With wrasse and codling in mind...

As the title says the last few sessions saw me trying to focus on these two species. Wrasse because I haven't really targeted them this year and codling because it soon will be time for them to shoal up and provide excellent sport..
For the wrasse I tried at Loch Fyne while for the codling I was planning on an East coast trip (needing to take advantage of having the car before my brother returned from his holidays back home).
The good weather has unbelievably lasted till now (though don't think for too much longer) and I was sure I could get some ballans. I started not at my usual harbour mark but on a rocky outcrop a few miles further down the road, that is a known dive site and lots of wrasse are seen there. On arrival I realised that I was a too early as the tide was coming up and cut off access to the point and after casting on the sides I managed a couple wrasse and pollock. Although I was sure that most of the fish would be at the point (as the divers reported most of the sightings there) I decided not to stick around for the tide to recede and just go to my usual haunts..
I was fishing my LRF setup with the MC Solpara as I love using this rod and barely used it this summer.. I started casting around my favourite rocky point and chatting to some anglers that were pulling in pollock after pollock (small and average ones mostly) on float fished baits and surfcasting gear (!) when I got a good bite and a strong first run! After this the fish quietened down and I could feel some good weight on the end of the line... Bringing it to the surface I saw what must have been the best wrasse of the year flapping on the surface! This usually means that the fish is beaten, but nobody told that fish and it made another powerful run through some rocks and got stuck... My leader parted soon after...  Thinking that this is part of the deal with wrasse and lrf gear I stuck on but no more wrasse came from the point. I then moved to the inside of the harbour where there are lots of boulders but the water was very cloudy there and no fish could be found. Moving to the next point I started picking up some chunky codling and pollock before finishing with a small ballan. I decided to head home soon after as I was tired and was planning to return the next day anyway.

A very dark ballan.

Nice pollock on the Solpara.

Codling time coming!

Pretty ballan.

The next day the weather got noticeably chillier but still sunny and after a lot of casting around with small creatures on jika rig I failed to get any wrasse on that presentation. I got plenty of poor cod from the deep though and then reverted to the cheburashka. I was fishing 4g-6g cheburashka and small paddletails, though on the finesse setup this time, and after putting on a peculiar 2" softie (Bait breath O-Go Kyu that I had in my bag for years but never really tried them alot) I got the only ballan of the day.
I then switched to heavier cheburashka and 2.5" AGM Paddler grub paddletails, targeting the codling. I started getting some but I had lots of snags and cut lines, as my mainline has weakened especially after my Skye trip. Seeing that the codling weren't that big I just started tying straight on the braid without a leader. Unsurprisingly this didn't affect the codling one bit...

Poor cod on jika.

Quirky 2" Bait Breath O-Go Kyu does the job..

Not leader shy..

The next day I headed off for the East coast at the same mark at Fast castle as the week before. The intense westerlies had died down a bit and that mark seemed the best choice. Moreover I was in an exploratory mood and wanted to walk around to find some more areas to fish.. Needless to say that after wasting 1.5 hours hiking up and down the cliffs and sweating like a pig, I didn't manage to find a suitable spot and instead of settling on the known rock, I decided to drive to St Abbs head thinking I would have more options there.
On arriving I realised that St Abbs is more exposed to the wind and the eastern side of it was showing frothy signs of the swell. I decided to give it a go and started getting among some jumbo mackerel on the metals. It was good fun but I didn't come here for them and soon started working the bottom with soft plastics. The sea was too rough for my liking and after some casts I was ready to head back at Fast castle, when I got a good bite on the bottom... I recasted and a pollock was on my lure OTD. I then got a nice coalie and realised that although the sea was rough these fish were feeding... I changed spot to where I had been before with my mate Scott and started working my lures again near the bottom hoping that a cod would take it...
 Alas this mark was infested with the fat mackerel that were hitting the lures hard and getting caught at every cast! I changed lure colour from silvery/white ones to bright orange and pink in order to dissuade the mackerel but also to be more visible in the cloudy water. This seemed to do the business and although I still got mackerel, they would loose interest if the lure was left static or worked very slowly near the bottom whereas before they would still take it...
The first pollock didn't take long to show and I was impressed by the size of its belly! The next few fish were similarly in good condition and fat bellies, showing that they were feeding well in this rough water. I believe that this is because the baitfish were concentrated tighter and the predators took advantage of the relatively low water visibility to attack them. I was then even more surprised when after I struck at a repeated take and feeling good resistance on the other end, I got a lovely ballan on the rocks! This reminded me of my days on Sark where when the water was rough (not too rough though) the wrasse fishing would show less numbers but bigger fish.
After this fish I persevered while getting drenched by a few big waves until I retreated further back in the bay. Last time I had some good pollock from this exact area and after a few cast I had a good fish but it didn't feel like a pollock... The fish wasn't really making runs and instead zig zaging on the way back. This made me believe that I finally had a good cod although there were no head thumps...Bringing the fish closer I could see it was a good pollock but in the last minute it crash dived and cut me on the rock in front of my feet. Because of the large waves I was fishing from further back on the rocks and the line got cut on the lip of the ledge.
A few casts later I had another take and a similar slow fight and yet another pollock. Again the waves made the landing difficult and the line parted after a wave came crushing and then pulling the fish away while I was holding the leader... I did touch the leader though so it still counts! I think its time to invest in a good ISO net with their long telescopic handles... I haven't used a net in my fishing for a year!
I'm not so sure as to why the pollock behaved like this but possibly the water clarity had something to do with it, or their full bellies!
The sun was gone by that point and it was soon time for the drive back as I had to pickup my brother from the airport.

A long way down...

...and a long way up!

looks fine settled form a distance..

Chunky mackerel!

Chunky pollock...

500g of mackerel!

Not expecting one of them...

Lots of white water..

Even the little ones were chunky!

Well I really enjoyed my few day's fishing and certainly made most of the car but I'm now back to being carless! The cod are still in my mind though and I hope Ill be able to somehow arrange a trip for them on the East coast.

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g. MC solpara SPS-S792M, 7'9", 0.5-5g
Reel: Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f, Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8, Mebarin braid 0.4 PE
Leader: P Line Halo fluorocarbon, 10lbs, Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lb
Lures: various

Isle of Skye September 2015 Expedition. Day 1.

I haven't been writing many posts lately mostly because I haven't done much serious fishing and also because I was planning a proper fishing trip on Skye. I did have a short trip to the Mull of Galloway but I only had a few casts here and there and other than masses of average pollock and a few ballans not much else was caught. Moreover my phone became almost non operational and I couldn't take any pics.. Thus just the week before my Skye trip I managed to get a new one (the waterproof Samsung S5!) and I was ready for it. I took the bus to Oban on Thursday the 17th and got picked up by my brother there. After some lunch I took the car and headed off to loch Linnhe.
I was planning to fish locally for the day and drive up to Skye early the next day. I got to my mark on Kentallen and had some light game fun there (the only true lrf sessions for the whole trip as it turned out).
I was fishing small creatures on the jika rig, aiming for some wrasse as I really haven't targeted them much this year, but the codling had other ideas and kept pestering me!
I then switched to metals and had some pollock before deciding to move to loch Leven and fish a mark that I found on a diving site. It was getting pretty dark but the mark supposedly holds good numbers of wrasse and it was worth a try.
I arrived at the mark and on a first look it didn't seem that great but after the first casts I realised there was more to it than meets the eye. I got a good 'snappy' bite on the cheburashka and after a spirited fight, a lovely ballan was up ashore. I then got another similar bite but this time a much stronger adversary that managed to cut me off on the first run... I retied and after a few more casts I got a nice codling that got unhooked as I was bringing it up through the kelp. Definitely a mark to be revisited...

Codling on creature and jika rig.

Loch Leven.

A feisty ballan.

I stopped fishing as it was getting dark and got into the car thinking of a place to spend the night. I wasn't feeling tired at all and I decided to head to Skye straight away, thinking I would make good time since the roads were going to be devoid of tourists! And so it was, after a couple hours I was in Loch Duich and I decided to sleep on the parking space near the Eilean Donnan castle, so that I could fish that mark as well first thing in the morning.
I woke up early to a spectacular view of the castle and got down to the rocks. I could see shoals of coalies splashing about as the tide was pushing in and after catching a few I decided to head off as the weather was looking good and I wanted to make the most of it fishing the marks I couldn't last time I was on Skye.

What a view to wake up to!

Having checked the weather forecast, I was meant to have a mixture of dry and wet days but what interested me the most, was the wind speed and direction. For the first few days the winds were mostly Southerly and at times quite strong, thus I decided to head up to the Northern marks first.
My first stop was Staffin, as it showed potential the last time I was here with Scott but it was unfishable then. This time the sea was much calmer (though still choppy) and I was hoping for better results.
I started off with my heavier setup and a 3" Long John paddletail on a 12g cheburashka.I began fan casting around the rocky point at the entrance to Staffin bay and was soon rewarded with a beautiful copper mottled pollock that shoot out from the kelp to take the lure just under my feet. I was surprised to see a fish that big with this kelp-colouration as its usually smaller fish, living amongst the kelp that have it, in my marks further south.

Stunning colours!

I then had a few more decent fish, got cut off by something better and finished with a good one. The bite seemed to slow down after mid-day and I then decided to head North again.

Staffin shoreline...

A nice one.

I arrived at a village called Aird, and immediately could see that the area was looking very fishy.
It was a kelp filled bay, fringed by rocky slopes. The water didn't seem particularly deep close in but a good cast would help me with that and also I could see that the bottom was cleaner further out. As it was sunny I thought that the fish would be hiding in the kelp or be further out in the deeper water, so I decided to use mainly metals. I would work the metal near the bottom far out and as it came closer, I would aim to pass it just over the kelp where I was thinking that most pollock would be. This proved to be very successful on coalies at first and then some good pollock! They seemed to like the metal worked faster than usual and with more jerks, thus assist hooks proved better than singles at the back, as they don't get tangled with the line. I had some slow jigs with me purchased mainly for this trip and they seemed to be very effective albeit fished completely differently to how they're meant to. Due to their shape (wide) they rise quickly on the retrieve and they were perfect for being worked rather fast on a steady retrieve just above the kelp. A few abrupt pulls (not jerks!) and pauses here and there made them irresistible.
I kept moving and casting along the shore and caught a good number of fish. I also lost more fish (and lures) than I would have liked and this was caused by me forgetting to pick up my fluorocarbon leader from the other bag and thus resorting to mono (12lbs)  for my leaders which just didn't cut it in this case. Even my fluorocarbon leader didn't prove good enough for some of those fish and marks as it turned out in the end...

Looks fishy...

...even more fishy!

Nice plumb coalies on Skye as well.

Pollock love metals.

What a fight!

Slow jigs used differently but working...

Pollock ground..

As the sun got lower the fish became active close in and I changed to soft plastics, taking fish after fish!
It was hectic fishing and the quality of fish along with the quantity was staggering with most fish between 2-5lbs!

Unreal colours.

Tired from all the rock scrambling and fishing but happy, I made my way back to the car for something to eat and some much needed sleep.

After a hard days fishing..

Below is a teaser from my videos to come

Tight lines and more to come...

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g.
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX 40
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5
leader: Toray Bawo polyamide plus mono 12lbs
lures: metals and 3"-4" softplastics on cheburashka.