Orkney wrasse sessions part1

I've been visiting Orkney all of my life really and in that time there's been more than a few memorable fishy encounters, mostly with trout I hasten to add but ive also had the odd big Pollack when ive tried my luck in the sea. As you'll have noticed Col and I have been enjoying fishing for wrasse with the lrf gear of late, Its such an enjoyable way to fish, quite addictive  those wrasse are with those tap tap bang bites! anyway I've never caught a wrasse of any description from Orkney before so this holiday I thought I would put all my fishing efforts into trying to find some, didn't even bother packing the fly rod!

Arriving at my mothers on Sunday afternoon my first opportunity to fish was for a couple of hours that evening, a nice easy mark I thought and you cant get any more road side than the Churchill barriers which are only a short drive from my mums house. Once I had found a suitable block on the barrier to fish from I set up the usual drop shot rig with some raw prawn for bait. At first the usual culprits were attacking the bait, little coalies and it did cross my mind that perhaps this would be all that was about, then something a little bigger, a nice wee Pollack put a bend in the rod

shortly after this i had the familiar tap tap bites and was over the moon to land my first orkney wrasse, a lovely wee ballan

another ballan followed before i got another one of my targets, a nice female cuckoo wrasse

poor cod and a sea scorpion put in an appearance too

more ballans including this chuncky fella

  

and the night was topped off with my first male cuckoo

next again day i managed out for an afternoon session at the same spot, more Ballans, the first Goldsinny of the week  and some nice cod were on the menu.

my little 7g savage gear rod coped admirably with this cod which i kept for the pot, four and a half pounds, it spat out its recent dinner, looks like a butterfish.

Tuesday morning i got up super early and took Clyde out for a walk before heading to the usual spot for a couple of hours.

as well as some codling it was a morning for big ballans

and nice to see some cuckoo's again

 i got out again that afternoon for another session, it was a lot tougher fishing over high water and a bit on the windy side, struggled away for a couple of wee ballan and Goldsinny wrasse. Still couldn't complain as it had been a great start to the week.