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.

Riverside Drive, Dundee

Rigs: 2&3 hook flappers targeting flounders
Bait: mackie and prawn
Tide: 2 hours up and one down

Well March is already upon us and I decided for a first shore trip of the year to a sunny if still a tad chilly Riverside Drive at Dundee. Still suffering from the effects of man-flu I'd decided on an easy trip fishing out the back of the car.

It was apparent on arrival that that river was very muddy so I was immediately not expecting a bumper day. From the off there was a fair amount of grassy weed from the reed beds up stream. Always a pain to strip off the line and getting stuck in the rod eyes. No bites at all for the first 45 mins and a big tidal drag upstream whilst the flood continued.

The tidal run dropped a bit as did the weed, then a nice bite and my first shore caught fish of the year quickly follows, usual suspect of a flounder. This was quickly followed by a second smaller flounder and that was that for the day unfortunately.

Afloat on Etive

Finally 2014 is off and running fishwise for me. My rods and gear are all now in a nice new home out of storage and I should be out and about regularly again soon.

My first trip was over to Loch Etive where I was out on a charter with some of the Two Bridges SAC. After a dry start it hosed it down most of the day so no photos as there wasn't anything aboard to risk taking the camera out for. 122 fish between 7 anglers mostly spurs with a couple of whiting and lsds. Not a lot sizewise as I had biggest at just over 3.5lbs.

Good fun day though and glad to be fishing despite the weather.

Another New Year

Well after moving house and not having a lot of my fishing gear to hand I get my new shed this week and my fishing gear will be home just in time to start the annual species hunt again. Old and new places to explore and old and new species to target.

I always love the promise of a new year and even more so this year fishingwise after the end of last year was badly curtained by weather and 'real life'. Here's hoping the promise comes to something and that there is considerably more fishing this year :)

My targets for the year:

• 10lb shore fish of any species
• A Conger Eel from the shore
• 25 Shore species
• Continue to explore LRF locations around Scotland

Bait gathering in style

Well after an aborted attempt a couple of weeks ago due to the weather Gordon invited me out on his boat to fill up the freezer with mackerel for bait and maybe a cod or two.

Zooming over to Anstruther harbour after work I met Gordon and we were soon on the way. After a few fruitless drifts to see if there were any coddies about Gordon took us out to deeper water to get some mackies. They were still about in large numbers taking only 2 seconds to drop the hooks down to have them filled. Only 5 mins or so and there were about 60 mackies aboard. 120 nice fillets for bait to be frozen down.

Gordon then moved back to ground that he thought should hold as cod or two despite the small tides. Not the busiest trip bar the mackies but no blank for either of us. A wee suicidal coalie for Gordon and a 2lb odd codling for me.

Light fading we made our way back to Anstruther. Nice couple of hours blethering with Gordon and heading home with a cool box full of bait which I bagged up in to hand session sized portions. Thanks again to Gordon.