A wrasse..shhh Decision

I've been feeling a bit lost fishing wise recently since returning from Skye, it's sweltering here has been for the past week. I've had a trip to my local river, for trout but its not pleasant fighting through undergrowth , and the pond for perch but in truth my passion for freshwater fishing is totally flat at the moment, I just want more saltwater fishing in any case a sea breeze would be nice.

A bit of a dilemma today , thought will I head for a beach , low tide at 5 pm could do the flounders if i could get hold of some mackerel for bait, then i thought any beaches will be heaving with dog walkers,and sun worshippers . So I then thought about the mackerel on the fly gear, but the low water being at 5pm and High water being at just before midnight so didn't fancy it. So I finally decided to give the lrf stuff a bash, and concentrate on a species that has so far eluded me to this method .......wrasse.

So I headed over  to Fife and I got to my chosen spot at 4:30pm, some guys were using lug on the front of the breakwater and while I set up they had a wee wrasse, followed by a cod. Just what I'm after i thought, so I decided to drops shot a section of tan isome worms, and eventually after lots of plucks from coal fish I had a pollack, Infact in various parts of the breakwater I picked up a few .small but Great fighters on the light gear, but in truth I was a little disappointed as they weren't my target species.

A few hours in and only a few pollack to show for my efforts I decided to have a go in the harbour. I dropped in my setup and then to my surprise they emerged plucking and being quite curious of my bait but not hooking up,though a few close calls , though. I went through colour changes , tried gulp sand worms even a senko type worm but the pattern was the same just  curious , circling fish followed by wised up fish.

Eventually though I got one not one of the ballans I had seen but a little goldsinny.

I was pleased a new species.

Moments later I hooked up again this was a good wrasse but it snapped me. I then decided to thread up my other reel which had 15lb braid as opposed to nanofil. Straight away I hooked another fish only for it to drop off half way up the wall , I think it was a rockling or a butterfish?

Next drop down again I got what I had came for, after a good fight taking line etc , I landed this wee belter.

Mission accomplished thought I was another trip away from success, with the sun starting to go down and Sammy  the seal making a entry I decided to call it a night. I think I'll have another shot over the weekend.

Samuel

Nevermind the pollocks !

The last day of our holiday. The weather generally hadn't been kind , strong winds and occasional showers was the pattern, however , there was places for shelter , by digging out the OS maps you could find there was always a sheltered outcrop worth a go, not perhaps prime areas but i found they offered good sport.

Portree harbour

We were bound for Portree for a bit souvenir shopping so me and Lewis got the LRF rods out and had a go, we caught the usual suspects, coal fish, wee pollack , wee cod and I added another new species, a  poor cod .

poor cod

Later I went back for round two at Greshornish point. It was wild though , I thought it would be sheltered as it was on the Sunday evening as I thought the winds were in the same direction, but no, guess I picked he wrong mark.

 I took the light spinning rod and the fly rod but only used the latter for the two hours I was there. First I tried my intermediate but found despite counting down for a minute it just wasn't getting down , where I wanted it quick enough in the blustery conditions, so I put on my repaired fast sinker, I'd repaired it with. Section of braided loop some thread whip and superglue, and started picking up pollack, i had half a dozen, a few really wee ones and a few marginally better ones not as big as the loch pooltiel fish but still great sport.

 Doing the simple things though was difficult with the wind even standing up was difficult at times, and the running line had a habit of blowing out the line tray and tangling. I finished with this modest but beutifully coloured Greshornish pollack, a fitting end to my time fishing on the island.

It was a great holiday, it's a sea fishers heaven, some species such as mackeral were still thin on the ground, as the have been everywhere so far this year, but there was plenty pollack to keep interest, if I had more time , I'd probably give the beach rods a go, or go more out for wrasse than  my occasional efforts .  I'd love to go back to Skye in the near future , but think the misses will be wanting a trip to sunnier climes next year, still I live in hope.

The view from the balcony (ascrib islands)

On a fishin' mission (day 5 Skye)

On Thursday we had a trip to the reptile house in Broadford, then on the way home stopped for an hour and a half at Ardmore point, the wind was blowing hard , the mission was to get Lewis a pollack.
 

Ardmore point

 I decided to leave the fly gear at home and concentrate mainly on getting lewis a fish , so we were both spinning  with newly purchased big rubber eels from dunvegan tackle shop , lost most of them , I hooked fish and Lewis played it in , a nice wee pollack ....yes.

Between  snags he then hooked a fish ,a lovely fish it was too.

 Understandably he was over the moon. I then took a small pollack before we headed for home with a few fishy tales to tell. Mission accomplished and one happy angler!

What a load of Pollocks

Wednesday was my whole day to fish alone, not required to constantly pull from snags, tie up new rigs etc.
I decided to return to loch Pooltiel as it was so good to me on the Monday. It was a great day just a light ripple on the loch.

 So it was on with the chartreuse and white clousers . First cast I took a small pollack then next cast again hooked another fish this one the close cousin of the pollack the coalfish.

 soon after another two anglers turned up to spin on the mark , and I promptly took a couple of nice fish around 4lb they were kind enough to take some pics.

 I then dropped two losing my flies as the dived into the kelp . More fish followed with odd quiet spell mainly ranging from 2-4 lb, and I found a new colour of pink and white effective.

 I spoke to the other anglers who had the odd pollack, and got a basic tutorial on how to spin these big rubber eels, I was needing the info , as Lewis my sons friend was still to catch a crash diving pollack, above  lrf size and as he is a keen young angler, I wanted him to get one before leaving on Saturday.
Unfortunately I knackered my second fast sinker of the trip, so put it a way at once so not to cause more damage and put on my repaired line .
Before long I decided to go for a wander, to a nice wee spot I could see further round the loch. On the way i admired some of the wild flowers.

thrift

ragged robin

flag iris

This mark required a leap of faith across a 3ft gap , but soon I was on the rock. I replaced my damaged line with the one i damaged on the first night that id repaired ,First cast I took a smallish pollack around 2 1/2lb then I cast again the line departed the rod into the sea. doh!

the rock

So I decided to give my hrf kit a go and rigged a gulp sand worm Texas style with a 7gm cone head. I cast it out pausing , slow retrieve just bouncing it around the bottom then I got a tap , tap tap, then I hooked up but unfortunately it got off, i suspect it was a wrasse, then as contiued the retreive closer in a big pollack shadowed the sand worm, a few casts later I hooked it but it was unstoppable, simply a 30g spinning rod just ain't up to the job for stopping these beasts.

 So I decided to put on a intermediate and count it down for a bit longer a minute to be precise, and it worked, with a cracking pollack of 5lb.

A few casts later I saw a bigger fish follow then take , a brief hook up and the fly came out its mouth so I cast short, pulled it just sub surface and the fish rolled over it  off the top just like a trout . Then dived down the ledge , I stopped his first lunge, then on his second I feel i almost had him ,then i watched as the fly broke at the knot  10ft or so down and the big old pollack with my pink fly in its lip idly sounded for the deeps.What can i say....  Great fun!

It had been a great day perhaps 20 or so pollack landed a few lost and a single coalfish, absolutely shattered back home for tea at 7pm.

more to come........

The Skye's the limit (first 3 days)

This years family holidays had finally arrived , we were bound for the isle of Skye! One thing that was worrying me on this trip was the forecast, it wasn't great for the first full day 30mph winds and rain on the Sunday, so we went to the capital Portree and myself my son jack and his pal Lewis had a go at lrf in the harbour, first I set up Lewis then as I was setting jacks rod up Lewis had a wee sea scorpion.

A good start , before long we were all catching small pollack and coal fish , then Lewis lent his rod to my wife Sylvia and she reeled in a tiny codling, I then took another two.

totie pollack

wee cod

I also managed out in the evening to do a bit fishing at loch Greshornish . I chose the location partly cause it was close by but also cause it was sheltered , infact it was so shelterd i was being eaten alive by the midges , its the only day they bit, and the only day i never applied my  smidge repellent.

Greshornish point

  The target , pollack on the fly. There's a 30 minute walk to the point, but what a smashing mark it is , first cast I saw a small pollack followed my deceiver then I got one not huge , in fact pretty wee but nice to get off the mark.

 I had a few more follows then I shredded my fly line on the barnacles, I know exactly when I did it , and was a bit annoyed at myself as it effectively ended the evenings fishing prematurely .

Any way I made a temporary repair and managed to cast to a degree , but no more fish on the point took , on my way back up the road I stopped of at another outcrop, and hooked a fish first cast , got to say this actually looked a little better for pollack than the point as it had good depth, but the point it's self looks a great wrasse haven.

The path to Neist point

stone piles

neist point  lighthouse

The groovy gang

Monday saw the family visit Neist point, simply a stunning mark though it was a little rough out the front, so we fished Moonen bay, after a blank in one bay we moved to the loading bay where my son Jack's first cast with his jelly worm said " dad I'm stuck on the bottom" then before we knew it we could see a stonking pollack  below us , we netted and weighed it, what a cracker 3 1/2 pound, it was then his wish that it was returned.

that's ma boy!

Try as we could me and Lewis could not get a take.

The rocks at Pooltiel

 So we headed back up to the car and on the way stopped of at sheltered  loch pooltiel for an hour and a half. Wasn't sure what fly to put on and wasn't full of confidence, saw a few wee coalies so scaled down from my big 2/0 deceiver to a size 2 chartreuse and white clouser,  did a 30 second count down and with almost instant effect I started to get pollack over the next hour I had 4 fish the best and last fish just over 4 1/2 pound , they have phenomenal power and they take a bit of holding to stop them crash diving into the snaggy kelp beds. At last i felt i had cracked it.

 kept two table sized fish for the pot and made a nice fish pie out of them.

pollack Pie....... mmmm.

Tuesday was another day of heavy rain and strong winds , we had a tour round the Trotternish peninsular stopping off at a few attractions, not the best day for photography the old man of Storr was covered by mist, but got a picture of kilt rock.

More days to come.......