wrasse around

First salt water trip of the year now that we can travel more than five miles from home! Col and I headed down to the borders where we were pleased to get our chosen mark to ourselves, target was Ballan Wrasse and anything else that came our way.

didn't take long for the action to get underway with a succession of Coalies before the first wrasse of the day.

Moving around trying different areas on the rock resulted in some nice wrasse caught and also a wee Pollack for Col.

after a while with the tide rising fast we decided to vacate the rock and head down to a nearby  harbour to finish of our session.  Fishing was also great in the harbour with plenty of wrasse on the feed including some nice wee corkwings, a codling, more coalies and wee pollack.

all in all a great return to the salt, looking forward to getting down there again.

new kids on the block!

Trying to stay fairly local with the fishing, although the five miles recommendation i find pretty much unworkable! today I ended up on a small pond on a golf course which i haven't fished for approaching twenty years, that is after throwing together some rather ancient coarse fishing gear!

used to have a really good stamp of Roach  but they would appear to have been wiped out, even the humble Perch were thin on the ground except for one wee fella. The new kid on the block would appear to be the Tench! landed a couple and lost another, not big in any way but put up a good scrap, happy days!

back in the game

Great to get back out fishing again, although it feels a wee bit weird having missed so much of the season already.

Anyway Col and I arranged an evening session fly fishing for the Pike on a venue new to us. Things got off to a promising start with Col getting a follow second cast, shortly after landing the first Pike of the evening on a Flash fly, which proved to be the fly of the evening.

Some more follows and missed chances before I got of the mark with  a nice wee  pike.

Third Pike of the evening was an absolute belter for Col weighing 14lb 3 0z.

Final Pike of the evening for me before they seemed to switch off, wish i could tell you that i had an epic battle with it, but once i got her out of the weed she seemed to just hang there like she didn't know what was happening and i was able to slip the net under her, still over the moon when i weighed her 20lb 13oz.

a return trip a day or two later and we never even got a follow, i was a lot colder which might have had something to do with it.

the start of another new season

March the15th and the start of another season, with nothing major planned for the day Col and I decided on a local burn for our first outing, not one noted for containing trout of any size but that didn't really matter, just getting out and enjoying the day and hopefully catching a trout or two was the plan.

A bit of rainfall the night before had us slightly worried about water clarity so it was nice to find the burn running clear enough to fish, we set up with the usual pool searching set up of a size 10 klink and bright glister bug suspended below. Usual start of season rustiness, Col forgot his cap and I left my tippet material in the car! there wasn't much happening to be fair, Col got an offer in the tail of one likely looking pool, but most water we covered drew a blank, then in a pool which is usually quite good a trout each to get of the mark for the new season!

small but beautiful!

Another wee trout further upstream for me and another take for Col was our lot for the day, its a start!

Pike Poppers

I bought some popper heads from angling active yesterday with Pike in mind, good fun to tye up, looking forward to giving them a go later on in the year!

Thinking of Pike

The last time I fished for Pike was a couple of years ago and that day turned out to be a bit of a disaster, I was fishing from my float tube and hooked a Pike which looked to be a good double, it tore off as they do but my fly line was caught around one of my fins which resulted in the inevitable loss of the fish and worse still I also lost my flipper!

One of the things that stops me from fishing is not being properly organised so this year I’m determined to not be so last minute all the time. My Pike fly wallet is a sorry looking affair with tatty looking old flies which are years old and have seen better days. So I’ve been tying some new ones up which I hope to put to good use later on in the year.

I'll also need to buy a new pair of fins as I've never replaced them since that disastrous day!

Its been a while

Hi there, its been a while! various reasons for not posting on here for such a long time, life can be busy and if being honest I've personally not been as intense about my fishing in recent years as perhaps I once was. Thats not to say that Col and I haven't been out, had a lot of good adventures in both fresh and salt water, still loving our fishing!

  

with the start of a new trout season just around the corner thought it would be a good time to rekindle the blog or at least see how we get on, really excited about some fishing trips we have in mind in the coming year.

 here's hoping for a great season, all the best.

Brief outline of fishing so far this year (spring)

The trout fishing this year started well  i spent most of my early season on theAlmond, plenty fish on the feed and allthough my first visit in March i discovered i had left my reel sitting on the spare room floor i still managed a few fish on the dry almost  tenkara style.

Subsequent visits saw me take my reel . with a couple visit to small burns.

Then it back to the Almond which was fishing really well.

That was spring after that some sea fishing........

Carnoustie beach Flattie sesh

Its been probably as much as 30 years since i last fished for flat fish on Carnoustie beach. I recall as a boy digging lug off the beach and catching a few flatties.

On Monday I revisited that beach with my brother Lindsay.

 It proved to be a great venue for flatties with hectic sport , the calm sea made for great bite detection . we took many flounders some good ones too, and some small place.

i think this would make a graet venue for a bit of lrf flattie fishing, if the weather holds ill be back soon.

October saying goodbye for another season

Octobers been and gone and weather wise I recall it was pretty kind.

I managed my last trip to the Avon before the season ended on a beat  i used to fish on a regular basis many years ago , it was nice to revisit it . The water was really clear and it surrendered a few fish to dries and nymphs , great sport and i look forward to another trout season coming round again next year.

 The middle of the month with the weather still holding up allowed for a couple of wrasse sessions  down at Burntisland, a rig had been placed about 100 yds from the breakwater dominating the view, the sessions  they were really  productive with corkwings , and ballans .

A nice green one 

A wee goldsinny

On the last weekend of the month we had our first go of the year at grayling on the upper Clyde  , the water was a bit higher than expected and a bit peaty , we managed a few now out of season  trout and eventually brian took a nice grayling on a nymph. We retreated back to the car chilled by the cold wind.

 So that was October , the weather has finally started to become quite autumnal  hopefullystill get some good sport into November.

3 days in Skye

On the 24th of September we made what has become  our annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Skye. We stayed in the caravans down by Uig pier not the most scenic place in Skye but it did the job.

On the first day we went to Staffin , the forecast was 19mph westerlies but it seemed to swing round from the north and be a bit stringer at times than forecast. however we did manage to fish , i started off with the fly rod as did Brian caught lots of small Pollock the best maybe going 2lb , but the better fish just didn't seem to be around , a bit frustrating really . As the wind got up i retreated to the Jetty (slipway) set up the lrf with a drop shot and some isome , where the coal fish were quick to jump on the baits . Lindsay hooked into a wrasse briefly Brian meanwhile took the opportunity to do a little photography . But that was our lot , the fishing could only get better, so it was back to the caravan for some food and to watch the rugby world cup.

Staffin 

On day two we decided to try somewhere different , the winds westerlies dictated that we were best staying in the same side of the island we were the day previous. so we decided to try Kilmaluag, but on the approach the lack of parking made us a bit uneasy , across the bay we noticed some cars parked in what looked like a car park so we headed round to there this was a mark called Aird.

After walking through umpteen fields we finally arrived at the mark.

 I disappeared down one side expecting the others to follow , but after a few Pollock to my lrf rod , I went to see where they were , then i saw Brian and Lindsay at the foot of a cliff, so i went and joined them , they were both getting some sport with the Pollock , Brian was on the fly gear Lindsay was spinning, and Brian had just lost a decent fish. With the lack of casting room i decided  to find my own spot , must be said it wasn't a easy climb down with all the gear and it was more difficult on the way up wouldn't do it again to be honest  a bit dodgy. Sport for me was initially slow Brian and Lindsay to the right of me much more regularly hooking up , but as the tide continued to flood my area began to wake up . Pink clousers seemed to be the fly of preference .

 It was great sport and finally i connected with something a bit heftier.

shortly after a few more Pollock the continual swearing out bursts of Lindsay who had been bust by yet another Pollock on the lrf gear , we decided to call it another day.

Kilmaluag bay

Hopefully the winds in the same direction next year as this spots got loads of potential.

On day 3 and our final day fishing we went to familiar ground , loch Poolteil. Here we met a couple of anglers we met the day before in the car park at Aird, but they didn't hang around. Starting from the rocks of the front we started to get the odd bite the culprits were mainly poor cod and small Pollock and coal fish. Where were the wrasse though well eventually Brian found a few.

 I was glad to see some wrasse and eventually connected with a few of my own. Brian disappeared to get the fly rod leaving me and Lindsay to stick it out with the wrasse, i then got itchy feet and joined him. Brian was doing rather well with the Pollock  he'd had around half a dozen before i started  .

A good stamp 

Whilst fishing away we heard Lindsay with another outburst . Wasn't sure what had happened , but turned out he had caught a nice female cuckoo on a  Texas rigged isome worm.

We only learnt of his capture when he came and joined us . Fishing a Texas rigged glittery eel he managed to get a few Pollock too.

my new  5.9m net handle proved  an excellent purchase  for this trip

whilst the Pollock action was going on  i had a shot for some wrasse just below our feet and found a wee hot spot no sooner had the bait dropped down the familiar tap tap followed by a bent rod rod had me reeling in a succession of small wrasse.

wrasse on gulp angleworm

That really sums up our trip to skye 2015 . really enjoyed it, but next time think well hit it mid summer.