Codling in the rain.

On Saturday I wanted to venture further afield but the weather forecast was not good and soon clouds and rain came. Thus I decided to head up in loch Etive planning to fish a mark that didnt produce anything the few times Ive tried there previously, but with the weather warming up and the fish coming closer to shore, I thought something might turn up.
Its a rocky  peninsula with kelp close in but clean, soft bottom further out. It was raining constantly by now and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try my new Vass Tex 175 breathable waterproof smock. Almost 6 years in the UK fishing without waterproofs but I was broken in Scotland! lol
I started fishing with a 3g cheburashka and a Jackall peke peke on a #8 Owner Split shotter hook. The water was deep but not 'abysmal' as its in the nearby basin and this may explain the lack of fish in the colder months. I started getting bites straight away and codling started following one after the other! The biggest ones were close to a pound but their numbers gave me much needed entertainment in the rain. I got a couple bumps as soon as the lure landed and seeing fish jumping I thought of trying retrieving near surface for trout. I managed two of them one on the cheburashka and the other on a Jackall Aji mame jig.
These trout really don't look like sea trout although they're in a sea-loch, I think that since the surface water here is almost fresh, these are just normal brown trout..

parasitism on the eye?

Just a brownie?

They like softies as well..

They like the rain and metals!

In all I had more then twenty codling without anything else except the trout showing up! Very surprising that a type of mark can hold very specific species of fish.. I think next time it rains Ill give it another go as I saw a couple bigger trout splashing there. The smock performed very well and kept me dry and worm throughout the session I hope it will last...

Tight lines

Gear Used.
Rod:  Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon fluorocarbon 4lbs
Rig: cheburashka, hard lures
lure: Jackall peke peke, Jackal Mame jig.

More Loch Fyne action!

On my days off I managed to do two good sessions. On Friday the weather was nice and me and my friend John decided to head down to Loch Fyne, at my favourite mark for species variety. He is interested in LRF and I thought it would be the right place to have some good action! On arrival, there was a strong wind and the resident seal was swimming around but I was not deterred as this mark never fails to provide something.. I rigged the Solpara for my friend, first with a small metal jig (Jackall mame jig) as he wanted to target mackerel and later with a 3g cheburashka and a Jackall peke peke. I used my Crostage with a heavier cheburashka and an Ecogear grass minnow S.
We started casting from the left point of the harbour as the wind was behind us and helped getting distance on the cast. Moreover the current was strong and I was expecting predators hiding or patrolling around the point to intercept food coming with the current.
 John was into the first mackerel pretty quickly followed by plenty of small pollock. Things were slower for me in the bottom but as I was retrieving the lure I got hit hard close in and the fish started taking drag. It hit among the boulders and at first I thought it was a good wrasse, but after a while a nice pollock of around 2kg surfaced! I got some of the fight on video and here it is.

For the rest of the session we caught a good variety of fish with John getting the only ballan wrasse of the day. We managed a good few mackerel that are always superb on light gear along with a couple more decent pollock among the little ones. Codling, poor cod, a lonely coalie and some goldsinney wrasse were also caught and it just shows that this mark is a species hotspot! I made another video with some of the other fish caught along the day. We left with smiling faces and a bag of mackerel for dinner..

Some pics.

The only ballan of the day..

Stunning colour1

John with a nice red codling!

Aggressive goldsinneys!

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI, Majorcraft Solpara  SPS-S792M
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000, Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon fluorocarbon, 3lbs and 4lbs
Rig: cheburashka, hard lures
lure: Ecogear Shirasu worm, Tict brilliant, Ecogear grassminnow S, Ernest Mago Ika sama jig, jackal Mame jig.