Mackies are in!

Below some videos of my recent sessions with the most recent taking place at Loch Fyne.

I visited the loch along with my friend Scott from something-fishy-going-on blog as he wanted to catch some extra species for his species-hunt. Me instead was looking forward to encountering the first mackerel of the year that should be there by now.
We reached the loch in the morning and couldn't have asked for better weather (for once!). We picked a mark on its northern shore with a good depth and smooth though weedy bottom. Scott decided to fish inside of the bay while I headed straight for the rocks on a point nearby where I would have the best chance of success.
I fished metals in combination with tiny soft plastic teasers and the fish didn't take long to show up! In the first few casts I had a mayhem of double catches of serious 1lb+ mackerel pushing 40cms... Some escaped but I didn't care as they were giving me all the fun I wanted! After catching about 5-6 of them (in like 10 mins) I decided to head back and change rods to my lrf one (Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI) that would surely increase the fun factor exponentially. Moreover I fished a single metal and crushed the barb on the single hook as I wasn't intending on keeping more fish.
Unsurprisingly, by the time I went back to the point the fish seemed to have moved on with only a few smaller ones left behind that still went well on the Crostage! A few trout came to play along with a lonely codling and I then decided to head back to see how Scott was faring and take a brake.
 Scott was catching loads of interesting small fish with plenty of dabs, gobies and sea scorpions but not the dragonets he really wanted.. I played around with the little fish catching a launce, baby whiting and baby codling on the metal/teaser combo before giving up and laying in the grass for some rest.
I got a kip there under the sun and after waking up I re-visited the point. The water was very low now (big tides) and there were no mackerel about. Instead I targeted the trout and after a few bumps I got hit by a solid fish on a cheap Chinese metal jig! I could see it was a good trout as it was swimming fast left and right and then jumped and spat the lure! Well that's trout fishing I guess...
Sorry for the luck of pics but my phone didn't wanna play ball.
All in all a very enjoyable day and we are now planning with Scott a session in Linnhe for the chance of cuckoo wrasse and ling...

Tight lines and hope you enjoy the vids!

A good comeback!

After returning from my holidays the only thing on my mind was getting back up the lochs as the weather got a bit better. I got my chance a couple days ago on Wednesday. I took the bus up to Oban and my brother picked me up from there. I then got the car off him as he was going to work and drove straight away to Loch Linnhe at my mark in Kentallen. It was low tide by now but the weather was nice and I was hoping for some quick action. Moreover I wanted to try some new cheapo metals I got from Aliexpress and was determined to fish mainly with them.
I had only my travel rods with me and started fishing with the Savagear roadrunner XLNT 7', 3-16g. It took a while to get bites but I soon had a decent fish on the jig. It was clear that it was a codling and after trying to snag me a couple times I finally got it up. I then changed lure to a smaller metal (again cheapo!) thinking that the fish might want a smaller profile and I also slowed down the retrieve. This resulted in a couple sharp bites and after striking I had something small but feisty on the end of my line. It soon proved to be my first cuckoo wrasse of the year! After the cuckoo I changed spot moving along the coastline  but only got a small pollock for my efforts. This didn't really surprise me as this mark tends to fire up towards the end of summer..

Chunky codling from Linnhe..

..on a cheapo yet effective metal.

First cuckoo of the year, on a metal..

The usual suspect...

It was getting late in the day by now and I decided to move to Loch Etive and continue fishing there.
I switched to soft plastics as the mark is more suited to them, but other than a few small pollock on 3" sluggos fished O.T.D nothing else showed. I was sure that in the morning things would be different though...
I slept in the car and woke up around 07:00. I picked up the UL setup (Spro Mobile Stick - Shimano Stradic 1000fc) and rigged my trusted ZX 35 blade on. I wasn't very optimistic about the blade pattern still holding on and was proven right as I only got a couple subtle takes but no hook ups on them.. I then switched to a 6g cheburashka and 3" scented paddletails and started to get bites. They were mostly from small pollock and I was surprised not to get a better one among them. I was getting frustrated after a while but at some point I got hit hard  midway on the retrieve by something good! It took some line and got the mobile stick on a full curve and it then did something unusual... It swam fast towards the surface (!), I saw a familiar though un-pollocklike shape coming up and then jumping clean out of the water! A nice Etive trout took a liking to my shad and after a couple more jumps I brought her in.. Its been a while since I caught such a nice trout and of course I wouldn't expect to catch her in Etive! She was around 40cm and quite plump and the best part is that I also got the fight on camera and will post the video soon...
After the trout and while the tide was coming in fast I decided to walk towards the northern part of the Loch at another mark that I haven't fished since last year. I stuck with the cheburashka/shad combo and after a 20min walk I was fishing the new mark. On the first cast I let the lure sink with free line and started hoping it across the bottom. This mark is where a sudden depth change takes place as its a transition from a relatively shallow ledge to a bluff rock wall. I had great success last year targeting pollock and especially codling that hunt on the ledge or station just on its lip. As I was bringing the lure in and almost at the base of the rocks, i got hit by something decent. It made a slow but powerful run and then bore down with headshakes. After a couple minutes a nice rock-codling was brought up and released back to the loch after a quick photo. The mark change seemed to be bearing fruit and I persisted on the spot with the same presentation. Some more codling and pollock started to show and provided me with excellent entertainment! And all fish caught from a small area, goes to show how important knowing the bottom structure can be...

OTD with light jigheads and slims can be the best way for finicky fish..

Unexpected trout!

Fat codling..

Beautiful colours of kelp pollock..

Even small codling go for big lures..

Hungry pollock...

The time was going by fast and I had to stop fishing unfortunately as I was gonna return with my brother to Glasgow. Of course I didn't stop fishing before a number of 'last casts' took place and then I got hit hard by a steam train! Although my setup was UL/LRF I have caught plenty of good fish on it to know that this was something special... The first run was frenetic and truly uncontrollable.. Then the fish slowed down and changed direction coming higher in the water column. Another crazy run and the braid parted! I was left speechless and in awe... I believe that the culprit was either a supercharged pollock or perhaps something with an adipose fin... Hate it when I don't get the chance to at least see the fish that defeat me! I should have inspected the braid as it could easily have weakened somewhere after all those fish...Loch Etive is a magic place where you never know what you could catch next! Obviously I cant wait till I'm back there again..

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL, Savagear roadrunner XLNT 7', 3-16g
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc, Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: YGK G-soul x3 PE 0.4,  Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs. YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
lure: metals and 3" paddletails on cheburashka. 3" sluggos on 1.8g wheelhead for OTD.

A bit of LRF in the Aegean!

Today I returned from a week-long holiday back home in Greece. Although this was most certainly not a fishing trip, still the little Spro mobile stick found its way among my stuff along with a newly acquired yet used Shimano Biomaster 1000fb and naturally I had a couple sessions in some of my old haunts... Unbelievably the bad weather followed me there and I didn't manage a single outing on freshwater. Moreover the sea-fish seemed to be affected as well from all that rain but thankfully LRF gear and tactics helped me have some fun!
One particular session stands out as I fished with my cousin Kyriakos, something we haven't done in a while, and catching a good number of fish. It was a long time since I taught him the basics but he soon put that knowledge to good use, managing plenty of painted and plain combers along with an annular sea bream. He was using cheburashka with isome and generally soft plastics while I was using metals, blades and soft plastics as well in the end. This saw me catching loads of painted combers, with the blades and small paddletails being the most effective lures while I lost something much bigger (grouper or snapper probably) on the ZX blade that didn't stick. Towards sundown I got a couple sea-bass on a 2" white Jackall Peke Peke on a Crazyg jighead. But also got a nice hit on a popper just a couple meters away from my feet without a hookup though..
What impressed us was the good size of some of the painted combers along with their expanded bellies so I'm guessing that they could still be spawning! In the end of June?!
Some pics below and a video will follow soon.

A perfect rock mark..

Painted comber will take a large variety of lures..

Chunky goby from the shallows..

Beautiful!

A happy lrfer!

Double hook-up!

A perfect target for Mebaring and Kurodai tactics..

Match the hatch.. If you look closely...

Baby goldblotch grouper

Two banded sea bream on isome..

Most of them with expanded bellies...

A bit of silver..

A good little fighter..

A serious painted comber..

A nice little break from the hustle and bustle of the city and although the weather yet again messes up my plans, I still thoroughly enjoyed my trip! Now I'm curious to see what July brings...


Tight Lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000 fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid PE 0.4
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs
lure: various

A couple more vids..

Just a couple clips of the sessions before my holidays..

Enjoy!

Thought it was June, not November...

This week I was determined, even without a car, to get a bus and go to Etive yet again. The weather wasn't looking good but I was determined to get among the pollock that should finally be there in numbers...
Well thankfully my mate Ronnie wanted to do the same and so yesterday morning we set off.
On the way to the loch the weather was getting worse and worse. On reaching the mark we were greeted with strong winds and rain. Temperature was around 8 C!
We knew it was gonna be bad and we came prepared with waterproofs but it was even worse than the weatherman predicted! Nevertheless I started fishing blades and trying hard to control them in this wind and after a while I started catching some fish. They weren't of any great size but this raised our hopes that a larger fish would show with perseverance.. Unfortunately this didn't happen, and after a few hours we had enough so we decided to head down to our usual banker mark in loch Fyne.
The weather was a little better there and we got catching fish straight away.. What surprised me was the great depth that most fish were coming from and that some of the pollock still had worms on them. Moreover the number of pollock was relatively limited comparing to codling, that we caught quite a few of. This seems to me to be because of the bad weather that I find  affects the pollock much more than codling and coalies. In any case we caught a good number of fish with some nice codling among them and also lost a couple that got stuck on the way up.
As they say, a day fishing beats a day at home anytime!
Some pics below and a video will come soon.

The largest pollock on the blade...

Lovely looking codling...

On a softie..

Pretty coalie.

Cheburashka kills codling!

A poor cod from the deep on the slow jig..

They are leaner here comparing to the East coast ones..

Red coding are stunning..

I'm not sure I will be heading up in Etive again, unless the weather greatly improves before my holidays back home in two weeks time. I want to try loch Long soon and I'm hoping I will be able to find some productive marks there as its so much closer to Glasgow and I can reach it easily either by train or bus!

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI, MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc, Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: YGK G-soul x3 PE 0.4,  Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
Leader: Sunline FC guide special fluorocarbon, 6lbs doubled up. YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
Lure: ZX35, metal jigs, paddletails on cheburashka.

Little trip to the East coast.

Having not fished last week and with no sight of a new car at least for this month, I didn't know what to do in order to get fishing... Thankfully Scott asked me if i wanted to join him and some pals for a session on the East coast. I was to take the train and they would meet me in Edinburgh before setting off. Obviously I accepted and yesterday morning took the train to Waverley with my gear. Scott and his friend Naz waited for me near the station and we set off to pick up Nick. Our destination was a rock-mark near Eyemouth.
The weather was overcast, relatively mild with westerlies that would aid our casting although we weren't sure if the fish would like it. Moreover it was meant to rain after 15:00 so we wanted to make the most of the fishing on the rocks and move to a harbour afterwards.
On arrival the mark was looking very inviting. Abrupt cliffs and reefs close in with deep water (for eastern standards) and kelp. The whole coastline seems to be like this and it reminded me of my Northeastern trip last year. I love the sealochs but the wild and rugged beauty of these cliff-marks is to be admired as well.
The tide had started to go out and we soon got perched on the rocks and started casting mainly metals in the gullies and around the reefs in front of us. I started with something different as I knew there were lots of coalies around but wanted to try for something better at first. Thus I put on my trusty salty bait inchiku jig with the 3" Gulp sandeel and started casting and letting it sink to the bottom.
I was surprised not to get any hits in the bottom (the sea lochs have spoiled me!) and in the end I got hit in mid-water by a decent coalie. I then switched to normal metal jigs that I recently changed their trebles with VMC Siwash open eye single hooks. These hooks proved very useful as you just pinch the eye closed with some pliers and you don't need to fiddle with split rings etc. Moreover they are sharp and give a good hook-hold so first impressions are good.
I covered the whole water column with my jigs but it proved to be a slow day, although I managed some nice coalies that have recently become slightly harder to find on the sea lochs. Moreover their coalies here seem much more plumb and of a good size... After a couple hours I decided to move to a more secluded area. The water was starting to gain speed now and I could see a rip forming near a little reef close by. There were also some buoys of crab/lobster pots there, something that I always find worth fishing around as they attract fish as well. I moved over and had some more coalies before connecting with something near the bottom. It was definitely a codling from the way it was fighting and typically after trying to snag me up I got it up. On the next cast near the same area I got hit again in the same fashion and another codling was on the end of my line. This one felt much heavier though and it started taking line against my relatively tight drag. Then it all went loose and I was cursing myself for not loosening the drag as I though the fish had busted me. On inspection I realised that the knot failed and in retrospect I should have used the doubled line leader as I did last time... Anyway I made a short clip of the day below..

And some pics:

Fishy rock-mark!

Very interesting rock formations..

Lovely coalie.

They got some chunky codling over there...

We were surprised by the lack of pollock and in all it felt to me that things in the East coast are a couple months behind the sea lochs, as it was back in February and March that I was catching mostly codling and coalies there. Moreover it became evident again how much more important tide and current are here as fish move around much more than in the sea lochs.
It was a very enjoyable day despite the slow fishing and after the rain started me and Naz took it easy and even got a lovely fish and chips from Eyemouth before meeting up with Scott and Nick again. We then had a go for small sea trout and salmon in the harbour and also for flatties in St Abbs harbour. The tide was all out by then though and I only managed to miss a bite from one Scott pointed out to me. He then caught one (possibly the same fish) with a variation of a double carolina rig and isome. I think a visit mainly for flatties is in order as you can even sight-fish for them when the conditions are right!
Again thanks to my fellow lrfers and Scott especially I managed to get some fishing done! Hopefully we'll do this again soon..

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g.
Reel: Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
lures: 14g Sebile fast cast jigs, Duel Salty Bait with 3" Gulp sandeel.

Friends to the rescue..

Since I haven't got a car yet again I have been sitting home doing nothing and this really drives me mad! Thankfully my mate Ronnie wanted to have a go blade-baiting for the pollock up in Etive and so yesterday he picked me up with his friend John and we headed north. The day was beautiful with perfect weather and incoming tide at my mark so I was very positive that we would get among the fish..
We put on various blades on our lrf combos and started casting and working the lures near the bottom. I was expecting bites from the start but I was wrong and it proved a very slow start to the day... After about an hour or so without bites, I started getting some and after a few missed strikes (zx are tricky on hooksets) I finally landed a small pollock. I kept casting and got a couple more fish (a pollock and a codling) in quick succession although I lost a couple more who shed the hooks. The guys didn't stick with the blades but they did manage a few fish on jigs. Overall though it was very slow. I decided to have a few last casts and change presentation to a simple 4" hydrotail worm on a 3g jighead worked slowly near the bottom and this gave me a pollock from a spot we had previously worked with blades and metals showing that the fish were in a more passive mood. Thus we decided to head to Loch Fyne as we knew that the action would be much better there. On arrival the mark was looking perfect and as expected we got fish from the first casts on our metal jigs. I was using my MC Crostage CRK-T787AJI tubular tip rod as its perfect for working blades and jigs along with my little Shimano Stradic and 0.4PE line with 6lbs fluoro leader. Knowing that I will encounter reasonably good fish, I thought of trying something that is mainly done in baitfishing when faced with toothy predators. This was to double up the line by making a long loop. Thus I made a rapala knot that created a loop about half the length of the leader and in the end I tied my snap by a palomar knot. This way I was hoping to have a better chance of landing the bigger fish as I could use a tighter drag setting and have better abrasion resistance in the critical last meters of the leader. Moreover this allows to get some of the leader back in case of a snag instead of just using heavier line for leader that usually gets cut on the leader knot or on the braid as the leader is stronger. I also find it more practical than tying a second thicker leader on the existing one... The session continued by pulling out fish after fish, the vast majority of them being small pollock along with a few codling and poor cod.We kept at this pace until sundown really enjoying ourselves with the non-stop action even though no large fish were caught.

The doubled up leader.

They preferred flash today..

ZX 35 does the damage..

A nice 'agro' looking codling on the blade.

Fish wanted finesse in the end..

Metals rule in Fyne!

Double hook-up with Ronnie. Had quite a few of those throughout the day...

Tried some little creatures too...

...and cheburashka of course.

Nice codling towards the end of the day..

In the end of the day and even though I pulled numerous fish out of the kelp and rocks, the doubled up leader seemed to have worked. It was frayed but held up much better than normal. Certainly I will try it again next time..
From what we observed it seems that fish definitely need a few more days or a couple weeks of good weather to show up in numbers in Etive. There were definitely more of them than last time but it still doesn't feel as good as it should be.. Loch Fyne was teeming with fish but you have to go through thousands of the little ones to get some better fish.
All in all a most welcome session and I thank my friends Ronnie and John for it. Hope to find a new car soon though before I go mad!

Tight Lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc
Mainline: YGK G-soul x3 PE 0.4
Leader: Sunline FC guide special fluorocarbon, 6lbs doubled up.
Lure: ZX35, metal jigs, hydrotail worms/paddletails on cheburashka.