Loch Etive Shoreangler meet

I had been looking forward to this for a while, meeting up with old friends and folk I only ever chat to online. Unfortunately the day dawned and there was strong wind and rain forecast all weekend. Several folk had been out since the night before and a few spurdogs and thornies had been caught. People had traveled from North, South, East and West of Scotland and all told about 20+ people appeared.

Malky and his weedfish

After a few cups of coffee and some fishy tales most got round to the main point of the meet i.e. fishing, which was initially uneventful other than the wind trying to blow everyone's rods over and and Malky breaking in his new zippex with a mighty weed fish. Just as the wind was picking up and everyone deciding to run in smaller groups to more sheltered areas Big Spurrie land what would turn out to be a Scottish Record tub Gurnard (still to be officially confirmed) which was only one of two fish landed at this point. At a little over 2lb 7oz it is a belter from the shore.



Five of us moved round to the south side of the loch to settle in for the evening. A lovely spot with just enough room for 5-6 people, fairly strong current and casting into approx. 40-50ft. A bit snaggy with weed on retrieval but nothing very bad.

Quite quickly Rossco had a smallish Spur dog and Garsi a couple of small thornies. Always grand to fish next to Malky as he grumbles away to himself contemplating a blank.

There came quite a quiet spell as high tide came and went, darkness fell and it wasn't until mid-tide down that I broke my own duck with a smallish thornie of 3lbs or so that came in quickly and wasn't even hooked as it spat the bait out as I turned to unhook it. Lucky to land it but it must've been determined to snack on the squid and bluey cocktail. A couple of casts later I'd not noticed any bites but felt a large weight when I started reeling in to re-bait. There was no noticeable movement on the line so I assumed it was the usual lump of passing weed attached to the sinker. Still it was coming in albeit slowly and with a lot of extra effort to get it through the weed bed in front of the mark. It was still 20 or so feet out when I saw the tell tale flash of the white underside of a wing in my head torch to show another thornie. A fair bit bigger than the last and also very thick but unfortunately no scale with me so not sure of the weight but certainly around 6lb I'd think. Not massive but a decent fish.

Malkie still hadn't broken his blank and at that point we gave it two more casts before calling it a night at about 1 a.m. Still time for one last fish for me in the form of a bonus doggie.