Isle of Skye September 2015 Expedition. Day 2.

I woke up early next morning to be greeted by a fantastic view. The sun hadn't risen yet but everything looked perfect for a good start to the days fishing. I headed off on foot towards a peninsula that I saw on Google earth just a short walk away from the bay I was fishing the day before. The peninsula was more or less rectangular in shape and jutting out towards the northeast. I started fishing on the eastern point as it was overlooking a secondary bay adjacent to the one from yesterday. Although there was little wind, the sea was a bit rough and in these conditions I prefer fishing in sheltered spots as I believe pollock favour them then.

I could see baitfish on the bayside area of the point and I knew the pollock wont be far.

I started with metals and the pollock were on them form the start! The average stamp of these fish was around 3lbs but there were bucket loads of them and they fought hard and dirty.. The depth here was not great, maybe 6-7m at the end of the cast but the bottom was covered with kelp. I lost a few of my conventional metals and decided a Salty Bait/senko combo would be more suitable for this situation, as its relatively weedless, rises fast on the retrieve and offers a larger profile so that it could sort the bigger fish out.

And that it did getting a few good fish before something much larger got it and cut me off! This was going to happen again after I tied a 5" stickbait on a weighted 5g offset hook. The biggest mistake of this trip was not taking a thicker diameter leader fluorocarbon. Most of the marks here are very different to the layout of my marks in the sea-lochs and there's little room for true finesse and light game.. Although the 10lbs fluoro leader was adequate for the majority of fish, there were more instances that I would have liked were a thicker (just slightly say 12-15lbs) line would make things easier and decrease my losses.

From that point onward I tried to double up some length of my leader by making a loop and this did help a lot.

A perfect start to the day.

Magical...

Slow jigs were very successful but I lost most of them..

Salty Bait/senko combo..

Pollock love stick baits.

After loosing the two fish and also my only 5" senko as well as one of my two 10g Salty Baits (ouch!) I decided to move towards the northwestern point as it seemed deeper and also relatively protected by a small island. I picked the most forward looking rock to stand on and put on a 3" Crazy-Fish Vibro Worm (UV and scented) mounted on a #2 offset hook with a 16g cheburashka. I made a long cast and was surprised at the depth of the mark as it took more than 40 seconds to reach bottom. Moreover the current was strong and I could feel my lure moving very slowly. This seemed more familiar...

I started getting short 'snappy' bites and I was certain of the culprit. Cuckoo wrasse..

I sped up the lure as I didn't want to hook them in such deep water and was aiming for something better. As the lure reached closer I started a steady retrieve to bring it higher in the water column. This saw a fish attack and drag started singing! This felt like a very good fish and took line at will, but as I was fighting from an almost vertical angle, the fight was much easier to control and after a few more runs I got the fish up. I took a pic and quickly threw it back. I then got another decent fish but lost it at the base of the rocks I was standing, as I couldn't dislodge it from the kelp.

Having had enough of the pollock I drew my attention to the bottom species and started targeting the cuckoos. I would bring them in very slowly so they wouldn't puff up so easily. I caught a good number of females along with a lovely male over a pound. Such a beautiful fish!

In amongst the cuckoos I got a different take and a more solid 'cod-like' fight and was delighted to bring up a ling! My first for 2015. Always a joy catching these.

Apart from the cheburashka I also used my 30g Salty Bait tipped with a Gulp sandeel and this made the cuckoos even more willing to bite. of course I couldn't avoid the pollock altogether and some more were caught in surprisingly deep water. This caused problems with their revival and one fish wouldn't make it so I kept it.

A hard fighter.

Such a fun fish to catch..

Very aggressive.

These teeth!

A predator from the deep.

Cant escape them on Skye!

Vibrant colours worked well in the deep water.

I decided to head back to the car for a snack and also to scout another likely looking area for closing the day. After a bit of driving I reached Duntulum  where the area looks good with cliffs and kelpy bays. I took my medium gear and fished some rocks and around boulders for wrasse but I only got a couple finicky plucks before switching to metals. A few average pollock and some nice coalies later and I decided to head off as I was going to spend the night in a hostel at Broadford and I had a good hours drive ahead of me. I would have preferred somewhere much closer but I didn't realise that Skye is still busy with tourists this time of year and almost everywhere was fully booked or very expensive!

On the way back I stopped at Portree and had my fish battered and fried at the chippy there. It was a great ending to a good days fishing as its hard beat fresh fish and chips. I also attracted some more customers to the chippy after they thought that the fish comes in that size.. lol

The shoreline near Duntulum.

A nice coalie.

Supper!

Below some videos.





 



 Tight lines.

Gear used.
Rods: MC KG Evolution, KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g. MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g.
Reels: Abu Garcia Soron STX 40. Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainlines: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5. Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
Leaders: P line Halo fluorocarbon 10lbs. YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs

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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.

Linnhe, Etive and Fyne sessions.

Once again on my days off I decided to head up to my familiar marks in the sealochs. This was not what I would've preferred at the moment as I had other plans for this time of the year but the lack of car has really limited my choices and of course fishing is fishing!
Thus I took the bus to Oban and then got picked up by my brother (not before I had some chucks in the little stream there though!), left him home and drove up to kentallen for an afternoon session there.
It was about this time last year that this mark really shone and although the session was productive, it wasn't as good as last year. something very noticeable is the scarcity of mackerel which I think is one of the reasons for the larger fish not showing up here... Still I had some codling, pollock, a ballan and a cuckoo wrasse on a combination of metals, shads on cheburashkas and stickworms.

An urban trout..

Lovely ballan on Linnhe..

Codling on the inchiku.

Love getting them on stickbaits!

Well hooked.

After a good few hours I got in the car and drove to loch Etive where I usually spend the night. I had a few casts around but it was already dark and other than a couple finicky bites I got nothing.
On the morning, things got much better and I lost a good fish on the first few casts that took the braid over a rock ledge. I think over-confidence by me was the main factor for loosing that fish though. I then decided to hike towards the northern part of the loch as there are some marks that I wanted to try there. The weather was turning noticeably more sour by the hour but I was hoping that the fish would still show. I stopped on the first mark were I had done well last time and the fish were there! I had some nice pollock and a few small codling until they stopped biting. I was surprised by not getting more codling as they are usually found in good numbers at the bottom of the rock ledges there..
I kept walking north and after a while reached a well known mark that surprisingly didn't give anything. I moved again towards a rocky outcrop that looked very fishy from afar, but it proved less so up-close and with shallower water than I thought. By now the wind was howling and the rain intensified and as a consequence the fishing suffered. Cant remember of a day that it wasn't like this in Etive for this Summer...
Unfortunately Ive got almost no pics from the sessions as my phone is playing up. I did manage to make two videos though from Linnhe and Etive.

A couple days later I went up to Loch Fyne (that I haven't been in a while) with a friend. This was a good opportunity to try a new rod that I bought and since the plan was to keep some fish for the pan, I decided to start with metals and a teaser tied 40cm above the lure.
The rod is a Majorcraft KG Evolution Basic KGS-902L, 7-23g, 2.70m and it was bought with my next trip to Skye in mind as well as fishing heavier metals at distance without losing the 'finesse' character that I love on my rods.. I paired it with my Abu Garcia Soron STX 40 and the balance was very good. The only think I disliked was that the reel was spooled with much heavier line than the rod is meant to have and this decreased the sensitivity and casting distance. I have now changed the line to a finer braid and I'm sure the setup will feel much better. Even though I had the heavy line, the rod still made excellent casts with the metals and I have now ordered more in the 14g-20g weights. Being Loch Fyne, the fish started coming from the off and pollock after pollock were landed. They weren't of any great size and didn't gave much of a fight on my rod, but I had set up my  friend with my spro UL mobile stick and Shimano Biomaster 1000fb combo on 3lbs flouro straight through and it was a different story on that setup! After getting a few fish I got hit on the end of a long cast and was bringing up something relatively decent when all of a sudden the fish got heavier and started taking line at an alarming rate! The runs were heavy and strong with the culprit moving near the surface and making powerful runs from side to side. The rod was bent to the maximum and drag was peeling from the reel and for a few seconds I thought I had hooked the mother of all trouts or salmon! After a few minutes of this tug of war I started slowly bringing it in and then with the help of my polaroids I realised there was a fat seal on the end of my line!! Thankfully she wasn't hooked but just holding tight to my fish and then she let go of it (the only part remaining anyway!). Obviously she must have thought that this wasn't as easy a meal as it looked! This was the first time this happened to me and hopefully the last! Nevertheless, the rod performed admirably and I seriously recommend it... lol

The serenity of Loch Fyne

Couldn't resist having a go at them with the light gear!

The lack of mackerel was evident in loch Fyne as well and I'm not so sure as to why this is so... Very disappointing as I absolutely love them on my plate! Moreover the usual masses of anglers there, were nowhere to be seen although I'm thankful for that. I didn't try much with softplastics as we didn't have much time so again no major fish (or more species) were caught. I then proceeded in gutting and cleaning our catch and soon couldn't believe the amount of fish that were attracted.. Various wrasses along with gobies, blennies and even two strap congers came to feed on the fish guts. I tried luring the eels with the Marukyu crabs but only wrasse would nibble them...
Anyway they were a very enjoyable few days but to be honest I got my eyes on a second visit to Skye in a couple weeks and I cant wait! Until then I'm sure Ill have a couple more sessions on the sea lochs or even the East Coast with my friend Scott.

Tight lines!

 Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g.
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX 40
Mainline: Varivas uper PE. 0.15mm (too thick)
leader: Pline Halo 10lbs.
lures: various