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...
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.
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.
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.
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!
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...
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| 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.
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| Caught before... |
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| 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.
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| Feisty! |
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| Not only little ones OTT! |
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| Another decent one on topwaters! |
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| 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!
Brilliant Dimitrios,well done,great to see the Pollock thriving after previous captures.
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