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.
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.
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.
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| Rubh na Dunain. |
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| Lovely looking ground... |
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| Checkout the belly on that! |
 |
| Such a fat fish! |
 |
| Eye of a predator. |
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| 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.
Nice- lovely weather lovely fishing.
ReplyDeleteThanks man! been waiting for more than a month for a nice day like this!
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