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.
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| A perfect start to the day. |
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| Magical... |
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| Slow jigs were very successful but I lost most of them.. |
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| Salty Bait/senko combo.. |
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| 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.
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| A hard fighter. |
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| Such a fun fish to catch.. |
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| Very aggressive. |
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| These teeth! |
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| A predator from the deep. |
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| Cant escape them on Skye! |
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| 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
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| The shoreline near Duntulum. |
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| A nice coalie. |
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| Supper! |
Below some videos.
Tight lines.
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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