New developments!

Been a hectic time lately as I've been sorting out quite a few things...
Firstly, I got a SIB!  Been a while now on my list, and I was torn between a kayak or a boat, but in the end my laziness got the hold of me and I decided to get the boat. Its 3.8m (Yam 380S) and got a 10hp 2 stroke Evinrude outboard on it. Had the maiden trip on it the other day and even though conditions were far from ideal, the potential is evident... Just with the Navionics app on my phone, it was very easy to find interesting looking spots and even though I didn't fish much, I found some mackerel. Can't wait to get it out again, though in much better weather conditions and with an electric pump!

It's so much fun!

looking forward to many trips...

Secondly, Ive been having some success with the hookup ratio on my topwaters, due to the treble changes. So far the most successful tweak has been an upgrade in size in both trebles (a couple sizes over), switching the back ones with Owner STY-35MF short shank and the middle one with a ST36RD red treble. I've had purposely used topwaters of 10-12cm as they come out of the box, got hit (but the fish not sticking) and then immediately switched to similar size and profile 'tweaked' lures and the fish hit the middle treble and got hooked in both times. I'm sure this hookup rate won't be 100% positive all the time but every little helps...

The bottom right lure and configuration has worked best..

A superb striker!

Hit the middle (red) treble and the back hook stuck too.

Same thing again after missing 2 strikes with another lure...

And the vids.

Moreover I've bought new rockboots and went for the well known FiveTen Canyoneering model. I've not added any studs to them yet, as to be honest, I haven't felt the need to do so... They grip extremely well to even wet rocks and only feel like they need studs when over kelp and seaweed. Will give them some more rock time and I'll report back with results...

So far so good...

And lastly, Its now only 4 days until my first trip to the Lofoten archipelago in Norway!
I'm going there for 2 weeks with my girlfriend but I've already booked two days on boats and also planning to do plenty of shore fishing as usual. My main targets are cod and coalfish, with the hope that Ill manage to get the latter on topwaters!
Will be taking 5 rods to cover from LRF to heavy pirking and I honestly cant wait to get there!

Prep time...

XXHeavy HRF Jika rig...

 A bit of a mish mash of a report but there's a lot going on at the moment and not much time... Hopefully, the next blog will be from Norway and the monsters of the North...

Tight Lines!

They're back!

Had a great day yesterday with the return of the fishing-mad Geordies from last year! The day also saw us catch the first mackerel of the year and I'm so glad they're finally in!
We started the day around 06:30 in a shallow bay hoping for a topwater bite. The lads have been here since the weekend and the weather hadn't been kind to them. Constant Southwesterlies and rain made fishing hard for them but yesterday the wind died down and I was hoping that the fish would be up for it. There seemed to be some bait in the bay keeping very close to the shore and I am not sure if it affected things but despite our efforts, the topwater stuff wasn't happening...
Change of plans and on went the softplasics and metals, and we were soon catching.
The fish were surprisingly deep in the morning and the bites relatively slow. It could be that most fish were concentrated where the bait was but we persisted at our spot and soon enough things got better.
It was only Keith and Mick over this time and they were both hooking into average fish in turns thus keeping me busy with the net. Mick was working mostly metals while Keith had softplastics on and the fish showed an equal preference in the morning. They were both kitted out with new ''finnessy'' rods and that made a difference on the day as the bites were more often gentle taps.
On the day we tried 3 marks and caught fish in all of them. The last mark was a sheltered, deep water  rock-wall and it was there that Mick lost a big fish at our feet (unhooked itself on the rocks!) and soon after Keith got the best fish of the day. We were seeing lots of sandeels around and the Fiiish Crazy Sandeel matched the hatch well!
By that time I had to go but the lads kept fishing and by the time I arrived home, Keith had gone and caught an even better fish!
Below some pics of the day.

Nice pic for Keith

A decent one for Mick.

Keith's in!

Mick's in!

Slab of bronze.

Hello there!

Best fish of the day to Keith!

And an even better one after I left!!

I was elated that the lads managed to get such a great day after the tough few days they had..
August is usually very unsettled here but now that the mackerel are in, its time for some light gear fun!
Great to see and guide the lads again and Skye showed its colours once more. Pity that the fish weren't up for the topwater bite, especially since I've changed trebles to all my lures and needing to test the treble configurations, hopefully will get some settled weather to do that soon...

Tight Lines!