Fife Wrasse thrash

Today me and Brian headed for a Fife wrasse mark we fished last year. We were really looking forward to it the sun was out and hardly a breath of wind, it was a shorts and t-shirt day.  On the way we missed a turn off , so went the long  way round , not perfect as we had in mind a beach to dig some lug worm, so we had to improvise and choose another beach, which we did , lug though on this beach were not numerous though we managed enough (or so we thought) , as in any case we planned mainly to use the LRF gear and use the bait as back up for float fishing.
Fishing was really slow to start with so we wondered around a bit trying both piers either side of us but no fish were forth coming . We were not sure what to do and were contemplating upping sticks all together and moving to another mark then we decided just to try the mark we stated on again with the tide now much further in. We ditched the LRF rods altogether and concentrated on the float fishing.

And it wasnt long till i found myself connected to a little green wrasse.

Just the confidence booster we needed .
Not long after Brian dropped a bite, and then i hooked another little wrasse similar in colouration to my first.

Things were picking up with Brian also hooking up this stunning  green one.

With our bait dwindling away , the sport continued i dropped a fish then hooked up again this time a nice red codling.

nice to see another species, i then rebaited and cast again and the bait couldnt have been in for 10 seconds when the float again went under. This time a red coloured wrasse.

With our best bait totally gone now we decided to call it a day as the sport dried up, think we would have had more if we had more bait  ,but  in anycase we had out stayed our welcome and was  cut off with the tide. Looking forward to a return trip , next time though we will be armed  with a load of big juicy lug worms.

Orkney July 2013

Its laughable  all the rods I thought I might need for a few days in Orkney, think I took up three fly rods, three sea rods plus a tripod. Daft really as in the end I only used a 7-35 gram spinning rod for the limited time I had to fish. First night I had a go of Churchill barrier no 3 which has been good to me in the past with the odd big pollack, but not this time as I only managed a tiny cod on a texas rigged isome, had a few nibbles on a slug go and saw a Pollack splash at my lure on the surface, a bit disappointed but it was a nice night to be out anyway.

 next again afternoon I had the first of three sessions at Hoxa head cliffs in search of Pollack,

caution is required here as rocks tend to slop towards the sea. 

the fishing wasn't exactly electric but I was pleased to land a couple of modest Pollack on a texas rigged slug go

that was as good as it got unfortunately as my next two visits saw be blank, there didn't seem to be much activity, no signs of any bait fish or small coalies, perhaps the bright conditions didn't help? the only follow I got was from a seal which followed my fiiish minnow right to my feet, they must look realistic, I nearly jumped out of my skin! 

the ferry on its way to St Margaret's Hope

another go of barrier no 3 produced a surprise flounder on the isome

  a wee cod 



and a few of these when I got bored with no bites

so not exactly a successful holiday from a fishing point of view but everyone had a great time enjoying the good weather, including Clyde who's found a new love of water and generaly getting in a right old mess!

the other highlight of the holiday I forgot to mention was on the ferry on the way over, it slowed right down so everyone could get a look at pod of killer whales, a truly awesome sight, wish I had got a picture of them.  





just the tomich!

Back yesterday from our summer holiday visiting my mum up in South Ronaldsay Orkney,  in the way of a change this year we spent three days at Tomich first near beautiful glen Affric before traveling further north. Most of our days were spent walking which was no hardship as the weather was great and the scenery magnificent.

the river Affric on the dog falls walk



bee beetle

time for a rest

clyde had a great time

on our last evening in Tomich I ventured up the hill at the back of our accommodation to take a look at a couple of hill lochs which i saw on a map, asking around it seemed that no fishing was done on these lochs any more, shame I thought but made my way up the hill for a look anyway and after about an hour I found a wee loch to the right of the path and a slightly bigger one down on the left. Somehow I had also managed to pack a rod and reel so it would be a shame not to have a wee cast in them eh!

 I opted for the bigger loch first and was encouraged to see a riser when setting up, so on went a cdc and elk and a corrie polly,   after a few casts i was pleased to bring the first trout to hand, not big as you would expect from a peaty lochan but a great fighter for its size.

a few more feisty trout followed  mostly taking the dries static

bog cotton

 only had time for a few casts on the smaller loch which didn't produce anything but looked really good, maybe another time. I went back down the hill contented having managed to squeeze a couple of hours fishing in before leaving for Orkney in the morning.







A wrasse..shhh Decision

I've been feeling a bit lost fishing wise recently since returning from Skye, it's sweltering here has been for the past week. I've had a trip to my local river, for trout but its not pleasant fighting through undergrowth , and the pond for perch but in truth my passion for freshwater fishing is totally flat at the moment, I just want more saltwater fishing in any case a sea breeze would be nice.

A bit of a dilemma today , thought will I head for a beach , low tide at 5 pm could do the flounders if i could get hold of some mackerel for bait, then i thought any beaches will be heaving with dog walkers,and sun worshippers . So I then thought about the mackerel on the fly gear, but the low water being at 5pm and High water being at just before midnight so didn't fancy it. So I finally decided to give the lrf stuff a bash, and concentrate on a species that has so far eluded me to this method .......wrasse.

So I headed over  to Fife and I got to my chosen spot at 4:30pm, some guys were using lug on the front of the breakwater and while I set up they had a wee wrasse, followed by a cod. Just what I'm after i thought, so I decided to drops shot a section of tan isome worms, and eventually after lots of plucks from coal fish I had a pollack, Infact in various parts of the breakwater I picked up a few .small but Great fighters on the light gear, but in truth I was a little disappointed as they weren't my target species.

A few hours in and only a few pollack to show for my efforts I decided to have a go in the harbour. I dropped in my setup and then to my surprise they emerged plucking and being quite curious of my bait but not hooking up,though a few close calls , though. I went through colour changes , tried gulp sand worms even a senko type worm but the pattern was the same just  curious , circling fish followed by wised up fish.

Eventually though I got one not one of the ballans I had seen but a little goldsinny.

I was pleased a new species.

Moments later I hooked up again this was a good wrasse but it snapped me. I then decided to thread up my other reel which had 15lb braid as opposed to nanofil. Straight away I hooked another fish only for it to drop off half way up the wall , I think it was a rockling or a butterfish?

Next drop down again I got what I had came for, after a good fight taking line etc , I landed this wee belter.

Mission accomplished thought I was another trip away from success, with the sun starting to go down and Sammy  the seal making a entry I decided to call it a night. I think I'll have another shot over the weekend.

Samuel

Nevermind the pollocks !

The last day of our holiday. The weather generally hadn't been kind , strong winds and occasional showers was the pattern, however , there was places for shelter , by digging out the OS maps you could find there was always a sheltered outcrop worth a go, not perhaps prime areas but i found they offered good sport.

Portree harbour

We were bound for Portree for a bit souvenir shopping so me and Lewis got the LRF rods out and had a go, we caught the usual suspects, coal fish, wee pollack , wee cod and I added another new species, a  poor cod .

poor cod

Later I went back for round two at Greshornish point. It was wild though , I thought it would be sheltered as it was on the Sunday evening as I thought the winds were in the same direction, but no, guess I picked he wrong mark.

 I took the light spinning rod and the fly rod but only used the latter for the two hours I was there. First I tried my intermediate but found despite counting down for a minute it just wasn't getting down , where I wanted it quick enough in the blustery conditions, so I put on my repaired fast sinker, I'd repaired it with. Section of braided loop some thread whip and superglue, and started picking up pollack, i had half a dozen, a few really wee ones and a few marginally better ones not as big as the loch pooltiel fish but still great sport.

 Doing the simple things though was difficult with the wind even standing up was difficult at times, and the running line had a habit of blowing out the line tray and tangling. I finished with this modest but beutifully coloured Greshornish pollack, a fitting end to my time fishing on the island.

It was a great holiday, it's a sea fishers heaven, some species such as mackeral were still thin on the ground, as the have been everywhere so far this year, but there was plenty pollack to keep interest, if I had more time , I'd probably give the beach rods a go, or go more out for wrasse than  my occasional efforts .  I'd love to go back to Skye in the near future , but think the misses will be wanting a trip to sunnier climes next year, still I live in hope.

The view from the balcony (ascrib islands)

On a fishin' mission (day 5 Skye)

On Thursday we had a trip to the reptile house in Broadford, then on the way home stopped for an hour and a half at Ardmore point, the wind was blowing hard , the mission was to get Lewis a pollack.
 

Ardmore point

 I decided to leave the fly gear at home and concentrate mainly on getting lewis a fish , so we were both spinning  with newly purchased big rubber eels from dunvegan tackle shop , lost most of them , I hooked fish and Lewis played it in , a nice wee pollack ....yes.

Between  snags he then hooked a fish ,a lovely fish it was too.

 Understandably he was over the moon. I then took a small pollack before we headed for home with a few fishy tales to tell. Mission accomplished and one happy angler!

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........