An interesting November session...

We have finally had some settled weather and I was able to go out fishing! The temperatures are way lower than this time last year but it has been relatively dry and calm the past week and that's all I was needing.
I opted for a late morning session on Neist and was taking my LSJ and MH setups with me as I was intending to use the heavier  (light shore jigging) setup with baited bucktails...
I hit the water a couple hours before low water and fished softplastics on 18g-22g cheburashkas.
It didn't take long to feel the bites and I started getting some decent fish. They weren't as concentrated as usual but they kept coming at a steady rate.
In amongst the pollock I got a lovely ballan as well. November sees quite a few ballans caught for me here and I reckon theyre feeding up before moving deeper for winter.

Love them...

As the bites were drying up I decided to move to a spot on the left side of the lighthouse. Once there I was surprised to see lots of coalies smashing fry on the surface along with birds working the area.
I decided to add a sabiki teaser to my rig so as to catch some coalies for dinner and bait.
There were loads of them and I had 'double headers' almost every cast, though I wished I had my LRF gear and mini-topwaters with me...
I baited a 1oz bucktail with a strip of coalie but as we had big tides that week, I got snagged a few times and gave up.
Decided to use some Salty Baits and Hayabusa Kicktails and I was back on the fish...
Surprisingly, I was getting them from way out over clean ground and after one spitting out its dinner, I realised why. They were feeding among the herring and that explains why they weren't as concentrated at the usual spots..

Not huge but fighting well...

A warrior..

Spat this.. A herring!

After a few more fish, I decided to call it a day and was gonna return the next day with the LRF gear at hand...
below a video from the day.

Something negative about this trip was the amount of garbage (empty beer cans especially) I found on the mark... This is just frustrating and infuriating beyond words...

Disgusting...

Anyway, will be writing another post soon about the LRF session of the following day...

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: APIA Foojin'R Best Bower 96 ML, MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Shimano Stradic FK C3000, Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X8 PE 1.2, Duel X wire X8 PE1.5
Leader: Daiwa Tournament FC fluorocarbon 20lbs and 25lbs
Lures: various

Feels a bit more like summer now...

The past week the weather has been pretty good although with variable winds and it finally feels a bit more like it should for the end of July!
Had a late afternoon guiding session on Friday that didn't produce the expected results for various reasons though the brisk easterlies and hungry seals played a major part to that. Thankfully everyone caught and it was also the first session that healthy numbers of mackerel showed up!

Dougie with a nice one.

Jamie with a fish caught on metal.

Adam with another one.

Fished till the sun went down...

The next day I thought to make a dedicated mackerel trip for a nice dinner and headed to my most prolific mackerel-spot. It was almost high tide and as I was squatting to tie my lure I heard some loud plopping noises.. I then realised that the plopping sound were coming from diving gannets and indeed there was a number of them working quite a large area of the bay and diving for what I presume were mackerel as I started getting them from the first cast!
It wasn't as intense as say in a blitz but they kept at it for over an hour, something that indicates large numbers of mackerel there.
I was fishing 20g slow jigs with a teaser in the form of a long shank #8 hook baited with a 2" Gulp sandworm hoping to pick up anything. This rig had no chance of hitting bottom and the double headers were coming in thick and fast!
Closer in I'd pick up pollock and also the first wee ballan of the year! I saw it chase the metal and after a little waggling of the sandworm in its face it took it!

On the teaser.

On the jig...

Hello there..

A lamprey mark?

Didn't manage any more wrasse though, something that I find peculiar.. Even more peculiar was when ending the session and gutting the mackerel, I tossed the guts and heads in the sea but there was absolutely nothing bar a few tiny coalies coming for the scraps! I have done this in the past in different locations and its always a pleasure watching the multitudes of smaller fish (wrasse mainly but also gobies, blennies and little congers) congregating and fighting over the scraps but nothing happened this time....
Anyway, hoping to do some LRF over the coming week and possibly try and find a few ballans.. Moreover there are couple spots I need to be checking out and will also try and get some footage of my Apia and new Gamakatsu travel rod in action...

Tight lines

Reconnaissance...

Its been a while that I have been identifying fish-holding marks on google Earth but due to the early of the season and the unstable weather, thought not to gamble and waste my time there, instead preferring the 'surest' marks. last week though we were blessed with good weather and slight winds and I made the call to try out two areas. the first one didn't offer a single bite (shallow, but might be worth checking over in a month's time..) but on the second one i struck gold! Found large numbers of very decent coalies in a shallowish bay along with good numbers of pollock, surprisingly close to the shore... This is definitely a mark to be re-visited especially with the lrf gear and maybe some topwater lures...
On the day I had the chance to use some flies from my friend Tolis of  Smart Flies . I decided to add them as teasers to my usual metal combo rig and they really worked a treat! I was really surprised when towards the end of the session, and with the bites practically non existent, I managed a nice 2kg pollock that hit the teaser instead of the metal! For the past sessions, most larger fish would go for the main lure but obviously this fish saw something it liked...

Worth the trek...

Coalies are suckers for teasers...

Nice coalies on this mark... This one with net wounds..

LRF gear next time...

Spectacular!

Big pollock couldn't resist the sandeel teaser..

On Thursday, I had the morning off and decided to have a short session on Aird as the tide was good.
I reached the mark bang on high tide and started fishing away with metals. I got a nice fish on the metal but then bites tailed off on the metals. I then switched to a brass n glass Texas rig with a 10g weight, a 8mm glass bead and a 2/0 EWG hook. lures were a variety of slim paddletails, modified stickbaits with an added curly tail and straights. this way I was able to cover the area more precisely and keep the lure in the strike zone, in this case being close to the bottom as the tide was ebbing and the current intensified. I got the best results by casting 'upcurrent' and parallel to the rock-wall, working the lure with short hops on the bottom and bits of straight retrieve. Most fish would hit soon after touchdown or at the straight retrieve immediately after some 'hops'.
After catching some average fish, I got a solid take and the drag started to sing! I was using my KG Evolution Basic (2.7m, 7-23g) and it really was bent to the limit... This was a better fish and after a few runs it managed to get in a snag. I fed it some line and it soon came out, allowing me to bring it up with sharp pumps of the rod. I got a couple pics and then released this strong fighter.. It was interesting to note that the fish had some worms and parasites on it thus I suppose it hasn't been very active so far...
After that fish there was no point fishing any longer so I called it a day and went home for a nice meal.
Below some pics and videos of the action!

The first one on a metal...

And the rest on Texas rig...

Thought the larger profile might get me larger fish...

... Nope!

A good fighter!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to contact me if you fancy sampling some of this great fishing!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g.
Reel: Daiwa Freams 2500
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.0
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader FC 20lbs
Lures: metals with teasers and brass n glass Texas rigged softplastics.

On the rocks of Neist...

Yesterday was another beautiful day here and I was glad that it was my day off! The wind was coming from the East and thus I thought it was time to visit the most well known mark on the Island...
In fear of the previous monster encounter at the last session I got the old gun out! (Tica Seha Graphite, 2.7m, 1/4oz1/2oz) a rod that's been with me for a long time and still going strong after some serious use and abuse...  I don't use this rod too much these days as its super-fast and lacks real finesse, but never thought of selling it either as there are times that it proves very useful. It is supposedly rated up to 1/2oz but in reality its a 10g-30g rod. I love my Japanese-actioned rods, be they seabass, mebaru, ajing etc but I don't think that most Japanese seabass rods cut it for serious pollock fishing, such as we have here. It would've been awesome if the Japanese had a similar species as they would probably have designed dedicated rods for them by now...!
Contrary to typical sea-loch marks (deep channels with rough edges, basins, deep rocky passes) most marks here are usually shallower and the Kelp is just thick everywhere and makes fish extraction much more difficult. Needless to say about the substantially larger fish sizes as well... Thus I'm on the lookout for a beefier yet still 'finessy' and sensitive enough  rod to allow the use of more delicate presentations. Until the time I find it though, the old gun will suffice!
And today it did just that. I fished mostly with 20g metals and added a sabiki teaser further up the leader as I heard of early mackerel showing up and wanted to maximise my chances.
I was fishing at about the high tide mark and I was soon in to some plumb coalfish... One of them was around 2lbs and put up a very energetic fight, although with a locked drag it couldn't do too much... On the LRF rods though it would've been a fight to remember!

A nice coalie.

I soon started getting double shots of coalies and pollock on the rig but most were of a small size. It took another 30mins when the tide was starting to move again till I got some better fish. Most bar one hit the metal jig and the vast majority of bites came O.T.D or soon after touchdown. Moreover although the fish were evidently in some numbers, they weren't feeding very aggressively as I had lots of missed takes and tentative bites. Their fights were largely unspectacular as well and this can only be due to the 'skinny' condition of these fish and the still cold water. Under the sun though, it was a glorious day and I was catching!

Double pollock!

A decent one on the teaser.

Bar of copper...

Best one of the day..

 After a while the bites started to dry up as the flow intensified and I thought it was time to move to another spot. Other than a coalie though I got nothing more and decided to call it a day and go get a bevy as I had quite alot of sun...
Below a video of most of the action, check out the doubles!

I think that this was about as much good weather we could get, so I'll probably be fishing in the rain and wind next week, I just hope that the fish play along!
Please don't forget to hit me up if you would like to sample some of the fishing here!

Tight Lines

Gear used.
Rod: Tica Seha Graphite, 2.7m, 1/4oz-1/2oz (10-30g actual)
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX40
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5
Leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 20lbs
Lures: 20g metal jigs with added sabiki teaser on the leader.