Big jack, little jack.

Not satisfied with a weekend species hunting in Plymouth, a session at Dunbar harbour on Monday and catching a new PB bass during a superb bass session with my mate Jake early yesterday morning, I visited the Forth & Clyde Canal early yesterday evening for a couple of hours with Lillian for a nice stroll along the towpath lobbing soft lures at the resident pike and perch. After only 20 min I caught a lovely 5lb 3oz pike from the large basin next to the Falkirk Wheel much to the delight of the passing tourists.

After a nice little scrap Lillian netted this for me.

As was unhooking it a few passers by asked me rather stupidly if I had caught it in the canal to which I cheekily replied "No, I brought it with me."! Most people don't realise that the canal holds any fish let alone large predators!

After releasing the fish we headed over a bridge and onto a very long pontoon, working our way along it, fishing in between all the boats that were moored there. A few small jacks had a go at my Savage Gear Soft 4Play in Dirty Roach, much to our amusement, but no bigger pike were seen by the time we reached the end of the pontoon so before walking back along I changed over to a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in Golden Shiner to try and tempt any perch that may be around. No joy with that though although a couple of tiny jacks showed an interest and I hooked one that fell off when I was lifting it up. When we got back to the basin at the Falkirk Wheel I spent a final 15 minutes working the lure across some weed beds to try and find some perch. "Last cast." I told Lillian and asked her where I should try. She recommended a gap between two pontoons on the other side so I cast over to the spot. I asked her what kind of retrieve I should try and she told me to "jiggle it a bit"! I did exactly that, not expecting anything to happen but I felt a little tug and my rod tip started nodding. Perch on I thought! As I reeled it in though it quickly came into view and was in fact a tiny jack.

A perfect little end to a superb days fishing! Thanks to my wonderful ghillie!

I was in stitches, we couldn't believe what had just happened and we laughed all the way back to the car!

Tight lines, Scott.