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.

A wee bit local Swff-ing

Went back to the mark we had a shot for the Mackeral at last Friday. Decided to give my super Fast sinking built in shooting head a try. Started off well with 10 second count downs when a mackeral  took my chartreuse and white clouser which i landed then accidentally returned (butter fingers). Unfortunately i lost that fly shortly afterwards , so it was on with another , a flash clouser i tied up lastnight  caught my eye, and how effective it proved to be taking 2 mackeral and a coal fish in fairly quick succession as well as attracting others.

wee coalie

Flash clouser

Shortly after i mysteriously lost my fly , probably cracked it off? so had to find another fly, was'nt having much joy with any other flies , A few fishless hours went by , infact the mackeral seemed to have disapeared alltogether . So i went and explored some other parts.

Thought it looked quite pollacky but never got a sniff.

Moved back to here i was and got another little coalfish, had another rest fished bits changed line to intermediate , then changed back again to the fast sinker, nowt doing! Then out of the blue i got a take to a white clouser , a better Coalie? No a Pollack,and my first, result! Another species!

 Just to cap the day  off managed a smaller one   on a similar unweighted fly just before heading for home. 

Must get tying some flies might beable to squeeze in another SWFF-Ing trip yet? Got a nasty line groove on my finger needing a bit  nursing.

Curse of the Weever!

On Thursday i headed of to a new location for flounders , i blanked found it hard going with the speed of the incoming tide , but it was worthwhile as a recce , especially for other species .

That night Brian phoned and before we know it i was  allowed to go fishing again on Friday. We headed to our new favourite flounder beach, with a few Blueys for bait , and before long Brian had the first flounder followed by the next and the next.

I meanwhile couldnt get a bite before a succession of wee ones got me off the mark including my first "Double Shot"

Heres another interesting catch ,a reverse sided Flounder.

I also managed one of these unfortunate little critters and thinking it was a wee whiting i almost thought nothing of picking it up , but on closer inspection i could see it was a common weever , not one for handling!!!

15 Flounder for the session was the total tally.

On the way back up the road we stopped in at the place i fished the day previous with no result, but the target was differant , mackeral with the fly gear. We set up walked along the breakwater and waited for a "Blitz" .

 Then it happened brian ran along the top of the breakwater cast and was in , that followed with me also hooking up what scrappers they are on the fly gear! Another Brace followed for me  and Brian had  a wee coalie.

 Clousers in white , pink and white and chartreuse and white did the job.

1 each for the table  and 2 for bait for the flatties for Saturday (yes another day fishing!!!) .

Next day found us heading south for a change on a flattie mark, with the chance of a Turbot, we lasted all of an hour before feeling a bit discouraged with untouched baits , so we headed to the harbour, lovely looking place , but apart from the tap tap of tiny wee coalies we could not get a bite from a decent fish . We felt like Ducks out of water in all honesty. It's a learning curve this saltwater angling and we are still fairly new to the game. But thats what makes it so engrossing. The mackeral tasted great!

you cant always get what you want

It's been in my head this week to return to one of the rivers we fished earlier in the year on our "trailer trashing" weekend, it's probably the moodiest river i know but on it's day can fish superbly and show why it has a such a big reputation for quality trout. With the good days in mind Colin and i visited the river again today, hoping that some of it's bigger residents might put in an appearance if we were lucky.

  Col started of missing a fish of around a pound which was encouraging, but high hopes of a good day were short lived  as we fished through some inviting pools where we have encountered good trout on previous trips without so much as a sniff. We kept our chins up though and  col got the first fish, only a wee one mind but welome non the less on the klink.

we picked up another two or three modest trout before the river changed character above the falls, lots of pocket water to fish where a big stimulator comes into its own

 even then though  the pocket water wasn't fishing as good as we know it can and it didn't help missing most takes when they did happen! Col was really  unlucky with a long lean trout in the two to three pound bracket which came off at the death, surprisingly though it hadn't put up much of a fight, perhaps an old fish going back in condition, who knows.  I lost a  nice trout of around a pound when it cleared the water in a bid for freedom, and in the last run i fished a big fish took the stimulator, showing its flank on the take, i'm 99% sure it was a Salmon/grilse which had been in a wee while, there were quite a few showing here and there especialy above the falls, anyway after holding on for 30 seconds or so with the fish holding static in the current the hook sprung back,  if it had been a trout i would have been gutted! a long walk back to the car to end a tiring day with little reward but what a location to spend the day!  looking forward to another visit next season. It's a river where the conditions have to be just right for success but then thats what makes it so special when it does go to plan .

Friday night flounder bash

Today after work  i quickly got some gear together for a wee bash at the flounders,  two or three breakaway leads and a couple of traces in my jacket pocket, some Mackie for bait and i was ready to go. My son  Jamie came along too and by half past four in the afternoon we were on the beach setting up.

 Plauged by weed and no bites for the first hour, the doubts were creeping in, then a  tap on the rod tip resulted in a nice flounder around the pound mark to boost my confidence and keep Jamies interest for a wee while at least! we kept this one for the table.

another few flounders followed before we packed it in at seven, happy but ready for dinner! 

this summers sea angling adventure has been so much fun but  I'm feeling the need to cast a fly rod again, hopefully this weekend on one of my favourite trout streams if the weather plays ball that is.

Tributary of a Tributary

Headed to my local trout streams main tributary for a few casts yesterday late afternoon , caught a few then decided to head up again, further one of it's tributaries. It's been almost exactly a year since ive fished it, and only a handful of times before this .

The water looked great , but it was tough going fishing in amongst the weed nothing rose, it felt fishless and i even suspected a pollution incident. I was just about to head back when away upstream a fish rose, relieved  i put on a size 12 dirty polly and it obliged , nothing big just a wee trout typical of a wee burn.

 A few casts later i turned something much bigger felt the resistance and it was gone. Things were  looking up.

The next pool was quite deep and through it's main body fairly slow , i upped my fly size and up came a fish , it was a good one too as it scrapped really hard bending my 2 weight into a continuous arch. with a few nervous moments , i thought have i foul hooked it , but no it was hooked fair and square in the scissors, the fish went a 1lb 1/4 a fine fish for a wee burn .

 After that the fishing nose dived again though i did prick a couple.

3rd time lucky

Last night we dug some lug worm from a local beach, we spent 2 hours doing so just to make sure we had enough.
This Morning Brian picked me up at 8am ,on the way we passed a fish van , so i picked up a couple of fillets of herring with plan C in mind.

Plan A
We arrived at plan A a rock venue we have recently float fished for wrasse from ,the sea looked ok but in closer inspection it was carrying quite a bit colour, and the  swell was causing us bother , there was some windy weather  mid week that i think did the damage.   We gave it a hour before deciding it was no good.

Plan B
With the water so dirty we decided to try a peir. But ruled out the wrasse as they are primarily sight feeders but were hoping for a cod. But only the crabs bit our baits and again our confidence was knocked, so again we decided to move if it was  the evening i think we would have stuck it out as this is when i believe the cod bite, but not when the sun is splitting the sky.

Plan C

Plan C was for Flounder and for us virgin territory, lots of bays to choose from on our way back down the Fife coast ,  we decided on the first road side option . When we arrived a guy was digging lug and fishing the beach, we asked him of the prospects of which they were Flounder and maybe the odd bass , but the weed may be a problem . We decided to give it a go . Brian noticed a Burn along the shore a good feature which often attracts flounder so we made a v line for there basically set up 2 hook flapper rigs baited with lug tipped off with herring , fished from the burn, first cast i reeled in a tonne of weed, Brian though was getting bites.  He lost one, then i got lucky with a nice fluke.

A good start , I rebaited and took another. Which Brian kept for his dinner.

Next Brian had a Brace of quick-fire flukes.

After that we had a bad spell with weed, every cast fouling the line baits and leads.

This coincided with running out of herring, which i felt was our best bait for the day. After that the tide slowed but our worm baits would come back untouched . We decided to call it a day , and i think we were contented that we managed to pull something out of the bag on a day that wasn't initially looking too promising . Dying to know what the flounder tasted like?