Moon rock

A few years back Gerry and I stumbled across a Cod mark that, as far as we know, has never been identified or fished heavily. The mark is a shallow gulley surrounded by heavy reefs on each side that floods quickly on the incoming tide. The mark is fed  by two large pools of water which we suspect the fish enter and leave from as they move along the beach. We call it Moon Rock as the beach holds a distinctive rock which gives us an idea of its location when the tide is up. It has never failed to produce fish for us, but seems to fish better, in the bigger building tides of the winter. The first time we fished (stumbled across) the mark I was rewarded with 17lb of cod in 2 casts, actually within 2.5 hrs I walked off the beach with 35lb bag of Cod.

With the weather being kind and giving us the first decent sea of the week, we decided to head east for the first time this winter. Having checked the sea state from the Signal Tower Web Cam at Arbroath throughout the day, I was confident that we would be greeted by a lovely swell crashing over the reefs. We began our trek to the mark loaded up like a Himalayan Sherpas, arriving at the location with a lovely cold sweat on the brow. We quickly set up camp and began the trek out to meet the water at low tide.

We brought one rod each and a bait bucket with a few rigs and leads, our pockets full of the other essentials. Finding a stance, we safely walked out and launched our bluey and mussel baits as far past the send breaker as we could manage in the stiff head wind. The most amazing thing about this mark is how shallow the water can be and still hold decent fish. In my head I imagine the Cod waiting till there is just enough water to cover their backs before they push into the gulley and travel along reefs. Targeting the areas that we felt the fish would be waiting in proved successful as bite after bite the Cod began to appear, some landed, some dropped as they bounced off the rocks on the way in. In the blinking of an eye the tide would fill in behind us signalling the need to move back and back until we found ourselves back at the camp we had set up ready to fish over the top of the tide.

As high water came and went it became apparent that a move was required as the action had stopped and the tide was beginning to ebb. A quick sandwich and coffee was consumed before we packed up  and were on the move again. We had landed 10 fish between us in the 2-4lb bracket with many more missed bites and dropped fish. Although we were fishing into mixed to rough ground we had lost only one rig due to using 100lb pulleys and a rotten bottom clip.

The second mark we would be fishing is a popular mark that we have fished a few times in the past. Walking down to the mark we were encouraged to see no headlights in the distance. Tactics would be the same, fishing one rod a piece, as we chased the ebbing tide out. Similarly to the first mark, we were into fish straight away. Nothing massive but a steady flow of 2-4lb fish arrived at our feet. We continued to miss many bites as the ground here, limestone type rock platforms, meant that we struggled to anchor our baits to the sea bed.

Tired and cold with the sea dying off we headed back on the long walk to the car. With 18 fish over the full tide, our trip had been a success. Granted we had no PB’s or big fish but we were both content that by following our instincts we had a nice bag of fish to bring home for the freezer.

 

Until the next fish………

 

 

When Irish reels are screaming

The trip had been weeks in the making, many messages sent back and forward across the Irish sea discussing tactics, rigs and equipment needed. The gauntlet had been thrown down by my good friends John and Fergal to put them in contact with a common Skate from the shore, not an easy task! So many things would have to fall into place for this to happen, not least the weather gods playing ball. Initially the long range forecasts gave us concerning predictions of constant heavy rain and strong winds but thankfully as the trip became closer the weather gods began to shine.

There seems to have been a huge increase in anglers chasing these beautiful creatures over the past couple of years. In the past the sight of a Scottish shore caught triple digit fish was a very rare event however social media has led to the huge increase of trophy shots popping up every few weeks. Many of the marks that were once a closely guarded secret now seem to be common knowledge amongst the sea angling fraternity. This posed us a problem as the possibility that the stances we had identified fishing may be unavailable. In order to give the boys a good shout it would be necessary to have a plan A, B and C should our chosen mark be ‘busy’. The weeks prior to the lads arrival new marks were identified and one was given a test run. Whilst no Skate was encountered Gerry did mange his pb Conger Eel.

I collected the boys from the first flight into Glasgow from Dublin and we quickly set off North to the sea loch that we would be targeting. A quick stop off to introduce the lads to the delights of square sausage, washed down with a hot coffee, we were soon standing on our mark as planned at low water. To say the boys enjoyed the drive north would be an understatement,  the craic on the road north made the journey pass in the blinking of an eye.

Gerry had left Ayrshire early and was set up with baits in the water when we arrived. 10 minutes after arriving all 4 baits were soaking as we waited for the tide to do its thing. As we would be spending the next 24 hours on the rock we spent time getting our gear sorted and ‘Camp Skate’ ready for the session ahead. Drawing straws for the first run, it would be John followed by Fergal, then Gerry and finally me.

I had tried my best to dampen the boys expectations by telling them of all of our blanks and the long hours in between runs. The previous two trips after skate for Gerry and I had both produced runs but no landed fish. Despite this they were 100% certain that they wanted to take a punt at sitting it out as opposed to going for a Spur or an East coast Cod. Their positivity and optimism was certainly rubbing off on Gerry and I as we changed baits a couple of hours into the flooding tide.

Our laughing and joking was interrupted by the ratchet of the Diawa Saltist reel screaming loudly as the rod arched towards the water. Grabbing the rod I set the hook and attempted to pass the rod to John. John stood with his mouth open in shock as the fish took off just as he tried repositioning his hands. For the next hour or so the large female gave John the run around as she went up and down like a yoyo. Eventually a jelly legged John proclaimed that she was on her way up  and that he could see colour. I think he was a little taken aback by the size of the fish as she lay at his feet. 3 hours in and a fish had been landed and a weight lifted off my shoulders as I felt the satisfaction of achieving our goal of seeing a fish.

As the time past we ate some food and chatted about fishing. The tide had turned now and we began to wonder if we would see another fish. We need not have worried as the familiar sound of the Saltist ratchet alerted us to the presence of another fish. This time the fish kept on running as the drag was tightened to slow down her escape. Fergal, using a multiplier reel for the first time, manged superbly as he gradually subdued the fish. Whilst this fish wasn’t the largest, she certainly didn’t fancy heading to the surface. As the fight was coming to an end, Gerry climbed down to land the fish when out of nowhere the other Saltist reel began to scream as the braid peeled off the reel.

Gerry was due to take the 3rd run but as he was in the middle of landing Fergal’s fish he shouted for me to take this turn and he would get the next run. A double hook up saw us both playing fish simultaneously. Whilst Fergal was approaching the end of his scrap, my battle was just beginning. Gerry landed Fergal’s fish, a lovely small Female free from gaff marks or any sign of having been caught before. Whilst they were busy taking photos and returning the fish, I was engaged in a monumental tug of war with a lump that had no intentions of giving up or even sitting still. Most unusually for any mature Skate I have caught, this fella was intent on swimming from side to side and not just up and down, he obviously hadn’t read the rule book.

After a while he began to slow down as inch by inch he was pulled towards Gerry waiting to land him.

As Gerry pulled the fish onto a ledge I was amazed that it wasn’t a larger fish due to the scrap that it gave. Despite this it was my largest male that I have seen or landed so I was delighted.

 As the tide came and went we feared that the action was over for our trip. To have has 3 runs and 3 fish landed was an exceptional result for this mark but we all hoped that we could have one more fish for Gerry to get us a full house. As we approached the second low water Gerry’s new Diawa BG fixed spool gave a couple of clicks before his AFAW Tournament Match GP arched over. The fish took off at a remarkable rate of knots as the braid rapidly peeled off the spool. Setting the hooks, Gerry then allowed the fish to continue running before applying some pressure in an attempt to turn the fish. Disaster struck as the rod tip sprung back as the Skate drifted away into the current minus the hook. Gerry has had a poor run of luck recently having hooked a number of large skate only to lose them at some point in the fight. I guess that there is not an angler out there that can’t empathise with Gerry’s run of bad luck. That was the last action that we had other than a small Thornback Ray that was foul hooked when bringing the baits in for a change.

The banter on the way back to the airport was good fun as we reflected on a very impressive trip. Plans were made for an Ireland summer trip in 2019 to find some of Co Kerry famous Stingray and Undulates and also a return trip for the lads to target some of our other toothy critters.

 

Until the next fish…….

 

 

 

 

Misson accomplished

With the Cod reports being so poor lately, and a less than favourable weather forecast, Gerry and I decided to dust down the big guns and head north to try for a Skate. 2018 has seen me land a couple of smaller fish but I had my eyes on a big girl similar to my monster last year.

 

The tides were not ideal but we knew from previous experience that the fish could arrive when you least expected it. Our intention was to fish a tide and head home at a reasonable hour. This gave us a 7 hour window to get lucky. Our last trip up a few weeks back had seen me miss the only run of the night due to tripping and falling head first onto the sharp rocks, narrowly avoiding serious injury.  Hopefully this session would prove a little less dangerous with more success.

Arriving at the mark we started unloading the jeep. First thing was to get the headlamps on for the walk to the shore. When putting fresh batteries in I noticed that one of the batteries had leaked damaging the torch. Disaster as I couldn’t get it working and had to rely on my spare. The only problem was that I had forgotten to get new batteries for it. Leaving Gerry to get set up and fishing, I headed off to try to find a shop (not easy in the middle of the remote Highlands).

50 minutes later I was back on track launching large squid and Mackerel  baits out into the flooding tide. Almost immediately the rod tips began to bounce around showing that there was life down at the bottom of the sea loch. Strangely this pattern continued for the majority of the night. Whether it was due to the smaller tides or just a coincidence I will never know but it was certainly very different to any other time we had fished this mark in the past.

A few fishless hours passed when I caught glimpse of an otter that was on the hunt for its dinner. These usually shy animals avoid humans at all costs but this fella put on a great show swimming along the waters edge seemingly unperturbed by our presence. Later on we would find the remnants of a shore crab that he had been eating some 20 feet away from us in the darkness.

Starting to think we were staring another blank square in the face one of my Saltists gave a couple of clicks signaling some interest at the business end. Certain it was not a dogfish I held the rod in my hand waiting for the fish to move.

Eventually the fish took off at a steady pace and the 10/0 hook was strongly set in the jaw of the fish. After the initial run it was clear that the fish was smaller than I had seen at this mark before but still felt powerful as she made a number of dogged runs, each time stripping braid off the tightly set drag.

15 minutes later she appeared on the surface and was expertly landed by Gerry. A few photos and she was returned to the depths. We didn’t bother measuring her but I’d say a conservative estimate would be 50-60lb.

The remainder of the night was fishless but the fact that we had achieved our goal and seen one of these special fish made the trip worth the effort. Jeep loaded, we set off on the long journey south. Passing by Loch Lomond at around 0330 hours Gerry noticed a car in a ditch at the side of the road, unsure if it had happened recently we turned the car around and parked up. As we got close we discovered that it had happened a few minutes earlier and that the driver was in the process of getting out the car. Clearly drunk it was a miracle that he had not lost his life or hit someone else. The police and ambulance arrived and we continued our journey, good dead for the day completed.

 

 

Until the next fish….

 

Come on ye Spurs…

 

October is one of my favourite months to fish as its probably the only month where you can target summer and winter species. The October holidays usually signal the start of the winter cod fishing with as many pilgrimages East as the weather, wallet and wife will allow. This year my Cod fishing hasn’t started yet due to the constant south westerly winds which have kept the East coast sea mainly flat. Its a very long journey to make if the conditions are not spot on to pick up a few pigs.

This October I have had to make do with a couple of trips north to the Highlands. Anyone that reads my blogs will know that its far from my favourite type of fishing but, when the conditions and tides don’t work for the south west or east coast, its a good back up plan. This was the situation I faced mid October so I made the decision to travel up to a west coast sea loch to target some Spurdog and Thornback Ray.

Having checked tides, I picked a shallow mark on the edges of some extremely deep water. This area can only be fished on small tides as the tidal pull can be insanely powerful, picking up and carrying any sized weight that is cast out. Even on the lowest of tides a 7oz strong wired grip lead is essential.

As Spurs were my main target for this mark, the evening before was spent doctoring my pulley rigs to add on 6-8 inches of wire and some luminous beads. A quick check on the weather predicted it to rain until my arrival and not to recommence until I would be heading back to the car for a sleep before hitting mark number two at a different sea loch the following day. This gave me a 9 hour window on the Spurs, where I would catch last couple hours of the drop and the full flood.

The drive north in the autumnal darkness is a long and tiring journey, 3 hours of deep concentration watching out for the Red Deer that are slap bang in the middle of their rutting season. The radio signal comes and goes throughout the journey as you pass many mountain glens and signal blackspots. I arrived at the mark in pitch blackness finding my usual route to the mark blocked off, parking a short distance away I was soon setting up base camp for the evening on the slippy rocks.

I had brought with me a selection of Mackerel, Bluey and Squid and was soon casting out double (small) Bluey and double Squid into the last of the ebb.

My first cast was in the water a matter of minutes before the Kompressor gave a tell tale nod that something had found the bait attached to the very short pulley rig. Holding the rod I felt the line go slack and immediately began retrieving the small Spur which had fancied some squid for its supper.

 

Just as I had finished taking a photo and was returning the fish to the water my other rod gave a very timid wobble, thinking its probably a Dogfish I left it and began to bait up my other rod. Glancing up I saw the rod pull down strongly and the line go slack. Within seconds I was taking up the slack and immediately felt a very powerful fish swimming off at speed. Setting the hook and lifting the rod tip high I was surprised to feel the fish fighting as aggressively as usually the Spurs tend to be quite docile. What broke the surface some 20 feet away gave me the shock of my life, it was enormous and at least twice the size of any other Spur I had seen. The fish was extremely thick set and clearly full of pups which made it extremely difficult getting it on to dry land. As I had no scales with me (typical) I have tried not to put a weight on it but it looked considerably bigger than my Tope and Huss that I caught last summer.

Both rods were now rebaited and put back out hoping for another monster Spur. Within minutes both rods were showing signs of interest. This time each bait producing a large Spur around the 7-8lb bracket. This pattern continued for the majority of the night with almost every bait producing a fish. It was so busy that I had to drop down to one rod as I couldn’t keep up with the fish.

The fishing eventually slowed down around 4am as the tide began to approach high water. As the fish had clearly moved off it allowed me to move back to fishing two rods again. With 2 fresh Bluey baits cast out into the darkness I had just finished a coffee when one of the lines went slack, dropping like someone had just snipped it with a pair of scissors. Trying to catch up with the fish it was clear that it had travelled a considerable distance, eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, I watched the line straighten out of the water and could feel a few heavy thuds at the business end. Struggling to get the fish under control, it managed to use the tide to swim into a large raft of Bladderwrack. Unfortunately I was fishing solo so had to set the ratchet on the reel, place the rod back on the tripod and attempt to free the fish by hand, not an easy task. At this point I had only caught a glimpse of the flank of the fish but could tell it was certainly a double. Managing to get the fish moving again she allowed me to beach her. Another monster, as fat as a rugby ball, lay in front of me. Perhaps a fraction shorter in length than the other big girl, she was certainly equally as thick and broad across the shoulders. The hook popped out and she was slipped back into the darkness to deliver her precious package.

 

For the first time in the session I actually began to feel the cold as I sat back on my seat box and relaxed. Trying to count back the fish proved impossible as tiredness crept in. I had stopped counting at 20 so reckon it was about 25-30 fish in total, 6 of these fish were double figure and another 2 minimum high teens. The first Spur caught was the smallest of the session, with every female close to bearing pups.

What I did notice was there seemed to be 2 distinctly different looking Spurs that made up my catch. Some of the fish were inky black with others with a noticeably lighter colouration. Resident fish compared to open ocean fish that were only there to drop off their precious cargo?

Tired, I packed up and made the journey back to the car to get some shut eye before driving off to the next location hoping for a ray of some description. The rain began as predicted just as I reloaded the gear back into the car.

The next day I drove to a mark that can throw up all manner of species, intending on fishing here till evening time I lasted only a few hours until I was practically blown off the mark. I managed a solitary Dogfish and a couple of small Thornbacks before I began my long journey south.

Until the next fish…….

Clyde bass

 

I have been targeting bass along the Ayrshire coast since 2013 following my move from Ireland. The past 4 years have been an education, each session teaching me something new that adds to the armoury for the next venture onto the sand. This constant fine tuning has seen catch rates increase year on year, 2018 being the most productive session by far.

The beauty of the Ayrshire Bass is that they are left alone as many anglers head North or South chasing monsters. For me there is nothing more cathartic as standing on a deserted shoreline in the pitch black waiting for the line to go slack as the silver torpedo’s trigger the trap. I guess this is why most of us fishing junkies return night after night in all weathers, the tug truly is the drug.

The summer of 2018, the hottest for many decades, proved to be a challenge for the bait anglers like myself. No wind, no surf generally equates to no fish. Despite this I continued catching throughout the settled period by throwing a few lures about. When wading through the shallow inshore reefs I was amazed at the massive volume, and diversity, of the sea life within the Clyde system. Massive shoals of Sandeel, huge number of juvenile flatfish and all manners of small fish all very much on the menu for our Clyde Bass.

As the weather systems changed in August we seen a prolonged period of westerly winds which was enough to encourage the shoals of Bass off the inshore reefs and into the surf. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy lure fishing; the connectivity to the fish, light tackle and the ability to move around quickly is great but ledgering a crab or worm bait is what truly floats my boat.  August into September seen me hit the beach one or two evenings week, every session producing fish. Some sessions producing double figures of Bass but most 3-6 fish. The size of the fish all in the small 1-2lb range but the odd one or two around the 3lb. Most anglers from other parts of the UK would turn their noses up at the small size of these fish but the significance for us is that they are Clyde fish, a system that has been overfished to an almost barren wasteland.

 

The summer of 2018 also seen me get a new fishing buddy in the form of my oldest lad Rory. After our early ventures down to the SW of Scotland chasing hounds he has now built up an impressive species list including the elusive Clyde bass, in fact he is responsible for catching the biggest Ayrshire Bass on bait this year (a fact that has constantly reminds me of). As the nights begin to get colder his requests to come fishing with me become less frequent, as he is only 9 I can forgive him this.

The past few sessions have seen numbers of codling start to appear in the surf. This is a fairly unusual occurrence, granted we get the odd one or two micro codling each year, but this autumn most of these fish have been in the 35cm range and very clean with no sign of kelp in their colouration. The number of Flounder we encounter as by catch is also up massively this year compared to others, Coalfish numbers seem to be going in the opposite direction.

So that’s the local Bass fishing coming to a close and in reflection it has continued on from last year, the average stamp of fish around 1/2lb bigger but the numbers continue increasing each year. The big Ayrshire Bass continues to elude me but perhaps 2019 will see me break the 6.5lb local PB…….

Until the next fish………

 

 

 

 

 

Perfection in miniture

The past couple of months have passed me by in a bit of a blur which has meant that the fishing/writing has had to take a back seat. With the changing air pressure and favourable tides, Gerry and I decided to dust down the bait gear and take the young team down for another bash at the hounds. While the youngsters were chasing the hounds the oldies would put out fresh Mackerel baits in the hope of a toothy critter.

Sourcing fresh crab for the boys was proving difficult so we had to use up what we had in the freezer and get some more from our local tackle shop as back up. Gear organised and jeep loaded we were soon on the road at 630am heading to our favourite area in the south west of Scotland.

We had timed our trip to arrive an hour into the flood, traditionally this phase of the tide has been kind to us and has produced some superb catches. Opting for simple 1 hook pulleys the crab were sent to the horizon, shortly followed by fresh Mackerel mounted on wire pulley droppers. The boys were obviously excited as the last trip down in May had produced some nice Hounds and a shed load of Dogfish.

The fishing over the first few hours of the flood was very slow. Nothing was happening until I heard a few clicks on my tightly set ratchet on the Diawa BG 30. Walking towards my rod the tip pulled down before the line went slack. More than likely a ray I thought as I took up the slack but to my surprise a small Tope about 4lb broke the surface. A pleasant surprise but a good bit short of target weight.

Next up was Scott with a lovely Smooth Hound which gave a cracking bite then a ridiculous amount slack line before she was landed.

This was the pattern for the remainder of the tide as the hounds hammered the crab baits and the Tope fed hard on the fish baits.

As the fishing was good we ended up deciding to fish the ebbing tide. This was a wise decision with everyone catching Tope and Hounds, Rory even managing to catch his first Thornback Ray.

We ended up losing count of the amount of fish but we had double figures of tope and at least 20 hounds plus a solitary ray and flattie.

Just as the last baits had been put out the rain started, it was biblical. The weather had been kind all day however by the time we got back to the car we were soaked. A great day out which was enjoyed by all.

Until the next fish…..

 

Back on the sand

I havent fished for a couple of months as life has got in the way. A family bereavement and a broken elbow coincided with some of the hottest weather on record. This combination has seen me spend more time researching possible new areas than actually wetting a line.

 

The broken elbow has healed sufficiently now to be able to throw a lure, granted only short sessions of an hour or two. Over the past week we have managed out twice, landing 6 and missing countless others. A few of the missed fish we substantially bigger than we came across the previous year. Most of the lures we we using were subsurface and a few ‘off the top’ lures as well.

Next week will see the bass lure sessions increase in frequency and hopefully the catch rates.

Until the next fish……

Boys day out…….

A few weeks back Gerry and I had finally decided to take our boys a day trip to the sunny south west for a crack at the hounds. We had spoken about this over the past couple of years but I felt my oldest boy was just a bit too young for a trip of this nature. For the days leading up to the trip the excitement had almost reached fever pitch with the ‘how long till we go fishing?’ question being rolled out every morning and night from my oldest son.

We left early afternoon to catch low water and fish the tide up to as close to high as we could manage. As the tides were building towards the springs we knew that we would have to get off the mark just about dusk to be extra safe. This gave us a window of 4 or 5 hours, more than enough time to get the boys a fish or two.

The mark we had chosen was the same as the one that we had fished the previous weekend without much success. With the tides, weather and water temperatures looking good we hoped that a week would make all the difference. Thankfully we managed to source a bucket of fresh Crab and some Ragworm which we hoped would give us a better chance of finding a wider variety of species.

Gerry and I usually travel light as the walk out to the mark is a fair old trek when loaded up like a Himalayan Sherpa, today it was unavoidable. We tried to share the load as much as possible and to be fair the boys they coped very well with the trek.

Arriving shortly after low water,  rod rests were erected, rods were assembled and rigs were clipped on against the backdrop of shrieks of excitement. Rory the youngest was using a 3.5lb tc pike rod and a Shimano 6000 bait runner spooled with 50lb braid straight through. Ross has his own set-up that he won from his fish of the week competition following the capture of his massive Bass last spring. Scott, the oldest of the threesome, is more used to fly-fishing so he had borrowed his dads AFAW T Bass rod and a Shimano Ultegra 5500. Crabs bound on and Ragworm needled onto the hooks and we were off…….

30 seconds after the baits hitting the water Rory’s rod buckled over, the combination of the light rod and braid giving us all a heart attack as we expected something a bit bigger than a dog to appear. To him his mission had been accomplished with his first ‘shark’ hitting the deck.

For the next 4 hours we caught 32 fish including Dogs, Whiting and Common and Starry Smoothound.  Most baits were finding fish which in turn led to quite a competition between the boys. 25 of the 32 fish caught were by the boys, quite an achievement.

As the tide had reached our feet and darkness fell it was time for the trek back to the Jeep. A quick stop for a bag of chips then the journey home could begin, not that any of the young team would be awake to witness it.

 

Until the next fish….

In hope more than expectation

Recent catch reports from the sunny south west did not fill us full of confidence. Some experienced shore anglers had been blanking, or had been happy just to catch a Dogfish or two. The seasons seemed to be a good deal behind where they should be and the fishing seemed to be stuck in limbo. The only positive report was by our good friend Kenny who had been down the week previous and nabbed the first shore Smooth hound (well 13 actually) in an action packed session. Despite this we decided to head off south in hope more than expectation.

Getting fresh peeler or worm in time for our trip proved impossible so we opted for fish baits, last years crab claws and frozen black lugworm. This meant that we would skip targeting Smooth hound and focus our attentions on the other species that are present on our marks. Personally I was focussing my attention on possible Ray, Huss and Tope, whilst having a scratch about with the worm to see what else was in the vicinity.

The trip began at the ungodly time of 3am due to family commitments we had the following evening. This gave us a limited window of opportunity to fish. It never ceases to amaze me how I manage to spring out my bed in the middle of the night to go fishing compared to my living dead routine each morning when work beckons. The trip down was over in no time as Gerry’s car is pretty much in auto-pilot due the frequency of our annual spring trips. Stepping out the car we were greeted by a heavy fog, bitter cold temperatures and brisk SE wind (to think I had sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses in the seat box). A 25 minute stroll through a stunning forest, fresh with the smell of blooming wild garlic,  brought us out onto our base for the next 8-10 hours. In no time at all we were fishing.

In close I opted for a 3 hook flapper adorned with beads and size 1/0 Aberdeens . On the distance rod it was a fish bait mounted on one of Gerry’s new Pulley dropper type rigs with a wire biter. I decided to use a 7oz weight as the tide is notorious at this mark for popping any leads that are not secured sufficiently.  Gerry fished three rods but with similar tactics to myself.

The rattles on the small rods began almost instantly as small fish hammered the worm baits fished at 40 yards. This produced some fine dabs and a few dogfish as the last of the tide ebbed away. The frozen worm proving irresistible to the large number of flatfish that frequent this mark.

As expected the next fish didn’t arrive until  the tide started flooding again. Gerry confidently identifying a ray bite on his distance rod. Giving the fish a short time to settle on the bait he expertly set the hook and landed a stunning female ray around the 7lb mark.

With spirits high we fished on with only the odd rattle or dogfish maintaining our interest. Eventually my scratching rod gave a better bite and produced a lovely wee Plaice.

The fishing continued in the vain with just the odd flounder or Dogfish we decided to call it a day earlier than expected.

 

A great day out with a few fish thrown in for good measure.

Sure what’s not to love…?

Until the next fish……….

One season behind

My fishing in the SW of Scotland traditionally begins around the last week or two  in April, usually a warm spell and decent tides trigger an influx of Smooth hound and small pack Tope. The Bass also start to show in catch reports, with the odd substantial fish making an appearance. Since my return to Scotland from Ireland, the weather patterns over he past few years have been fairly consistent, which in turn has made the fishing predictable at times .

2018 has proved to be a bit of an anomaly in terms of predicting when the fish will appear, the unseasonably cold air and water temperatures have made the fishing extremely slow with many experienced anglers having great difficulty locating fish. The water temperature on the recent May bank holiday weekend was a cold 8c compared to the 2017 temperature of 11c.

The problem with lower water temperatures is that the prey the fish are feeding on are extremely influenced  by the colder water temperature. The Plankton and Zooplankton, the bottom of the food chain, begin to bloom on the West coast at the beginning of April (one month earlier than the East coast) when the water temperatures begin to creep up.  The inshore Crab will wait until the mud heats up sufficiently to trigger them to moult, they will not moult inshore until the conditions are right. Again the Crab peel generally begins the first warm spell in April.  The Sandeel and small fish that feed our larger fish again are not present inshore until the food that sustains them is present. This ‘knock on’ effect on the food chain ultimately correlates to the water temperatures, and in turn, the presence of the fish.

The good news I suppose is that when the conditions do become more favourable the fishing can be excellent, as the fish that have been off shore now arrive in larger numbers, very hungry and competitive over any available food source.

I’m certainly banking on that being the case in the coming weeks.

Until the next fish…….