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.

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. 

It's Starting to Wake Up

Fishing has been pretty poor  recently , a fortnight ago, the grayling  poked fun at us , this weekend the flounders pretty much did the same.

Ive been struck down with the cold , started on Friday sore throat etc , by Sunday sore head , legs,knackered today coughing and sneezing all the time,  so i took the day off work.

  The dog was pestering me to get walked so i coincided a walk down the river with what ive grown  acustomed to as early season hatch time , thats 1pm on my local, 2pm once the clocks change , you can almost set your watch for it.  Looking at a tail of a pool a disturbance caught my eye , and sure enough it was a trout rising , and another one was doing like wise just slightly further upstream  , and in the next pool again another fish rose , to a very sparse hatch of large dark olives, great to see and with 11 days till the start of the season , looks like my fears of a late start have been put to bed.
 
It spurred me into a tying mood, i had to freshen up the big stuff, the stimulators etc flies i will use in the height of summer. So got to work.
First up were the stimulators. it's a fly thats quite enjoyable to tie, proportions seem to be quite important though it's very easy to make it look wrong. I tied mine on size 10 tiemco 200R  hooks and found for the style of fly a smaller  hackle typically  for a size 14 fly was ideal for the abdomen and a one typically for a size 12 for the thorax.

Ive only tied a handful , i reckon it's all i will need , the stimulator is a fly that looks like it has no place in a uk anglers box, but for pocket water, coloured water or for just stirring up dour trout there great!

 . Next up i thought i'd do some balloon caddis sporting some rubber legs. i have some fond memories of using these years ago on a small tumbling highland stream, these ones below are tied on #12's. 

these ones below are similar , but it was the turks tarantula that is the influence  , im just too lazy nowadays to tie it, same go's for quite a few patterns , and i doubt they are any less effective in the roll.

Other high summer candidates will be the cdc and elk, and the g&h sedge, maybe a chernobyl ant . Other than that i think the summer nights should be covered .

Did a couple pike flies too, i wanted to try out my new 4/0 hooks ,  got a few new places in mind for the pike this year , which i'm looking forward too.  

Jumping Jack Flash

The weathers been a shocker this week . Really windy and wet, but mild with the southerlies. Tuesday offered a  tiny window the dog sacrificed his walk for a stand as he would chaperone  me up to the canal  . First thing was first though i had to tie up a flash fly , as my stash was looking a bit weathered.

 That coupled with a few other flies and essentials i was ready , it was also a opportunity to try out my new telescopic  long-handled net which i bought for pollock fishing off the cliffs next summer but is equally useful for the canal withn its high banking and weedy fringes.

The flash fly worked it's magic first cast despite me thinking the canal might be on the dirty side.

 Five more fell for it's enticing charms and a few more lost before losing it up a  tree.

 Decided to try a chartreuse hair extension baitfish, and it took a further brace again nothing big ,  if i had more time  might have explored further try and locate a bigger fish  but the days are so short just now.The net worked great although it is pretty heavy, not really a problem though as what i bought it for may see it get some abuse.

 Tied up a couple more flash flies for a future opportunity .

Half an Hour at the Basin

It feels  really cold today , snow doesnt seem far away! Don't know what sort of winter we are in for but being this cold so early on makes me think we are not going to get away lightly.

Ive got predators on the brain at the moment, coppery/ bronze ones that live off deep rock ledges , the accomodation is booked, the OS map ordered ,  even looking into back up tackle. But for now it is a distant fantasy, so with the dogs eyes  begging for a walk , I  decided to kill two birds with one stone and go and feed my addiction. Grabbing the rod, reel  a few flies forceps  scissors wire etc,it wasnt long before i was  setting up on the canal bank at my favourite basin.

 I started with a pink fly, had a follow from a curious jack pike which shadowed the fly then had a look at me and dissapeared. A few more casts covering the entirety of the basin  proved fruitless , i then changed to a flash fly , but , in my eyes they were a bit small as they had lost a few fibres from previous encounters, so it was on with a chartreuse fly and first cast i was into a small jack . Feeling the cold i decided to call it a day there and then. Must stop being lazy and fantasising about distant trips. I really need to tie for whats required now!  

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!