Holidays done.

 Back to Skye a couple days ago from my month long holidays in Greece. This was not strictly speaking a holiday as we went there to do our wedding and baptise the children, hence most of the time was spent with family and preparing everything. 

I only managed 4-5 sessions and most of them in freshwater. I did get a bucket list fish though as we visited Lake Plastira for a few days after the wedding. Its a dam  with rocky bottom and it has good numbers of predatory barbel. In my area in N Greece we don't have this species and I've always wanted to catch one on a lure.

Being midsummer I assumed that they would be close to deeper water and I caught one close to the actual dam. I used a variety of lures and presentations, trying to mimic crustaceans and small fish near the bottom by mainly bottom-bouncing and yo yo jigging but the fish preferred a bronze spoon on a straight retrieve a few meters from the bottom (!). Its always good to be surprised in fishing... Unfortunately i snagged and lost that lure a few casts later and didn't get any other bites. I was hoping that this trip wouldn't turn out to be a grind fishing-wise but the fish had other ideas... I fished a couple other areas with the ISUP and whilst I could see fish jumping (seemed mainly for parasite removal not hunting) they wouldn't hit. The last morning of our stay there, I revisited the dam and fished small metal jigs on a straight retrieve. It took a while but I got another bite and an unreal fight from a better specimen. These fish fight like salmonids! I released the fish and fished another hour or so for no more bites...

Streamlined power.

My first barbel on lure.

A much better specimen!

ISUP on the lake

To be fair I knew from my research that the autumn months are better for these fish and it felt like they were just post-spawn right now. Nevertheless I got another species scratched off the list. I'll definitely plan a dedicated trip for them sometime in the future.

The last few days in Greece saw me have a couple lrf sessions from the ISUP which has become my favourite summer fishing style. One day I had a good number of species and located a group of yellow scad but had to cut the outing short and the next day my efforts were thwarted by an actual storm that justified my purchase of a double paddle for the paddleboard...

ISUP lrf annular bream.

A wee melanouri (saddled bream)

Yellow scad are great fun!

Needless to say we also got covid as well and it seemed like nature was conspiring against me catching fish..! Perseverance pays off though and on my last session on my last day in Greece, I chose to visit my favourite dam close to home. It was raining but meant to clear later on (great conditions for midsummer fw fishing). I had a big fat chub on a fiiish black minnow imitation even before inflating the paddleboard and many more came afterwards along with some wee perch. The best action came near dusk where I experienced the best topwater bite in freshwater ever! The chub would attack anything that touched the water and I lost count of how many fish hit!

Fat chub!

A few of them about..

Topwater chublet.

It was tricky landing them on the ISUP with all the trebles flying about and I'll need to make a cradle or something for holding the fish on... I used cicada- like topwaters, small poppers and walkers. All of them got hit equally though I had better hook ups with double trebled lures.

I can't recommend the ISUP highly enough for summer fishing in calm waters. It has really opened up a ton of fishable ground for me and I'm seriously thinking of customising mine for more serious fishing, ie add seat, transducer mount etc. The low cost, speed of deployment, speed on water and quiet approach make it a perfect fishing platform. I suppose having my inflatable pedal kayak in Greece would be an even better fishing vessel but setting up the kayak and launching can feel a bit of a faff while the ISUP is a doddle. 

I'm really looking forward to some solid fishing here now. Need a few sessions on the mackerel and possibly sea trout but we'll see how it goes. Got some guiding booked and time to get serious soon as Autumn is just around the corner! 

Tight lines!

Holiday fishing with an ISUP!

 Been home for a few days now after my holidays back in Greece. Only went for a couple weeks and it was mostly for family time, especially since my folks hadn't seen the baby yet. I wasn't too fussed about serious fishing but I did want to visit the dams for perch and chub and this time I had a secret weapon...! I brought along an inflatable paddle board (ISUP) and was keen on trying to fish off that. 

The main reason behind the SUP purchace was because one of the dams had gotten overgrown with vegetation and it was very difficult to fish from the shore. I hadn't fished there for more than a decade even though it held big perch and chub.

I opted for a beginner ISUP, the Suprfit 10.8. Its fairly straightforward inflating it etc, though I bought a double paddle as it only comes with a single for stand up use. To be honest I just needed a stable platform to fish from and be easy to paddle. I did try to stand but only when I was playing with it on the beach and let's just say sitting or kneeling is much better for me...lol  Blaming my extra holiday weight for the lack of balance!

Anyway, the ISUP proved to be very good for what I wanted it to do though unfortunately things have changed on the dams... The overgrown dam seemed to have been reclaimed by nature! The road there was full of fallen rocks and had young trees growing on the sides. Moreover the place where I used to park was so overgrown I drove past it without recognizing it! Eventually, I found a single access point to the water and managed to get the ISUP in. I started casting a small spoon around and it didn't take long to get a fish on! A very nice chub came up after a spirited tussle. Been a while since I had a chub and I was chuffed with this one. Its another obliging and pure fun fish to catch! I had a few more smaller fish on little cicada topwaters but it was slow fishing  for sure. Near sundown I concentrated my efforts for perch but despite fishing with little shads and drop shot I got no perch bites... Instead, I had another good chub on a little Fiiish black minnow imitation. Surprisingly, this fish was caught deep, where I wouldn't expect to find them. The water temperature was quite high so maybe that was the cause. 

The high water temperature along with the increased vegetation may have been the reasons why I didn't get any perch. In the other dam, I found them where they usually are, near boulders and a drop off into 15m+ water. Therefore I should have searched for deeper water structure. I suppose that's something for next year...

 

 

 

 I could really stay fishing on the lakes for days but unfortunately time was yet again against me. Reckon theres a PB chub and perch hiding in there for sure!I have left he SUP there for next Summer anyway. Im sure it could have applications here in Scotland (with wet/dry suit) but the wind would make things tricky for sure. On small lochs though it could definitely help.

Back in Skye now and will have a couple days targeting perch and pike before I hit the pollock again. Its about time for topwaters!

Tight Lines