Getting Damp for Dabs

When Burnie from Shoreangler posted he was heading out again after some dabs I asked if he minded me tagging along. We agreed to meet in Montrose and then on to the mark.

Burnie had dug some fresh rag and we both had some frozen mackerel as bait and were using two hook flapper rigs. I decided to fish just the one rod for a laid back easy session whilst Burnie fished the two rods.

Bites came thick and fast as soon as the tide turned and started flooding, with Burnie struggling to keep two rods going at times.
The first hour was bone dry, then a bit of drizzle followed by an hour downpour. I'd brought a waterproof jacket but decided not to bother with the waterproof breeks. Big mistake as I was quickly soaking from the knees down and called it a day as my wellies started to fill up with rain water.

Still we landed a good amount of fish with me managing 9 and Burnie over 20. Burnie managed the numbers of fish and I had a slightly better average size. Burnie also managed to land 3 or 4 small flounders along with the dabs. Nice wee spot I'd love to try into darkness on the flood.

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 :)

Lots of driving, lots of midgies and a few fish

Well the plan was a nice leisurely rive over to Lochaline to fish the West Pier overnight on Friday night and then stop somewhere on the way back on Saturday. Beautiful day for a drive in the countryside through Perthshire and Glen Coe. Bit of a hold up going through Glen Coe for an accident (nobody hurt badly thankfully) but let me to get a couple of nice pics of the scenery. When I got to the Corran Ferry it dawned on me that it was the first time this year I'd been across on it. It's a strange wee ferry to cross a small spanse of water, always makes me think that a bridge would make more sense, but I'd be pretty sad if a bridge did get put up. Funny how small things like that can give you a feeling of well being, it like the gateway to the wilderness. Unfortunately on getting over to Lochaline I found half of it filled with logs and the other half filled with anglers with the same idea. I had a chat with them and they's only had a doggie and a small conger for the 6 odd hours they'd been fishing between the 8 odd of them. They said they'd make room but with me meeting Sharpie and Nikki I didn't think that there was nearly enough room for another 3 of us. Next thought was the Sheepshed but it had a family of Dutch ensconced in a camper van so no room at the inn again. Two hours and 60 miles later I passed the Corran Ferry again with the rods never leaving the car. So where to go, my banker in the area is Camasnagaul Ferry Landing so that's where I decided, phoned Sharpie to arrange to meet there.

That night turned out to be a doggie-a-thon and all tiny as well. Fort William seemed like it was jumping shrieking, hollering, loud dance music and sirens. Funny how different things can look at a bit of distance as the photo I took that night makes it look so serene. After about three hours we packed it in as there was nothing moving bar the doggies and planned to get up early to fish the tide down on daylight.

After a fairly fitful sleep in the motor I was up the back of six and back out with the rods. That's when I realised it was still calm and was hit with a wave of midgies. Honestly in all the summers I've spent in the west I have never ever experienced anything like that. Clouds and clouds of the wee scottish vampires.  I am glad to report that Skin so Soft works wonders as the midgies were out in full force and I only got bitten 6 six times even though I was surrounded by 1000's. Sharpie and Nikki were more sensible than me staying in their tent till the wind pick up and blew them away.

Still fishingwise I had a reasonable thornie of 4lb odd and a couple more doggies to add the the bulk load the night previously. But sharpie when he venured out had a wee species hunt landing a Grey Gurnard (my target unfulfilled for the weekend) then a doggie, dab double hit followed by a codling and a wee thornie. So 5-2 in Sharpies favour species wise but I had the bulk of numbers in all the doggies from Friday. Would rather have had the Grey Gurnard though. Will be back to get one :)

Got a few nice shots of the local swans as well.

Mull of Galloway trip

Day 1 - Terally Bay



Terally Bay

 An uneventful drive down to the chalets were were staying at in Ardwell, quick look round chuck all necessary gear into the chalet and of we went to wet the first lines of the trip. A nice easy mark to begin with for us soft east coasters a short walk down the pebbly banking from the lay by to the shoreline set up and fish :) Not the most favorable conditions fairly flat sea, gin clear and a very bright skies. Still on holiday and fishing. Not the most productive session though as all we caught was a handful of doggies, but no blank.

Day 2 - Ardwell Back Bay Rocks

The sun of the previous day continued with little wind. Everyone was pretty tired in the way that the sun makes you. A rock mark was the plan for the day due to the clear water and still water. The sun was blazing again and everyone was mndful of the roasting we were in for on the rocks. Callum and Malky walked on a bit further whlist Sharpie, Nikki and I opted for a closer mark with rocks off a nice deep water gulley. Float fishing was the tactic with lug worm the teaser morsel hoping to tempt a few a wrasse. Fairly quiet to start with until Nikki landed a small wrasse. Looking good we all thought, but unfortunately they weren't feeding hard at all and we ended the day again with one fish a piece, Nikki: wrasse, Sharpie: coalie, me: rockling. When Malky and Callum they had had a few more fish but not a huge haul. A 2-3 wrasse and a couple of smallish pollock I think. No blanks again was good. Everyone was wasted by the sun so decided to have an evening off.

Day 3 - MOG Flat Rock



Malky in the distance



Plan was to fish through the day from 1ish till whenever. Though the fishing was meant to be good I wasn't particualrly looking forward to this due to the climb back up from the rocks later on. Not a long walk by any means but roughly a drop of 125m from the carpark to sealevel. So traveling light was the way to go, though all things are comparative when you are talking about fishing rods, tripod, weights etc etc. Still off we went as I was determined to 'see the sights' Not nearly as bad as I thought it might be on the way down, just a little awkward with the rods clambering down some of the rocks. Now this was the first busy session of the week, bait in, doggie, bait in, doggie, bait in, doggie etc etc for pretty much the whole day. A few mackies fell to Sharpie feathering for fresh bait. Catch of the day sharpie getting three doggies on a one hook rig. They truely are greedy beggars. Good fun down on the rocks in the sun having a laugh and though the fish were only humble doggies and nothing bigger it was a great day. The hike back up was the killer expected but hellish at the time it's quickly forgotten when you've had a nice busy day fishing.

Day 4 - Port Logan Beach and Portpatrick Yellow Isle

 

Stealth Turbot



Port Logan bay



Sharpie and Nikki decided to have a day off fishing so Malky and I went over to Port Logan to have a look see and get out of the cabin before the evenings planned trip to the rocks at Port Patrick called the Yellow Isle. The sandy bay said flatties to us both so we decided to have 3-4 hours before getting back to the chalet for a feed. A nice sandy bay with a rocky fringe to the left hand side which we decided to fish near to in the hope that there may be turbots about. First few casts produced nada not even crab action as the lug/mackie baits were coming back untouched. On my third of fourth re-bait I could see a wee flat fish coming in through the surf which turned out to be a small turbot :) And that was that for the short session a fisrt blank of the trip for any of us falling to Malky but me fairly happy with a second new speices for the year in my little turbot which wasn't bad for an ad-hoc session.



Yellow Isle dusk view

The Yellow Isle was another steep decent but with better footings on the way down. Just Malky, Callum and myself this time around. We were planning on fishing 6 p.m. till midnighish and got set up on some faltter bits spread out over the front of the rocks. Callum about a 100yrds to my left and Malky about 20-30 yrds to my right. Deep water right in front and nice clean ground, the only snag point was from the hight that the sinker and rig occassionally swung into the rocks and snagged, but I only lost one set of gear and that was due to a crack off. Essentially this has a frenzy of dab fishing loads and loads of them to begin with probably in the 30's or so landed with the odd pollock, whiting, gurnard and more than a few doggies between us all. Again a nice busy session but none of the big beauties showing up to play unfortunately. Seemed shorter climbing back up in the dark due to being more careful in the dark with the head torch on.

Day 5 - Terally Bay (weed stops play)

Title says it all weather much windier and sea kicking up. Was actually hoping for a decent session but we all only lasted one cast with the line looking like a washing line after 5mins. Dreadful stuff. And that was a blank to end the holiday on (not sure it is a blank after only one cast) as the weather steadily got worse and worse until the group decision was made to break for home a day early :(

Cracking place and I really hope to come back soon for a crack at the smoothies, huss and tope.