Back to reality...

This weekend was my first days off after Skye and having my brothers car in my possession, I thought of doing a bit of driving around to assess how some new areas might fare.  Moreover I was expecting some good fishing as the weather seems to be holding up pretty well still.
A while back I had seen a video on YouTube by a fellow lure angler on the East coast at a very interesting rocky mark there. What surprised me was the good number of codling he caught there and after a bit of googling I learned more about the mark. The mark is near Fast castle and after asking my friend Scott about it, he told me that the descent was tricky but that only made it more attractive to me!
Thus on Saturday morning I made the drive to Fast castle and after a really hairy descent I arrived at the mark. The East coast really has some imposing rock marks! Almost vertical cliffs forming sharp fingers and deep gullies with kelp and some sparse reef further out. The bottom was usually sandy/clear  further out and harder close in. Half awake from the early wake up and drowsy from the long road I couldn't bother to retie a new snap, using the one that I had since Skye and just put on a 12g cheburashka with a 10cm Sakura Slit shad. After the first few 'exploratory' short casts, I made a long one, aiming for a buoy of some lobster/crab pots (good fish attractors). I let the lure sink and as soon as it touched down I had a fish on! I felt it thumping and thrashing while taking slow drag (typical cod fight) and then it all went slack! As I retrieved the line it became apparent that the knot had weakened and gave way... I hate those moments when it feels like I never learn! lol
The fish felt really good and was gutted not to land it as I'm really hoping to get my first proper cod (over 5lbs) this year.
I kept casting and working various paddletails but the bites were sparse and the fish wouldn't commit. It seems that this prolonged good weather period did more bad than good...
I then tried with a more finesse approach using a 4" stickbait mounted on a 3/0 offset EWG hook and connected to a 5g Crazyg lead head that I found lying in the bottom of my bag. These lead heads are in essence the Japanese take on cheburashkas and because of their shape they give a nice, tight, side to side wobble to the lure. Thus I could get extra distance on the cast and also have an attractive movement to the lure. This seemed to work somewhat better and I managed two average pollock before getting hit by a much better fish. This one made a screeching run and cut me off fair and square on some sharp rocks! It seemed that this wasn't my day..

Beautiful scenery..

Not much of a castle really..

Cliffs..

I love the rocks!

Presentation of the day.

A most welcome pollock.

After the lost fish, the bites stopped and it was time to make my ascent as I was going to meet up with a fellow Greek angler and fish the Torness power station outflow. The way up was much trickier and tiring than the way down (definitely getting a rope next time) and I reached the car being out of breath.
I drove down to the power station where I met up with my friend and after trying our luck with the lrf gear (having a few knocks but no fish) we decided to move to the rocks of Eyemouth. Another good looking mark with the negative of being very close to a populated area and thus pressured. I was confident that my friend would get his first pollock or codling, but other than a possible  pollock that reefed my friend we just couldnt get any fish from the bottom. It was a different story near the surface as big shoals of mackerel were pushing fry up. Getting fed up with the bottom fishing and since I haven't had a proper mackerel fry since the start of the season, I switched to my MC Solpara and the lrf gear and targeted the mackerel instead. I ended up keeping 6 fish and releasing some more but I could easily have spent the whole day catching mackerel there... So much fun! My friend only managed 2 mackerel but lost them both at his feet. I told him not to worry though as in the end we split the fish and I promised to show him my western marks soon where he will definitely catch his first pollock and codling. Moreover he was really impressed with the lrf gear and he is even thinking of 'converting'. How can anyone not like LRF?

Torness outflow..

Did a bit of blenny bashing too..

Airborne!

On the next day I wasn't feeling very well but still decided to visit a sea-loch that I have been postponing  fishing there for a long time. Loch Long is the closest sea-loch to me and I would be delighted if it turned out to be a worthwhile destination.
After the short drive I stopped at some well known dive sites where there are supposedly plenty of fish and admittedly the marks looked very fishy. I was hoping to get some wrasse and started by using small creatures on a jika rig. This started getting bites, some wrassy but more from small codling and also poor cod from the deeper areas but no decent fish would commit. I then switched to a 2.5" Keitech Live Impact on the same rig and finally got a positive bite and a fish on.
Straight on from the fight I new it was a wrasse and after a bit of coaxing out of some weeds I got a lovely ballan up. I kept fishing the same area but the bites dried up and had to move. I walked to another mark close by and managed a codling on a cheburashka with the same lure but not much else. It could have been the day but in all it felt as if the loch should hold more life than it does. Moreover I wanted to check the amount of life by throwing the guts from the previous days mackerel and I only saw a couple wrasse and smaller fish whereas in Loch Fyne I the whole place was teeming with fish.. Definitely too early for making any assumptions and I will have to try and fish some harder-to-reach marks as the fishing pressure is evident from all the discarded fishing line and anglers-related garbage...

Loch Long

Looks promising but need to find less pressured marks.

Lovely ballan on jika rig.

Loch Long codling..

On Monday the weather turned and the winds picked up. Not really feeling up for a wet and miserable session or a long drive, I decided to head to the Forth and Clyde canal to play with the little jacks..
Ever willing they obliged and I got a few on weedless softplastics and a minnow, after loosing some fish on the weedless presentation.

Aggressive little jack.

They really liked the minnow.

Definitely an anticlimax from my Skye trip but only to be expected.. Not all bad though as I believe the new marks (especially on the East coast) have good potential and weather permitting I will visit them again next week. At least Ill get some more mackies to play with and eat!

Thanks for reading and Tight lines

Gear used
Various.