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.