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.