[ArtfulDodger84]

Can anyone suggest a decent pike venue in the North East?  Have fished Kinord before with little success.  Would ideally like somewhere that i can give the fly a bash. 

Also will the pike take a fly in the Winter?

[Hamish Young]

Aboyne Loch 

[Rob Brownfield]

Yes, pike will take the fly in winter. Kinord is closed for the year. Aboyne has been hammered by our eastern friends through the summer and they have removed hundreds of Pike and perch to eat. The fishing there has been very poor in the last few months.
The Police have been called several times but they have so far not done anything about it. As Aboyne is now a stocked coarse fishery the removal of any fish is theft.

Best choice is to head to Tayside, plenty of waters down there for Pike on the fly..all catch and release.   

[Hamish Young]

Loch Skene then   

[Rob Brownfield]

Strictly controlled season ticket. Available in February after all existing members have been given the chance to renew.

This year its been poached to death as well...can you guess who by?

Hence the notices in the local tackle shops.

So nope..not Skene...

[Hamish Young]

Right................... how's about Loch Builig 

[ArtfulDodger84]

Thanks for the info, where is loch builig?

Surely our eastern brothers as you identify them Rob need to be stopped from destroying the fish stocks?

What has been done?

[Hamish Young]

Loch Builig is below Ben Avon and a tributary of the River Avon, to the west (ish) of Corgarff - access may prove tricky 
I've only heard it has a head of Pike from other fishers who were there for trout and got a surprise - or three, or four (and so on).
Not fished it myself 

[Rob Brownfield]

Loch Callater has Pike too...upto double figures, introduced by the estate to thin out the Brown trout a long tiome ago. Still full of stunted Brownies. A middle finger to the "they kill all the trout" brigade!  Worth fly fishing for them. Bit of a walk but fun all the same.

If you want, i can take you to a few places 

[ArtfulDodger84]

Rob,

Where is Loch Callater? Thanks for the offer Rob, if i get a weekend off work anytime soon i shall let you know

Chris

[Rob Brownfield]

Callater is an hour and a bit walk up the old "Jocks Road" past Braemar. Nothing big but fun all the same.

[esoxfly]

Things are sounding as bleak as ever on the Pike front in the North East.  
Skene used to be fantastic for Pike on the fly - explosive stuff in the shallow water!
Like Rob I stopped fishing it a number of years ago after tiring of arguing with the estate over the value of the Pike fishing they had and their "catch and kill" policy that had no sound reasoning behind it!  

If you don't mind a bit of an expedition there are several Lochs around Dingwall and Aviemore.  You have Loch Garve, Achonachie, and Ussie near Dingwall.  Not far from Aviemore you have Loch Pityoulish, Morlich, Alvie, Beag and Insch.  

Have a look at http://www.nnh.co.uk/highland-coarse/
Not much of a site at the moment but the guy who set it up is as busy as the rest of us trying to find time to fish never mind attend to his website!  Lots of usful info on there though.  I enquired the other day about Loch Bad an Scalaig up near gairloch and got a nice reply from him.  I'm up there on business in a couple of weeks and wondered if it would be worth a try - weather permitting!  I must be getting desperate now I know.

Hope that's of some use from one frustrated NE Piker to another