weekly trotting fix

I was looking forward to another day on the river trotting for the Grayling, arrived at at the back of eight where i found the river maybe slightly lower than last weekend and although it wasn't frosty it certainly was feeling a lot colder.

It was really slow to get going, a couple of out of season trout was all i had to show for my efforts for the first hour or two, by this time my feet were feeling like ice blocks so time for a much needed coffee and a walk along the bank to warm up a bit before trying again. In for round two and pleasingly this time the float went under where i usually expect the Grayling to be lying, not a monster but i was pleased to get of the mark.

I was hoping this would be the start of the swim coming to life but apart from dropping another fish it just wasn't happening, i decided on a move to some streamier water upstream and this proved to be a good idea, after a few trots down i was into a nice Grayling which turned out to be the biggest of the day at 2lb 4oz

a few more followed throughout the day

  nothing massive but all welcome

ended the day with ten hard won Grayling, really enjoyed it apart from feeling a bit cold, extra pair of socks on next time i think.

Graylings in the Mist

It was a Misty start on Sunday when me and Bri had a go for the grayling . We went to the spot he had done so well at last weekend , i was really looking forward to a bit trotting , but first with bellies rumbling we stopped off for a bit breakfast. After a sausage and egg roll and a latte , we were ready to go.

It didn't take long for the mist to lift and with it Brian  hooked the first of the day a fine fish that went a couple of pound .

I then lost a grayling  before hooking into something that just held out in the current , actually thought i might have snagged, up on a old sack or something , till it started to swim upstream then jump about, and eventually a nice big  grayling came to the net  .

a few wee fellaes followed , then it went quiet.

Though Brian managed to find a few nice fishlittle upstream in the afternoon. I gave the fly rod a go but , no luck on that front , must get on the vice and tie up some more bugs.

The mist returned as it began and the cold started to set in and darkness slowly began creep in so we called it a day.

Great fun , looking forward to next time!

November Grayling

Out today for my first trip of the Grayling season,  with all the rain of late I knew I would have to travel to the upper reaches of the river to find some clear water.After an hour or so drive I parked up at my spot and got my first proper look at the river, aye it was carrying a bit of extra water right enough but running clear, I had packed the fly rod as well as my trotting gear but in truth i fancied a bit of relaxed trotting so decided to leave the fly rod in the car.
George from the http://traditionalfloats.blogspot.co.uk/ made me some lovely floats last winter with this river in mind,  I've been so looking forward to fishing with them and today I would finally get the chance to put them to good use, one of them anyway!

 I headed down to a pool that gave me a few nice grayling last year and after two or three trots down and I was into a fish, not what I was looking for though, a little trout which was followed by one or two more of his pals before I found myself connected to the first Grayling of the day.

only a little one but i was pleased to land my first of the winter

the next Grayling was a different creature all together, what i call a line whistler, nervous moments as i drew him ever closer to the net, he went 2lb 4oz in the mclean.

if that was to be my last grayling of the day i would have went home delighted, but i seemed to have found a shoal of good fish, to cut a long story short i ended up with eight Grayling for the day with five of them between 2lb 4oz and 2lb 8oz, happy days!

some pictures in no particular order, a memory card full of grayling pictures gets a bit confusing as they all look the same!  

in truth i probably could have stuck it out a little while longer but with some prolonged heavy showers late afternoon i decided to call it a day around four, a great day and a big thank you to George for making me those lovely floats.  

        

It's Turbo Time

Myself and Brian  couldn't think what to do yesterday, the weather forecast wasn't great , strong winds and heavy showers in most spots apart from the southeast of Scotland looked dry , so we opted for a bit flattie fishing on a south east beach, a beach that has a reputation for producing the odd Turbot. The night before had us making up a few rigs , and made an attempt get hold of some fresh mackerel for bait but the supermarkets couldn't help. Fortunately I had about 6 freezer burnt fillets that had been in my freezer for well over a year , and still thought we had better try get some fresh bait  incase the quality of the bait had diminished, but we failed to track down anything the following morning ,  so had to make do .

Despite being really windy the sea wasn't to bad as it was blowing straight of shore , I was really looking forward to getting a bait in the water. Brian was having one of those days almost walking out to the mark only to discover he had left his tripod in the car, and his leads at home. Before long we were both fishing . It didn't take long to get of the mark with some small flounders, including a few double shots. Nothing big, in fact compared with it's normal stamp they were quite small. 

double shots galore

It was a bonus to get a turbot, lovely to see , and one of these days it will produce one worthy of the frying pan .

Turbo power

Later in the afternoon I managed another double shot of turbot and flounder, this one a bit of a mutant , with its camouflage covering much of its underside as well as its back. 

It was great  fun while the fish were biting , a pity the bigger flatties didn't show , but it was good sport nonetheless  , one day we should get lucky as long as we keep trying.  Next time hope theres a slightly bigger sea to fish think that will get the bigger flounder feeding.

earning my stripes

Sunday afternoon was my only chance to wet a line this weekend, but even then that wasn't looking likely, with recent rain I wasn't sure if any grayling rivers would be fishable or not and with limited time it wasn't worth taking the risk to travel to them, tide times didn't suit for a flounder trip either so it would have to be some local coarse fishing or nothing at all. I thought about having a walk along the canal with the lrf gear to try for some perch but speaking to Col on the phone he told me the canal was quite coloured and not worth bothering with. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to get out and then I had one more idea, there's a quarry five minutes up the road which always has good clarity, and I knew it had some Perch in it too as Col caught one from there last year when we were fishing for Tench, why not i thought ,it was worth a try anyway.
Soon I was tackling up at the quarry and I have to say my first thoughts were ones of anger and annoyance at the amount of litter and crap left by the boozed up neds who seem to frequent places like this, the usual empty beer tins, old fishing line and camp fires strewn all over the place, what is it with these idiots when they think this is acceptable behaviour... rant over. Anyway I set up with a small jig head and a Lake Fork baby shad and started to cover the swim in front of me,  after a few casts I connected with what turned out to be a lovely wee Perch

soon after i took another smaller one but any visions of a bumper catch were short lived as it then went dead, after a while i decided to move to another spot which wasn't as easy as it sounds what with the steep banking's and dense undergrowth.

the next spot produced another nice Perch, this time on a Lemon Meringue Crappie Minnr!

another couple of moves around the quarry resulted in a couple of micro jack Pike, all welcome though on a day which i didn't promise much hope

there's one or two other venues in the area that could be worth a try for perch, ill keep them up my sleeve for when i'm stuck on a day like today.

Making the most of it

This weekend i thought i would have another try for the wrasse whilst conditions still allow, Col reckoned sea temperatures were still good and with low wind speeds over the last few days i hoped that water clarity would be ok too. Fishing was slow to begin with but in one area inside the harbour i was getting regular bites, eventually hooking one of the little critters, a first for me, a Sand Goby!

 out front i caught a tiny Cod and a coalfish but still no sign of the wrasse, i resorted to casting the dropshot rig out a little and twitching it back slowly, this resulted in two or three welcome Pollack to help make up for the lack of wrasse activity .

 eventually i started to get the familiar tap tap bites from the wrasse with the tide half way up

  the fishing got better and better up to high tide, with both Ballan's and another first for me the pretty little corkwing wrasse

sea scorpions put in an appearance too, there not very cooperative when it comes to having the hook removed, they lock their mouths shut and vibrate in your hand!

only downside on Saturday was when i hooked a real cracker of a Ballan, i had him played out and estimated him to be around the three pound mark, i had to hand line him up the sea wall and you guessed it, we parted company, i was a bit gutted! think i need to look into getting a drop net. Still it was a great fun day with some nice fish landed.

Today i was back for more, again it was slow to get going but i occupied myself  fishing for the sand gobys for a while

once the tide was well in i started to get the familiar taps from the wrasse including this little goldsinny

managed a couple of codling today as well, good fun on the light gear

and this, think its a yarrels blennie like the ones Col and Scott caught? another uncooperative fish for unhooking i found out.

a nice ballan  

  

an enjoyable couple of days fishing, don't know how much longer we'll get before the wrasse go off the feed but its great fun whilst it lasts.