In front of Lochside Cottage
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| Lochside cottage panorama |
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| Long Spined Sea Scorpion |
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| Stu and Me, Lochside Rocks |
First full day in the house after we'd all got unpacked my dad, brother and I decided to have a wonder down to the rocks in front of the house to see if there was anything doing fishwise. Three spinning rods plus my mini species rod. A wee bit cool when we got down but there were a few birds working the water which made us hopeful of a few mackies at least for the pan and as bait. Walking up and down the shore a few 100 yards there were big differences in the depth (around high tide) from just inches to 20+ feet. Whilst Dad and Stu started with feathers and spinners I scavenged a few mussels and put out the mini rod before joining them hunting macks. It was to be a short few casts only and the lack of any fish shortened it a bit. Wee bit disappointing as a fish fest on the door step would have been a treat. Luckily for me the mini species beat my blank with a lovely ugly wee sea scorpion.
Sands Rocks
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Sands Beach and Rocks
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| Me on the rocks |
Next morning with the family going for a walk along the beach with the twins I decided to go ahead and have a few casts and to scout around a bit more. Nice deep water and kelp on one side with shallower water and sand on the other. Looked very very fishy to me. I had very little bait yet so again opted for spinning (jelly worm) and mini species rod with a few more scavenged mussels. Having packed light I made the most and had a few casts and moved round the rocks regularly. First few spots were deep, rocky and full of kelp but alas no fish, no bites no nothing. Bit disappointing but was the way. As the tide was rising I had to move round a bit as the front of the rocks are enclosed around mid tide (very large and safe in calm seas but I did not have the time to stay). I found another likely spot at the back with a very wide deep kelp filled gully. Again out with the jelly worms and in with the mini species rods. Same outcome with nothing taking the lures had a few knocks on the mini rod that had me hoping for a flattie or a small coalie or pollock only to find a bait robbing crab which was followed by several more. First blanker of the holiday. Still think that there are fish there lol.
Gairloch Harbour
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| Gairloch Harbour |
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| Wee Sea Trout |
After a trip to Red Point on the south side of Gairloch and failing to find a way to the rocks at Port Henderson, I wanted to try for pollock, on the way. I decided to pull in the harbour at Gairloch and try for mackies and minis. Pier was reasonably full with family groups of holiday makers mostly with wee rods spinning with mepps or the like so I had to set up further down the pier that I'd have liked. I could see lots of mackies were being caught along the pier end but I had nothing at all from my first dozen casts or so. I was glad when eventually I felt the feathers tagged and the rod get heavy as I only wanted a few macks as bait. Fullhouse of four was enough for me, one filleted there and then and some tiny wee baits cut up to see if there were any minis under the pillings. Straight away the baits were all being hammered very quickly and stripped, coalies were my thought but over the next half hour I was proved wrong as I pulled in tiny pollock after tiny pollock along with one wee sea trout. Was fun on the light gear but I had hoped for wrasse and blennies but none to be had.
Portia of Poole
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| Portia of Poole in Gairloch Harbour |
Gairloch is a stunning place and the steam out to Longa Island near the mouth was a great opportunity to see the landscape from a different angle. Once we'd stopped the whole boat was quickly into mackerel. Really small for the most part but the odd monster was landed. It soon became a bit of a game to try to get through the wee macks to get the the bigger ones that were obviously at the bottom of the shoal. To be fair not many biggies were caught as the wee ones were kamikazeing themselves on everyone's hooks. My brother got a couple of the biggest that were both 1lb+ and into the bait box they went.
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| My First Ling |
After a short while on the mackerel we moved over the otherside of the loch's mouth to fish over ground that should throw up some ling. Hokkais with the freshly caught mackerel went down into much deeper water. Fishing just off the bottom I could fell a lot of bites but was missing them (maybe just tiddlers nibbling the bait) until fairly quickly I connected with a good bite and landed a small ling of 1lb or so. Delighted as it was my first ling ever. Re-bait and hooks back down and I quickly doubled my ling count with a bigger one of 3-4lbs. I was a happy camper but no one else had had a sniff one that patch so it was another move to some reef's that the skipper said should hold some decent pollock. Baited hokkai's and a jelly worm on a boom were the tactics here. Quite quickly another species was onboard when my dad got a triple shot of coalies a few more were landed round the boat, before a young lad behind us had his rod fold on him and with no help (other than getting it over the side) landed a decent pollock of 4-5lbs. That was quickly followed by 2-3lb'er to another guy on the opposite side of the boat and a small 1-2lb'er for myself. All the time a few larger macks were still coming into the boat, then shortly before our time would be up my brother's rod took a massive knock and he had obviously connected with something nice and big as his rod was nod, nod nodding and had me thinking decent cod. But unfortunately after having it on for about 10-15 seconds it was off and away leaving my brother somewhat peeved to put in lightly. A few more fish caught, but nothing of note before we were off back to harbour. A really enjoyable trip the only pity being we couldn't get out for longer.
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| Stu and me Gairloch Harbour |
That evening my sister in-law (fueled by the tales from that afternoon's trip I think) fancied going down to the harbour to try and catch something. A few folk on the harbour but not as many as the previous day so all three of us had room closer to the end of the pier. From the off it didn't look great as there wasn't any catches from those that were there already and a couple of seals patrolling around. Still it was a good chance for Lynsey to get to grips with casting and there was always the possibility of the macks appearing at any point. First cast Lynsey caught a street light and second cast the pier :D. There were a couple of very very small (almost mini species size) mackerel caught at the pier end but that was it for the whole time that we were there for the 8 or so rods that were fishing. Still over the course of the hour and a half or so Lynsey's casting improved greatly and we all had a good craic. But it was soon time to get back to relieve my folks who were looking after Stu and Lynsey's twins (and open a cold beer) so pack to HQ it was without a sniff of a fish for the three of us.
Portia of Poole trip 2
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| Motoring between Marks |
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| Dashing Dolphin (photo courtesy of Dad) |
As we were all reeling in to move on Stu caught a splash further out in the loch and as we all turned to look saw several dolphins breach a few hundred yards away. Fishing forgotten for now we moved over to a parallel course to them (giving then a fair distance as they obviously had young). That distance wasn't good for them as they wanted to play and they rushed over to play in our bow wave. One minute fishing for mackerel next surrounded by 20-30 dolphins arcing around the boat quite often almost close enough to touch. What an unbelievable experience, I've seen them fairly close from the shore but never in such a close sustained way as from the boat. They were obviously just having a great time cavorting and darting around the boat, amazing how the tiny wee calves keep up the speed of the whole pod. They must be born with rocket packs! And with that they were off chasing mackies for tea, probably a good 20mins or more round the boat, but there was about an hour of fishing left and back to it I went.
I was first in with a ling of about 2 lb, this was followed round the boat with a load of coalies. Things went quiet for a while with lots of rattling bites but no catches till Stu followed by me caught a couple of the bait robbers, pin whiting! Wee buggers. Lots of re baiting with them stealing everything off the hooks quick smart. I never knew I had my last catch of the day when I found I had a little pout when re-baiting. I was happy with four species as we had probably only fished for an hour between the dolphins and moving about marks. Another enjoyable session which had me even more determined to go back for a full day deep sea trip :)
In front of Lochside
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| Lochside Rocks |
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| View over Gairloch |
My last day I decided to try on the rocks right in front of the house again. With folk spinning off the rocks I wanted to be on I moved a few hundred yards along the coast. First few casts showed that this was very shallow in all directions. Two bait rods, one my ever present mini species rod and my bass rod with a flapper as far out as I could get it. It was a beautiful day and to be honest I wasn't fishing hard and more just sitting on the rocks letting time go by soaking in the scenery and the scarcely glimpsed sun. Once again crabs was all that came ashore and though I would have liked to end on a fish and not a blank it was a lovely couple of hours to end the holiday fishingwise.
Well lots of places I wanted to fish and never managed has left me wanting more, Firemore Bay looked very deep close in at low tide and the beach itself looked likely for a variety of flatfish as did Sands. I never got out to Rhue Rhea lighthouse that looks so pollocky as well. Top of the list of wants is a full day trip on the Portia of Poole with the guys of North West Cruises out to the back of Skye and Rhona. But it was a superb holiday and pretty good fishwise with five new species for the year (LSSS, Ling, Mackerel, Sea Trout and Pout) countless dozens of mackies and mini pollock, need to go for a fortnight next time.
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