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.

Just came doon from the isle of Skye

We had an early start on Thursday morning driving up to fort William where Col and I had arranged to meet up with his brother Lindsay, after a much needed coffee we then continued on the journey to the Isle of Skye for a long weekend of non stop fishing, yippee!
After what seemed like an age we eventually arrived at our chosen mark, a sea loch at the north west of the island, firstly we tackled up our lrf rods to see what was about on the rocky outcrop in front of us, and It didn't take long for the bites to start coming to bits of raw prawn, we landed some small pollack, coalfish, poor cod and the ones we were really after, Ballan wrasse.

nice orange one for col

the sea was a little too rough with the northerly wind to comfortably fly fish for Pollack so later on in the day we upped sticks and went of to try another more sheltered mark which was a new one to us, it looked great but despite trying every rocky outcrop around the bay we failed to connect with any pollack, never mind it had been a long tiring day so we went back to our accommodation for some food and a couple of beers to end the day.

Friday morning feeling revitalised after a good nights sleep we decided to fish the same venue as the day before, we did have other marks in mind but this one seemed like the best bet what with the wind direction and it also had the benefit of only being  a short drive from the cottage where we were based. Over coffee in the morning we discussed how cool it would be to catch a cuckoo wrasse, and would you believe it, it only took Col about five minutes after starting to fish, jammy sod!

 

another couple of females followed from the same area

Lindsay caught a monster of a sea scorpion!

Col and Lindsay seemed to be catching plenty of poor cod, it took me a while on the other hand but i got one in the end, pretty little fish.

 plenty more ballans about too

another new wrasse species for Col, a rock cook 

later on in the day Col landed a couple of pollack on the fly from his "rock" before the wind picked up, all in all a great days fishing

On Saturday morning we headed into Portree to see if we could buy any more raw prawns and some leads, we got the leads ok but no luck with the prawns, we did notice however that the harbour was stuffed with Mackerel so we grabbed the rods from the car and caught a few for chucking out a bait on the big rods later on. So after some food we were back at the same spot yet again! Col thought there would be a good chance of a goldsinny and he was right!

Lindsay's big rod with the mackeral bait registered a bite, it turned out to be a dogfish which was quite exciting for us as non of us had ever caught or even seen one before.

Col took some more rock cook wrasse on tiny bits of squid

after a while we decided on a move so headed around to Neist Point where we took some nice Pollack on the fly, orange clousers worked well as did chartreuse, great fun on the fly rod.

on Sunday morning Lindsay headed for home whilst col and i had one last chuck for an hour or so, i failed in my attempt to catch a rock cook wrasse but Col took a few Pollack from his rock to end a great weekends fishing, can't wait until next year! 

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!

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!

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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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.