Mack- Attack

Returned to the same spot i fished last Thursday on the Forth when i took the LRF gear . Today  i had the fly rod . I fished  1 hour  up to high tide and 2 hrs after , and i think the first hour beyond high water was maybe the best. Not the big boils of mackeral but subtle attacks hear and there . I fished an intermediate with clousers sucessful colours were pink and white , red and white and flash clousers, to be honest i dont think it really mattered , if it was in there path  they would take it .

It wasnt hectic sport but i picked up fish steadily some blind and some cast to surface action. Some of the catch is bound for the smoker and some for bait for the flatties.

An evening on the green burn

 Decided on a visit to the local fertile Little stream. Took a while to get into my stride, pretty rusty , and   perhaps the 6 1/2 ft'er  would have been a better bet tonight instead of the 7 1/2 ft rod with the bankside vegetation breaching the stream, i had to shorten my leader by a couple of feet as the long leader was giving me grief.

Anyway a good  nights fishing, with fish on a mixture of dries and nymphs, the best of the evening though was the last fish in the last pool , i put on a wooly bugger , the choice of fly was decided simply because i lost a good fish in this pool on one a few months back , i reckon this must be it . A poor picture got water on the lense .

   

Fife LRF sesh!

Had another shot at the wrasse in Fife , the ballans  didn't show but managed a brace of wee goldsinnys , first one came first drop the second was a little more tricky , having umpteen failed hookups before  finally landing him.

It went quiet in wrasse corner so i went and explored elsewhere only for the occasional podlie, so i headed to the rocks. On the way i noticed some surface action, and once on the rocks i saw a shoal of mackerel herding baitfish into the gullies below, it was a real visual treat from my high vantage point, they would come and go , but i was ready for them, i decided on a " zoom  Tiny fluke" presented with a 7g cone weight above , and they seemed to like it.

I took a brace and lost a further 3 in the hour i was there plus the odd coalie . Looks like its time to hit the macks with the fly rod, now that is good fun!

Fife Wrasse thrash

Today me and Brian headed for a Fife wrasse mark we fished last year. We were really looking forward to it the sun was out and hardly a breath of wind, it was a shorts and t-shirt day.  On the way we missed a turn off , so went the long  way round , not perfect as we had in mind a beach to dig some lug worm, so we had to improvise and choose another beach, which we did , lug though on this beach were not numerous though we managed enough (or so we thought) , as in any case we planned mainly to use the LRF gear and use the bait as back up for float fishing.
Fishing was really slow to start with so we wondered around a bit trying both piers either side of us but no fish were forth coming . We were not sure what to do and were contemplating upping sticks all together and moving to another mark then we decided just to try the mark we stated on again with the tide now much further in. We ditched the LRF rods altogether and concentrated on the float fishing.

And it wasnt long till i found myself connected to a little green wrasse.

Just the confidence booster we needed .
Not long after Brian dropped a bite, and then i hooked another little wrasse similar in colouration to my first.

Things were picking up with Brian also hooking up this stunning  green one.

With our bait dwindling away , the sport continued i dropped a fish then hooked up again this time a nice red codling.

nice to see another species, i then rebaited and cast again and the bait couldnt have been in for 10 seconds when the float again went under. This time a red coloured wrasse.

With our best bait totally gone now we decided to call it a day as the sport dried up, think we would have had more if we had more bait  ,but  in anycase we had out stayed our welcome and was  cut off with the tide. Looking forward to a return trip , next time though we will be armed  with a load of big juicy lug worms.

Orkney July 2013

Its laughable  all the rods I thought I might need for a few days in Orkney, think I took up three fly rods, three sea rods plus a tripod. Daft really as in the end I only used a 7-35 gram spinning rod for the limited time I had to fish. First night I had a go of Churchill barrier no 3 which has been good to me in the past with the odd big pollack, but not this time as I only managed a tiny cod on a texas rigged isome, had a few nibbles on a slug go and saw a Pollack splash at my lure on the surface, a bit disappointed but it was a nice night to be out anyway.

 next again afternoon I had the first of three sessions at Hoxa head cliffs in search of Pollack,

caution is required here as rocks tend to slop towards the sea. 

the fishing wasn't exactly electric but I was pleased to land a couple of modest Pollack on a texas rigged slug go

that was as good as it got unfortunately as my next two visits saw be blank, there didn't seem to be much activity, no signs of any bait fish or small coalies, perhaps the bright conditions didn't help? the only follow I got was from a seal which followed my fiiish minnow right to my feet, they must look realistic, I nearly jumped out of my skin! 

the ferry on its way to St Margaret's Hope

another go of barrier no 3 produced a surprise flounder on the isome

  a wee cod 



and a few of these when I got bored with no bites

so not exactly a successful holiday from a fishing point of view but everyone had a great time enjoying the good weather, including Clyde who's found a new love of water and generaly getting in a right old mess!

the other highlight of the holiday I forgot to mention was on the ferry on the way over, it slowed right down so everyone could get a look at pod of killer whales, a truly awesome sight, wish I had got a picture of them.  





just the tomich!

Back yesterday from our summer holiday visiting my mum up in South Ronaldsay Orkney,  in the way of a change this year we spent three days at Tomich first near beautiful glen Affric before traveling further north. Most of our days were spent walking which was no hardship as the weather was great and the scenery magnificent.

the river Affric on the dog falls walk



bee beetle

time for a rest

clyde had a great time

on our last evening in Tomich I ventured up the hill at the back of our accommodation to take a look at a couple of hill lochs which i saw on a map, asking around it seemed that no fishing was done on these lochs any more, shame I thought but made my way up the hill for a look anyway and after about an hour I found a wee loch to the right of the path and a slightly bigger one down on the left. Somehow I had also managed to pack a rod and reel so it would be a shame not to have a wee cast in them eh!

 I opted for the bigger loch first and was encouraged to see a riser when setting up, so on went a cdc and elk and a corrie polly,   after a few casts i was pleased to bring the first trout to hand, not big as you would expect from a peaty lochan but a great fighter for its size.

a few more feisty trout followed  mostly taking the dries static

bog cotton

 only had time for a few casts on the smaller loch which didn't produce anything but looked really good, maybe another time. I went back down the hill contented having managed to squeeze a couple of hours fishing in before leaving for Orkney in the morning.







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