Rush Hour!

We decided to do a bit piking today for a change. On arrival the water looked perfect , and we were feeling pretty confident , we were going to get a few fish. The sun was shining though and a few hours passed before we decided to go ashore for a break , but not before i got a follow followed by a take  .

At 3:50pm i decided to get back in the water and get paddling up to a new bit of water. Once in position we started fishing  i hooked a fish, he tail walked and the hook sprung loose, a few casts later i was in again but again the hook came free. But finally i hooked up and was into a nice pike that fought hard.

Shortly after i chinned out a a nice pike that went 9lb on the scales.

The water was on fire, as i hooked and landed another jack, Then brian shouted me he'd hooked up!

A nice pike that went just under 15lb on the scales. Could be a few more pound come Autumn on it.

No sooner had he released that fish and he was in again!

A pristine marked pike,and  no sooner was that pike released and I  and hooked up ,

Just a wee one , that was our sport for the day as the sun came out and the wind died , although we fished on for a few more hours there was no more action. It was mad  hours sport , my arm is aching after casting these flies , needing a rest!

Fun in the Sun

Scorchio today! Had a visit to one of my favourite rivers , i was a bit worried about its level with a the rain of recent but on a arrival  the river was it's usual crystal clear self, infact i would say it was pretty low it  does though drop very fast.

I had a fish first cast but after that had a wee lull for about half an hour , then it was non stop action for the rest of the day,What fighters they are! I'd say most fish came to nymphs all though many also took the dry,, lost one better  the start of the day and broke off on one later on, but it had been a fun though tiring in the heat . Although it did fish fine i would like to see it with a wee bit more water, i will return before the season ends , and maybe a few better fish will be getting there heads down. A few signature trout .

Holy Mackeral

Just back from my hols, managed a few nights SWFF ,it was'nt the greatest weather apart from the last day, unfortunately the fishing was not great also though i gained a wee bit knowledge each time, despite my best efforts i didnt get a bass , or mullet (Though i did see plenty of the later) Luckily on a few nights the best being the last the Mackeral put in appearance, had to scale down the fly pattern ,great fun chasing them along the beach , cant beat the sound of feeding mackeral , almost like a  fast approaching rainstorm , And ofcourse the best thing is you can eat them, still though Glad to be home!

Supper!

sand bank

Right down the Lyne

All to often i pass this lovely stream in the car on my way down to the main river, but rarely seem to get around to fishing it. Today i thought i would put my wee Norwich 7' 9'' to good use and spend an afternoon working my way through some of its inviting pools and runs.

With all the rain last week the water was fair pushing through, enough for me to have second thoughts on crossing in certain places, the wee trout were obliging enough though taking a liking to the big klink and wire nymph set up.

I worked my way upstream in a relaxed fashion taking in the bankside flowers on the way

lots of  river to explore ahead

some more beautifully marked trout followed making for a fun afternoon

I headed back to the car at the back of four, feeling contented having cast a fly rod again after what seemed like an age.

fair weather fisherman

I dragged myself out of bed early this morning in order to catch the start of the incoming tide at the  harbour we were fishing last weekend. I felt like crap to be honest and the temptation to stay in bed was so great, but no pain no gain as they say and by 6.30 i was tackling up on the pier with an unrelenting wind hitting my face.

First cast resulted in one of my wee pals taking the lug!

  Nothing after that for a while and the wind was making life difficult, can't say i was enjoying myself,  then a good rattle on the rod tip and i struck into a snag, i managed to pull it free and found myself connected to a lovely wrasse, i was pleased!

   as much as i tried to add to this fish i failed to connect with anything else and threw in the towel at 11.30, fed up with the constant wind and in need of a coffee, a fair weather fisher i guess!

getting our hands dirty again

After reading some great info on codhead bob's site col and i decided to continue our novice sea angling adventures and have a try from a harbour mark in Fife today. But first we headed to a local beach and dug some lug and even managed to find a couple of peeler crabs for our efforts.

We arrived for the tide turning and were soon getting some bites from what we suspected were crabs, then col got the first fish of the day, a sea scorpion !

Col caught another one of these wee fellas  before i had a good rattle on the rod tip and was pleased to find myself attached to my first shore caught wrasse, result!

another nice wrasse followed from the same area and another sea scorpion before we ran out of lug, we thought we had plenty but we'll know to dig more next time! we had some herring left but we didn't have the same confidence in this bait compared to the lug 

it was an enjoyable day in a nice location, looking forward to fishing this harbour again, next time we'll be a bit better prepared  both bait and rig/lead wise.

  

a few days in Orkney

We headed up to Orkney for a few days to visit my mum, the weather up north has been a lot nicer than down here, and it was a lovely evening for the crossing to St Margerets hope, Clyde seemed to enjoy his first ferry journey too.

 Inbetween tidying my mums garden and doing family stuff i concentrated any angling efforts to the sea rather than my usual trout fishing. Not that i did particularly well blanking often than not. First fish was a new one to me, a sea scorpion i think?  on float fished lug from one of the churchill barriers,  can't say i'm in a big hurry to catch another one!

  Had an afternoon fishing a local cliff mark where again the fishing was slow but inbetween loosing loads of tackle i did get a nice coalfish and a Pollack for my efforts, also lost a bigger Pollack which did the usual running into the kelp!

I spent a wee bit of time trying for flounders from some likely looking beaches but failed to register so much as a bite, not even a crab! back to the drawing board there i think.

Only other fish i encountered was when Jamie and i were searching some rock pools, first one is a butterfish i think

not sure what this one is? but it has a face only a mother could love! 

 All to soon our holiday was over, another smooth crossing on the ferry last night with clear sky's and sunshine, it wasn't until we got down to near Edinburgh again that the rain started, back to normal i guess.