Finally a sunny day!

Woke up yesterday and looking out my window I realised that there was no rain and no wind! It has been pretty bad for the past few weeks although the temperature seems to be relatively high for this time of year. Anyway having finally gotten some days off I didn't need more encouragement to pack the gear in the car and go. Destination was Loch Fyne and I would fish with the LRF gear again. I didn't expect things to have changed so I would follow similar tactics as in last time. Namely a carolina rig with a 7g brass bullet weight, 8mm glass bead, #1 Decoy RS worm 101 hook and this time the lures were mostly dark, slim paddltetails as the water was crystal clear.
I arrived at the mark maybe an hour before high tide, and it was going to be a big tide as my spot was already covered by water...
I started casting my rig around the point and focused on bottom work at distance first and then changing to more OTD and steady retrieve tactics as things were slow on the bottom. A few casts in and I got my first bite on a steady retrieve after a couple tugs with the rod tip to get some noise going. The fish put up a good little scrap but was soon landed. Only a small pollock but much better than the micro ones from last time! This bite kept until the high tide mark with a few pollock caught on the same way. They would hit as soon as the lure passed a ledge or rocks they were staging. I also had a couple OTD fish and bites showing that the fish were pretty up for it for this time of the year...

Finally!

Much better than last time!

They seem healthy as well still.

I then decided to move to the second point and play with the codling but after a couple hours there and with the weather starting to change, I got only a couple codling-like missed bites and a lovely short spinned sea scorpion. It comes to me that most times I encounter them, the codling are quiet. Possible preference for less competition?

I Love sea scorpions!

Stunning...

On the upside, I met a fellow lure angler and member of The Lure Forum on the second point and we had a good chat and a lovely coffee that he generously offered. Joe fishes Loch Fyne regularly with heavier gear and had lost a good fish today that took him to the rocks. Nevertheless he sounded as pleased as me for going out and enjoying the day. Moreover he owns a boat and has kindly invited me to join him on a trip when the weather is a bit better. Now that would really be cool!
It really was a lovely day to be out and I needed it. Although the codling didn't play ball, the pollock more than made up for it plus I always enjoy catching the sea scorpions. The brass and glass combo either in carolina or texas rig seems to do the job well and for the second time I noticed that I had very limited losses. Possibly 2 rigs, which for this mark is very good. In addition I only had a couple missed bites and for that I think that the extra sharp Decoy RS worm 101 hook played an important role.
Below the video with the pollock action.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid 0.3PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
lure: 2.5"-3" dark slim paddletails on a carolina or texas rig with a 7g brass bullet weight, 8mm glass bead and #1 Decoy RS worm 101 hook.

Brass and glass carolina day.

It has been too long since my last fishing session (and blog post for that matter) as the worsening weather, increased workload and lack of car conspired against me... Things are looking up recently though as I finally managed to get myself a car and today nothing was going to stop me from going fishing! Not even the rain, sleet and 20-30 mile winds that I encountered...
The past month, even though I wasn't fishing, I didn't stay idle either.. I purchased various bits and pieces of fishing gear to try and also sent the heavier reels for service.
One bit of gear I bought were some brass bullet weights along with a pack of glass beads from Aliexpress. Now you can find both of these items from UK and European sellers but especially the brand named ones are ridiculously expensive!
What I noticed from last winter especially, was that while the fish were there at the marks I fish, most of the time they would be fairly fussy and needed something 'extra' to get their attention and make them commit.
After watching some fellow Japanese HRF anglers targeting greenling (tohoku) with big golden coloured brass sinkers, I thought that they could work for our species too so I gave them a go today.
Since Ive sent the larger reels for service, I decided to use a LRF setup namely my Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI paired with my Shimano Biomaster 1000fb.

Blinky presentation.

I took it easy in the morning and only arrived at Loch Fyne around 13:00. It was high tide and the weather was terrible but there were transitions of calmness and even spells of sunshine amidst the wind and rain. I fished at both points of the harbour and got into fish straight away! It was a joy feeling a fish on the end of my line once again! A shoal of baby pollock were hanging near the ledge just before the deeper water and they would attack my lure (jackall I Shad 2.8") as soon as it passed through or above them.
Due to the intense wind and cold hands (time for gloves now) I missed a few bites.. Nevertheless it became apparent that the bottom fish weren't very active and I then moved to the other side of the harbour, where the codling are usually more concentrated. Unfortunately the wind had reduced the water clarity and also didn't allow for long casts and thus I only managed one decent codling that gave me a very good scrap and a couple small pollock

A bleak day..

First fish!

A decent scrapper!

It was interesting to note the lack of coalies as I would have loved to play with them a bit!
Anyway, It was a relatively pleasant short session despite the bad weather and I hope to repeat it soon before Christmas.
The brass and glass combo did seem to attract fish easily but I will need to have more sessions with them. Another interesting point is  that I didn't loose a single rig today! I could have been just lucky although I believe that the brass sinker's larger mass and less density may have had something to do with this..

Tight Lines!

Gear used.

Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid 0.3PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
lure: 2.8" Jackall I Shad on a carolina rig with a 6g brass bullet weight and glass bead.