I was fishing the other day in my mark at Loch Linnhe targeting mostly small stuff on cheburashka with my newly arrived Crostage replacement tip. I was let off work early but it was almost midday already and very sunny, so I wasn't expecting anything special. Thus I used 3lbs fluoro mainline and enjoyed catching some codling and small pollock on the Crostage.
I was using some Ecogear Aqua slim soft baits to see if they would be more effective than their much cheaper Berkley Gulp counterparts. I was fishing the basin but at a smaller boulder strewn bay near a small point. There was a shelve of around 2m deep with kelp and boulders for the first 10m and then the bottom plunged rapidly after that, being relatively clean. The tide was coming in and only an hour or so till high tide. On approaching the point, instead of the usual poor cod nibbles I got a good bite and a good fish on that unfortunately took me to the kelp. I could feel the fish moving about and gave it line but the thin line parted after a while.
I considered this a fluke and persevered with the same small-fish presentation. I caught another decent pollock and landed it safely this time, and I started thinking of changing presentation although the line was too light for this kind of mark.
A couple casts later and I got the usual nibble of a poor cod and after striking I had him on. On retrieving the fish I felt a couple very sharp bumps and then I got solid resistance! It was obviously a pollock that attacked the already hooked poor cod and I didn't expect it to get hooked but as I brought the two fish in, I realised that the poor cod was only lip hooked and the hook-point was free to hook the pollock as well!
After this fish I decided to risk it with the larger lures and started using shads of around 3" on 5g jigheads. The shads had the usual big round paddle on them and this is something that in deeper marks and light jigheads. I try to avoid. The reasons being that they take too long to sink, rise too much on the retrieve and sometimes don't work properly on the fall as the jighead is too light to make them kick right. One thing I do when I encounter these situations is to modify the shads tail with a scissor, making it more rectangular in shape. This way Ive found the lure gets a tighter action and works better with light jigheads. More over on some of these paddle-tails if seen on slow motion, the tail seems to be swirling instead of the more realistic kicking from side to side and this modification improves the action in my opinion although most fish don't really mind! Bellow some pics of how I cut the tails and the rest of the fish caught on modified shads.
Tomorrow I'm planning a fishing marathon on the North coast of Scotland and weather depending I will make the long drive to fish some marks around Wick and Thurso. Hopefully Ill encounter some good fish!
Tight Lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 3lbs
Rig: cheburashka, jighead
lure: Ecogear Aqua katsu Mebaru Shirasu 2", Lunker city and Daiwa shads.
I was using some Ecogear Aqua slim soft baits to see if they would be more effective than their much cheaper Berkley Gulp counterparts. I was fishing the basin but at a smaller boulder strewn bay near a small point. There was a shelve of around 2m deep with kelp and boulders for the first 10m and then the bottom plunged rapidly after that, being relatively clean. The tide was coming in and only an hour or so till high tide. On approaching the point, instead of the usual poor cod nibbles I got a good bite and a good fish on that unfortunately took me to the kelp. I could feel the fish moving about and gave it line but the thin line parted after a while.
I considered this a fluke and persevered with the same small-fish presentation. I caught another decent pollock and landed it safely this time, and I started thinking of changing presentation although the line was too light for this kind of mark.
A couple casts later and I got the usual nibble of a poor cod and after striking I had him on. On retrieving the fish I felt a couple very sharp bumps and then I got solid resistance! It was obviously a pollock that attacked the already hooked poor cod and I didn't expect it to get hooked but as I brought the two fish in, I realised that the poor cod was only lip hooked and the hook-point was free to hook the pollock as well!
 |
| Tricky to land on the swallower/kelpy marks |
 |
| Small lures catch everything! |
 |
| The whole food chain! |
After this fish I decided to risk it with the larger lures and started using shads of around 3" on 5g jigheads. The shads had the usual big round paddle on them and this is something that in deeper marks and light jigheads. I try to avoid. The reasons being that they take too long to sink, rise too much on the retrieve and sometimes don't work properly on the fall as the jighead is too light to make them kick right. One thing I do when I encounter these situations is to modify the shads tail with a scissor, making it more rectangular in shape. This way Ive found the lure gets a tighter action and works better with light jigheads. More over on some of these paddle-tails if seen on slow motion, the tail seems to be swirling instead of the more realistic kicking from side to side and this modification improves the action in my opinion although most fish don't really mind! Bellow some pics of how I cut the tails and the rest of the fish caught on modified shads.
 |
| The usual round paddle... |
 |
| ...and the way I cut it for a tighter action. |
Tomorrow I'm planning a fishing marathon on the North coast of Scotland and weather depending I will make the long drive to fish some marks around Wick and Thurso. Hopefully Ill encounter some good fish!
Tight Lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 3lbs
Rig: cheburashka, jighead
lure: Ecogear Aqua katsu Mebaru Shirasu 2", Lunker city and Daiwa shads.
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