A sunny day..

As the title says today was a lovely day and this coincided with my day off so there was only one place for me to go... The previous week saw me visit loch Fyne again, but the weather was truly atrocious (as it has been for most of February). This almost led me to my first blank on the saltwater since.. I cant remember when! But thankfully a switch to the 'pure' LRF gear brought me a lone codling and saved the day.. Today though it was gonna be a different story.
Although I have another two days off this week, I decided to go fishing today as the weatherman said that the gale-force winds that have been prevalent for weeks would subside towards mid-day and the sun would make an appearance as well. Moreover the strong winds will pick up again tomorrow so there was really no other option..
I arrived at the loch around 11:00. It was sunny but still cold (7-8C), around the low tide mark and with a stiff westerly wind. I started fishing on the left arm of the mark using 12g cheburashka with a #2 offset hook and some new scented paddletails around 3". These baits were also UV and I was intrigued about their effectiveness.
Surprisingly I got hit on the first cast and a decent pollock came up after a 'dirty' but short fight. Following this, I got some subtle bites and then another slightly better pollock O.T.D. I was hoping the action would get even better but in fact it slowed down. I was still getting some interest and fish (mostly codling) here and there but it wasn't until later in the day and after changing spots and returning to my starting point, that the fishing picked up. The tide was on the ebb again and I noticed some fellow anglers were getting coalies on the feathers. After locating the depth they were feeding (almost bottom) with my cheburashka/soft plastic and seeing that they were in a chasing mood, I changed to an 8g metal tied with a rapala knot (ran out of snaps!) and I observed that it had an even more 'open' action this way, so I could now work the lure even slower.
The takes didn't take long to materialise and soon I was getting among the coalies, though they were smaller than the ones I encountered a few weeks back. I lost a few on the way up and then lost the lure on a snag. I reverted to cheburashka and managed a nice pollock OTD but then lost the cheburashka as well... Frustrated I tied another metal jig on a rapala knot and proceeded in catching another small pollock and then the best one of the day, again OTD.

First cast!

Glistening in the sun.

Codling always there, in good or bad weather.

A GT-coalie?!

They don't fight as hard as in the summer but they're always welcome!

A decent fish..

These were the first pollock of the year on metals and I'm starting to reconsider my opinion about these lures being mostly effective in the warmer months. I believe that the slower way of working them (almost like softplastics) along with a wider shape (slow jigs) could be very effective even in the early season.
Something else that became evident throughout the late winter is that most fish (except maybe the crazy coalies!) wouldn't fight as hard as in the warmer months. Of course this is to be expected due to the lower water temperatures.
Another slightly more surprising observation is how fine-tuned these fish are with the weather and conditions above. Despite living in these deep (40m+) basins and natural harbours, without experiencing the large swells and storms of the open sea, they seem to be affected by the changes in wind/sunlight and other factors almost instantaneously... For example today, the action was slow during mid-day when the sun was at its brightest and the wind was strong. But as soon as the sun went down along with the wind in late afternoon the fish became active again.
It appears that we are really in spring mode now and things are starting to happen.. I'm getting ready for the season with new supplies but I had to limit the amount of reels I had as some of them were getting very little use. Thus I am now left with only four (!) covering from LRF to heavy spinning. Moreover, I'm planning to get a baitcaster for pike fishing and hopefully I will stop there...!

Below are all the fish caught on my two previous sessions and as you can see it was tough going..

My hand was almost frostbitten!

Last week's blank saver...

 Hopefully that was enough of the slow fishing and the weather will start behaving itself more..

Thanks for reading and 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: Scented and UV 3" paddletails on cheburashka and metal jigs