Last weekend before the pre-wedding fishing fast!

Three weeks before the wedding and my last fishing session before wedding mode kicks in.

Off up to Peterhead area looking to add some species to the list for the year. Maybe stopping of at Peterhead breakwater on the way up possibly some mackies and wrasse.

Then off to Kirkton beach north of Peterhead.

And camping just behind the dunes with a few folk from the WSF Scottish Forum the night before the quest for a big Turbot.














 The Turbot below was caught there a few weeks ago and something similarly sized would be a peachy way to move into the month long fishing fast :)

Reports and pics (hopefully of nice catches) early next week.

14/08/10 - Thornie Quest 2010

---

Bait - mackie and squid
Rigs - Pennel Pulleys
Tide - High >>>Low
Place - Camusnagaul Ferry Landing

Early up to get to the mark for 9ish (high water 9:34).

Got there on time and had both rods in the water for high tide.

The initial midgie count was in the billions, worse than I've experienced in a long time. Still a liberal spray of Skin so Soft stopped the little buggers biting.

A few big bites early doors but nothing took.

Manny, Briser fae the Broch and his son all turned up around 10ish (I think not really sure) and quickly all had lines out. I'll leave them to post there own reports but they had a good day.

The fish arrived with the North East contingent and I soon had a couple of good sized doggies. Blank off at least.
The sun was out and the landscape beautiful

My rod started nodding again and took up the rod for a look see. On the retrieve I thought I'd snagged up but it turned out it was just a stubborn fish. Eventually in it came to reveal my first Thorn Back Ray and my target species for the day

Brilliant! It was my third trip targeting thornies and the fishing gods were with me.

Several doggies later another new species for me, a small whiting.

Then after a quiet spell a more doggies followed by a Grey Gurnard and then a Dab.

Things went dead for me and I caught nothing in the last couple of hours before packing at 6.

Brilliant day out in grand company and 5 species caught.

Doggies - 10 or so
Thorn Back Ray - 1
Whiting - 1
Dab - 1
Grey Gurnard - 1

The quest for a thornie continues

I'm sitting wishing away the hours to get out and continue my hunt to land a thornie.

After the amount I saw Rauri and Manny (From World Sea Fishing Forums) land last time I'm off back to the mark near to Camusnagaul Ferry Landing armed with plenty of mackerel and squid baits.

Here's hoping for a bonny thornie pic of my own  to post tomorrow.

08/08/10 No fish, three crabs and some sculpture

Bait - lug and squid
Rigs - Pennel Pulleys
Tide - High >>>Low
Place - Auchmithie

Arrived a bit later than planned bang on high tide, quickly set up and had both rods out.

The weather was much better than forecast but unfortunately that meant the beach  was heaving.

 I'm very much for sharing the shoreline and don't think I've got a right over it as an angler, but I have to say I was pretty pissed off today by families letting their kids run riot. Most of which thought throwing stones right in front of where I and an other couple had set up to fish was fun. I know Auchmithie is not a massive beach but there is plenty of room and throwing stones comes naturally to kids, I just wish their parents had taught them a bit of consideration for others.

As you'd imagine the fishing was slow, only a couple of early knocks and only three crabs to show for the effort by the end of the day. I should probably have moved but I was a stubborn git and didn't.

Though if I had moved I wouldn't have got the chance to help an artist with their sculpture. Throughout the day I had noticed this woman taking photos of sculptures and towards the end of the day as I was thinking of packing it in due to the lovely children, when she approached me to ask for help moving a particularly large sculpture.

How could I say no.

As we got chatting it turned out she was from southern Bavaria and had been living at an artists retreat in the area for the last few weeks. She had been scouring the beaches for stones and driftwood for her sculptures and was in the process of photographing them back in the locations she had originally found them.

I wish I had some scale in this pic, but it was about 150cm long and 75cm high and was pretty damn heavy. She told me it was a single boulder of local old red sandstone which she hand carved to what you can see. It was pretty beautiful. Unfortunately it was the only one I got a snap of, but it made the day a bit more interesting as the fishing was so slow.

And her thanks was in stark contrast to the inconsiderate arses that plagued my day.

Loch Linnie 05/08/10

---

I arrived at Camusnagaul Ferry Landing over the loch from Fort Billy about midday.

I set up and had both rods out in about 15mins, pulleys baited with mackie. The weather was a lot kinder to me this time as there was little wind and only a couple of small showers.

Fishing was frustrating for me all day. Early doors a lot of big bites but nothing taking the hooks. Landed a nice 1lb and a bit doggie after about an hour and the blank was off at least. The bites tailed off and around 4ish Raurie and Ross from the WSF Forum arrived. They were into fish straight away and over the next three to four hours gave me a lesson in landing fish . And thanks for the pointers and launce lads.

I'm fairly sure I had a pretty decent thornie hooked just before I finished up but got snagged and lost it

We all left around 7 p.m. with me heading home and them setting off for a night sesh and another mark.

Oh aye and the midgies were pretty bad in patches but the old Skin So Soft worked a treat.

Even though it was a frustrating day and I ended up with only two doggies I really like thst mark and will be back to get that thornie.