last week I mainly targeted Rubha Hunish and Neist Point. Results were pretty decent although Rubha Hunish didn't offer any larger fish. The bay I was intending to fish had wind blowing into it and I suppose this scattered the fish. I still had a great session and caught a variety of fish. Started with pollock and a beautiful cuckoo wrasse and ended with some decent coalies and mackerel that I kept for dinner... Below some pics and videos of the day.
A bit choppy...
Recaptured..
Even the little ones are fat!
Stunning...
The next day I visited Neist Point. I haven't been there for a while now as its just too crowded during the summer months but I was lucky on this occasion to have my preferred spot to myself.
I started with the classic Savagear Sandeel and it proved to be a steady producer for most of the day. Surprisingly metals didn't work very well on that spot (quite possibly fish got educated by overuse)...
After catching some decent pollock I switched to a Texas rig with 20g Tungsten bullet weight, a glass bead and a #1 offset hook. The lure of choice was the 4" Reins Curly Curly and I was intending to catch some wrasse since they have become very active lately. I started with long casts and soon enough managed some beautiful cuckoos from the deep while towards the end I got one nice ballan close in.
After a while I changed spot and it was there that I encountered a relatively usual situation when fishing crystal-clear water. As in the fish were there but they would prefer natural presentations and frequent lure changes. Some interesting observations can be seen on the video.
Below pics and videos as usual.
Such an iconic mark!
Decent fish as usual on Neist...
Yet another recapture...
Wheres the lure?!
A feisty ballan..
Kick Tail doing the damage on a day that 'normal' metals didnt do much...
So fat!
Lol! How is this always happening to my fish?!
What surprised me the most was that in both days I had a relatively high number of recaptures! On one side this is a positive thing as it means there's good C&R going on but in the other hand it means that I'm fishing for the same fish over and over. Considering the resident nature of pollock this shouldn't be too surprising but still Skye is a big place! I'm now even more convinced that for targeting the really quality specimens I should divert my attention to the hardest to get marks...
Somehow though I believe that there will be an influx of fish in the autumn months as they need to feed hard for winter...
Unfortunately, Ive noticed that this time of year the pollock fight hard and also may swallow the lure a lot. This makes reviving fish problematic (especially from the deeper marks) even when kept out of the water for a short time and the losses may be high. The best solution in my opinion is not to target the same mark often and to stop fishing after a few decent fish.
On both days I also tried the fabled Fiiish Crazy Sandeel (albeit on darting jigheads since I lost the original) as I was hoping they would be more durable than the Black minnow. Alas they were very effective as expected but only lasted a couple decent fish each..
Something else to note is the wrasse becoming more aggressive and in places that I would get only a couple of their bites I now get loads! A dedicated wrasse-only session is on the cards soon. But first it will have to wait as I'm going on holidays back home on Monday and already cant wait to visit my old marks and finally get some good weather and sunshine! Will be taking the action camera too so I hope to get some cool footage in salt and freshwater...
Tight Lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft KG Evolution Basic KGS-902L, MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Daiwa Freams 2500,Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG
Mainline: YGK G-Soul WX8 PE1.2, YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 20lbs and 25lbs
Lures: Various
Its been a while now that I wanted to fish the more remote headlands of Skye such as Idrigill point and Rubh na Dunain. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance due to the weather being all over the place for the past couple months! Last week though the sun reappeared over Skye and the winds died down.. Now was my chance! The only negative factor was the big tide around the full moon but still I knew it would be worthwhile to fish in one of those areas.
On Thursday I decided to try at Rubh na Dunain.. It was the easiest hike (still took me about 1.5h) and the potential for big fish was obvious. After making the trek I reached the point of the headland and started fan-casting about in order to get a feel for the depth and morphology of the bottom. It wasn't as deep as I thought (although I reached shortly after low tide) but there were thick kelp forests around with some reef sticking up here and there... I was fishing with my Light shore jigging setup and a combination of 30g metals and 4" softplastic shads on 20g cheburashka.
Things were very quiet at first even though I was making long casts and covering a large area. I then targeted the gullies in front of me and started getting some fish, albeit of average size.
It was clear that they weren't feeding properly yet as they only nipped at the lure and especially on slow presentations with the softplastics.
I kept covering ground and moved to a high rocky finger overseeing the entrance to the bay, with shallow kelp filled bottom that dropped suddenly about 30-40m out. As the water started picking up speed now, I clipped on a 30g Hayabusa Jack eye D-slide metal and started to cast towards the drop off and working the jig in a lazy rhythm, with some straight retrieve mixed in especially when I reached the kelp fringe. This soon proved productive and I started getting bites and fish on! These fish were fighting well and I was amazed to see just how well conditioned and fat they were.. Their bellies were full to bursting!
As the bites dried up and the water rose-up more, I speculated that the fish might have moved inside the bay, especially since I noticed fry about and a shoal of mackerel..
I set up on the next rocky finger inside the bay and it was there that I hit gold! I changed to a softplastic (4" long John paddletail) and started getting fish after fish! And these were serious pollock.. Hard fighting and over 55cm most of them. But their girth was remarkable and haven't seen pollock in better condition anywhere..
This was the day that I realised I made the right call when I bought my LSJ setup as I'm sure I would have lost half the fish had I used typical spinning gear. Unfortunately I was quickly getting pushed off the best spots but I let as may casts as i could (got wet feet in the end obviously) and I was rewarded with more pollock and a surprise wrasse towards the end.
By now it was getting a bit late and knowing I had to face the long walk back I decided to stop as I was feeling 'full' and satisfied from the day's action. There's a ton more of water needing to be explored there and a 2 day session might be a better solution.
Rubh na Dunain.
Lovely looking ground...
Checkout the belly on that!
Such a fat fish!
Eye of a predator.
A bit of variety...
Glenbrittle.
And the video of some of the session.
As in most places the legwork usually provides better results but I think that in Skye this is magnified due to the remoteness of many of these areas. Admittedly most of the time I wouldn't like to be hiking in such treacherous ground with the typical Skye weather but on a lovely sunny day like that it really is amazing...
God I need a boat!
Tight Lines!
Gear Used
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG
Mainline: YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 20lbs.
Lures: Hayabusa Jack eye D-Slide 30g, 4" Lucky John Long John paddletail on 3/0 offset hook and 20g Cheburashka.
The other day I was lucky to get some spectacular weather coinciding with my day off and I decided to visit a well known nearby mark to catch a few mackerel for the barbie. Admittedly I haven't done as much LRF as I would like but the weather hasn't helped at all and besides I'll be going home for holidays soon and LRF is all I'll be doing!
This mark is very close to Portree and quite pressured (especially from mackerel-feathering anglers) but on the day I was the only one there. This probably meant that the mackerel haven't shown there yet and indeed after some casts around I didn't encounter a single one...
I did find healthy numbers of small pollock though and proceeded to enjoy the action from them.
I was fishing a 2" Magbite Samba soft plastic on a #8 long shank hook and a 3g tungsten cheburashka. The pollock seemed to love it and were all over it as soon as it hit the deck.
I caught a few fish and made my way towards the tip of the point where the kelp was thicker and the depth greater. It was there that I got a solid take and got busted on a powerful run... I tied a new leader (6lbs) and slcakened the drag... Recasted and the same thing happened again! I quickly got my heavier setup out and fished at the spot but got no takes... I resumed the LRF and changed lure to a 2" Jackall Peke Peke. Also I tied on a 8lbs leader.
After catching a few more small pollock, I got another serious take and this time fought the fish for longer but in the end It made a strong run and the braid parted!
Afterwards I realised that the braid had weakened from use... It goes to show the powerful attraction of LRF gear on fish of every size...
In any case it was a very enjoyable session that got even better when I managed a feisty little wrasse soon after!
Nothing wrong with sausages on the bbq that day.. lol
Below some pics and the video of the session.
Didn't do much fishing on my days off last week. as my brother visited me, but managed to get an hour or two after high tide late on Friday. Fished one of my favourite deeper marks but it was very slow and also there were creels close in not allowing for proper fishing of the area. On the way back I fished the shallows as I knew there would be fish staging at the kelp and points in the ebbing tide...
I got a good fish first cast on the good old Savage gear sandeel and a few more decent ones followed. I alternated between sp's, hardbaits and metals and got another nice fish on a 20g metal this time that was caught in the manner you see on the photo...
Such a glutton!
No need for the assist hook!
Its the second time I catch a pollock like that! After this fish the rain started again and I headed home.
The best fish of the session..
It seems like we will be getting some good weather this week and I'm planning to make the most of it! Moreover I'm waiting for new video editing software and will start posting some videos again soon...
The past week saw me trying a few marks and carrying the light gear as well, in search of mackerel among other fish. The weather made fishing the good marks difficult and thus I had to try a couple new areas out with mixed results (as is often the case when trying out new areas). The mackerel have been in numbers in some marks but completely absent in others so far...
The first session was in the South part of the island where I tend to get them regularly but on the day I caught none! I switched to the heavier gear and managed a nice sea trout on a 6" Sluggo (?!) along with the most well behaved pollock ever...
The next day I hiked to a rocky mark that I thought I could access but after much trying I just couldn't get down to the rocks and gave up. On the way back I fished some rock ledges and finally found what I was looking for! Caught some mackerel and went home for a lovely meal...
I have had a few other quick sessions but they didn't set the world alight... The pollock fishing is a bit slow at the moment although the surface action cant be beaten when the time and conditions are right. I will be posting a few videos soon...
What has been bugging me lately is the relative absence of wrasse. The marks I fish do hold them as Ive had them last year but they don't seem to be there now... Moreover in areas that I catch little ones the slightly larger fish didn't show. I think that the creels may have something to do with it as they're everywhere now and I believe wrasse are prone to get caught in them.. Hopefully I'll manage to locate some soon.
