Oh Ireland!

Been a couple days back home from my holidays in Ireland and one thing I have to say is that I will definitely be going there again!
I went with my girlfriend Claire and we spent a week in County Kerry. This was most certainly not a fishing holiday but the travel rods went into the suitcase of course...
I didn't have any serious targets or 'must catch' fish list in mind, though I definitely wanted to get some wrasse and if possible a bass or two. Moreover I'd be taking the LRF gear as well so any of the smaller predators would be very welcome especially with some scad among them!
I had done some homework before the trip and had scores of points on Google maps ready to be sussed out...Most areas were exposed rocky coastlines and beaches with the occasional harbour/pier for the light stuff. I had heard only the best and was fired up to get started!
The weather was ok to begin with and we got a couple decent days but I only fished a bit here and there with the LRF and managed to catch my first Irish fish... Not a scad but a coalie 😆
Little did I know that the weather would turn bad and I'd get few chances to fish the more exposed marks I wanted.

Not a scad!

The first area we stayed in was Valentia Island and from Google Earth and the web I could tell that it would be very suitable for wrasse fishing, plus having some piers/harbours close by would offer ample opportunities to fish the light gear.
This being the open Atlantic, the swell was present at various intensities throughout the week and I only managed one HRF session for wrasse before the swell build up.
What a session it was though!
After a bit of a hike in the wind and rain with Claire we found the path down the rocks and on first look it was pretty rough (but still fishable). Thankfully we found a hollow at the rocks and out of the wind to settle down and fish from.
I was using my Spro Mobile Stick 80MH paired with the Shimano Stradic FK C3000 and the rig of choice being the good old Texas rig with a 20g tungsten bullet weight, glass bead and #1 wide gape offset hook. I would be using 3" Gulp Alive swimming mullets in a simple drag and pause retrieve.
From the first cast the fish showed their presence but instead of wrasse I got some pollock! Definitely not what I was looking for there..! Soon enough though, I started getting the familiar sharp taps of wrasse and after setting the hook a different fight ensued...
It didn't take long to get the first ballan out and there were many more to come!
All of them around the 2lbs mark but fighting hard and in a ravenous mood... Haven't had similar wrasse-fishing since I left the Channel Islands...

Toothy...

Them lips!

On the act!

Decent size...

Cant say no to them!

Big gob!

Conditions were lively...

I love wrasse!

That was my most memorable session of the trip. The next day the swell intensified considerably and
I had to find sheltered areas to fish. This meant more LRF and I had good sessions with mackerel, coalies and smaller ballan and corkwing wrasse but unfortunately no scad!

Dingle harbour breakwater.

Lovely corkwing.

Loads of mackies about.

My LRF setup was a 7'2'' (0.5-7g) Snowbee Kuroshio travel LRF rod paired with my Shimano Stradic 1000fc and using mainly small cheburashkas and metals. I didnt take too many softplastics with me as the space was limited and again I relied mostly on the Gulp.
We spent the last couple days on the Dingle peninsula and in retrospect we could've spent the whole week there as it simply has got it all!
Got pollock from the rocky points, wrasse in the harbour and while I snuck out before breakfast for a few casts, had a feisty bass on the trusty Megabass Zonk Gataride. Unfortunately this was gonna be our last day in Dingle and I didnt get the chance to fish there more... What a place.!

Before breakfast.

It was a great holiday in all and got some useful observations/notes for the next time:

• much cheaper and convenient to get the ferry there in my own car. Too much unnecessary hassle renting one there..
• No need for fancy rigs and many lures. 
• A tubular tip LRF rod might have been more suitable as when I encountered a bass following my tiny softplastics, I couldn't use a topwater or a jerkbait to potentially tease it into striking.
• Just 2 setups would be enough. a 1-10g for light game (but capable of something heavier) and a sort of 10-30g for the bigger stuff. 
• Swell forecast more important than weather forecast...

 I'm working on the videos now and should be up next week sometime!

Tight Lines!

Keeping it varied!

As per the title, the fishing on my days off has been a mixture of salt and freshwater with relatively good results..
On Wednesday I decided to hit a new spot as I'm looking for sheltered areas that can offer fish in the strongest winds that we get so often up here.. This means that somewhere in the central complex of lochs (Bracadale, Harport etc) would be my best bet and thus I gave it a go...
I visited a point with easy access to deeper water though with much less kelp and structure than I would've liked... Moreover the inner lochs along with Neist tend to get the first of the mackerel and having this in mind I added a sabiki teaser along with my lure.
I started with 28g metal jigs but got absolutely nothing on them. After a while I decided to try some Gulp jerk shads that Ive recently got in mainly for night fishing.. I rigged it on a 30g Duel Salty Bait and worked it slowly on the bottom. I soon started getting bites and it wasn't long till I had a fish on! The telltale rhythmic beating of the fish's tail let me know that mackerel were here and I managed to see the fish before it got unhooked. I wasn't too worried though as wherever there is one there are usually more! Thus after a while I started getting some fish in.
They weren't caught on the main lure just the teaser, but I think that the bulky presentation along with the slower working and maybe the scent of gulp attracted the fish.. All of them were skinny even though of a good size and I suppose they need some more time and the waters to warm up a bit to start feeding more aggressively.

A new mark..

Summer-bringer!

I had different plans for later in the day... For a while I have been wanting to do a night fishing session from the rocks just to see whats out there and the conditions seemed passable on the day.
Thus around 21:00 I was on the mark and decided to play with the LRF setup while waiting to get darker. I also used the heads of the previously caught mackerel (bodies obviously eaten 😁) to chum and also baited a bucktail on the heavier rod. Its been a long time since I've last bait fished but thought to do so out of curiosity...
The fish were feeding well and I had great fun catching some good pollock on the LRF gear but at some point saw the line on the heavier rod move and picked it up. I struck and felt something heavy thrashing in the deep.. After a while I got it up and was very pleased to see a nice ling on the surface! Got it up, unhooked and sent it straight back. A few more pollock were caught later and I decided that it was a productive wee session anyway and I didnt need to spend more time there. Moreover there was an annoying swell by that time and it reinforced my decision to call it a night.
I'm not gonna be rushing to buy bait-fishing gear any time soon but the catch was cool so I might actually do it again!

Sunset...

A proper scrap on LRF gear...

A nice pollock later on.

 The video of the session.

The next day I had arranged with my girl on a day out with a boat in Loch Morar for fishing and a picnic. It was a wet start to the day but it got better afterwards. Being unfamiliar with the Loch, the fishing wasn't record breaking stuff but we caught some lovely brownies and its definitely something I'm keen on doing again. Possibly supplied with a sounder and targeting some char and/or ferox...

Not bad!

Love brownies!

A nice one.

Beauty.

Cant beat a good picnic!

A very enjoyable and productive couple days.. Hopefully I'll be able to replicate them next week...

Tight Lines!

Pretty colours...

Been taking it easy the past week and only had a couple sessions in nearby marks. Was trying to find some more cuckoo wrasse and I did in a mark that I had overlooked before. Used gulp/inchiku for them along with the usual Texas and dropshot rigs...

Gulp-tipped Inchiku metals are a sure-fire way to catch them...

Such a beautiful species and so full of character! Thankfully been lucky enough to have had decent weather so far... Tomorrow though, it will be back to serious fishing as I'm expecting my friends Scott and Lee for a session!

Tight Lines

From nano to mega..

I have been unable to do much fishing lately as I have been very busy preparing to move to another place, job etc. I was gagging for some fishing though and since the weather has been ok, I found a couple hours on my break to do something that I don't do very often. This is to target the micro species with tiny hooks and lures. Its not that I don't enjoy this kind of fishing but being in a fishing paradise that is the west coast of Scotland, I tend to overlook the micro-predators.. Moreover I don't know areas with many rockpools etc around here so I just went down the Port Appin pier to see what could be had.. I was gonna be using a 2g cheburashka and a #18 long shank hook with another #20 hook tied above in a double dropshot fashion. I threaded some Isome on the bottom hook while the top one was baited with Gulp just to see if there was any difference in bites.
I had seen small corkwing wrasse, butterfish, gobies, blennies and of course the various gadoids but I was less interested in the latter as I catch them all the time!
Thus I started dropping the rig down the pier walls and the bites didn't take long to arrive...

The rig.

How cool is this little scorpion?!

Hordes of baby pollock...

An unexpected pouting.

My first Scottish blenny...

My first Scottish goby...

The hardest part was trying to avoid the ravenous baby pollock and coalies but in the end I managed a couple of my targets.. Moreover I didn't notice any preference to one or the other brand, both caught fish...
Today I got laid off early and decided to head up to Loch Etive since I haven't fished there for a while and I was keen to try for pollock and possibly some trout.
I started fishing at my favourite pollock mark and used 4" stickbaits on 3.5g, 3/0 weighted offset hooks. After many casts and while working the lure deep down with steady retrieve and pauses, I got a gentle take and I struck into something good. It made a screeching first run  and a few  less powerful ones while I was bringing it up, but in the end I managed to land a very good pollock of 66-67cm.
A last trophy possibly? After releasing the fish  I got another much smaller one before I decided to move and change gear and tactics in order to target the trout. I used the Majorcraft Crostage/Shimano stradic 1000fc for them with a 7g hexagonal ice spoon/pilker and after casting about in a weedy shallow bay I got a couple before calling it a day.

A good pollock.

Secure hook set.

They love stickbaits.. (among many other lures of course!)

A lovely Etive trout..

A few more fish from a couple quick sessions here and there. The mild weather seems to have stimulated the fish and they have been very obliging.. Pity I don't have more time here!
I was very impressed in one of these sessions where I witnessed some nice codling attack my lures almost at my feet, while hiding amongst the kelp in shallow water! More over I have been playing around with floating soft plastics on carolina rig in preparation for my winter canal fishing...

Nice codling hit at my feet...

...on a swimming-jig with a 3"senko..

Carolina with floating softbaits..

...a promising presentation.

I'm looking to have a few more sessions this week as it might be my last one up here and I'm also looking to write a post regarding my stickbait/senko fishing along with some videos..

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: MC Solpara for nanojig, MC KG Light for stickbaits, MC Crostage for trout.
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc, Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: Yamatoyo SW super Light Game PE 0.4, Duel Hardcore 4x4 PE 0.6
leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs.P-line Halo fluorocarbon, 10lbs,
lures: cheburashka, metal jigs and 4"stickbaits.