With the promise of large varieties of species including common skate I set off on what was going to be a much longer drive than I expected. I got to Lochaline after an uneventful if slow drive (lots of roadworks fixing pot holes) to find Jamie and John just setting up. Unfortunately the West Pier where we were fishing was piled high with logs which restricted the space for casting. The wind was strong but at this point not to bad, or so I thought.
I quickly set up anticipating a great day. The water here is very deep straight from the shore, 250 - 350 ft deep, and I had never fished in waters so deep before. The tide was just finishing the ebb and I was surprised at how long the weight/bait was taking to get to the bottom, almost a full minute and a half. This gives the tide a log time to move your baits a long way from the area cast into.
All the time the wind was building and some of the gusts were really big and by the time Frankie and Sharpie turned up my tripod had taken a tumble and I had lost two eye inserts. With the high winds and strong tides there were snags and tangles a plenty. So when one of Frankies rods snapped we quite quickly decided discretion was the better part of valor and packed up to try and find some shelter at the Sheep Shed on Loch Sunart.
On arrival after a pretty gnarly drive (plenty of sharp blind summits and hairpin bends) we found that it was sheltered from the wind and not just in the shed itself. Rods out and we all quickly broke out collective blanks with some doggies. Unfortunately the fish also heralded the slight change of direction in the wind which was now funneling right down the loch and making seeing bites impossible. By this point we had missed the last ferry at Corran and were faced either with a long night in the sheep shed or a 40 mile detour on single track roads round Loch Linnie and Loch Elie. But with fishing now impossible we decided to take the long route round and go to the tried and tested Priory Mark on Loch Etive.
So off it was to Etive and the promise of some seclusion from the wind. But unfortunately it wasn't to be, no bites no fish and with forecasts coming in of heavy snow I decided to break for home and get past the higher ground before the snow came, eventually calling it a day at around 3 a.m.
Well at least the trip broke my run of three blanks but the 308 miles driven didn't really merit the poor return. I will be paying much more attention to weather forecasts and try not to be carried away with the prospects.
Role on the summer species
