For our last day we were tempted to go back to the loch we fished on the Friday, but that would be predictable , so we went to a new mark on the north eastern side of the island known as the pinnacles.
On the way we stopped for plasters and paracetamol as Brian had a sorehead., the Skye version of the tour DE France made the journey a bit slower than usual we passed a few landmarks such as the old man of Storr.
It was a lovely day the sea flat calm we arrived an hour after high tide , plan was to fish the tide down then back up again , with a bit lrf during the middle part of the day just to mix it up and probably
more importantly give our arms a rest.
First few casts i took 3 small pollock, Brian took another then it went dead.
So we went looking for a decent rock with good depth to fish from, depth seems to be the key, a deep gulley fringed with kelp being ideal. brian spotted a rock which looked good so we went there.
He quickly took the first decent fish of the day on his lure rod he had taken a gulp Sand eel.
I stuck stubbornly with the fly rod , couldn't get a fish on a clousers so changed to a chartreuse and white deceiver dressed on a 1/0 hook , this seemed to be getting a response , the fishing was extremely visual with fish appearing behind my fly 20-30ft down following , sometimes they would take most times they would turn away at the last minute. Sometimes a take would be registered by watching the White fly only for it to disappear, then it was fish on.
Others you could clearly make out the fish , and you would be willing for it to take, on one occasion a massive pollock followed my chartreuse and red clousers, only for it to turn its nose up last minute I could almost work out the unconvinced expression on his face as it slid away into the depths , which only left me punching the air in frustration and shouting obscenities in its general direction.
I now also had a sore head, perhaps too much sun? So I went for a walk , by the time I returned Brian announced he had just had his first lrf wrasse, he followed that up withe two more and a colourful long spined sea scorpion.
beautiful or ugly? |
I managed a poor cod when I decided to have a break from the fly, then after trying unsuccessfully for a wrasse I decided to try for pollack on the soft plastics, when I got a few modest pollock.
A late return to the fly rods seen a few more pollack followed by a late appearance of some coal fish , speaking to another angler it seemed we hadn't done to bad in the bright conditions as many had blanked even the boats struggled.
On that orange fly again |
That concluded our fishing in skye as the following morning we headed for home. Another trip wiser we will be returning again next year for some more of the same.