Catching up on the last few weeks and a few days in and around St. Abbs

Since starting a new job , time to go fishing has been difficult at times, though there has been a few opportunities for short trips. I had   a visit to my local  trout water just to keep my hand in .

There has also been a trip to Burntisland to try and get my first wrasse of the year . The Goldsinnys  were as keen as ever to take my dropshotted  power isome and I ended up with a brace of them .

Edinburgh from Fife

First Goldsinny of 2014

no 2

I tried hard for my first Ballan wrasse of the year twice i thought i had cracked it but on both occasions they ended up being  a couple of "kelp" codling still great scrappers on the light gear  .

On saturday afternoon me and Brian had a trip to a pike loch , the water was a wee bit low but we gave it our best shot and it very nearly payed off . i played a good double for a good few minutes then it made a final run andi lost it, moments later Brian also connected only to lose it. We continued to flog away , but our efforts went un rewarded.

The hard work had payed it's toll on our appetite so a visit to the chippy was called for.

On Sunday i had to work a train  but that involved a trip to Oban with 4 hours to kill so i took the rod . First visit was to the North pier . It was like groundhog day , Goldsinnys and codling !

Oban from the North Pier

one from the west 

Rooting about i found a really nice spot to try next time I'm up , which maybe this coming Sunday?

On Monday afternoon  myself the missus and the dog  headed down to St Abbs for a few days . I headed out on the first evening for low tide and fished hard going for one of the many flounders that inhabit the harbour , but they just didnt seem to be in the mood so i tried hard for a wrasse , but the inevitable little coalfish would grab my Gulp sandworm.

The residents

On two ocassions i thought i'd finally got my ballan wrasse , only to find a couple of codling attached .

 After that i got caught out in a heavy downpour which sent me home a bit drookit.
The next day i a couple of short sessions in between sight seeing . It was this day i learnt of a migration with the tide of the flounder to the innermost part of the harbour and once the tide went out a bit they went on the feed before departing this part of the harbour  . It was mainly sight fishing , putting a piece of gulp in there path only for them to hunt it down, great fun .

flounders galore

A pretty one

Once they went of the boil  i tried to locate them further out the harbour , but got a wee long spined  sea scorpion.

Just after that something caught my eye in the kelp i instantly knew what it was , a ballan ! So i dropped my gulp in the area and watched him tap away before the wee rod bent over ! My first Ballan of 2014!

Well ghillied Alfie!

I managed another similar sized Ballan later on just out of the blue.

After that we headed into Eyemouth for a bite to eat , Oblo's was the place where we shared the sea food platter, of langoustine , mussels , lobster and fish, delicious!

Next morning i woke up at 4am and headed down but nothing doing , so went back to bed. I went down again at 7;30am the tide almost fully out , i then peered down the harbour wall only to see a few big ballans weaving through the kelp and a handful of small wrasse , The ballans were spooky but the wee wrasse were quite obliging. I was over the moon to discover they were infact corkwing wrasse i took a brace before they disappeared along with the ballans  with the tide.

a female corwing

The male

With the wrasse leaving i too finally left for a shower and to get packed up to return home, but whats the rush ! I returned an hourlater with the incoming tide hoping the wrasse would make a appearance again , i couldnt see them this time but after a hour or so , i got that familiar tap, tap then the wee tronix rockfish UL rod almost exploded as a good ballan tried to burry it's head in the kelp ! 

A good fish to end the trip on. I planned a fly fishing trip for pollock but realised  forgot my fly box after walking out to the mark,maybe one to do in the future.

you cant win them all

An early start yesterday morning, i managed to crawl out of bed at the back of four to get myself along to a local still water which has a good population of wild Tench in it. I guess i was hoping to find the place alive with Tench rolling on the surface, fizzing bubbles and all that stuff but unfortunately it was decidedly dour, i saw the odd Tench from time to time, enough to keep me going, but couldn't temp any into my swim.The hours past without any interest in my bait but at least i was staring at a quality float, George from the Flee and Float blog made me some for the very job, as you can see George makes beautiful floats, i really want to get a picture of a wild Scottish tench next to one of his floats but alas not this time, ill keep at it though until i do! with the sun now really quite harsh on the clear water venue i jacked it in before ten and went home for a wee kip for a couple of hours as i was feeling a bit knackered.

In the afternoon i decided to do another thing on the to fish for list and dug the float tube out of the shed, a bit of fly fishing for the pike. I arrived at the chosen Loch at around 3pm with a now increasingly dark sky, rain was on its way. When i picked up my permit the guy told me that the area i was heading too had fished well the day before with Pike up to 17lb, encouraging! i launched myself into the loch at the chosen area and what happened next was quite unexpected... second cast and i was in, obviously a good pike too by the way it tore of ,  a few adrenalin pumping runs later we parted company, curses rang around the loch! still that was only the second cast so maybe i was in for a good afternoon/evening.... eh no, the heavens opened as i flogged away for a couple of hours without a take. I had a breather for a wee while as cramp was setting in on my legs

in for round two and i was soon into a Pike not far from the shoreline

just a wee fella at around 5lb but in perfect condition, sorry about the picture quality, it was raining heavy, my cheap waterproof camera's image quality isn't the best!

i flogged away again for a while but it just wasn't happening, don't know how the rain effects pike but it effected me! i had one other brief  hook up before calling it a night, not the most productive days fishing then but with a bit of luck i'll be back after the Tench and Pike over the summer months. 

Rush Hour!

We decided to do a bit piking today for a change. On arrival the water looked perfect , and we were feeling pretty confident , we were going to get a few fish. The sun was shining though and a few hours passed before we decided to go ashore for a break , but not before i got a follow followed by a take  .

At 3:50pm i decided to get back in the water and get paddling up to a new bit of water. Once in position we started fishing  i hooked a fish, he tail walked and the hook sprung loose, a few casts later i was in again but again the hook came free. But finally i hooked up and was into a nice pike that fought hard.

Shortly after i chinned out a a nice pike that went 9lb on the scales.

The water was on fire, as i hooked and landed another jack, Then brian shouted me he'd hooked up!

A nice pike that went just under 15lb on the scales. Could be a few more pound come Autumn on it.

No sooner had he released that fish and he was in again!

A pristine marked pike,and  no sooner was that pike released and I  and hooked up ,

Just a wee one , that was our sport for the day as the sun came out and the wind died , although we fished on for a few more hours there was no more action. It was mad  hours sport , my arm is aching after casting these flies , needing a rest!

A Tough Day piking!

Piking again,Myself and Brian  fished really hard all day, from 9:30am  till 5:30pm , Brian had had a few half hearted lunges at the fly at various parts of the day, but the last hour was the best.
Brian landed this chunky pike , and the pike bit back and gave him a whack on the nose, ouch !

Pike Tyson

Not much after that i hooked a pike, but dropped it immediately, then hooked up shortly after landing a long slender fish.

A hard days fishing  , physically as well as difficult,pike are moody creatures , looks like thy were starting to switch on in the early evening , but we were knackered a fish each was a fine reward for our efforts. 

Extreme Tubing!

Dragonfly in pike colours

The recent rain scuppered this weekends plans for a day on a river, all sepa's data was showing them at very high levels so it was either a loch for trout, which would have been enjoying , fishing the heather fly fall. Or a day hunting the pike. So wee opted for option 2.
The water looked perfect, haven't fished it for many years now. We pumped up the tubes , set up the rods etc.
And before launching the tubes we decided to fish the shoreline, Brian was into a wee jack, at least it was a start! He was using a hot orange fly (aka Phil Collins)

So it was off into the tubes. Brian moved a few on his fly so i changed to a similar fly. But it was a few hours in before i got my first take . I took a fresh fly from my box , cast it out and it lay static on the surface, when a pike made the perfect  head a tail rise and picked it off the surface, it was a big one too, . But after a good battle he ploughed into one weed bed too many and slipped the hook. Ocht well! Brian  again was getting the odd take , I'd here him swear, as they through the hook. Before long i was in again, another good long battle, i landed this fish.

A happy man!

It wasn't long after that Brian hooked up , at first i thought it was a jack it took so gently but then it woke up.

An even happier man!

What started of a slow day sport wise was turning out quite good. Again i hooked up and this fish was something serious, i hooked it in open water, and it ran and ran all the way into the backing and after playing and being towed  for at least 5 mins it all went solid, as it went in to a weed bed. I went over to investigate freed the snag by hand by coming out the other side of the weed bed that's when i felt the fish then i lifted the rod and it all went slack as the pike  spat out the fly. That must have been a monster, it couldn't have been anything else!

Getting Beat up

After that i was knackered , playing these pike and casting these flies all day is hard work so i went over to Brian for some lunch. Brian had a few more jacks for the day. We left contented, glad to revisit some sport with pike on the fly!We almost forgot how much fun it is!

nb:Top flies today were red/ orange!And Authanic wire is the dogs baws!