Four days of fishing! Part 1, Fishing the Northeast.

I have been given four days off from work this week and I thought it would be my best chance for a good fishing trip  before the season ends. I had two places in mind, either going south and fishing at the Mull of Kintyre or going to the North East and fishing around Wick, Dunnet Head and Thurso. From a look in Google Earth I was immediately drawn to the rugged coastline of the North East and the many points and cliffs there. I chose to go there in the end and on Saturday morning I made the long drive to the town of Wick. My first stop was at the Old Castle where the water is very deep and there is access to the rocky fingers below the castle.
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of 'life' in the water as I could see loads of fry and coalies moving about. I decided to use my favourite presentation at the moment that does a good job as a 'searcher bait' and thus a Shimano madai jig rigged with some Berkly gulp was cast in the depths. I got some sharp bites but I reacted too fast and missed them, but I was sure they were form wrasse.
I re casted and this time worked the lure slower with twitches near the bottom and soon I had a bite and a fish on! It was fighting well but it wasn't something big, so I hurriedly retrieved line wanting to get my first Northeastern fish in my hands.. I could see colour after a bit, and a lot of it! It was a male cuckoo wrasse and my first one (male)! I got another one after some missed takes and then a female. I noticed that the males where hanging deeper than the female and this maybe a reason why Ive only caught females at my mark back home....

That's Fishy!

Very interesting rock formations.

Stunning colours.

Had to put him back fast...

And another one..

There she is...

A good sign?

Surprisingly I got no codling or pollock and I worked pretty hard for them covering a lot of water and making many casts. I was sure the presentation was good and it seemed that the fish just  weren't there... After  a while a seal popped up and then another one! I moved to a different area but there were even more seals there! I think they may have affected the fishing as I caught nothing around them and so I decided to change location.
I moved to the harbour and  decided to fish the outer breakwater. It is a very fishy looking harbour, with three separate harbours (inner, river, outer) and it would be my main venue.
I kept the madai jig, only I now tipped it with a Keitech sexy impact for a faster retrieve and started casting and working it near the lighthouse. I soon got a nice codling but then lost the jig to a snag! I changed presentation to a 12g cheburashka (was getting very windy) with a #2 offset hook rigged with an Ecogear grass minnow M. I move towards the inner harbour entrance and after a couple casts, I started getting subtle bites and hooking into codling. They were shoaled up near the entrance of the inner harbour and were attacking the Grass minnow every time! I managed about a dozen or more of them until night fall and then they stopped feeding. They were all about the pound mark and really good fun!

Wick Harbour.

Codling on the jig.

They were tightly shoaled and hungry..

Feeding on baby flatfish!

I spend the night in the car and woke up early to target the river part of the harbour. I was hoping to encounter some new species on this trip and I wanted to fish in different areas and not just the rocks! I was thinking that I might get some flatfish and so I got the Solpara and the lrf lures and started working my way from near the bridge towards the mouth of the harbour. I was using mainly Ecogear aqua Katsu mebaru and Berkley fish fry's and suffice to say the place was stuffed with small fish! I was getting hit as soon as the lure touched bottom and among the usual codling and coalies I started getting a stream of whiting and some small flounders as well... Job done and I now had two new species at this trip!

My first whiting!

My first flounder!

They are akin to poor cod in their behaviour, hunting in shoals.

Plenty of teeth on them...

Coalie country up here...

After the morning harbour session, I moved to a rocky outcrop on the northern side of the town but other than a couple coalies, nothing showed so I was back on the road heading to John o Groats and then Dunnet Head. I fished for a bit at John o Groats harbour where I witnessed the most ravenous coalies ever,  that would even hit lures on the surface and even higher when I was lifting them up!
At Dunnet Head I fished at a small slipway where some rock pinnacles created interesting structure in a relatively deep bay. I used my heavier gear to cast larger madai jigs and shads and I finally found some pollock! They hit the jig hard and got hooked straight away!

John o Groats pier.

Rocks from Dunnet head..

Good looking ground.

Flashy but effective..

I finally found them!

I then drove up to Thurso with the intention of fishing Scrabster harbour and indeed the harbour looked very inviting but unfortunately I was running late as I didn't want to be driving in the night or stay there so I decided with a heavy heart to leave this for another time and head home.
It was an interesting trip and a needed change of scenery. The Northeast seems more productive than anticipated and I'm sure with more effort much better fish would be found. Its very interesting to see such differences in both the landscape, marks and fish and although I was hoping for some larger fish I enjoyed the trip and the variety.. Some notes from my trip:

• The numbers of coalies are  unbelievable!
• So much life in and out of the water.. Seals, birds, fry everywhere!
• Proper rough ground..
• Where are the pollock?!
• A lot of  commercial fishing activity..

On the next part I'll describe the fishing at my usual marks...

Tight lines!

Gear used.

Rod: Various
Reel: Various
Mainline: Various
Rig: cheburashka, jighead,
lure:Various Ecogear Aqua, Berkley Gulp, Madai jigs, Grass minnows.

An unusual session.

I was fishing the other day in my mark at Loch Linnhe targeting mostly small stuff on cheburashka with my newly arrived Crostage replacement tip. I was let off work early but it was almost midday already and very sunny, so I wasn't expecting anything special. Thus I used 3lbs fluoro mainline and enjoyed catching some codling and small pollock on the Crostage.
I was using some Ecogear Aqua slim soft baits to see if they would be more effective than their much cheaper Berkley Gulp counterparts. I was fishing the basin but at a smaller boulder strewn bay near a small point. There was a shelve of around 2m deep with kelp and boulders for the first 10m and then the bottom plunged rapidly after that, being relatively clean. The tide was coming in and only an hour or so till high tide. On approaching the point, instead of the usual poor cod nibbles I got a good bite and a good fish on that unfortunately took me to the kelp. I could feel the fish moving about and gave it line but the thin line parted after a while.
I considered this a fluke and persevered with the same small-fish presentation. I caught another decent pollock and landed it safely this time, and I started  thinking of changing presentation although the line was too light for this kind of mark.
A couple casts later and I got the usual nibble of a poor cod and after striking I had him on. On retrieving the fish I felt a couple very sharp bumps and then I got solid resistance! It was obviously a pollock that attacked the already hooked poor cod and I didn't expect it to get hooked but as I brought the two fish in, I realised that the poor cod was only lip hooked and the hook-point was free to hook the pollock as well!

Tricky to land on the swallower/kelpy marks

Small lures catch everything!

The whole food chain!

After this fish I decided to risk it with the larger lures and started using shads of around 3" on 5g jigheads. The shads had the usual big round paddle on them  and this is something that in deeper marks and light jigheads. I try to avoid. The reasons  being that  they take too long to sink, rise too much on the retrieve and sometimes don't work properly on the fall as the jighead is too light to make them kick right. One thing I do when I encounter these situations is to modify the shads tail with a scissor, making it more rectangular in shape. This way Ive found the lure gets a tighter action and works better with light jigheads. More over on some of these paddle-tails if seen on slow motion, the tail seems to be swirling instead of the more realistic kicking from side to side and this modification improves the action in my opinion although most fish don't really mind! Bellow some pics of how I cut the tails and the rest of the fish caught on modified shads.

The usual round paddle...

...and the way I cut it for a tighter action.

Tomorrow I'm planning a fishing marathon on the North coast of Scotland and weather depending I will make the long drive to fish some marks around Wick and Thurso. Hopefully Ill encounter some good fish!

Tight Lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 3lbs
Rig: cheburashka, jighead
lure: Ecogear Aqua katsu Mebaru Shirasu 2", Lunker city and Daiwa shads.

Finding the culprit...

As I mentioned on my previous post, I had problems with fish cutting the thin fluorocarbon mainlines I use and at the time I thought they were bigger pollock.
Trying to get to the bottom of this I visited the loch again a couple days later for a session with my medium rock fishing gear and much stronger rigs. More over I was starting to doubt that these fish were pollock as Ive caught plenty of good sized ones after long fights with the lure lost in their mouths while the line held... Something else was going on and I had to find out what...
The day was horrible with strong wind and constant rain, quite heavy at times, but I knew the fish would be there. I started fishing with a 4" Berkley Sandeel on a texas jighead and on the first cast something picked it OTD and shoot off taking some drag.. Moments later it was off cutting the line.. I could not believe my bad luck and tied an articulated jighead with a 3" Berkley Gulp Baitfish (was using 7lbs line) after some more casts I got a poor cod, then a pollock and then lost another fish that bit the line clean.. I was clueless and really frustrated..
In addition to the lost fish the weather turned even more sour and I was already soaked through.. I persevered but after a small coalfish I had to go home as I was gonna get frostbite or something!
Back home I thought about all the fish I lost and their behaviour etc in order to get all the pieces together and figure out the best approach.

Plenty caught like this yet the line held..

The coalfish was no consolation...

The lost fish seemed quite large, prefer larger baits with strong smell and bite better when there is some wind. My thoughts were that I'm dealing either with some larger codling or Spurdogs (?!).
Knowing that both these species prefer to feed at night, I decided on a night session.
Yesterday I got the opportunity as I finished relatively early from work and headed up the loch. I reached my mark and the conditions seemed good with little wind and the tide slowly starting to ebb. I put on a light wire trace made from my favourite Knot 2 Kinky and a 5g articulated jighead with a 3" Ecogear Aqua Bug Ants as these lures have a particularly strong scent. I started making long casts and working the lure on the bottom with short flicks and twitches to mimic a fleeing prawn or crayfish. After some casts I got the first bite but I reacted too quickly and didn't hook the fish. This happened a couple more times before the bites drying up and then I changed to the Berkley Gulp Baitfish. The pack I had was fluorescent and with a charge from my head torch I cast it into the depths. A few casts later and I got a subtle bite. I let it develop and feeling weight on the rod tip I struck and set the hook. I got good resistance and the fish was taking drag but it wasn't like the crash dives of pollock, slower fight and with some head shakes. The fish came up and it proved to be a much better codling than the ones I get during the day. Around the 4lbs mark with a huge mouth! I thumb-held it to let it go back and then saw blood on my thumb from its teeth so I'm pretty sure that this is the culprit of the cut lines.. I continued fishing a bit longer and after losing what felt like another codling I got a small pollock and decided to call it a night..

The main rig used.

Fatty!

Big mouth!

What became apparent is that most of the little fish are not active at night ant the bigger ones come out. This makes for a more boring fishing without all the little bites but also more rewarding in terms of fish size. These fish seem to clearly prefer smelly lures and a slower presentation bumping the bottom. Both the Ecogear aqua and Berkley Gulp draw bites and the fish seem to be happy munching them for a while so I'll try and give them more time before strikes next time. Again a little glow in the lure draws the fish but scent seems more important at night.
I was quite pleased with the result of my first night session up here and I'm sure there will be many to follow with hopefully even more predators of the night.

Thanks for reading!


Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft KG Evolution KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g
Reel:Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f.
Mainline: Seaguar Kanzen braid 10lbs.
Rig: K2K trace articulated jighead
lure: Berkley gulps mostly.