22nd & 23rd April 2011 - Easter Weekend

Well I'm a bit late in typing up my trip last weekend but here goes.

Good Friday was to be a shore session on my own followed on Saturday by a trip to Loch Sunart afloat on Get Shortie courtesy of Sharpie. For the Friday I had decided to split the trip to Sunart by going to Camusnagaul Ferry Landing on Loch Linnhe. Being Easter Bank Holiday weekend the drive over to Fort William was plagued by the usual trains of caravans and slow moving sunday drivers to busy looking around them to keep an eye on the road. Still that's the price to pay for living amongst such beautiful countryside.

When I arrived at the mark it was a remarkable 24 degrees C with almost no wind. Lovely views of Ben Nevis across Loch Linnie and unfortunately that was that. Despite varying hook sizes, bait and rigs I started off with a big fat blank.

Then it was off to the spot on the north shore of Loch Linnie where I'd agreed to meet Sharpie and his pal Ian. I still had a few hours to kill so I decided to get the rods out again and see if there was anything doing. Quite quickly it was apparent that the new spot I decided to try was super shallow, but I thought in for a penny in for a pound and persevered for a couple of hours. By now the wind and rain were setting in and after losing a rig to a bad snag I decided discretion was the better part of valor and packed in for the day, blankety blank theme tune ringing in my ears.

Sharpie and Ian arrived about midnight and after a chinwag and a few tinnies we all turned in agreeing to an early start in the morning.

After a later start than agreed it was a short drive to the slip at Salen to launch for our day afloat.

With the prospect of spurdog, skate, conger and anything else that maybe around it was a frustrating half hour spent launching and sorting a few technical issues before setting off.

 Still in fairly quick time we were off, baited feathers on light rods to keeps us going as well as rods out for skate/conger. First stop was just a short hop from the launch site.

Nothing seemed to be at home so a short trip moved us into deeper water and it was out with all the rods again. sadly yet again nothing seemed to be about. Sharpie decided to move further west in the loch and had a wee surprised when he reeled one of his bait rods to find a juicy big langoustine on the end of his line.

The weather was significantly colder, wetter and windier than the day before, but Get Shortie was taking it all with no fuss. After another couple of moves up and down the Loch unfortunately Sharpies langoustine remained the only visitor on-board when it was time to be homeward bound.

Blank for the whole weekend, but still a bad fishing trip still beats most things hands down in my view, plenty of craic on-board and some fine sausage butties courtesy of Ian. Big thanks to Sharpie for the invite, hopefully there'll be a few fine fish next time.

A flounder from Fife

Bait -  kipper/lug
Rigs - flappers - 2, 1 & 1/0 hooks
Tide - 2hrs over high tide
Place - Wormit


With the weather looking reasonable and the wind not too strong, I asked my dad if he fancied a couple of hours on the banks of the silvery tay looking for significantly smaller flatties than last week! The plan was to get there just before high tide and fish a couple of hours either side of it. We thought we were a bit late but as it turned out I had got the tide times wrong so we had arrived exactly at the point of tide we had planned. This isn't a spot I'd been before but I'm determined to get a few spots nearer to home for quick ad hoc sessions. We went to the nice wee pebbley bay just past the Fife side of the Tay rail bridge. Nice space for several anglers and when we arrived there were 4 folk already set up so we drove to the end of the road, turned and parked up. Easy fishing out the back of the car and a nice change to humping gear to marks.

Gear out and hooks in the water quick time all baited with kipper as I'd been told that kippers were 'the' bait of the moment so I'd bought some the day before as I was intrigued as to their effectiveness. Nice sunny day but there was a chilly stead breeze from the west so it wasn't as warm as we'd hoped.

Still it was a nice chance to have a natter with dad and once the baits were out out came the coffee  Just as was thinking of reeling in and re-baiting I got a decent bite which promptly resulted in my first flounder of the year. 

 

It was a feisty wee bugger and after a quick pic it swam off strongly. Unfortunately that was it for the session. We were there another hour or so before the high tide chased us off the beach. We could have fished on from the roadside but decided to pack up and head off.


Nice wee mark and I plan to be back soon and hopefully for a longer more productive session.

Firth of Lorne - Skate Trip

Up at 5 a.m. bleary eyed for the drive through to Oban to meet with the rest of the guys going out on the Creagallan.  The drive over was uneventful and nice and quick as there was so little traffic on the roads and none of the sunday drivers or caravans clogging things up, I got through to Oban early and was all ready and geared up when the others arrived. it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.


Then it was off to see what the sea had in hold for us.

After an hour of fishing small baits whilst we waited for the tide we moved to the skate mark at the south end of the Island of Mull. 

Skate are big greedy buggers so it was 1-2 whole mackerel or coalies per bait. Mackerel for me one chopped into segments and fed up the line and a whole one onto the 12/0 hook.

And then the waiting game, 8 baits in the water and it was then playing the waiting game and time to capture a bit of the scenery. 

Not long to wait as shortly The Silver Fox's ratchet started to slowly tic, tic, tic, then stop. Only to repeat about a minute later. Classic skate bite. Foxy left it till a third slow take of line. Time to see what was on the other end. And after a false start fish on and by the look on foxy's face and the bend in his rod it was a decent skate.

After watching how hard it was to take 50 feet of line back onto the reel and then loose it all again plus some was making me start to wonder if I really wanted a hook up of my own. It was a battle for foxy to get his catch of the bottom 500 feet below and it was some 55mins before we all got a glimpse of the beauty he had hooked.

A short couple of mins later it was ready to be landed.

A tired but happy foxy with his new PB 208lb Common Skate. Which was quickly measured, tagged and released back to the deep.

Unfortunately I never caught my own but it was a brilliant trip and one I'm keen to repeat. it was quite awesome seeing fish of these size landed and hopefully I won't have to wait too long to land one of my own.

Anticipation of my first skate trip

Only a week to go before I'm out on my first trip in search of Common Skate. After a pretty poor Feb and March from the shore I'm looking forward to going out on a boat for a change and hopefully landing a decent skate :) By no means a given but you've got to think positively or there's no point going.

This trip is part of the Skate Tagathon which tags Common Skate as part of a study into their numbers and patterns of residence/movement. Here's hoping for some good weather over the weekend of 9th & 10th April. Hopefully there will be plenty of catches for the whole boat.

Tight Lines All