What a load of Pollocks

Wednesday was my whole day to fish alone, not required to constantly pull from snags, tie up new rigs etc.
I decided to return to loch Pooltiel as it was so good to me on the Monday. It was a great day just a light ripple on the loch.

 So it was on with the chartreuse and white clousers . First cast I took a small pollack then next cast again hooked another fish this one the close cousin of the pollack the coalfish.

 soon after another two anglers turned up to spin on the mark , and I promptly took a couple of nice fish around 4lb they were kind enough to take some pics.

 I then dropped two losing my flies as the dived into the kelp . More fish followed with odd quiet spell mainly ranging from 2-4 lb, and I found a new colour of pink and white effective.

 I spoke to the other anglers who had the odd pollack, and got a basic tutorial on how to spin these big rubber eels, I was needing the info , as Lewis my sons friend was still to catch a crash diving pollack, above  lrf size and as he is a keen young angler, I wanted him to get one before leaving on Saturday.
Unfortunately I knackered my second fast sinker of the trip, so put it a way at once so not to cause more damage and put on my repaired line .
Before long I decided to go for a wander, to a nice wee spot I could see further round the loch. On the way i admired some of the wild flowers.

thrift

ragged robin

flag iris

This mark required a leap of faith across a 3ft gap , but soon I was on the rock. I replaced my damaged line with the one i damaged on the first night that id repaired ,First cast I took a smallish pollack around 2 1/2lb then I cast again the line departed the rod into the sea. doh!

the rock

So I decided to give my hrf kit a go and rigged a gulp sand worm Texas style with a 7gm cone head. I cast it out pausing , slow retrieve just bouncing it around the bottom then I got a tap , tap tap, then I hooked up but unfortunately it got off, i suspect it was a wrasse, then as contiued the retreive closer in a big pollack shadowed the sand worm, a few casts later I hooked it but it was unstoppable, simply a 30g spinning rod just ain't up to the job for stopping these beasts.

 So I decided to put on a intermediate and count it down for a bit longer a minute to be precise, and it worked, with a cracking pollack of 5lb.

A few casts later I saw a bigger fish follow then take , a brief hook up and the fly came out its mouth so I cast short, pulled it just sub surface and the fish rolled over it  off the top just like a trout . Then dived down the ledge , I stopped his first lunge, then on his second I feel i almost had him ,then i watched as the fly broke at the knot  10ft or so down and the big old pollack with my pink fly in its lip idly sounded for the deeps.What can i say....  Great fun!

It had been a great day perhaps 20 or so pollack landed a few lost and a single coalfish, absolutely shattered back home for tea at 7pm.

more to come........

The Skye's the limit (first 3 days)

This years family holidays had finally arrived , we were bound for the isle of Skye! One thing that was worrying me on this trip was the forecast, it wasn't great for the first full day 30mph winds and rain on the Sunday, so we went to the capital Portree and myself my son jack and his pal Lewis had a go at lrf in the harbour, first I set up Lewis then as I was setting jacks rod up Lewis had a wee sea scorpion.

A good start , before long we were all catching small pollack and coal fish , then Lewis lent his rod to my wife Sylvia and she reeled in a tiny codling, I then took another two.

totie pollack

wee cod

I also managed out in the evening to do a bit fishing at loch Greshornish . I chose the location partly cause it was close by but also cause it was sheltered , infact it was so shelterd i was being eaten alive by the midges , its the only day they bit, and the only day i never applied my  smidge repellent.

Greshornish point

  The target , pollack on the fly. There's a 30 minute walk to the point, but what a smashing mark it is , first cast I saw a small pollack followed my deceiver then I got one not huge , in fact pretty wee but nice to get off the mark.

 I had a few more follows then I shredded my fly line on the barnacles, I know exactly when I did it , and was a bit annoyed at myself as it effectively ended the evenings fishing prematurely .

Any way I made a temporary repair and managed to cast to a degree , but no more fish on the point took , on my way back up the road I stopped of at another outcrop, and hooked a fish first cast , got to say this actually looked a little better for pollack than the point as it had good depth, but the point it's self looks a great wrasse haven.

The path to Neist point

stone piles

neist point  lighthouse

The groovy gang

Monday saw the family visit Neist point, simply a stunning mark though it was a little rough out the front, so we fished Moonen bay, after a blank in one bay we moved to the loading bay where my son Jack's first cast with his jelly worm said " dad I'm stuck on the bottom" then before we knew it we could see a stonking pollack  below us , we netted and weighed it, what a cracker 3 1/2 pound, it was then his wish that it was returned.

that's ma boy!

Try as we could me and Lewis could not get a take.

The rocks at Pooltiel

 So we headed back up to the car and on the way stopped of at sheltered  loch pooltiel for an hour and a half. Wasn't sure what fly to put on and wasn't full of confidence, saw a few wee coalies so scaled down from my big 2/0 deceiver to a size 2 chartreuse and white clouser,  did a 30 second count down and with almost instant effect I started to get pollack over the next hour I had 4 fish the best and last fish just over 4 1/2 pound , they have phenomenal power and they take a bit of holding to stop them crash diving into the snaggy kelp beds. At last i felt i had cracked it.

 kept two table sized fish for the pot and made a nice fish pie out of them.

pollack Pie....... mmmm.

Tuesday was another day of heavy rain and strong winds , we had a tour round the Trotternish peninsular stopping off at a few attractions, not the best day for photography the old man of Storr was covered by mist, but got a picture of kilt rock.

More days to come.......

Tinca tinca time

We were  going to go float tubing on a hill loch for pike yesterday, but with the forecast not looking to great we had a change of plan. Col was speaking to a very knowledgeable coarse angler who had had a great session on a local venue for Tench during the week, so we thought we would give it a try instead.

Getting to the swim we wanted to fish was no easy task, but after fighting through the thick undergrowth we finally arrived at the hot spot. We set up our rods to float fish the lift method, then started to introduce balls of ground bait to the swim with red maggots for hook bait. Encouragingly there were quite a few Tench rolling on the surface and soon we saw the great sight of fizzing bubbles enter the swim. My float lifted and I was excited to get my first glimpse of a good tench which tore of in the shallow water, great fight and 3lb 8oz, a good start!

   Col's turn next  with a nice fish which put up a great scrap too 

back you go

 a period of inactivity followed before the last fish of the morning, I could see the slightest movement on my float and sensed I was about to get a take, this time the float shot under rather than lifting, another  good fish over 3lb's.

The sport dried up completely into the early afternoon with no sign of any tench in the swim, so we decided to go home and come back in the evening in the hope that they would be on the move again. In the evening there was one or two rolling on the surface but nothing like in the morning, Cols float eventually did register a bite but unfortunately not a tench!



    a hard but interesting days fishing, next time we'll get there super early in the morning I think.

LRF fun at St Abbs Harbour

This weekend i fancied a change from trout fishing , Brian suggested we try St Abbs harbour just to see what we could pick up .  First stop though was mikes tackle shop to see if we could get a few bits of tackle, being new to this LRF game we are steadily building up a bit tackle , and soft baits, and hopefully with that, and time we will attain a better understanding of the methods and techniques  used by the seasoned lrf'er.  

The sea was fairly flat when we got there before low tide, first i tried a 2g jig head with a peice of tan isome and i managed a wee sea scorpion.

 Brian was fishing a dropshot rig and was quickly into fish also a few more sea scorpions and then the first flounder on gulp sandworms, i decided at that point to also change to a dropshot set up as it seemed more productive, well for Brian anyway.

After sport slowed a little  then Brian found a hot spot where he started getting more flounder , the best of the day unfortunately got off , whilst handlining it up to the quayside, we had a longhandled landing net but it was a little short .

Handling them up

Brian was doing a bit better than i getting more bites , i was getting a bit worried i was doing something wrong when i hooked up using half a  xl  red isome.

atlast!

They really do go well on the light gear! Great fighters! A few more followed for us.

As the day wore on and the bites dried up we decided to head back home , it had been a great trip . Content with our day, and  that we  marginally had a better understanding of LRF than when we arrived, cant wait to do it again and with a bit luck ,we will extend our species range using these methods  over the coming months.   

Back on my Old Stomping Ground

Ive been a bit lacking enthusiasm of late, so this evening i decided to do something a bit differant or atleast it felt like it, i decided on my old stomping ground , been a good while since i wet a line on this part of the river, and the memories lived up to expectation .

The river was low and the stones ,covered in  slimy slippy green  algae as we have not had any rain for several weeks now, the air thick with  spinners and midge. But in the early part of the evening the nymph ruled supreme , the deeper pocket water and runs producing the best sport, the first fish i hooked got off as it embedded my tippet in a clump of algae , pretty much a lesson from the off, "play them hard"!  But after that i got into the groove.

  there was the odd fish that fell for the dry too.

 But the nymph was definitely more effective.

     As the evening  wore on and more risers became more evident i decided to try a  rusty spinner , and i did the trick taking a few more  trout before calling it a night at 9:30 pm.

it was greatfishing this stretch again , must do it again befor ethe seasons out , till then i fancy a change of scene , perhaps pike or pehaps a trip to a beach?  

Lean pickings in the highlands

Went back up to the highland stream hoping it mightbe a bit more on. Still very slow but i think the main reason for lack of sport had far more to do with the lack of flow, really needs rain as the hatch looked quite promising today.some lovely plants on show including globe flower , a indicator species the sign of fertility in the area.

And some i dont know , but very cool.

birds foot trefoil

?????

To the fishing , hard work , tried lots of methods in differant  pools to try and get a response , had a good spell late on in then day, taking several trout including this bizarre looking "spotless trout"

That was followed by a nice 2 lber that fought really hard.

You can see by his head some fodder he coughed up a couple of parr and some gadgers (stonefly nymph)

After that in the next pool i saw a rise form at the head of the pool, i decided to cover it with a big klinkhammer , he ignored it for the first few casts   , but eventually took it, a good trout , perhaps 3lb , all was going well then the hook came out! och well , cant win them all!
If the rain falls in this region there should be some excellent sport to be had on this stream .