Wee LRF session for coalies and wrasse.

Been on my holidays for a week or so now but due to the rainy weather and the lack of time I didn't manage to get any fishing done. That was until Wednesday though as I was just gagging to cast a line!
It was an overcast day with a constant drizzle and I decided to drive my folks to see the South part of the island. We stoped at a wee pier there and it would be rude not to fish a bit! It was still drizzly so my parents sat in the car while I got the LRF setup and started fishing. I started with the Japanese bream rig hoping to get some wrasse or flatfish but instead found the coalies! They were pretty keen as usual and I soon started getting them in. They were of mixed sizes with tiny ones and half pounders hitting the soft plastics near the bottom mostly.
At some point I made a cast and put the rod down on the pier-wall in order to climb over and just then the rod got dragged towards the sea!! I grabbed it and struck into a better fish! After a fun tussle I had a lovely ballan on the rock wall. A quick pic and sent it back..

I love wrasse!!

They certainly like the chinu rig..

After releasing the wrasse my dad came out of the car (with a bag 😆) and he wanted me to keep some fish for next day's dinner. As it was his birthday and they hadn't tried coalie before we started keeping them. Had a few more coalies on the chinu rig but after a while the bite slowed down and I decided to switch to a metal as I thought that the fish needed something different.. This worked and the coalies kept coming, it was apparent that they were hitting higher up in the water column as well by then.
It was approaching sunset by now and the wind and rain died down thus I put on an Ima Pugachev's cobra 60 and started walking the dog on the surface. Straight away I started getting multiple hits on the lure as the coalies loved it! Got some more of them and its interesting to note that I only got the larger sized coalies OTT...
Soon it was time to go as we had a good number of fish in the bag for a proper fry up and I had exhausted the usual ''one more cast'' excuse! A very enjoyable session even though the weather wasn't that nice...
Below some pics and the videos of the session.

Surface hunters..

No tiddlers OTT...

Its so much fun getting them OTT and to me its a pity this kind of fishing is not more widespread in our waters as it really hikes the entertainment in LRF...
Who needs driving to Lochaline for coalies when you live in Skye! lol

Tight Lines

Gear used
Rod: MajorCraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000Fc
Mainline: Unitika Night Game PE 0.3
Leader: Toray Excellent fluorocarbon 6.8lbs
Lures: Berkley 2" Sandworm on GO-Phish chinu rig, 7g metals, Ima Pugachev's cobra 60

Topwater action on guiding trip.

Well we're into September now, which I consider the beginning of the best period for fishing in general! The past couple sessions indicated that the fish are aggressive and very keen to come to the surface when conditions allow (even when marginally).
I had Lewis from Edinburgh visiting the other day and he was very keen on getting some topwater action! The weather forecast for the week was horrendous! with supposedly 30-40mph westerlies for most of the week, but thankfully as it usually happens up here, it wasn't very accurate and by Friday the winds were dying down.
We met up shortly after daybreak and would fish from the high tide onwards on a shallow bay.
On arrival there was quite a bit of swell running (residue from the previous days winds) but I was sure it would dissipate with the ebb...
We gave topwaters a go but it was still too bouncy for the lures to work properly and the fish to come up, thus we soon clipped on various softplastics on 14g-20g cheburashkas and started fishing close to the bottom.
Soon the bites started coming and along with them the pollock!
Some decent fish around 3-5lbs and after a while Lewis hooked up to a better one that took plenty of drag and snagged him up... I got the rod and changed angle, after waiting a bit I gave the line a few pulls directly with my hand and realised the fish was out! Passed the rod to Lewis and after a few pumps and winds the fish was in the net! Lewis told me his previous PB was 6lbs and after weighing this one it appeared it was bigger at 6.13lbs! Now that's a good start to the day...

New PB!

More than one fish had actually been caught before and had healing prick-wounds, this is because being a shallow mark, most of the fish survive... A testament to the value of good C&R!
The fish were being quite fussy in the morning, preferring gentle and slow animation near the bottom along with natural coloured sps and lightish weights. Other presentations even with soft/active lures but on heavier weights or garish colours didn't get much attention. We didn't use metals as the coalies are usually in big numbers on this mark.

Caught before...

Another survivor...

We were a couple hours into the ebb now and the gullies started emptying, moreover the swell died down a bit and I thought it was a good time to try with the topwaters again. After trying several lures in the same area, we managed to raise a couple pollock on the Ima Popkey.. The fish seemed annoyed more than anything to this 'intense' lure but just seeing them respond was an indication that they were now closer in and higher in the water column.
We decided to move to a different spot and concentrate on the topwaters. The waves didn't allow all the WTD lures to walk properly and only a few could 'bite' well enough to have a nice and constant action. I clipped the Tacklehouse Vulture and Lewis had a cast near some weed collected at the mouth of a gully. Soon enough a fish splashed and hit the Vulture. The first fish of the day on topwaters was soon on the rocks and that was just the beginning...!
We kept at it and Lewis managed to get plenty more fish! The hookup rate was much better than on my previous session,on this day though the time was much more appropriate and most of the fish got caught on the first treble indicating active feeding...
The size of the fish was very good as well with fish of 3-4lbs and even some bigger ones hitting the lures! We both agreed that while the chances of getting, say a double figure fish were slim, catching this kind of size pollock on a 5-25ish gram rod was all the fun you could want!
As mentioned only a few topwaters worked better amongst the waves including the tacklehouse Vulture, Ima Popkey, HTO Climax while when the water calmed down, the Salt Skimmer (and its Chinese copy) were very effective.

Feisty!

Not only little ones OTT!

Another decent one on topwaters!

After the fish quitened down and the sun came out of the clouds, we decided to hit one more mark with softplastics and again the fish obliged. Lewis lost a big one that kelped him but got plenty more decent pollock after! They prefered again finesse presentations on light leads and a dark 4" paddletail did most of the damage.

Fish on!

After a few more fish it was time to call it a day and head home.
This was a fantastic fishing session that panned out as planned and I thoroughly enjoyed Lewis's company. Below is the video of the surface action for the day.

Tight Lines!

A bit of LRF in Lochaline.

On my last day off I fancied a wee roadtrip with my girl and decided to drive down to Lochaline as the weather was nice.
Its been a while since I was there last and to be honest I kinda hoped for some similar action with coalies to last time... Thus I picked up a couple LRF rods and my hardcase full of mini-topwater lures and off we went...
Since the weather was decent I was also thinking to get some good footage of them as I didn't film them last time I was there.. If that didn't work I had a plan B of targeting wrasse on the deep pier and finally put to use some of the gear a Japanese friend send me back in Spring...
On arrival conditions looked perfect although the wind was stronger than expected. Straight away I started casting some metals about but it soon became apparent that the fish weren't there..
I persisted but to no avail.. A bit disappointed decided to stop for a break and a picnic and then went to the other pier for Plan B...
I prepped the two rods and put on the little sinkers my friend sent me. They are used in a system similar to gliding kabura where the weight is movable and the hook/lure has more freedom to move and its mainly used for bream fishing (Kurodai-chinu). I rigged one with a 2" gulp Sandworm on a #6 inline (plugging single) chinu hook and the other with a 2" Jackall Peke Ring just to see if the fish showed a preference. Glad they didn't and we soon started getting lots of bites from the wrasse near the legs of the pier. I got the first one up while Claire was struggling with her timing on the strike. A few more fish followed to me and noticing that they liked a longer pause I told her to cut down on the jiggling...😁
Soon after she hooked up to a little female cuckoo wrasse.. I left my rod down to get pics/unhook etc and when I went back to pick up my rod I realised I had a small fish on.. I brought it up and was pleasantly surprised to see a Leopard Spotted goby with my Peke Ring in its mouth! A first time capture for me...
We kept at it but after missing a strong bite and getting a couple more small cuckoos we decided to call it a day and head home..
It was unfortunate that the vast shoals of coalies weren't there as last time but it was still an enjoyable little session.

A few around this size.. pure fun!

A very effective presentation.

Oh hello!

Glad she didn't blank!

They go so well on the LRF gear!

Another predator!

Fishing duo...

The gift pack!

Regarding the presentation, the weight is not lead or tungsten and sinks slower but it allows more movement and better feel to the lure. Also I had only one snag while fishing amidst thick structure and I'm sure this is due to the sinker having a slower sink-rate. I could have used smaller hooks to fish more effectively for the little fish but I was hoping on getting a better wrasse out.
Really gutted for not encountering the coalies again though and Im not sure why they werent about. Not that many of them up here as well right now and it might be a seasonal thing.. Some other time hopefully...
Anyway I'm sure ill get to use them again soon as I got holidays coming up and going to Ireland at the end of the month!

Tight Lines!

Gear used
Rod: MajorCraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000Fc
Mainline: Unitika Night Game PE 0.3
Leader: Toray Excellent fluorocarbon 6.8lbs
Lures: Berkley 2" Sandworm, Jackall Peke Ring