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.

beach bums

With all the rain during the week there was no chance of  any Grayling fishing yesterday so we were back on the beach  yet again  more flounder fishing! unlike last weekend there wasn't a big surf so ounce and a half leads was all that was required, we fished with two hook flappers and i had one rod set up with a flowing trace in the hope of a decent Turbot.

Viper's Bugloss grows on the salt marsh next to the beach



there's something addictive about watching the rod tips for bites

Col was doing well, it seemed like every time i looked round he was into yet another flounder

i was struggling on the other hand, only managing the odd flounder, but did get a nice one on the flowing trace

later in the afternoon i had a wee move up the beach to a bit of rippled sand  and started to pick up a few more flounder. Unfortunately no sign of  any Turbot today,big or small, we'll just have to keep trying until we get a good one.

the beach did throw up one surprise at the days end, a fine sea trout

i wish i had caught it on the fly rod rather than a  2-4 oz bass rod! still nice to see though.

  

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The Early Riser gets the Flounder (chinese proverb)

Thursday/ Friday brought persistant rain, that promptly  killed  any plans of fishing a grayling stream .  That was one of our plans for the weekend but also , we planned to hit the beach we fished last weekend, and it was a go'er cause low tide  was  early but during day-time hours at  7:30 am so we had to be out our beds kind of sharp ,  we were fishing  by 7:20 am just as the sun was coming up.

For bait today we had a few blueys and a few mackeral , the blueys though were crap for staying on the hook , awful soft and maybe could have been better salted a few days before use to toughen them up, so the mackeral was the go too. There was a  fair surf on the water and our tripods had to be placed a good distance from the tide line. I had two rods set up with 2 hook flappers and 3oz leads, Brian had the same on one rod but a running ledger setup on his other. I was first to land  a flounder, a decent one and a keeper. Then it was Brian who took the next few fish , his running ledger took this cracking flounder of 1 1/2lb

then had a few more flounder, then a turbot!

I managed afew more flounder, then it went a bit quiet, and al the time the surf seemed to be getting bigger and bigger , a change to 4oz grippers on one rod though i kept with the 3oz flattened lead on the other and just as we were contemplating a move to the nearby estuary my rod loaded with the 3oz lead registered a bite, it was a good fish too, it came in on the tide , and between waves lay on the sand where the hook popped out , a bit wresting and a bit of a soaking for us , and it was safely landed.

It went 2lb on the dot (42cm) a new PB.
That seemed to trigger a really good spell as i had a wee run of fish including a wee turbot.

Brian finished the morning session with another couple of flatties to 1 1/4lb .

At 12:30pm we decided to go for a bite to eat just as the tide was nearing it's highest point filling the sea with weed.

    
After that we decided to return and try the ebb, the sea was still wild and casting our rods they were imediately hauled by a weed filled sea. So we made a move for the estuary. I took one more fish but that was our lot for the day , it had been a great day, rewarding , and the flounder tasted great too!


 

sun, sea and flatfish

We were back on an  East Lothian beach yesterday, with the hope of catching some nice flounders and maybe a turbot if we were lucky, unlike the last visit, we fished two rods each this time to increase  our chances of success.

I was quickly of the mark landing two flounders in quick succession before Col had his first double shot of the day

Col had a good wee spell after that landing a few including a nice pounder and a tiny Turbot!

note the disposable gloves to try and keep the stink of the smelly bait of our hands!

I was having a quite spell so moved up the beach where i lost a decent fish before landing my first ever double shot

it was a lovely day to be on the beach

sport slowed down after that but Col landed another decent flounder and just as we were ready to call it a day i got a better one too, three for the frying pan.

Total tally for the day was six flounders  for me, seven for Col plus the lovely wee turbot.

long beach, tiny Turbot

Col and i  headed down the coast for another go on the beach we fished for a wee while last weekend, but not before popping into Mikes tackle shop first as i was after a few bits and bobs for making up some rigs. The chap who served us really knew his stuff and was a mine of information regarding the local flounder beaches and how to go about fishing them, trace set up, bait etc,well worth the visit.

Once we were on the beach it was a case of where do you start? its a long stretch of sand so we walked and looked for any fishy looking features like gullies, giving an area  20 mins or so in an attempt to locate some flounder or move on if no bites were forthcoming.

  there was a wee bit that looked like it had a trickle of fresh water coming in and here we got the odd rattle on the rod tip and a couple of  wee flounders, nothing for tea then!

a long fishless spell after that as we tried different parts of the beach, not a waste of time though as I'm sure some of these areas will produce the goods on another day, just not today! we were about to move again to another spot and as i wound in i was surprised to have a fish on, a tiny Turbot! i was over the moon even if it was just a wee one.

 what fantastic looking fish they are, and as autumn arrives theres always the chance of some bigger  ones, rest assured we'll be trying our best to catch one.