Turning 40 on 5/24 & yak-fishing at Loch Lomand

I don't feel old, so I figure it's time to learn a new sport... tomorrow morning I'll be at Loch Lomand playing hooky on my birthday... If you see an idjit, that will be me since it's my first time kayak fishing... been a fisherman my whole life, and a novice kayaker for about 5 months, so I'll probably only make a few dozen mistakes...

If anyone wants to join me, the more the merrier!  I'll be in an orange SIK, please paddle over and say hello...

Cheers! 

Backcountry (aka "John")

I hope you have a great time!  Loch Lomond is my favorite lake, and I grew up just a couple miles from it in Lompico.    And it's the first place I ever fished from a kayak.  Great to go on a weekday, no where near as many boats during the week.  Some tips for you!  Get a worm blower and some worms, you will be glad you did.  I have done fairly well for the stocked trout on just inflated worms, generally limit all summer long when the lake is well stocked.  But I have since used all kinds of power baits, and believe they all work well too. 

When trolling there, I had best luck on Rapala diving/suspending crank baits for the 9-20ft depth range.  Haven't caught a thing yet there on flashers, but am going to give it a try this weekend again anyway (camping memorial day at big basin, fishing LL).  Bring your Bass stuff too, plenty of them being caught while I lazily fish for trout.  I generally have the best luck going away from the damn to the nice wide area past the island, fishing the coves, and down the middle of the lake when trolling. Good luck, and report back on your trip!  I'm eager to hear how it will be for me this weekend

Happy Birthday John! LLomand is one of my favorites as well....even thought I get skunked  there a lot But....you can always count on the bluegills to bite Small hook, a piece of nightcrawler and a slip float 

Anyway, have fun!!!

Loch Lomand is a real gem of a lake... it's full to the brim right now, which really surprised me because Lexington is low already. 

Anyway, I had a great time today... because of excessive merrymaking last night I didn't get an alpine start and instead was on the water at the crack of 8:30am... I still managed to troll up my very first fish from a kayak... a 9 or 10 inch rainbow... and then followed it up with two more for a 3-fish total... all hookups were on a 1/4 oz. gold Kastmaster trolled well behind the boat. 

Only saw two other yakers... very serene in the backwaters... saw a couple bass chasing minnows (actually they looked like baby bass) but couldn't get them to bite a giztit worm or spinnerbait... mostly focused on exploring the lake and trolling for trout...

I'll definately be back, and I'm definately hooked on fishing from a kayak... can't wait to get a SOT sometime in the next few months... my little Necky is definately a bit too wobbly for dedicated fishing, and I got a bit cramped after a few hours as there's basically only one way to sit in the thing.

Glad I found this website!

   Backcountry



p.s. It was HOT there today... probably close to 80F when I left the lake at 2:00pm.

Congrats on the big four-o. nice way to start your adult hood. Now you have an exscuse to act like a big kid. Welcome to our playground.