A time of plenty...

last week I mainly targeted Rubha Hunish and Neist Point. Results were pretty decent although Rubha Hunish didn't offer any larger fish. The bay I was intending to fish had wind blowing into it and I suppose this scattered the fish. I still had a great session and caught a variety of fish. Started with pollock and a beautiful cuckoo wrasse and ended with some decent coalies and mackerel that I kept for dinner... Below some pics and videos of the day.

A bit choppy...

Recaptured..

Even the little ones are fat!

Stunning...

 

The next day I visited Neist Point. I haven't been there for a while now as its just too crowded during the summer months but I was lucky on this occasion to have my preferred spot to myself.
I started with the classic Savagear Sandeel and it proved to be a steady producer for most of the day. Surprisingly metals didn't work very well on that spot (quite possibly fish got educated by overuse)...
After catching some decent pollock I switched to a Texas rig with 20g Tungsten bullet weight, a glass bead and a #1 offset hook. The lure of choice was the 4" Reins Curly Curly and I was intending to catch some wrasse since they have become very active lately. I started with long casts and soon enough managed some beautiful cuckoos from the deep while towards the end I got one nice ballan close in.
After a while I changed spot and it was there that I encountered a relatively usual situation when fishing crystal-clear water. As in the fish were there but they would prefer natural presentations and frequent lure changes. Some interesting observations can be seen on the video.
Below pics and videos as usual.

Such an iconic mark!

Decent fish as usual on Neist...

Yet another recapture...

Wheres the lure?!

A feisty ballan..

Kick Tail doing the damage on a day that 'normal' metals didnt do much...

So fat!

Lol! How is this always happening to my fish?!

 What surprised me the most was that in both days I had a relatively high number of recaptures! On one side this is a positive thing as it means there's good C&R going on but in the other hand it means that I'm fishing for the same fish over and over. Considering the resident nature of pollock this shouldn't be too surprising but still Skye is a big place! I'm now even more convinced that for targeting the really quality specimens I should divert my attention to the hardest to get marks...
Somehow though I believe that there will be an influx of fish in the autumn months as they need to feed hard for winter...
Unfortunately, Ive noticed that this time of year the pollock fight hard and also may swallow the lure a lot. This makes reviving fish problematic (especially from the deeper marks) even when kept out of the water for a short time and the losses may be high. The best solution in my opinion is not to target the same mark often and to stop fishing after a few decent fish.
On both days I also tried the fabled Fiiish Crazy Sandeel (albeit on darting jigheads since I lost the original) as I was hoping they would be more durable than the Black minnow. Alas they were very effective as expected but only lasted a couple decent fish each.. 
Something else to note is the wrasse becoming more aggressive and in places that I would get only a couple of their bites I now get loads! A dedicated wrasse-only session is on the cards soon. But first it will have to wait as I'm going on holidays back home on Monday and already cant wait to visit my old marks and finally get some good weather and sunshine! Will be taking the action camera too so I hope to get some cool footage in salt and freshwater...

Tight Lines!

 Gear used.

Rod: Majorcraft KG Evolution Basic KGS-902L, MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Daiwa Freams 2500,Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG
Mainline: YGK G-Soul WX8 PE1.2, YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 20lbs and 25lbs
Lures: Various