STRATHCLYDE PARK
- by Rab Crossan

'The park' is becoming one of Scotland's best coarse fisheries. Insight into how to fish there is all the more valuable when it comes from the man who has won more matches there than anyone, Rab Crossan. Come to think of it, he's won more matches than anyone else everywhere!

When the editor of this publication first asked me for an article on fishing the loch I replied 'No problem, I'll give it to you next week'. That was at the beginning of May. It is now early November and this is my eighth attempt at starting this piece - and its harder than fishing itself! I'm an angler, not a writer so you will excuse me if this article is a bit mixed up and I start going off in another direction - when I'm writing about one thing, something else may come to mind.

Just how good is the loch, sometimes the sport can be fast and furious and others can be fickle and frustrating, but in my opinion it is probably the best venue in Scotland for the angler who wants to learn. All methods can and do work under most conditions. You can learn more about fishing and methods in a year here, than you could in 5 years anywhere else. I have fished the water now for close on 20 years and seen all its moods and guises through the poor fishing as well as the good times.

One of the first and probably most important lesson to be learned was never take the fishing for granted. Where the fish were being caught yesterday may not necessarily be where they will be caught today. For example, late last year there was a charity match and the All Scotland Open on consecutive days, and I drew the same peg on both days. Three pegs to the right of the outflow on the tower bank, in match one, I came second with nearly 6 kilos of roach, and the other leading weights came from the tower bank also with the pegs to the left of the outflow and the boating pond all struggling. On day 2 I blanked, along with most others in that section, whilst the boating pond produced 4 weights over 6 kilos. What had happened was that even though the wind was still going in the same direction, the undertow had changed and taken the fish further out from the bank and in towards the boating pond. With hindsight, I was probably on the tail end of the shoal on the Saturday and would have caught some fish had I fished further from the bank on Sunday.

Because of the sheer size of the loch and varying depths, wind speed can have a dramatic effect on the undertow, sometimes taking 2 or 3 days to stop or turn about. Even when the loch is flat calm there can still be a definite tow on the water. Understanding how the tow works is the key to mastering the water and I would advise anyone who fishes the Park to find out when the water level is next due to be lowered for remedial work and take a walk right round it. It's a great chance to see where the fish usually live and why they prefer that area, and how the channels and ledges could affect the direction or speed of tow.

As I said earlier - All methods can and do work - it's just a matter of selecting the right method on the day and in my opinion a lot of anglers fail on the Park because of 'poleitis', using the pole and forgetting about using other methods. Although long pole fishing is my favourite way of fishing, I do not have a blinkered approach where other methods are concerned. The complete angler on the Park has to learn the other methods that can be used. It's easy to catch 5 kilos on the pole but can you do it with a rod and line? It takes a bit of work.

It is only during the last 2 or 3 years that the Park has become a pole dominated water, caused by the emergence of smaller roach and gudgeon, up to then it was mostly bigger fish which tended to stay further from the bank, and so the best option was the straight waggler. There's not much point describing rods and reels which you should use because everyone has their own preference; all I can say is buy the best you can afford, sometimes it is better buying a second-hand top of the range rod than a cheaper composite rod. The more expensive rod usually has a higher carbon content, therefore it is stiffer and will pick up the line a lot quicker on the strike, thus missing less bites.

Maxima was always my first choice for main line, but this year, courtesy of Daiwa, sponsors of the Scotland team, I had the opportunity to try the new Team Daiwa Monofil which impressed me so much I have now changed totally to it for all my reel lines, using 2lb BS for wagglers up to 2½ swan and 2½ lb BS for floats above that size. Hook lengths are Drennan Hooktie in 1.1 lb or 1.7lb, these lines are used for all my running line fishing. Obviously depth and distance to be fished determine the size of float that has to be used and shotting patterns vary from section to section. So there is no magic rig that will catch anywhere, it is mostly a case of trial and error. I use 3 types of float on the Park, the insert waggler, loaded and sliders.

The first type, insert waggler is used for 90% of my float work and basically is just straight peacock with a 1½ inch cane insert in 2 sizes of 3AAA and 5AAA. These floats are used for distances between 20-35 metres and depths of up to 6 feet for the smaller size and up to 12 feet for the larger. One of the biggest mistakes anglers make on the Loch is fishing far too light down the line. In my case I nearly always fish with a small bulk of shot not far from the hook, there are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, to take advantage of any underwater tow which I explained earlier, could be in a different direction to the surface, and secondly to target fish at a particular depth. In a 12ft deep swim I see 3 main catching areas 3ft-6ft, 6ft - 9ft and 9ft - bottom. My shotting patterns reflect this thinking in that my mini bulk would be about 2½ ft from the hook. They would consist of 4 No6 shot on the 5AAA float, and 4 No8 shot on the 3AAA float, using 4 No8 spaced evenly below the bulk on both floats with the rest of the weight around the float.

This set up allows me to catch fish on the drop in any of the 3 areas that the fish could be, just by adjusting the depth the float is fixed from the hook. I will only consider not using a bulk when I'm catching at less than 4 ft deep. It is also worth experimenting with the bulk by moving it up a little bit and spreading the No 8s more. The permutations are endless so keep adjusting the shots to find what suits on any session.

As with any type of fishing, feeding is probably the biggest single factor for any success. Again there is no secret recipe for a decent catch, you have to try and interpret what the fish want by the amount of bites you are getting and where you are getting them. Only experience can tell you this. Do I loose feed maggots - and if so how much? Do I use groundbait, you can only find out by trying. During the summer months when the fish are more active I use quite a bit of ordinary brown crumb in my mixes because of the higher food content, as the fish are hungrier. A typical mix being 2 parts of brown crumb, 2 parts of sensas roach, with 1 part of PVI binder. The PVI allows me to make the groundbait a bit stiffer by squeezing it more to allow it to reach bottom before breaking up, or just a light squeeze to break higher in the water.

During the winter months I would use 2 parts lake, 2 parts match blend and 1 part PVI. If I only intend to use the float, I will normally feed 2 lines always introducing some groundbait on both lines. The first would be as far as I can loose feed, and after an initial 3 balls of groundbait on this line would regularly loose feed this area with maggot or caster, not putting any more groundbait on this line until I see how the fish are responding. The other line I will use is 10 yards further out from my loose feed area. This is my main groundbait patch and will be fed regularly with groundbait, by feeding 2 swims like this it allows me to judge quicker how the fish are reacting to different feed patterns. If I start catching more on the groundbait I will start putting more groundbait on the inside line to try and draw them closer, or if the loose feed area is better I will increase the amount of maggot going in and cut down the amount of groundbait.

Usually when loose feed is stepped up, the fish start rising off the bottom to intercept the feed, this is where the small bulk of shot starts to excel, getting the hook bait to the right catching depth allowing the dropper shots to work properly. The other types of floats I use are straight loaded peacocks of between 5-8 grams and are 15"-18" long. These are used at distances up to 50 yds or when there is a big wind on. The other floats are sliders between 8-20 grams but these are only used once a year or so if it is a really deep swim or for extreme distances, so I may describe their use in another article.

Fishing the tip is the most under rated methods of them all on the Park, used only as a last resort by many anglers and, I must admit, years ago I was the same, using it only when I couldn't catch on the float. One of the biggest problems I had on the tip was not knowing whether it was in the right place. Because there was no visible marker I often wondered, am I too far out or too close in? Too much to the right or left? Is it tangled? Have I had a bite and not seen it? Therefore I tended to recast far too often, not giving it a chance to work. Most other anglers were having the same problems so it didn't matter too much as I was still having my share of good results on it.

My whole attitude changed when Ronnie Macleod moved back up here after a stay down south. Now Ronnie had never fished the Park before and the first match he fished he won it on the quivertip, in fact he won the first 3 or 4 matches. I decided to watch him on the next match because it was obvious he knew what he was doing with the tip. The first thing I noticed was that he was very casual during the first 10 minutes of his cast, chatting away with his arms folded as if he was waiting for a bus, or it seemed like that.

After this initial period he would talk less, watch the tip more, taking a hold on the rod, and within the next 4 or 5 minutes would get a bite. When he explained to me what was happening it became clear why he was catching more than others. It wasn't just that he was good at it, it was more than that, he was 100% confident using the tip, knowing his bait was in the right place, knowing it was untangled and knowing he would get a bite. This made my mind up, I had to learn how to use this method confidently. Obviously the best time to learn is when a venue is fishing well and you can gauge your results against other anglers who are catching on the float. The hardest part about doing this is not picking up the float road.

Terminal set-up is a simple paternoster with the bomb or feeder on a 6-inch link and the hook length about 3 feet. The most important aspect of ledgering is accuracy of feeding, either though a feeder or by hand, this is the case with any type of fishing, but more so because there is no visible marker to aim at distance wise. It is easier to achieve this with a feeder. although this only guarantees feed being deposited wherever the cast lands. Some anglers use the line clip on the feed spool if it has one, to make sure the feeder lands at the same distance every time. Personally I don't like doing it this way because the fish move around a bit and if you want to chase them a bit further out, which often happens, when you unclip the line you have lost the marker you had. If I had to use anything I would cast to the desired spot and either mark my line with a marker pen or a bit of paint to use as a guide.

Once you have mastered putting the feeder in the same spot and getting regular bites, it's time to brush up on the feeding technique without a feeder, because sometimes the feeder scares the fish. Catching on the bomb and feeding with a catapult takes a more disciplined approach. Fishing with a feeder is easy compared to this, having to achieve 2 marks of accuracy, one with the bomb and one with the catty. It is best to practice this when the Park is fishing well. Fish next to someone who is fishing the float and feeding to it, to give you some idea of your bait ratio, because casting to an unseen mark and then ground baiting to it is very hard to do. If the groundbait is not landing near your hook bait then you will not get as many bites. By learning to feed this way also helps keep the waggler line fed when you are fishing the pole, because too many anglers do not feed another line whilst fishing a particular method.

I will use a match situation to demonstrate just how effective this can be. To win the individual championship on the SFCA summer league I needed to win my section in the final match. The section I was in I expected to fish very hard for just a few fish, so accurate feeding was a necessity. For the first hour, I fed a total of 6 different areas covering a 3 metre whip line and 8 and 12 metre pole lines and 15, 30 and 50 metre running line areas. The feeding on the 3 pole areas do not really matter for this article but I didn't catch anyway. The main thing was the 3 running line areas. At 15 metres I loose fed only maggot, 30 metres was heavily ground baited and 50 metres with not as much groundbait. By fishing this way in practice I had learned I could virtually lead the fish into my peg from the outside 50 metre mark right on to my loose feed line.

After an hour I knew I would not catch on the pole, but had been feeding the outside lines, even though I had not cast a rod out yet. After a few casts on the feeder to the 30 metre mark without any bites, I cast to the outer area which had been fed from the start by catty so the swim should already be built up. After 3 or 4 casts I had a roach of about 14 ozs. The angler at the next pet saw that I hadn't struck at a bite and commented that I didn't see it which was true, but I felt it. What had happened was, I had lifted the rod to move the bait a couple of feet when the fish took. This is the reason you should never strike unless you actually see a bite. Many times the fish will sit and look at a baited hook, not bothering with it until it looks as though it's going to lose it. It is a golden rule I always follow, if you continually strike a feeder through a feeding shoal it will unsettle the fish. Think about it - your sitting eating your dinner and someone is throwing bottles at you, you'll soon move. Fish are the same. Anyway I digress again - back to the story.

After no more bites on the feeder it was time for a try on the waggler at 30 metres. First cast, a pristine one pound roach - these were the only 2 roach caught for something like 30 pegs and were enough to win me the championship title. It was not luck, it was accurate feeding to an area of my swim with no visible marker to aim at.

One final thing I have not mentioned is hooks. Use what you feel confident with. I only use 2 patterns on the Park, both Kamasan, B511 for light line fishing in sizes 24-20 and B510 in sizes 20-16 for bagging, although I have just got hold of some B611 which falls between the two which I have not tried yet but look very good. As you will have noticed, I have not covered pole fishing in this article because of space. So maybe for the next magazine I'll devote the entire piece. And if that takes as long to write as this did, I'd better start now. Tight lines for now and remember 'practice makes perfect'. Especially with rod and line.