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.

Its all the rag!

At the weekend myself and Brian went to St. Abbs to see if the wrasse would show up. There was quite a cold breeze blowing and i dont know if it was a factor , but it was a no show on the wrasse front. But the sea scorpions and the flounders were there and they kept us busy through out the day. A visit to Ebbscar cafe on the harbour was great to get out the cold wind and fill our bellies, next time we will make sure we get there before 11am just to get the full English breakfast!

Yesterday i had a visit to Burntisland with the sun shining brightly an a warm day it looked like a great day to sit by the Fife coast.

First place to visit was the Bakers shop , where i got myself a scotch pie and a baked bean and potato one of the same variety .

Stomach contented i set up for a afternoon  in the harbour , the target once again wrasse.
I drop shotted angle worms,  gulp sandworms  and isome had the odd pluck but no real commitment in the bites . Then a gent offered me some rag worms , using a small sections the bites came fast and furious and i began to pick up wrasse steadily through out the day , all ballans , nothing big but beautifully coloured , and great fighters, i also had a small pollock a few tiny coalfish and a blenny, surprisingly no goldsinnys today .

As high tide approached and the ebb began , the bites slowed so i called it a day a little burnt from the sun  , next time ill also have to remember my sun screen and ill be sure to dig a few  Rag for back up.

Feeling Flat in February

January and February have been really difficult to get out and do any sort of angling at all in my neighbourhood. A contrast of high winds and and ill timed downpours have seen to that. Even this weekends plans took a detour at the last minute. Brian and I were prepared to go and have a shot at the bass , when a northerly westerly showed up on the forecast . A wee look at  comfortable areas to fish took us too a Fife beach, the first time we have given it a shot called Ravenscraig beach.

I was pleasantly surprised that it was a charming  wee spot,  that gave us shelter with its distinctive  crags and ruins an at our backs with a steady off shore breeze. the day its self was pleasant with no rain  it felt almost spring like and that sparked up conversation of the coming season , trout , pike and SWFF,  float-tubing  amongst other species and methods , really looking forward for all that kicking off.

The flounder fishing for the time of year wasn't too bad either , between us we managed perhaps 10 to a dozen small flounder between us  ,  but like other beaches we have sampled on the Fife coast it went off on the last couple of hours approaching high tide. Still it was really nice to get out  with the rods and a bonus to  catch our first flounders of 2014.

watching for a bite

With the trout season now fast approaching I've been quietly going about  a bit preparation , a few new purchases such as a new   fly line ,a new pair of forceps , and I've had a few small sessions on the vice producing the usual klinks, shucked cdc's , dirty Pollies , wire nymphs the odd spider etc.

A start on the dries

 shucked cdc

Lots more to do but still another 4 weeks to go, roll on the brownies!

Surfs up!

Yesterday afternoon we made a late decision to try out an East Lothian beach for flounders , this beach has the added pull of throwing up the occasional turbot, some big ones too but we have still to encounter a decent sized one. We arrived about an hour before low tide and fished the first hour down, the conditions looked rough  but i don't think they were as bad as it looked.  The surfers were out in force enjoying themselves and we even found scaling down to 2oz leads was managing to roll to our liking on the bottom. . I lost a flounder right at the edge, it then went quiet until the tide turned when Brian was the first to take a fish , a wee fellae but nice to see .

He then took the next again .

Whilst returning flounder no.2 , Brian walked into my lines , I thought it was him  but it was infact a take as when he walked away the rod was still nodding , and i landed my first of the day .

 

 It wasn't busy sport but I had another and Brian had  another Brace, one of them a good sized fish.

Brian decided he'd had enough, frustratingly i had a lot of bites not coming to anything , i then had a bite on my right hand rod , which had a small flounder , while i did that my other rod rattled , which brian picked up and reeled in   to find a double shot of flounder. The gully i was fishing seeemed to have come to life, but darkness was almost upon us and bellies were rumbling .

Not the busiest of flounder sesssions , but not bad either. looking forward to giving it another go and with a bit of luck perhaps a turbot will grace our hooks?

Flatties , falling in , and other bad luck.

I decided to take this week off (apart from Tuesday). Monday i decided to have a go for flounder so tried Portobello beach, got there for low tide , the sea was flat and it turned out to be hard going , just a couple of flounder and a few nibbles i suspect were coalfish.

I mentally marked the features such as gullies and concentrated my baits there when they had fully flooded. It wasn't the most productive flattie session though, but i think that had a lot to do with lack of movement on the baits in the tide.

A gullie etched  in the memory bank for when the tide comes in

Wednesday saw me down my local for the afternoon after i had walked the dog the river looked great , there was plenty fish on the feed too, and the fishing was really productive.

 

Flies with a touch of glister were really effective, in all i must have landed around 50 trout and lost many more, nothing exceptional a few around and just over the pound. Unfortunately i took a tumble in one pool falling forward and filling my waders , and drowning my camera in the process.

Thursday i never really got going till 4pm when i grabbed the gear and went for the pike , the canal was full of floating blanket type weed and every cast came back with some , there was a patch that was clear and i took 3 jacks from it , no pics the camera still drying out.

On Friday i found my camera working again which i was happy about, and i headed down the local again for 2pm .

 On arrival the river appeared busy with quite  a few anglers, so i left them some water to fish  and found a un-fished  quiet stretch. the fishing was much  the same as the Wednesday, but at one pool i hooked into a monster , but unfortunately it threw the nymph , don't know if it was a big brown or a coloured sea trout , must've been between 3-4 lb. Slightly disappointed but on the whole i went home fairly  contented with my lot.

 not long now till the end of the season hopefully get a trip or two in yet?

Orkney July 2013

Its laughable  all the rods I thought I might need for a few days in Orkney, think I took up three fly rods, three sea rods plus a tripod. Daft really as in the end I only used a 7-35 gram spinning rod for the limited time I had to fish. First night I had a go of Churchill barrier no 3 which has been good to me in the past with the odd big pollack, but not this time as I only managed a tiny cod on a texas rigged isome, had a few nibbles on a slug go and saw a Pollack splash at my lure on the surface, a bit disappointed but it was a nice night to be out anyway.

 next again afternoon I had the first of three sessions at Hoxa head cliffs in search of Pollack,

caution is required here as rocks tend to slop towards the sea. 

the fishing wasn't exactly electric but I was pleased to land a couple of modest Pollack on a texas rigged slug go

that was as good as it got unfortunately as my next two visits saw be blank, there didn't seem to be much activity, no signs of any bait fish or small coalies, perhaps the bright conditions didn't help? the only follow I got was from a seal which followed my fiiish minnow right to my feet, they must look realistic, I nearly jumped out of my skin! 

the ferry on its way to St Margaret's Hope

another go of barrier no 3 produced a surprise flounder on the isome

  a wee cod 



and a few of these when I got bored with no bites

so not exactly a successful holiday from a fishing point of view but everyone had a great time enjoying the good weather, including Clyde who's found a new love of water and generaly getting in a right old mess!

the other highlight of the holiday I forgot to mention was on the ferry on the way over, it slowed right down so everyone could get a look at pod of killer whales, a truly awesome sight, wish I had got a picture of them.  





LRF fun at St Abbs Harbour

This weekend i fancied a change from trout fishing , Brian suggested we try St Abbs harbour just to see what we could pick up .  First stop though was mikes tackle shop to see if we could get a few bits of tackle, being new to this LRF game we are steadily building up a bit tackle , and soft baits, and hopefully with that, and time we will attain a better understanding of the methods and techniques  used by the seasoned lrf'er.  

The sea was fairly flat when we got there before low tide, first i tried a 2g jig head with a peice of tan isome and i managed a wee sea scorpion.

 Brian was fishing a dropshot rig and was quickly into fish also a few more sea scorpions and then the first flounder on gulp sandworms, i decided at that point to also change to a dropshot set up as it seemed more productive, well for Brian anyway.

After sport slowed a little  then Brian found a hot spot where he started getting more flounder , the best of the day unfortunately got off , whilst handlining it up to the quayside, we had a longhandled landing net but it was a little short .

Handling them up

Brian was doing a bit better than i getting more bites , i was getting a bit worried i was doing something wrong when i hooked up using half a  xl  red isome.

atlast!

They really do go well on the light gear! Great fighters! A few more followed for us.

As the day wore on and the bites dried up we decided to head back home , it had been a great trip . Content with our day, and  that we  marginally had a better understanding of LRF than when we arrived, cant wait to do it again and with a bit luck ,we will extend our species range using these methods  over the coming months.   

Not Waving but Drowning

  The weather is really making fools out of us over the last month or so. The rain fell last night,  which would help thaw out the currently frozen   ponds/ canal etc it did however put the rivers up so what was left was a trip to the seaside for a shot at the flatties. Unfortunately  the sea was wild , and coloured ,and carrying a  lot of weed so after giving it a couple of hours we agreed we were flogging a dead horse.We are ready to hoist the white flag and surrender our fishing gear in exchange for golf clubs , the current scenario reminds me of that  poem based on the life of Sylvia Plath , a misunderstood  cry for help "Not Waving but Drowning  .

 Anyway back home and my 3d epoxy  eyes arrived through the letter box  , so thought I'd spend a bit time on the bench as i had a pattern in mind .

I was "googling" for my swff  trip next year , and on a sea fishing forum i came across some interesting info, that there was many small 4-8oz mackerel around and the big pollack were preying   on them .  With this in mind So i got busy on the vice.

These are what i came up with dressed on a 2/0 saltwater hook. Perhaps a close copy isn't really required especially when the damage on those particular fish was done with a jelly worm tipped with mackerel strip, but , to me it's one of the pleasures of fly fishing /fly tying is matching the hatch.

hopefully the weather will improve enough for some fishing in the new year.


    

F.A (Flattieholics Anonymous)

It had been nearly two weeks since  my last Flattie, so i needed to feed the habit. Bait was required and i drew a blank in the supermarket so i gambled with the fishmongers in the high street in Portobello where i was fishing , they had one mackerel and i made up the rest of my bait with a few sides of herring.

I was fishing about 30 minutes after low tide with a relatively calm sea, a set up in a nice looking crease that caught my eye and soon i took a wee flounder.

Off the mark i was thinking they were going to come thick and fast but i was wrong i moved closer to the burn and took another. But   it was slow going.

I have a hunch  my bait wasn't up to scratch today , the mackerel looked a bit dull or maybe the flatties  were having a off day one thing noticeable was despite it being calm it was a big tide.

Before i decided to call it a day i hooked into something different , i was hoping it was a bass , but no a sea trout that was festooned with sea lice. One of these days i will get a bass from these beaches!