Last weekend I was meant to meet up with two lads for some guided fishing. As it usually happens here, the weather was lovely until Friday and then went all over the place from Saturday onwards! Thus I met Andy on a wet and windy Saturday morning. The lads had a mishap with their van and the second person (Dan) couldn't make it but would join us the next day.
Andy is a keen angler in several disciplines (fly, bait fishing) and it was his first time on Skye. He wanted to get some nice pollock and if possible on the fly... Now this would normally be relatively easy to achieve especially since the fish have moved to the shallows and are feeding pretty hard at the moment but with 40 mph winds it gets almost impossible. Checking the weather carefully, I realised that there might be a short window of opportunity in a shallow mark that is relatively sheltered. Thus we decided to try there first as I was keen to see how that elastic rod would bend when a pollock took the fly! 😁
On arrival it appeared that it would still be difficult to get the fly at any distance as the wind was swirling from different directions but nevertheless I directed Andy to a 'pocket' where the current pushes on a rocky wall and the fish hold very close in.
We then realised that Andy left his flies back at the camp (!) but thankfully I had brought a couple made from my friend Tolis at
smartflies.com and gave them to Andy. It took a few tries but soon enough he had a take after what we thought was a snag and the rod bend over (god these rods bend!) the fish fought hard and after a couple runs spat the hook! This happened a few more times and it was especially annoying when the fish did it at my feet! Eventually we lost the two flies I had from fish than snagged us and we switched to the spinning gear. I suppose a step up from average trout fly gear (#7) is needed up here! Unfortunately this was to be our only chance in two days to catch them on the fly and we were gutted for not being able to land the fish despite catching them! The method definitely works though and its pure fun!
I rigged a 20g cheburashka with a slim sandeel imitation lure and soon enough the first fish started coming and were much easier to land on Andy's beefy gear. Over-beefy actually so much so that only a few of the nicer sized pollock put up a good scrap. Also the amount of missed bites and delayed strikes was exacerbated due to the lack of 'feel' thus after getting on the second mark I gave him my rod and the difference in bites to fish conversion was markedly better... Think I may have spurred him to buy more gear...!
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| First one landed..! |
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| A nice coalie worth a pic... |
Being his first time on the island it was imperative that he wanted to visit Neist Point and on inspection it appeared actually fishable despite the wind and big tides. We picked to fish the morning tide that was smaller anyway and timed our arrival with reduced current period.
I cant say that it was non-stop action although it was relatively fast paced around low water and the fish were of a decent size and keeping Andy busy. Plus the sun came out at some point and it made for much more pleasant fishing. It was also evident that although the pollock were finicky they all fought very well and being caught in the shallows meant that practically all of them went back well and we had no fish with bloated bladders.
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| He's in! |
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| Hard fighter. |
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| Average size. |
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| In again! |
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| Under the sun.. |
About 2 hours after the waters turned, conditions got very counter-productive as despite not having an increase in wind speed, the swell got larger and it soon became impossible to control our lures. Content with the days results we decided to call it a day with a few fish kept for the lads and looking forward to the next day that was meant to be even more challenging...
The next day I picked up Andy and Dan with the plan being to get Dan among some fish as he's a novice and had blanked so far in the trip. Conditions were even worse than the day before though and I told the lads that we would need to drive about more in order to get out of the SW wind now gusting to over 40mph... Moreover it didn't stop raining throughout the day and that made things even more difficult.
We drove to a relatively sheltered mark I thought would give us the best chances of getting a few fish and even there the sea was rolling and suspended weed was becoming a problem. We kept at it and after moving about I located a small area near a point where the current was breaking and had an abrupt depth change and two gullies emptying into it with the ebb. It was then some hectic action with Dan getting most of the fish and thoroughly enjoying the process!
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| Dan with his first Skye pollock! |
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| And another one! |
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| Rod-bend! |
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| Holding Andy's fish while Dan's hooked up! |
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| A serious pollock. |
Softplastics proved the most consistent baits with 3.25" slim paddletails in pearl or chartreuse getting the most fish.
After a good few fish the bite slowed down and we decided on another move to a shallow sheltered bay. Unfortunately the wet rocks made it very hard to access the best spots and after losing a good fish in the kelp we moved again to a rocky point with the wind on our face. It was hard going but we managed a few more hard fighting fish before deciding to call it a day. It was a relief for all of us getting out of this wind, especially after managing to catch some fish!
It was a real pleasure guiding the lads and seeing them catch some fish but I'm hoping that they'll come again later in the year with hopefully more settled weather and better prepared for targeting the pollock on the fly and topwater lures!
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| Miserable weather but we're happy! |
Tight Lines!
