It's all about the seductive wobble

Heading for the aptly named Pike Bay, Julian Schmechel sets out to tempt the fish to his line with the use of handmade copper spoons

- Julian Schmechel

Nestling below the towering mass of Creag Dhubh, and mantled by the fragrant pine woods of the Rothiemurchus Forest, Loch an Eilein is a jewel set in the crown of the Cairngorms National Park. A shallow loch, with an average depth of only 10m, this secluded water has long drawn me to its sandy shores in search of large but capricious highland pike.

Loch an Eilein, from the Gaelic ‘loch of the island’, has a tranquil beauty that belies its turbulent past. On an island close to shore sits a castle ruin that was once the stronghold of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan. Stewart, the son of King Robert II of Scotland — the man responsible for the sacking and burning of Elgin Cathedral — had such a reputation for savagery that he earned himself the moniker the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’. Now, however, the castle ruin is home to birch, rowan and visiting ospreys.

I have a love for traditional angling, cane rods and vintage reels, but in addition to tying flies to tempt trout and salmon, I also fashion my own pike spoons from sheets of polished brass and copper. It is with these handcrafted lures that I intended to tempt the pike of Loch an Eilein.

Rain goose

Arriving at the water’s edge, I gazed out across its unruffled surface and saw mirrored there the wooded slopes of Inshriach. No osprey called from the castle ruin, but mallard preened and splashed in the shallows while the cry of a red-throated diver, or ‘rain goose’, drifted from somewhere far across the loch.