rang and he proceeded to talk to someone about installing a modem, you know what ive spent thousands in PC world over the last 15 or so years, these guys are just ****, so picked up tower and walked out shop, getting stopped at till and asked if I had still to pay for a repair, opposite the cinema in Perth is a computer repair shop, upstairs, ive noticed it before, the shop used to sell prams, anyway I took in the tower and explained all to the guy, who immediately said it’ll be the graphics’ card opened up machine and took the card out, he asked me if I played games, I said no, he then put the lid back on plugged it in and it worked, he then said its really a common problem after a few years these cards fail and if you don’t play games they aren’t needed, but he then told me that PC World would have installed a new one and the bill would be a few hundreds this guy charged me £20, how good is that.
To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367.
Ice Gone Quite Warm Today
Goldenloch February 13 / 2012 Week 7
Monday morning and we wake up to a beautiful bright warm morning, with most of the ice melted, only a small area at the far end still to go, Cormorants’ are having a field day, with 7 here this morning, I didn’t get on to them till 7.30 as I hadn’t realised that the ice had melted so quickly, this last week the loch was mostly frozen over but just fishable on one small area for most of the week, only a few hardies venturing out, fish were moving on days when the sun manages to shine for an hour or two and it brought them to the surface, on Friday mid day Grant Anderson, Arbroath caught and lost three using a bright small lure, it wasn’t till afterwards he realised the hook had straightened and he reckoned that was why he lost them. Two American friends staying for the weekend, on looking out the window and seeing two lads fishing could not believe that they could fish at this time of year, coming from New York State, their surrounding countryside is just littered with small lakes and fisheries, but at this time of year they are completely frozen over and have been since November, remaining frozen till the end of March, they fish for rainbows and the average size is about a 1.5 lbs, but can be up to 5lbs on rare occasions, most if not all fishing is from the bank or wading, with boat fishing i.e. hiring a boat being very expensive, you have to hire a motor and lifejacket as well, typical prices are $25 for 6 hours bank, everything goes back unless its bleeding, on private waters its $50 with a boat $75 for a half day, compared to us its about double what anglers pay here fish out there new fish are introduced but are small and must be returned, what they did say was that they have to put up with is leisure crafts and people mucking about on the water, every time you want to go fishing its about trying to find somewhere private and without boats the States may be big with plenty of lakes but there are a lot of people trying to get on them and its every day.
To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367.
Another week of poor weather at the Golden loch, but being honest who would want to go fishing at this time of year, its absolutely freezing, blustery, and so unpredictable, It would seem that the fish just now are very settled, they are obviously well dug in on the loch bottom, some people are catching, but only when the wind dies completely and there are a couple of hours warm sunshine, yes it does happen, husband and wife here on Thursday had 3 all over 3lbs each, stating they had a great day with a few lost, Friday, a gent all day in a boat never touched a fish but saw a few rise or rather up on the surface in the early afternoon, meanwhile two lads on the bank had a few, using yellow dancers, both however shaking with the cold, so I am going to take a gamble, I think after this cold weekend the next few weeks will be quite pleasant, people will be looking for some fishing, therefore I have booked a full load of fish for Tuesday, this I hope will stir up the fish that are in the loch, since December we have introduced 3 loads of fish which is a huge amount of fish to be put in at this time of year for a small loch like ours, and with the left over stock from last summer and what we have introduced so far and with these new ones I am hoping that the returns will improve spectacularly, we have not been that busy and the fishing has not been easy mostly due to the unsettled weather, it has however been pleasant days for those that have been here. Brian Stewart and his fishing buddy Willie, Dundee had their usual few fish each, this pair having fished here every two weeks for 20+ years never seem to be flustered by anything, always go to the far end of the loch and always catch 3 or 4 each, they just love to fish. Cormorants this has been a bad week with a total of 68 visiting, these evil birds need controlled, I hadn’t spotted it before but it would seem there are two distinct types, with one being much larger than the other, also the larger one is much bolder and definitely the ones that the smaller ones follow, all I can do this year is shoot to frighten, but now that doesn’t even bother the larger ones, they just continue on, so I am firing to within inches of them and it seems to be working.
To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367.
Good week, Getting Back to Normal
Goldenloch February 27 / 2012 Week 9
What a difference a few days nice weather can make, suddenly everything just perks up, Tuesday morning was warm with zero wind and fish showing all over the loch A Drummond, Kettle Bridge, had 7 keeping 2 for 4lbs, after the new fish were put in the loch dynamics changed completely and by 4 in the afternoon fish were seen feeding quite close to the sides, Wednesday morning saw fish being caught right up the loch side and into the middle at the far end, interestingly most of the fish caught were around the 3lb mark with several of them covered in bloodworms and leeches, Mr H Wallace, Livingstone caught one of our tagged fish and is now sporting a summer season ticket, Friday saw a quiet day due to the breeze but as the Thursday had been really warm fish were pretty active arriving late afternoon for just a quick fish was D Pollock, Monifieth, who had 2 for 9lbs one at 6.75lbs caught on a silver diawl bach, this being the biggest fish he had ever caught he was just about to loose it as he had no net when luckily our nieghbour out walking his dog came to his help and got a net, Saturday and Sunday were very rewarding days for anglers with good returns Shaun Pairman, Freuchie, 2 returned, Steve McDonald, Newburgh, 5 returned, Don Stewart, Glasgow 2 for 6lbs, 9 returned, John Grey, Auchtermuchty, 8, 6 returned, A Burns Kirkcaldy 4, 2 returned. Cormorants were bad last week with 14 on Monday 11 on Tuesday, 15 Wednesday, etc this is now a major pest and threat to fisheries, the government is going to have to change the law about being able to shoot them.
To Book for Fishing, Call John on 01337840355 or 07968006367.
March Hares and Spring Birds
Goldenloch March 05 / 2012 Week 10
Another week of very changeable weather at the Goldenloch, however we did have 3 days when the day temperature was warm enough to entice fish to the surface, however due to the time it takes to warm up the water it was not until late afternoon that this would happened and by that time most of the anglers had left, the fishing at this time of year is still very much off and on, due we think to the fact that the fish are in extremely good condition, they are not that hungry and needing to eat, with several fish being spooned and cleaned over the past few days it is noticed that their stomachs are absolutely full of snails and bloodworms mixed with a fair bit of shrimp, at this time of year however it is still early for getting big bags as the fish generally are down deep and it tends to be the newer or most recently stocked fish that are being caught, one or two anglers are getting good results mostly by using diawl bachs and bloodworms but some are catching using buzzers but they are quite big buzzers, the next few weeks should see a big change in the loch as we eagerly await the Easter warmth, but things are happening now the gulls are back and small birds are feeding of the surface. The Catches book at last looks pretty normal with plenty of entries of fish being caught, Steve Smart, Strathmiglo returned a fully finned and excellent Brown trout, Steve Mc Donald, Newburgh, had 3 C & R, Ian J Don Bonny bridge had 2 for 5lbs, Les Irving Bridge of Earn 2 for 5lbs, G McCluskie, Spittalfield 4, 2 returned, lets just hope that the weather stays good and gives a good season for all. The cormorants are now relentless with several arriving at dawn every morning, how the powers at be can possibly think that these birds numbers are in decline one will never understand their thinking’s I believe that another water nearby which has had its water level dropped for maintenance work has just about been cleaned out of their remaining fish stock by these horrible birds as the fish were all in a small confined area. To Book for Fishing,
Date: Monday, December 19 @ 09:25:42 UTC
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