I have been unable to fish properly for the past couple of weeks either due to the weather being absolutely crap or by getting distracted by other commitments. I have been visiting my loch Linnhe mark close to home though and in these short sessions I started having better results and some more surprises. The mark as I've mentioned before is a narrow deep bay with boulder-covered, steep banks and plenty of kelp close in while soft bottom further out. I have always fished it on the side closest to the road but wanted to try the opposite side as well, since there's a steep point and less angling pressure. Today I finished early from my morning shift and thought it would be a good opportunity to visit the 'other side'.
From the previous sessions here, I noticed that the fish started preferring slightly larger lures than the usual 1.5"-2" ones I've been using. The pollock especially seemed locked on the slim paddletails and I'm pretty sure that's due to the sandeels being their main target now. Thus I had very good results with slim lures such as 2.75" Lunker City Swimfish and the M Ecogear grassminnows.
I started with the same presentation today and after reaching the point I started fan casting around the point in order to locate the fish. I would mix between letting the lure drop freely and also controlled in order to get bites near the bottom or OTD. The bites came quickly and I started getting decent pollock one after the other that were giving a great scrap on the Solpara!
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| Excellent fun on this size! |
I also got a few sharp bites that cut the lures tails and I then changed tactics as I knew that wrasse were about... I put on the trusty cheburashka with a #10 long shank hook rigged with a 2" Berkley Fish fry. After allowing the lure to touch bottom I quickly got bites and landed in quick succession a codling, a sea scorpion, a cuckoo wrasse and a ballan wrasse!
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| Haven't caught one in a while! |
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| Seem to be getting only females for some reason.. |
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| I love ballan wrasse! |
I missed a few more wrasse bites and I noticed that they would bite better when the lure was worked more aggressively (not faster retrieve).
I then started seeing fish breaking in the surface and targeted them instead. It was a large school of mackerel and I soon had one on the end of my line. I lost a couple and realised that the small hook didn't give me a secure enough hook hold so I changed lure to a 7g Yoshikawa little bit metal jig that would also allow me longer casts. On the first cast and as soon as the jig landed in the water I had a fish on! This one fought like a demon and for a moment I thought I hooked something very serious.. In the end I managed to land a brute of a mackerel of almost 40cm! Its the second time I catch a mackerel that big and I really wish they would get to this size more often!
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| The photo doesn't do it justice.. |
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| Dinner... |
After catching a few more mackerel I decided to head home as I was really pleased with this short session. The mark has proven once again its worth and I will soon revisit it...
Bellow are some pics of a couple previous short sessions.
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| Cuckoo wrasse are lovely.. |
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| My first dragonet! |
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| Shinny poor cod.. |
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| Gurnards are cool.. |
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| Hungry codling.. |
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| My biggest fish from this mark... |
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| Beautiful view from the 'other side'. |
All in all I think my persistence with this mark paid off and I just cant believe that it holds so many different types of fish! Hope to do some more fishing on my days off and possibly on the heavier gear for some good pollock on the deeper marks.
Thanks for reading!
Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft Solpara SPS-S792M (7'9", 0.5g-5g).
Reel: Shimano Exage 1000fc
Mainline: Spiderwire invisibraid 6lbs. Dragon fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
Rig: metal jigs, microjig, jighead
lure: Lunker City 2.75" Swimfish, Ecogear grass minnow M, Berkley Fish fry 2", 7g Yoshikawa little bit.
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