Loch Awe is a rare thing: a big, wild, famous Scottish water where the access situation is genuinely straightforward. You buy a permit online, you read the byelaws, you go fishing. After the tangle that is Loch Ken, it is a relief.
It is a long loch in Argyll and Bute, deep in places, holding brown trout, ferox trout and pike. Those three fisheries are quite different from each other and it is worth deciding which one you are there for before you go.
Permits and seasons
Fishing is managed by the Loch Awe Improvement Association, and permits are sold through their site at lochawe.net.
The permit structure is refreshingly clear. An annual permit runs at £90. On the trout side there is a one-day permit at £10, three-day at £20 and weekly at £30, and the pike and coarse permits mirror that at £10, £20 and £30 for the same durations.
Seasons differ by species. Trout and coarse fish other than pike run from 15 March to 6 October. Pike can be fished all year round, which makes Loch Awe one of the more useful winter destinations in this series.
The protection order and what it means for you
All fishing on Loch Awe is covered by a Protection Order granted in 1992, enforced by the LAIA and its wardens. In practice that means fishing without a permit is not a grey area here, and you should expect to be asked to show one.
The association has also funded a brown trout hatchery for the loch and a habitat improvement scheme in the major spawning burns. Your permit money goes somewhere.
Byelaws worth knowing
Two rules catch people out. Live fish or other vertebrates cannot be used as bait, which rules out livebaiting for pike entirely. And keep nets are not permitted, with landing nets required to be knotless.
Knotless landing nets are standard good practice for fish care anyway, but if your net is an old knotted one, replace it before you travel rather than arguing about it on the bank.
Pike fishing
This is what draws a lot of visiting anglers, and the year-round season is a genuine advantage. With livebaiting off the table, you are fishing deadbaits and lures, which is how most serious pike anglers work anyway.
On a loch this size, the job is locating fish. Shallow bays and weedy margins in the warmer months, deeper water and drop-offs as it cools. Lure fishing lets you cover ground and eliminate water, and I would use it as a search tool even if I intended to fish deadbaits once I found something. Our lure fishing for pike and deadbaiting guides both apply here.
Bring the full unhooking kit and mean it. Deep, cold, wild water produces pike that deserve to be handled properly.
Trout and ferox
Ordinary brown trout fishing on Loch Awe is traditional loch style: team of wets, floating line, drift and cover water. It is pleasant, wild fishing and the permit is cheap.
Ferox is a different sport entirely. These are large, long-lived, predatory brown trout that live deep and eat fish, and catching them involves trolling at depth over long hours with a real prospect of nothing at all. It is a genuine specialism. If it appeals, go with someone experienced first. Working it out alone on a loch this size is a way to spend a week learning that you were in the wrong water.
Practical notes
Buy the permit before you arrive rather than hoping. Read the byelaws page on the LAIA site rather than this summary, because rules change and the association’s own page is the authority.
The regional context is in the Highlands and Argyll overview, and if you have never fished a Scottish loch for pike, our complete pike guide is worth reading first.
Rob Hadley grew up fishing the rivers and drains of the Norfolk Broads, and it was inevitable that pike would become his species of choice. He’s been targeting predators seriously for over 20 years – starting on dead baits, moving through live bait rigs, and eventually landing on lure fishing as his preferred method about eight years ago.
These days he fishes the Broads through winter, travels to Chew Valley Lake each spring for its outsized fish, and spends the warmer months working soft plastics on rivers across the East Midlands for perch and zander. He’s had pike to 31lb and perch to 3lb 9oz, and reckons both records are beatable on the right day with the right set-up.
At The River Bend, Rob writes the predator species guides, lure fishing technique articles, and most of the winter fishing content.
Covers: Pike, perch, zander, lure fishing, winter fishing, predator rigs