Changes of plan

Well the weekend came and with it high winds, so the planned trip to Loch Sunart in Sharpies boat were unfortunately quickly binned. So the new plan was to meet at Loch Leven fish the low tide there into dark. Then probably drive down to Etive for the following day. I had Friday off so had a wee lie in got myself together and after a pit stop for supplies was on the road and arrived at the mark I planned to fish while waiting for Sharpie. This is a new mark on Leven for me up very close to one I've fished before but with better access, only a hop skip and a jump down a banking and over some rocks. Just before I set up Sharpie had called to say he had been caught up and wouldn't get down till early o'clock on Saturday. Not to bother new rendezvous set and back to setting up, baits in quick smart. It was a grey day and the weather cycling through, strong winds; massive gusts, drizzle and pelting rain. Still it's February in Scotland what are you going to expect.

First few baits came back stripped on both rods but with no knock I suspected the perennial crabs. Casting out rod one after about the fourth re-baiting I saw a massive slack liner on the other so I quickly ran over and took up the slack. The line just felt heavy with on indication of fish. The line came in slowly getting heavier all the time, still no indication of a fish on, and I thought I had the mother of all weed fish coming in. Then a couple of noticeable nods and that tell tale wing coming out of the water, thornie on. Successfully landed, unhooked and time for a wee photo call before swimming off. I never weighed it but I think conservatively it was 3-3.5lbs, not massive but my first for 2012 and a species I love catching.

All the time the weather was still cycling through its hellish dance of wind and rain with the wind howling up the length of the loch and even with a small cairn of rocks on each leg of my tripod it managed to knock over the rods, thankfully no damage done.

About a half an hour after landing the thornie I had a noticeable knock on my rod, and that it was the first of the hoard of doggies I was expecting. Wrong, the feistiest wee thornie I've caught, gave a quick but decent fight for his size. Much smaller than the first probably about a pound and a half or so.

Shortly after I just managed to catch my tripod before it hit the deck for the second time, so I thought time to pack up and get a brew going. So 2 hours for two thornies on a new mark, good start to the weekend but also where it ended.

If the wind and rain were bad at Loch Leven they were hellish at Etive. I drove over there to fish over the evening low tide with no success at all. So with the wind screaming and full of driving rain I took to the Hotel costa del Fiesta, earlier than initially planned.

Not much sleep at all as the wind was mental especially through the small hours between 2 and 5 a.m. rocking the car and howling through the trees. So I was somewhat bleary eyed as I met Sharpie at about 7. We drove up and down the loch to scout out a more sheltered spot and once settled on a mark, I cracked out the kettle and the frying pan to try and make myself feel human again with rolls, sausages and coffee. It worked(ish) and rods were out again fairly deep water straight from the shore but being daylight at Etive we weren't expecting a lot and were proved right. A couple of hours of feeding the crabs without a single tickle it was back to the motors and the kettle.

Suffice to say that after visiting a few more marks, a lot of snow starting to fall and with no relenting of the wind, when Sharpie got a call from home late in the afternoon to say that there was a lot of snow on the roads up near his house we decided to call it a bust and head home.

Right choice I think, the roads were very bad on my route between Loch Awe and Lochearnhead. Driving blizzards low visibility, no snow ploughs and very difficult to see were the road stopped and started. One of those tense drives that feels worse than it probably was. Took me about an hours longer than normal to get home as thankfully the snow didn't reach past Lochearnhead. I think it took Sharpie about twice as long as normal for his trip back as he was heading into worse and worse snowfall.

Ah well a bitty couple of days and as I write the day looks beautiful. Maybe should have put the head down and waited out till morning. At least I got my thornies.