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
As per the title this has been what I've mostly been up to this week. The warm weather has definitely helped and on my first session I found plenty of fish in the shallow kelpy marks. I began the day on the deeper water with the usual softplastics and metal jigs as I have a new rod (MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g) that I wanted to try out. From the code you can understand that is a light shore jigging rod and I had been thinking for a while to purchase one... I only needed a serious justification and the Skye pollock and marks gave me just that!
On first impression the rod behaved very well and its pretty much what I thought it would be. Powerful yet not stiff, good caster and with a sensitive tip. Comparing to my other rods it has a thicker and more powerful butt yet the tip is almost as thin as my 7-23g rod.
Clearly metals are its forte but I also found it very good at working jerkbaits and even softplastics, albeit better with exposed hooks and with a jighead of over 12g weight.
I caught plenty of fish on it and fished with an almost locked drag. I had no fish lost to snags yet I was pleasantly surprised to see 2-3lbs fish putting a good bend to it! Such power in them! Yet it easily lifts fish like that on the shore.
After spending most of the morning fishing with metals and softplastics, The tide started to ebb and I could see the kelp reaching close to the surface now. I had a few fish take just above the kelp and I thought it would be a good idea to try a shallow running minnow. I put on an almost forgotten Megabass Zonk and after a couple casts and while I could clearly see the lure dancing to the jerks near the surface I got a fish shoot out from the kelp and strike it!
The strike was ferocious and the fish crash-dived straight for the kelp. I soon had the upper hand though and I was ecstatic when I landed the pollock. I proceeded in releasing the fish and kept fishing, managing some more fish on a few more lures I had with me. After a while and with the water being almost in low tide now, I made for the shallows and fished the same tactics with the hardbaits over the kelp. I got some more fish but I'm convinced that if the day was overcast I would have caught even more... As expected in the clear water and sunny conditions, natural colours were the best producers with lures that could dive that bit deeper more successful. Namely the classic Rapala X rap and a sinking Ryobi minnow. Towards the end of the session and after i had covered the area with the hardbaits, the metals winkled out a couple more fish from distance.
Zonk does the damage!
Ryobi sinking minnow.
The type of mark..
X rap...
Metals are indispensable though...
On my second day off, the weather was very different, being muggy wet and misty and staying overcast for most of the day. I consider these conditions positive for pollock and thus I decided to visit Rubha Hunish again and this time fish it more extensively.
I also had with me the finesse gear as I wanted to try slower bottom presentations in order to find if there's any wrasse about. Again I begun with softplastics but after a while and seeing that there weren't any big fish about, I put on the hardbaits and started covering water. To say I had a blast would be an understatement! I had fish even jumping out of the water and hitting the lure as I was lifting it out of the water! On one occasion, the front treble of a slim jerkbait tangled with the line and the lure was swirling on the surface. I slowed it right down and a few meters from my feet I saw a pollock smash into it! The best part is that i caught many of the hits on my action cam and I will put the videos below. The fish were clearly much bolder with the overcast conditions and the ebbing of the tide accentuated that. Fishing in the gullies and around the points where the water was choppier saw fish hitting brighter lures while inside the bay, natural colours ruled. The retrieve was erratic with plenty of jerks and pauses and fish would usually hit the lure very close to the shore. Towards the end of the session I found a pocket of fish in a corner of the bay and the little Ryobi got four fish in equal number of casts. A very enjoyable day even without the lunkers.
As to the lighter gear and slower tactics, well I tried but couldn't avoid the pollock! At times its hard to comprehend the numbers of them here...!
Another thing I tried on the day was a plastic lip gripper (The Fish Grip) as I want to give my thumbs a rest! I have to say that it proved very useful and much more gentle to the fish comparing to the metal ones I used in the past...
Another good spot...
Some finesse...
Ima Nabarone..
Savagear prawn on dropshot, yet more pollock
The fish grip proved much gentler...
A secure hold.
And some videos!
I really enjoyed my hardbait fishing and its been a while since the last time I did this. I really see why so many lure anglers get a kick out of this. especially when the hits are so visual, only topwater fishing can get more exciting... Next time I will be getting some topwaters with me!
Thanks for reading and tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX40
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5
Leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 20lbs and 16lbs
Lures:Various
On Monday I had favourable conditions and I was finally able to visit the northernmost tip of the Isle of Skye, Rubha Hunish. From reports I've read it has a good depth and plenty of current, a combination that always means fish! It was a fair trek though and that's why I set off early on in the morning. I aimed to be fishing just after high tide and after making my decent from the cliffs I was soon stationed on a rocky point and fishing away...
I only took one setup (heavier) with me on the day as I wanted to be as light and mobile as possible and started fishing with my metal/teaser combo as usual. I got straight into fish and this went on for a good hour at that spot, bringing in nice coalies and average pollock cast after cast.
This first spot was relatively shallow and after the bites dried up, I moved to the front of the point and started fishing. The water had started to move now and the current was getting noticeable. I was getting bites and plenty of pollock but not all were landed, either because they took me to the only kelp bed in the area (in front of my feet!) or by weak hook-holds (using simple round bend worm-hooks instead of my usual EWG's). As there were loads of fish about, I decided to try a variety of tactics and presentations to see if it would make a difference to the bite rate.. Thus I used metals, cheburashka rigged paddletails and ripple/curly tails, straights (Sluggos) on darting jigheads and in the end, my new Magbite Vassalo swimming jigs tipped with Gulp Sandeel.
To be honest everything worked... For a time...As soon as the bites would dry up on one presentation, a change to something different would usually see more bites develop. This is a common behaviour especially when fish are shoaled up as they were.
Its a long hike...
A bit 'hairy'...
Double shots galore!
My first spotted pollock...
On the darting action.
Impressive.
The rocks are teeming with birdlife.
Vassalo!
Need to get over that on the way back...
After fishing and exploring for a few hours, the bites slowed down while it was approaching low tide and feeling full of the days fishing I decided to call it a day. I didn't get any big fish but the potential for them on this mark is evident. Moreover I'm impressed with the sizes of the coalies lately and it wont be long till I do a light game session just for them!
Next time I visit this mark though, I'll come prepared with food and drink as its not really suited for quick sessions!
Bellow the videos of the day. To be honest there were more fish caught but it just got tedious pulling one fish after the other in... lol
Things are livening up and I'm soon gonna be doing some reconnaissance for more marks. It is surprising how many areas are overlooked...
Moreover I'm looking to fine-tune my gear and I'm on the lookout for a new setup that would allow me to fish more effectively in the marks and conditions that I'm now faced with.
