Rigs - Pennel Pulleys
Tide - low >>> high
Place - South Shore, Loch Etive
After aborting a couple of planned trips this week I finally got out for the first time in 2011. I wanted to get over to Taynuilt to get my Penn Ruff Stuff that I recently bought 2nd hand and Conger11 had picked up for me over New Year.
Obviously being in the vicinity of Loch Etive it would have been daft not to christen it straight away, so off I went to a mark on the south shore. I got set up and had my two rods in the water for the back of 1 o'clock but didn't hold out much hope as it was a very bright day and I have personally never had much luck at Etive on bright days :( Still I don't get a huge amount of opportunities to get out fishing and need to take them when they do perfect conditions or not.
My baits were getting stripped quick smart every cast and my first three retrieves brought in crabs, as if I needed confirmation, two reluctant to let the remains of my bait go and one actually hooked (a first for me).
I planned to fish till 6ish and get at least 1-2hrs fishing after sunset and was setting all my hopes on this time as I did not have a single bite during daylight. about 5 o'clock I was freezing and pretty hacked off so I thought two more casts on each rod and call it a day as darkness had not brought any action with it. I had quite a bit of bluey left so i made up 4 big squid/bluey cocktails and through a sand eel on a couple of them for good measure. I thought if it was to be a blank I'd go down fighting.
Now I am no great shakes in the casting department and the Ruff Stuff is a longer and stiffer rod than I'm used to but with one of the big baits on-board I had my best cast of the day and sent out a good 20-30yrds further than I had all day (I hope this will be a sign of things to come).
The bait was only in the water a couple of mins when I heard a big rattle from the ratchet, lifted into it and fish on :) I had only caught my first Spurrie a month earlier but this felt exactly the same but a lot stronger, my mind lit up thinking I had a biggie. Soon I caught the tell tale glint of eyes in the beam from my head torch and landed a Spurrie at least twice the size of my previous PB (1.5lbsish). I was lucky to get it as it spat the hook as soon as I landed it. My scales were going from 4lb to 4lb 2oz so I'll split the difference and call it 4lb 1oz a modest PB but well happy it being the first fish of 2011 as Spurs were my bogey fish last year :D
And I got to properly christen the Ruff Stuff on it's first outing with me, hopefully a lucky rod :)
