The mad Geordie Fishos!

Last week I had two days guiding with a trio of anglers from around Newcastle that had booked all the way back in winter! They were 3 very experienced and mad keen anglers that had been on Skye previously but got bogged down by storms and didn't have good fishing in general.
The guys were hoping it would be much better this time but also they wanted to pickup some pointers on lures, gear, technique etc as they don't do much pollock fishing.
Luckily for them they arrived on the first good days after what felt like ages of wind and rain and my hopes were high for a great start.
I met the lads on their cottage early on Tuesday and they told me they had targeted Neist the day before with the bait gear and bagged up on Spurdogs! I took this as a good sign and we set off for Neist again.
On the spot we found crystal clear water and calm as a millpond! I advised the lads to use natural coloured lures and Mick had the first cast. Before you know it he was in and we just couldn't stop him! lol. Fish after fish and most of them well over 5lbs! Ian and Keith started getting their share of fish as well but Mick had found the honey-hole and was capitalising on this... I knew there were good fish there but I was pleasantly surprised at how many of them came out! A clear indication that with experienced anglers the quality fish will show...
It was evident that the natural coloured lures were doing the business but even so after a couple hours the bites tailed off. We then put on the metals for a different presentation and some more quality fish came out.

The three musketeers!lol

The man of the day!

Keith with an average fish.

Decent pollock on the metals.

After a while the bites dried up completely and it was time for a move... We hit my favourite spot but got no joy and instead of staying put and wait for the fish to become active again, we decided to drive to the north part of the island and target another mark.
Unfortunately due to the unbelievable traffic on the road (High season) it took us longer to reach the mark than anticipated and we were loosing water fast.
The second mark wasn't very deep and it tends to fish better halfway through the ebb, but we were there almost on low tide and after a quick flurry of fish, things went quiet again.

Keith with a dark kelp-living fish...

Another nice one...

We decided to move again to a deep mark but other than a few average fish nothing else showed. It was a long but spectacular day and everyone went home with a smile on their face!
The video of the first day.

The second day was meant to be Thursday and I had planned an afternoon start so that we'd fish into the dusk period, hoping for some topwater/shallow action. On the day the rough weather returned with persistent westerlies, rain and a drop in temperatures. We were going to fish Rubha Hunish and I thought we would be able to find some fish in such an extensive mark...
We had a good start with a few fish coming in a short time from the deepest parts, but after moving on the day developed into a grind...
The fish shutdown and although we knew they were there (nibbles, unhookings etc) they just didn't want to commit. A few came here and there on a variety of tactics but it was very slow going..
Towards the end of the day and with the sun going down , conditions improved a bit and we moved to a sheltered shallow bay for a chance to get some topwater hits.. Finally I had two strikes but no hook-ups on the Tacklehouse Vulture while soon after Ian got fish on an orange-bellied Ima Komomo...
They hit better at the shallow runner as expected and it was cool actually seeing them hit the lure. Not big fish by any means but on a day like that very welcome!

... In he rain...

The only wrasse of the sessions!

Best fish of the second day...

On the Komomo!

Not big but aggressive!

It was a great pleasure guiding these mad geordies and we even exchanged some info on fishing in Ireland and Norway, places that they've fished in while I've yet to visit...
Hopefully this crap weather eases a bit soon as I'm keen to checkout a few overlooked marks and also catch some more fish on the topwaters and jerkbaits.. Also need to find the mackerel and wrasse!

Tight lines!