Only one!

 On Saturday I met up with my Greek friend Achileas, who I hadn't fished with since 2015! We kept in touch and he always wanted to come fish with me up in Skye. He mainly fishes for sea trout and mackerel thus I thought it would be good if I'd take him out on the boat and show him something different. 

Conditions prevented us from visiting any Northern marks so we launched from a Southern slip and headed out. The fish are well into spawning now and this makes them tricky to find and tempt but I had high hopes for a few but quality fish...

We reached my preferred spot and started casting slim home poured Sluggo imitation soft plastics. After a few casts I got a bite and solid resistance...

The fish didn't seem to realise what happened and it was sluggish but I could feel it's weight as I was bringing it in. A couple short runs and I got her up. A fat mama was in the net moments later and we were delighted! I was expecting quality but not a double in the first few casts! I urged Achileas to cast to where I got her while I unhooked the fish. He got no bite and we then took a couple photos before releasing her and continuing fishing. 

Fat mama!

Same fish...

It was unfortunately one of those days that they didn't want to show up and even though we could see them on the fish finder, they weren't responding to our lures. We persisted for a couple hours but my friend needed to head down to Edinburgh so we decided to call it and head in. 

I was glad Achileas witnessed the quality of fish up here but disappointed I couldn't get him connected to another one. There's always next time I suppose...

Tight lines!

A Spring like last year?

 I've had a single session so far this month but I have to say I was surprised with the results and the fish behaviour considering the time of year and weather conditions! 

I set off with an ok forecast that, as is so often the case up here, got worse by the time I reached the mark... The northerly swell had persisted throughout the night and I decided on a quick change of mark to a more sheltered one.  This mark is very sheltered but in close proximity to deep water and strong currents. It mainly holds good numbers of average pollock and usually big shoals of coalies.

As soon as I arrived I found the fish holding deep and close to the bottom. I started with the usual soft plastics and it wasn't long for the bites to develop. Once I got a couple fish up, I started switching up the presentations using some lipless/vibration hardbaits and A-rigs thinking they would fire the fish up as it usually happens this time of year. Surprisingly the fish didn't show much interest in these... It was near high water and I saw some bait fish passing higher in the water column, this possibly raised the pollock up and called in a big shoal of coalfish. I had a couple shallow attacks of them on the A-rig and I thought to try a topwater since they seemed fired up. The coalies didn't disappoint and had hit after hit for the best part of an hour! When casting closer to the ledge I noticed a couple pollock coming up for the Autowalker and it wasn't long until they got fired up too. I had a couple hit and misses from good fish until one of the bigger ones stuck! Cracking action for the beginning of March! 

A cracking fish and a cracking take!

Big and small wanted the Autowalker!

Plenty of Coalies.

Rugged fish.

Standard size.

I kept some fish for a feed and all of the pollock were very close to spawning with enlarged gonads. I don't think it's my imagination but in the past couple years Spring fishing has definitely improved...

Water temperature is slightly colder than what it was at this time last year but still close to 9C which may have something to do with the perkier fish. I really hope I can get out soon before all the fish spawn and get myself a couple of fat mamas!

Tight Lines