Bait gathering in style

Well after an aborted attempt a couple of weeks ago due to the weather Gordon invited me out on his boat to fill up the freezer with mackerel for bait and maybe a cod or two.

Zooming over to Anstruther harbour after work I met Gordon and we were soon on the way. After a few fruitless drifts to see if there were any coddies about Gordon took us out to deeper water to get some mackies. They were still about in large numbers taking only 2 seconds to drop the hooks down to have them filled. Only 5 mins or so and there were about 60 mackies aboard. 120 nice fillets for bait to be frozen down.

Gordon then moved back to ground that he thought should hold as cod or two despite the small tides. Not the busiest trip bar the mackies but no blank for either of us. A wee suicidal coalie for Gordon and a 2lb odd codling for me.

Light fading we made our way back to Anstruther. Nice couple of hours blethering with Gordon and heading home with a cool box full of bait which I bagged up in to hand session sized portions. Thanks again to Gordon.

Elliot beach 24-08-13

Off to the beach for low tide up.I got set up just behind a big sand bank right on the lowtide point just where the tide would start coming in behind. When the tide started to flood there was a good amount of water running round the corner and behind the bank. Two baits out one in the slack water behind the bank and one sitting in the strongest flow of the tide.

Quite quickly I got a strong bite on the rod in the slack water, quite obviously a flounder and a bit smaller than it felt only about 21cms but thick and strong. Never snapped as I thought i'd have better. Not to be flounderwise.

Shortly after the flounder was landed my other rod took a mighty knock and unlike me I took the rod up and struck the second nod perfectly. This was a whole different ball game, zig zaging up and down the beach, taking line and leaping out of the water. I thought I had a bass on for a while as I got flashes of silver through the splashes it was sending up. With nothing to snag up on I played it calmly and shortly landed a decent sized fish. Not certain if it is a grilse or a sea trout but a damn good fight and as it was still full of vigor I put it back after a quick snap. It zipped off strongly back into the surf.

I had planned to fish the whole tide up on Sat but the session got curtailed to just a couple of hours due to the worst weed I have experienced on this beach. I was pretty disappointed but it was un-fishable with the flattie rods I had.

Stopped at Riverside on the way home to use up the bait and had loads of flounders but nothing of note so never bothered with the camera. I think it must've been close to two dozen for the couple of hours there.

Sea scorpions ago-go

I decided on a wee trip over to Anstruther harbour yesterday with the LRF gear to see what was about. I think I got the last parking space in the town as I arrived to find some sort of gala day setting up and the red pier carpark closed. As I'd gone at lowtide I went as planned to the rocks over the back of the harbour. Even over low there was a reasonable amount of water in which to work in. Proven style of choice was dropshot rig with isome and a size 14 hook (not aiming for monsters lol). The wind was stronger than forecast and had more south in it as well, so there was little or no shelter under the harbour wall.

Still I thought have a few casts and see what happens. A bed of kelp and boulders was the ground a first cast I quickly had a wee tap tap on the lure as it worked back. A wee draw back then settle and I could feel a hook up. I love the sensitivity of the Tronix Rockfish UL. Every wee bump and snag on the bottom can be felt and distinguished from the gentle tap of a small fish. In this case a Long Spined Sea Scorpion which went bananas, tiny though so quickly landed, unhooked, a quick pic and put back.

Who you looking at???

This was the pattern for the next hour as I landed a LSSS every 2-3 casts all very similar in sized and with similar patterns. Ugly wee beggars but I love catching an photographing them. A couple were buzzing as I unhooked them which I had never experienced before. It was fairly vibrating in my hand. Not sure if this is  something anyone else has experienced or a common threat response?

I did get a more interestingly coloured one but the vibrant reds I saw in hand haven't come out in the picture unfortunately. The tail and pelvic fins especially were really lovely colours.

Towards the end of my wee session I started getting loads of wee coalies/pollock. I can never tell them apart when they are that small. They provided a wee bit more entertainment before I packed up and went my merry way.

Portknockie Harbour

Taking advantage of the great weather I decided to have a trip up north to Portknockie harbour for some LRF and to meet up with Sharpie. After a great drive through the beautiful countryside of Perthshire and along the spey valley I arrived in Portknockie in glorious sunshine but a bit more wind than I would've liked. First stop was the outer breakwater with the LRF gear. Drop shot rig with some isome on as bait. Lots and lots of tiddler coalies coming and inspecting but nothing taking. The water clarity was amazing compared to the last trip on the east coast. Sharpie arrived shortly after and firstly fired out some feathers to see if there were any mackies around as we had in mind to try for conger later on. He was having no better luck than I was and decided to join me with my second LRF rod in the sheltered harbour when the wind got up again, wind is the major drawback with LRF.

We went to a wee hollow in the inner wall I'd noticed a blenny sticking its head out of as I walked along the harbour earlier. Same drop shot rig down and we were both surprised to see blennies and small sea scorpions appear from everywhere. There were also dozens if tiny flat fish (far to small to ID). First to catch was sharpie with a wee coalie that darted out from under the boat we were next to to take his isome.

There were several blennies but one much much bigger than the rest and the one I targeted. Thankfully they were very obliging and both of us had one in quick succession and thankfully I had the biggie. There were a few different looking fish but I never managed to catch a particularly nicely patterned one as it kept getting chased off.

Sharpie also had a wee long spined sea scorpion and the smallest flounder I have ever seen all of 2 cms. We tried for some of the other flatties to see if we could ID them but I'd forgotten my smallest pattern hooks and they couldn't take what I had. I'm fairly sure there were wee plaice and turbot as well as the flounders. Will need to go back to find out.

We never stuck it out for as long as intended as the sun beating down was pretty intense and retreated to sharpies before heading to try for conger that night,

Quick report: Cellardyke 13-07-13

With the lovely weather continuing I decided to take the LRF rods over to Cellardyke harbour to try to winkle out some blennies. I'd PM'd Dykerboy and found him already fishing when I arrived.

The conditions weren't best for the light gear as the temp had dropped a lot and the wind was getting up I was bloody cold in shorts and t-shirt as it was about 10 degrees colder than the morning. Not busy fishwise from the start with almost no bites at all. Dykerboy was fishing lug into the harbour for flatties and I persevered with the lures. After about an hour Dykerboy had a thick flattie of a pound or so. I looked like a brick lol.

Dykerboy had to head off shortly afterwards to wine and dine his wife for her birthday (hope you had a good night).

The wind was a real pain for the light lures so I decided to give myself another half hour before I packed up and went home. Good decision as a few casts later with the Rockfish Ultra Light my wee blenny lure was smashed.

Hmm not a blenny that's for sure. Rod bent double and me hoping that the size 10 hook was up to the task. As the lure was hit right under the harbour wall I could see a wrasse zipping about. It felt like I'd hooked a monster due to the light rod a 4lb braid I was using, really great sport. After a wee anxious moment or two I got it under control and landed it, very glad it was high tide so there wasn't much of a distance to get it up.

Very happy as it's my first wrasse, a species that for some reason has alluded me for some reason till now. Next sunny day I'll be back to try to get the blennies as well.

Floundering with cousin Johnny

Well after the yomping exploits in Dumfrieshire last week I decided to take an afternoon off work to enjoy the nice weather and have nice easy session fishing. I'd arranged to take my cousin Johnny along to Eliot beach at Arbroath as he's just started fishing again and had only fished at Riverside Drive so far.

The plan was to fish the tide two up two down, which was slightly new territory for me as I usually fish Eliot two over low tide. Just fishing one rod each with three hook flappers and wee strips of bluey as bait.  Johnny had one second cast, a wee tiddler but blank off early. I had to wait a while for my first but got a slightly better one about 20 mins before high tide. By this time Johnny had another about the same size as his first one.


The bites died off over high tide but quite quickly started again in earnest just after the tide started dropping again. Johnny had another two flounders in quick succession but couldn't get into the slightly better fish. I had another couple as well but mine were getting slightly larger each time. First was about 18 cm, then 20cm and 22cm. No monsters but decent enough flounders for Eliot. We were having a decent old time chatting away fishing slowly enjoying the sun and watching the world go by.  By the time we ran out of bait Johnny had another two flounders and I had the best of the day at bang on 30 cms.

Nice to have a slow paced chill out fish once in a while.

Solway Trip: a week with Malky

Well I'm just back from a week down staying with Malky Udderman. That is one man who likes to fish hard.  The plan was to fish a couple of marks per day and hopefully to get me a smooth hound.

Day 1

Now I am no slim jim and not the fittest person in the world so I was not looking forward to the marching to and from marks as I knew most of the paces Malky likes to fish are at the end of a bit of a yomp. Malky said a short flat walk to start the week, cut to me a sweaty mess after a 2-3 mile wander through the countryside. Still it was a nice looking mark (sorry but I don't really know where I was most of the time just following the chief) a big flat slab of rock into reasonably deep water. Smoothies and rays were what we hoped to get. But it was not to be and after a few hours and an ever increasing wind with only one bite between us (Malky landing his favoured doggie) we retreated to a nearby mark that was out of the worse of the wind. Bites came thick and fast here but as the tide was small it seemed that the fish were just playing with their food as dozens of bites only resulted in one doggie to me and a further two to Malky as well as a small  but fairly rare Solway codling. It was still a bit of a despondent trudge back to the car when we packed in.

Day 2 

Awoke to a howling gale and down pour. Neither of us had a lot of get up and go due to the previous days dissappointment. Malky suggested a local trip to dig lug and then off to Carsethorn for some flounders. Lug dug (by Malky:)) and another frustrating day with lots of obvious flounder bites but absolutely nothing hooking up left us both blankers after three hours in the rain.

 Day 3 

By day three I realised that the trips to the bait shop were as much about 'wee blondie' as they were to get bait, each to their own lol. Today's first mark was a 'wee flat walk'. Hmmm as it started gentle up hill and go slowly steeper I politely enquired if Malky knew the meaning of flat! Over a fence then through a fairly enclosed wood to the shore which was a really broken array of sharp rocks which were not so easy to cross to the fishing point. This turned into another blanker with not a bite. I think I got a bit of heat stroke which wasn't helped by trying to find a short cut back that didn't really work.

That evening we were to meet up with Callum and fish a mark that was a bit further walk, but Malky seeing the physical wreck I was decided we would change and fish another mark nearby. This really just turned into a banter session (always flying about when Malky and Callum are together) as there were few bites and all three of us retreated blankers.

Day 4

A bit of a trip out of Malky's immediate area to the Isle of Whithorn to fish the late evening high tide and ebb was the plan. A mark neither of us knew so after some clambering about we had decided on a stance of rocks to the East of the point beyond the white tower. It was obvious we would get stranded for about an hour over high but after checking the forecast and the surroundings we decided that it was a safe place to do that. Lots of bites and lots of doggies for both of us from the off as well as a feisty wee pollock for Malky. An odd current started to swing very strongly against the tide about two hours prior to high tide and was starting to get us all tangled up and dragging us into snags. We decided that we weren't going to be able fish that mark any longer and decided to move onto the point itself before we got stuck where we were. After some more scrambling around it was obvious that all the fishable stances were occupied and we had to call it a day. Probably the most frustrating day of the trip as the whole of that area looks really fishy and we would have loved to have fished well into the night as planned to see what was about. Hopefully next trip down.

Day 5

Pressure on last session of the trip. I got up early doors to have a nice long session and found Malky missing lol. He'd got up at milking time and had been away crabbing and arrived back with 50 odd fresh peelers to go with the ones he had frozen down. Good man that Malky. We were off back to the second mark we fished on the first day in Balcary Bay. Best day off the trip, not a cloud in the sky, just a light wind to cool you down and most of my casts going further than normal. We knew the tide would get up so set up a few rocks apart to avoid tangles.

Lots and lots of doggies again from the off and another wee codling, for me this time. No fish playing with bait this time they were feeding hard from the off. After about an hour I hear Malky hollering from his stance for some help as he's into a smoothie and needs help landing it. A hop skip and jump later and one smiling Malky with a smoothie of about 6lbs or so.

Well they were about and thankfully I didn't have long to wait for one of my own. It led me a merry dance and tangled Malky and my line but after a bit of jiggery pokery it was landed and I had a smile like the proverbial cheshire cat and my main target for the week landed.

We then had another three in reasonable quick succession 2 to Malky and another one to me but Malky's was a belter around the 10lb mark though the picture doesn't do it justice.

When the hounds stopped biting Malky annouced, 'Ah aff crabbin mun' thinking about his further trips over his fortnight off and disappeared to scour the shore over lowtide.

And with that all the bites stopped and my trip down came to an end. I bumped into Jonner on Friday night as he was taking my place at Malky's for a few day, hopefully successfully.

A huge thanks to Malky for putting me up (putting up with me) for a few days and all the great banter. I've already booked to go back next year lol.

Sunny Salen: slow day

I was happy to receive an invite from Sharpie to meet up with him and Nikki to dangle some hooks in Loch Sunart on Sunday. Always good company and the weather looked nice as well, what better than a trip over Corran Ferry to some of the best scenery in Scotland and a chance of all sorts of species. Well the good company and scenery were right but the fishing was not up to scratch despite best efforts.

Launching a Salen Jetty we first went up to Laga Bay with the hope of some conger eels, a couple of rods with big hooks each and a variety of, mackerel, squid, octopus and bluey down to the depths, then a couple of wee hooked rods each to see if there were any whiting, gurnard or the like. After a decent while with no bites at all when Sharpie was rebaiting one of his big rods my small one bent over and went off on a decent run. Certainly not a whiting, nice big bend and a heavy weight on the rod either a thornie or a passing lump of weed moving in the tide, my thought was weed as I could feel no movement on the line so was happy to see a thornie appear from the 400ft depth. I never weighed it but guessimated about 3-4lbs or so.

Unfortunately apart from a handfull of doggies despite moving around and trying varieties of baits rigs etc that was it fishwise for the day. I do wish I'd taken a photo of the smallest doggie I have ever seen, no bigger than my middle finger. By the look of it it must've pupped then taken my bait straight away.

Really slow days fishing a afloat but lovely day to be out and a bad days fisihiong still beats most things hands down.

LRF codling

Drop Shot Rig - Pink Knight Worm. 

Well just a quick trip report, I spent a couple of hours along the Arbroath cliffs again after work tonight. Such a beautiful day to be out in the fresh air and whilst not gin clear the visibility of the sea was much better than a fortnight ago, so I don't think it will be long before the lure fishing really takes off for the summer. Again as I am a LRF newby these early trips are more about accustoming myself with the gear and techniques. This time round I decided to tie a drop shot rig and use a TronixPro HTO Pink Knight Worm. I initially tested the action in the water to check how it moves and was impressed by the movement. I think this combo should account for a goodly amount of catches this summer.

LRF codling

Of the action I did have it was landed one lost one. I moved from my initial spot to fish a deep gulley about 12 feet across and was working the lure across the line of shadow and sunlight from the sun starting to go behind the top of the cliffs and quite quickly bang. Rod bent over and line zipping back and forwards. I might only have landed a wee codling of a half a pound or so but jeez that was some fun on the Ultra Light.

I also got a wee taste of what wrassing with it will be like as I had one hooked for all of 15 seconds before it spat the hook. Simply going nuts all round with the rod bent double. I can't wait to see what the summer will hold for this style of fishing.

Re-christening refurnished rods

Well after getting my old bashed rods back from Rossco all spic and span I decided to get out asap to see if they had some luck dust sprinkled on them as promised by Rossco. I headed over to one of my favourite spots on Loch Linnhe which always has a good chance of throwing up a few species. I tend to like to fish two hours down and two up here but with the time I had I could only manage to fish high down and leave about low so didn't really expect to catch much until the last couple of hours of my trip.

The wind was a bit stronger than forecast as I set up but still not too bad and apart from a couple of fleeting showers just after I arrived the sun came out and it was a lovely warm day, perfect to be out in fresh air fishing. The day went pretty much as I expected slow to begin with with the activity slowly increasing all day. All except the crabs that were very active from the offset. To cover as many bases as possible I had one rod with a pulley rig with a 5/0 and the other with a two hook flapper with 1/0 circles on it. My targets for the day were thornies and grey gurnards. First thing to shore second cast was a ball of the aforementioned crabs, one small edible, two green shore crabs and a spider crab. That was the form for the next three hours or so small plucking knocks of the crabs destroying my baits. First blood eventually went to the scratching rod when a Short Spined Sea Scorpion took the half squid head I had on. Not one of my targets but a new species for the year one rod re-christened. That was followed next cast by a decent sized but odd looking dab (second new species for the year). It looked like something had taken a big bite out of it in the past but the wound had healed up leaving a distinctive odd shape to the fish.

Next up was another slightly bigger SSSS I do like these ugly wee brutes but with the action seemingly all on the scratching rod I was considering swapping the pulley rig targeting thornies just to re-christen the other rod as well. One more cast I thought then I'd do that, good decision :) I swapped out the squid/mackerel combo I had on with a whole herring fillet whipped into a tube and cast out. I only had an hour and a half of fishing left before I had to start for home so this cast was make or break as far as thornies were concerned. After another half hour I had an unmistakable thornie bite. four or five turns on the ratchet followed a minute later by another four or five turns.



Another minute and I start to slowly tighten the line and feel the weight of the fish. Fish on and it seemed a decent fish by the bend it put in the rod.  It came in fairly easily but wasn't quite as heavy as I'd hoped and there was also a sizable amount of weed on the sinker. Still it was a nice female fish and weighed in at just over 4.5 lbs. She sat in the shallows for a few more pics before turning and powering off back to the depths of the loch. With that I decided to pack up one rod away and my box tidied up there was just one fish to come when I brought in the other rod to pack away and found a perfectly formed wee dab on the line. Not a busy trip by any sense but both rods catching on their debut after refurb and two species for this year's list.

Thanks again to Rossco for a brilliant job on the rods, I'm well pleased :)

First LRF trip - Arbroath Cliffs

Well a day of nice weather deserves to be used so off to the cliffs I duly went armed with my Light Rock Fishing gear for a first test of it all properly. I had hoped to walk to the end of the cliffs and slowly make my way back to the carpark going up and down for a few casts here and there. That thought was quickly knocked on the head as if the rocks weren't busy with like minded souls they were covered with sun bathers. As I was passing the Needle's E'e I saw the rocks empty so dived down there fearing I'd go along and back with nowhere else to fish.

First blood to my Rockfish.

The water was a lot more coloured than I had hoped but at the very least a few hours getting to grips with the LRF techniques would put me in good stead for the rest of the summer. It is amazing how much of a picture of the bottom you can get skipping a 2.6g jighead along with 5 lb braid. As I had not had a sniff. I moved round the rocks a bit further as the tide went down. Third cast on the new bit, nibble, nibble, hit. Yes fish on and I certainly found out that I had the Ultra Light Rock Fish. Bent in two and I could feel every single thump the fish made. As this was the first fish I have caught on this rod I had nothing to compare it to so never knew if it was a coalie, rockling or a small codling but I had never thought it was Freddy the Flounder that must have followed me from Riverside Dr. I was chuffed my first LRF caught fish was a lure caught flounder of about 27cm.

I stayed to soak up a few more rays but caught no more. Here is hoping for a lot more of today's weather all summer long so I can rock hop to my heart's content as I think light rock fishing might just take over my summer :)

Bank Holiday flattie bash

I was going to have a trip West or North this weekend but the changeable weather made me decide to save my petrol tokens for better weather and have a local bash on Bank Holiday Monday when the wind had died again. With high tide being just after 1 p.m. I decided to head to Riverside Drive again and fish 3 hours up.

Light wind only, overcast and no rain thankfully when I parked up behind the university pitches. The usual two rods, one close in and one a bit further out. 2 and 3 hook flappers with prawn and herring as bait. Wee tweaks on the rods from the first and hooks coming back bare for the first few casts. Probably the usual Tay culprits of crabs and tiny flounders. I only had to wait about half an hour for my first fish a wee flounder.

That  was followed next cast by another one about the same size then a couple of crabs. By about 11 a.m. another four folk had started fishing as well and the odd person stopping to have a chat made the time pass whilst it was still a bit slow and the bites died a bit. This only lasted about half an hour and between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. I had a really busy period with bites every cast and fish most casts. As I had a caught a few I decided to put a clipped down rig on one of the rods and fire a bait a bit further to see if anything was feeding further out.  All the flounders to this point  were in the 16 - 19 cm so I was hoping to get something a bit bigger at least. I couldn't see most of the other folk out fishing as they were behind me most of the time so not sure if many other fish were being caught and I only saw the guy in front of me get one flounder and a pin whiting.

My far out rod went quite quickly and I landed my best of the day, a still modest 24cm flounder. This was the only fish of the day on herring with all of the rest taking prawn.  I never got a pic of it either as it flapped off the wall and back into the water when I turned to get my camera. Still no harm done plenty of flounder photos about. Things died of as the tide turned and I packed up a couple of casts into the turn with one final flattie coming in to make my total a round dozen. Nice day off, out fishing and kept busy even if the stamp of fish was small.

Oban Skate trip 2013 - Day Two

Day Two 

Day two dawned to find Oban Bay gray and overcast, wet and very gusty. Pete and the Morecombe lads started my cooking breakfast for half of Oban :) Sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, toast, fried bread, fried onions and mushrooms in mountainous piles. I seriously do not know where Pete puts it as he had a massive prawn curry after the pub the night before as well.

The morning was actually better wind speedwise than the day before but it was from a slightly more awkward direction and was due to increase more steadily than the day before. As discretion is the better part of valor Colin the skipper decided we were Etive bound as it would be too uncomfortable/dangerous to head out to the skate marks. We were all a wee bit deflated but not too much as it was expected all round to be honest and there is no excuse to push things.

Still a day in Etive was a good second choice and we were expecting a fair days fishing. Steaming round the corner to Etive we firstly anchored up just before the connel bridge. This spot has produced some decent spurs before and it did again today. Young Callum was first in I think, followed by his Dad, Pete, then Neil (who had joined us for the Sunday trip) all with spurdogs in the 2-4lb bracket. It was nice and sheltered here but you could tell that the wind was starting to bow and that the correct decision had been made to fish Etive. Paul then had a Lesser Spotted Doggie and Terry another spurrie aboard. Jay then caught a thornie so small the wind blew it of his hook when he lifted it out the water, but it gave a fair few kicks on the way up that made us think it was another spurrie.

I hooked up a belter of a feeling fish that was giving a real fight on my light rod. I stupidly got distracted and allowed the line to slacken off and with a last knock it was off. I'm still gutted at my stupidity as I genuinely think that was a big spur. Definitely a pb (currently 6lb) and possibly a doubler.

I was still feeling like an idiot as we upper anchor and moved into the loch to another mark after a short fruitless drift. The next stop was mid loch near to the Priory. Hopes were to bag a few thornies here and maybe some other of the Etive regular or irregular species. It wasn't to be, after an hour or so of no bites at all and little crab action we moved on to another point. Dave was getting pelters and starting to get nervy as he was the only person onboard on a weekend blanker.

Next stop produced no fish either and baits were getting torn to pieces by crabs with the odd one or two coming aboard until this crab ball appeared. Six or seven crabs made it to the surface, god knows how many might have been on the bait when it was 100 ft down. I knew that Etive could be bad for crabs destroying bait but I've never seen so many crabs. After a decent start to the day it was looking a bit bleak, pretty slow few bites and fewer hook up and fish landed. All sorts of baits and hook sizes were going down but to no avail. Still a lot of banter round the boat and know one was downbeat as it was still better to be out trying to catch.

As the tide would be running there again the skipper moved us back to near the original mark with a couple of hours of the trip left. The wind was howling now and rain coming periodically so the boat was moving at anchor quite a lot so it was pretty difficult to hold bottom. So it was a nice surprise when a few spurs started to come aboard.

I had a few wee niggley bites then which I thought were whiting then got a decent bite and hook up which I thought was a small spur. But was pretty surprised to find a mackie on my line which had taken a mackie bait, cannibal :)) Quickly dispatched and cut up as fresh bait before I managed to get a wee photo. Not to mind everyone has seen one lol. One last fish was to come aboard and the best of the day as it turned out an 8lb spur for Neil. We weighted it in a sling and were surprised it was quite as heavy as it was but it was a chunky monkey.

And that was the weekend, super fun time but slow fishing, ah well next time is bound to be a bonanza, isn't it???

Oban Skate Trip 2013 - Day One

Day One

Well the weekend past was one I had been waiting for eagerly for weeks and also with some trepidation due to the adverse weather forecast more recently. On Saturday morning I met with Jason (Sultzer) and we traveled down to Oban fairly uneventfully but constantly the chat kept going back to the weather. When we arrived at Oban there was a fresh southerly blowing.

We quickly geared up and made our way to the slip to speak to Colin, the skipper of the M.V. Creagallan, to find out his thoughts on the wind which was forecast to pick up. His mind was to sail out beyond the point for a look, then either go to the skate marks or Etive if it didn't look favourable. We set off once the rest of the anglers had appeared, one of Jay's colleagues Pete and his son Callum and the three Morecambe boys (Dave, Paul and Terry), Dave had one the Skate trip as a raffle prize held for last years Sick Kids Comp. The wind and swell were not bad enough to send us steaming into Etive but it was going to turn into a bouncy trip from time to time. After anchoring in the lee of a headland in about 130m of water we got the first baits (usual selection of mackies, squid, bluey and rainbow trout to start) down and waited. A couple of rods with small hooks also were put down to see what else might be about.

By and large there was just a roll on board but the odd period of larger swell did spill round the corner to make it a bit uncomfortable from time to time. It was a slow morning, but as often when the fishing is slow the banter is quick and there was a good atmosphere on board with everyone getting on and having a great laugh. One of the small rods went (first bite on anything of the day shortly before lunch and Jay handed the rod to Callum the young lad on board. He was delighted when he landed a spur of about 3-4 lbs, not a massive one but his first 'shark' :) I think a new sea fishing addiction has been started.

Just after this I decided to bring in my light rod as the tide run had really picked up and it was hard to hold bottom. A small extra weight on the line when I reeled in but I just thought that was just the tide so was delighted when I saw a blackmouth dogfish come over the side. The only species I particularly wanted to catch that weekend bar the skate. A really cool wee thing of about 3/4 lb.

With the wind a swell starting to build about 13:30 the skipper called for one last re bait before we would have to move to beat the tide turning and do a bit of general fishing somewhere more sheltered. One of the whiting I had caught onboard in Feb came to hand and down it went, first time we had used that bait that day. Jason and I had gone into the wheelhouse to speak to Colin and have a sarnie when about 15 mins later  a long strong run on a ratchet. Ooooh some action finally. Out of the wheelhouse to find that it was my rod that had gone (lovely wee whiting). Another couple of small runs, tightening up the line to set the hook and skate on, yeehaa.

Now there were five skate virgins out of seven anglers aboard so as this was likely the only hook up we were going to get all weekend (due to worsening weather) I decided to do the generous thing offer the rod to the first to step forward. This led to silence and five worried looks around at each other (they all still claim they immediately lept to their collective feet :)). I was up for this, one more ask before the I shut the door and took the fight myself. Second time round Terry, one of the Morecambe boys, stepped up to the plate and took up the strain. Lots of pissing taking ensued as he felt the weight and strength of the fish on the line. It was a feisty bugger but he dealt with it well. Dave took the strain a couple of times to give Terry a wee rest but even so it was off the bottom and over the gunnel in a little over 30 mins. A nice 112lb male, which had obviously been caught recently as there was a clean gaff mark visible as it came to the side.

Quickly measured, a few photos and safely back in the water to swim strongly off. Great sight as ever with the skate coming aboard then flicking its tail back to the depths. As was the grins round the boat as not only were there five skate virgins but this was the first encounter any of them had with a common skate. Pics and videos are great but not a patch on the real thing. I have to say I was a tad nervous I'd given a PB away but seeing Terry and is pals so happy with the skate  I was so glad I hadn't been selfish.

We then moved into a shallower and more sheltered bay on the way back but with no luck for the hour or so we spent there. Still we were all ready to get back for a beer and a slap up roast dinner kindly cooked by Pete (it was unexpected and excellent, roast pork and all the trimmings), then a few more beers and fishy chat in the pub. Slow fishing but a really great fun day, what would day two bring.