A while back I was contacted by my fellow Greekspinners forum member and Facebook friend Giorgos, that he would be in the UK for holidays and that he would really appreciate if I could take him fishing. This made me extremely happy as I love nothing more than going fishing with like minded anglers and showing off my marks! The month he selected to be in the UK though is definitely not considered prime saltwater lure fishing time... Being almost the end of January now! Nevertheless he was extremely lucky to have his arrival on Friday coincide with unseasonably warm weather, brought by strong Southwesterly winds. This window of opportunity weather wise wasn't going to last long and in similar previous occurrences I always had good results in fishing.
My main worry now was where to take him?
I knew he wanted some spectacular Scottish scenery but also he preferred to fish with the LRF gear and had to find a suitable target for him. The first target that came to my mind were of course coalies! One shoal of them and we would thoroughly enjoy ourselves but as of my last session on Loch Fyne, they still hadn't shown up there. Moreover my quarry mark there is really not considered very scenic and thus also taking the wind's direction in consideration, my thoughts turned to the East coast...
We would have the wind on our backs and I've been wanting, for a long time now, to check how it fares in the winter. Obviously not as sheltered as the sea lochs but on this occasion it wouldn't matter.
We woke up early on Sunday and packed the gear into the car. Had a coffee and made the drive to St Abbs head, arriving around 10 o clock there. High tide was around 14:00, the sea was relatively calm though the wind was threatening to sweep us off our feet! At least the casts would go a long way...!
Giorgos was very excited seeing all the cliffs and couldn't wait to start fishing.
We started on the first accessible rock ledge and put on some metals searching for the coalies. Our position was very elevated and the wind made things very difficult, but we soldiered on.. After fishing next to Giorgos for a while, I decided to move on the other side of the ledge. Not much was happening there as well so I went back to see how Giorgos was doing after some casts and break offs on snags. I found him with the rod bend over and the drag screeching! Straight away I scrambled to the rocks below him and managed to land his first Scottish fish, a plumb coalie! Needless to say he was over the moon and honestly I felt even happier that he caught a fish than I would've felt had I caught it myself!
Thinking there would be more of them around, we kept casting our metals and working the area but we saw no more signs of them. We soon decided to move to another rock ledge and after a bit of strenuous hiking we reached the spot. Unfortunately my friend wasn't wearing studded shoes and couldn't come all the way to they rocky point so he decided to fish the deep bay instead. I made my way to the tip of the rocky finger and started casting about my metal jig again without success. I saw some water birds diving though and then switched things up and tied a Texas rig with a 7g brass bullet head, glass bead and my favourite Decoy RS WORM 101 offset hooks #2. I mounted a 7,5cm dark coloured (UV) Vibro worm by Crazyfish and started making long casts and working the bottom.
I would let the lure touchdown then give it a few jerks to get some noise from the bead, and then lift and drag it on the bottom. After a few casts I got a proper take and felt some good weight on the end of my line. the fish wasn't tearing about in speed, instead moving relatively slowly but with force and thumping its head about. A typical cod fight although it wasn't meant to be long, as the fish cut me off on the bottom... I was gutted and really annoyed with myself for getting caught unprepared (only with LRF gear).. I was then further annoyed as I realised my action cam battery had died without me realising and I didn't get the action...
I retied the same rig, changed battery and after casting out got a couple sharp bites (possibly coalies) but then got snagged. Another rig and another long cast saw me get a good take again but this time to something with much better speed that unfortunately cut me off again!
This time I got it on video:
I'm thinking that this probably was a good coalfish for reasons I will explain further down.
After loosing the two fish, things slowed down and since it was getting late, I went back to Giorgos to see how he fared. He didn't have a sniff but didn't seem too concerned as the one fish was enough for him to make the trip worthwhile. We made the arduous hike back up the cliff, got in the car and headed home tired but happy!
I may not have managed to land a fish but I was more than happy that Giorgos got one and also was pleasantly surprised at the potential for big winter fish on this mark. Needless to say Ill be back...
Back home, I gutted and cleaned the fish and was left amazed when I found what it had been feeding on!
The seemed like cockle shells or something and the fish was full of them! This may explain my belief that my second fish was a coalie as they were obviously feeding on the bottom. Would never have thought that coalies would feed on shellfish but always love it when fish surprise me like that! You never stop learning in fishing... Next step try shellfish shaped soft plastics?!
Something else that Giorgos showed me was the existence of anti-fogging pads for action cameras and even gave me his to put on mine! Was always annoyed by that phenomenon and I'm looking forward to making better videos now!
It was a real pleasure being a host and fishing with Giorgos and hope we will meet again soon. All in all a great day out despite not landing my fish.
I am now really looking forward to my impending two week holiday trip to far away Chile, and can't stop thinking about the fish I might get there!
Tight Lines and best wishes for a fish-packed 2016!
Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid 0.3PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
lure: 7.5cm Crazyfish Vibro worm on a Texas rig with a 7g brass bullet weight, 8mm glass bead and #2 Decoy RS worm 101 hook.
My main worry now was where to take him?
I knew he wanted some spectacular Scottish scenery but also he preferred to fish with the LRF gear and had to find a suitable target for him. The first target that came to my mind were of course coalies! One shoal of them and we would thoroughly enjoy ourselves but as of my last session on Loch Fyne, they still hadn't shown up there. Moreover my quarry mark there is really not considered very scenic and thus also taking the wind's direction in consideration, my thoughts turned to the East coast...
We would have the wind on our backs and I've been wanting, for a long time now, to check how it fares in the winter. Obviously not as sheltered as the sea lochs but on this occasion it wouldn't matter.
We woke up early on Sunday and packed the gear into the car. Had a coffee and made the drive to St Abbs head, arriving around 10 o clock there. High tide was around 14:00, the sea was relatively calm though the wind was threatening to sweep us off our feet! At least the casts would go a long way...!
 |
| St Abbs on January.. |
Giorgos was very excited seeing all the cliffs and couldn't wait to start fishing.
We started on the first accessible rock ledge and put on some metals searching for the coalies. Our position was very elevated and the wind made things very difficult, but we soldiered on.. After fishing next to Giorgos for a while, I decided to move on the other side of the ledge. Not much was happening there as well so I went back to see how Giorgos was doing after some casts and break offs on snags. I found him with the rod bend over and the drag screeching! Straight away I scrambled to the rocks below him and managed to land his first Scottish fish, a plumb coalie! Needless to say he was over the moon and honestly I felt even happier that he caught a fish than I would've felt had I caught it myself!
 |
| A very happy LRFer! |
I would let the lure touchdown then give it a few jerks to get some noise from the bead, and then lift and drag it on the bottom. After a few casts I got a proper take and felt some good weight on the end of my line. the fish wasn't tearing about in speed, instead moving relatively slowly but with force and thumping its head about. A typical cod fight although it wasn't meant to be long, as the fish cut me off on the bottom... I was gutted and really annoyed with myself for getting caught unprepared (only with LRF gear).. I was then further annoyed as I realised my action cam battery had died without me realising and I didn't get the action...
I retied the same rig, changed battery and after casting out got a couple sharp bites (possibly coalies) but then got snagged. Another rig and another long cast saw me get a good take again but this time to something with much better speed that unfortunately cut me off again!
This time I got it on video:
I'm thinking that this probably was a good coalfish for reasons I will explain further down.
After loosing the two fish, things slowed down and since it was getting late, I went back to Giorgos to see how he fared. He didn't have a sniff but didn't seem too concerned as the one fish was enough for him to make the trip worthwhile. We made the arduous hike back up the cliff, got in the car and headed home tired but happy!
 |
| Giorgos on the ascend.. |
I may not have managed to land a fish but I was more than happy that Giorgos got one and also was pleasantly surprised at the potential for big winter fish on this mark. Needless to say Ill be back...
Back home, I gutted and cleaned the fish and was left amazed when I found what it had been feeding on!
 |
| Cockles?! |
The seemed like cockle shells or something and the fish was full of them! This may explain my belief that my second fish was a coalie as they were obviously feeding on the bottom. Would never have thought that coalies would feed on shellfish but always love it when fish surprise me like that! You never stop learning in fishing... Next step try shellfish shaped soft plastics?!
Something else that Giorgos showed me was the existence of anti-fogging pads for action cameras and even gave me his to put on mine! Was always annoyed by that phenomenon and I'm looking forward to making better videos now!
 |
| Anti-fogging pads. |
 |
It was a real pleasure being a host and fishing with Giorgos and hope we will meet again soon. All in all a great day out despite not landing my fish.
I am now really looking forward to my impending two week holiday trip to far away Chile, and can't stop thinking about the fish I might get there!
Tight Lines and best wishes for a fish-packed 2016!
Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid 0.3PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
lure: 7.5cm Crazyfish Vibro worm on a Texas rig with a 7g brass bullet weight, 8mm glass bead and #2 Decoy RS worm 101 hook.
Hi Dimitrios,
ReplyDeletecan you tell me if the coalies are always around our shorelines in Scotland throughout winter. Just that I enjoy fishing for them throughout the warmer months but was unsure if its worth trying for them in winter.
Many thanks.
Mike.
Edinburgh
Yes they are though not in the same numbers as in summer.. on the East Coast fishing in January and February might mean you'll only get a few bites for a whole day... Their size tends to be better though...
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