Had a few days around Arisaig last week and even though the weather still is wintry cold, It was dry enought to let me go trout fishing. I had a short kayak session in Loch Morar without getting a single bite or seeing any signs of life. It was great trying out the pedals on the kayak though and I was impressed with the speed (4.5kts) even with face on wind!
Great potential.
Thats me...
The next day I opted for a session on a much smaller hill lochan that is a sort of a hidden gem. The water vegetation was looking much greener here and it wasnt long till I got the first fish of the day. It hit a green Ecogear S Grass minnow on a 5g tungsten cheburashka fitted with a chatterblade. I use this combo on a larger/heavier version for my seafishing but I thought it might work for early season trout if I downsized.
Glad it worked.
Bonnie fish.
Small but beautiful.
I had 6 hits, landed 3 fish and the rest managed to shed the hook, though not with their usual jumps. I find that early in the year they dont do that as much. Still those few fish were great fun on my old SPRO Mobile Stick 80UL and I was glad to have opened my trout account!
It was snowing again today so I think Ill wait a couple more weeks till im after them again. Im sure this Spring will come sometime this year...
Its been almost a week now that I've returned from my holidays in Chile, reluctantly so I must add...
The opportunity was given to me, as a close friend of mine lives in the capital Santiago and invited me and my brother there.
We were to have our base in Santiago but obviously with them being in summer now and us haven't experienced summer at all the past year, it was imperative that we would visit the coast! Moreover a trip to the South had to be made as well since it would have been a mistake not to get at least a glimpse of Patagonia and water systems very similar to the ones I fish here in the West coast of Scotland...
Therefore we decided to head to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar on the central coast of Chile as it is where most of the tourists go for their summer holidays!
Now on the fishing prospects of the trip, in reality Chile seemed like a blank chart! Nowhere could I find serious info about fish species and angling in general. This is because there hasn't been enough research done on the fish species there (especially in the south), the information being mostly in Spanish and lastly the little coverage angling gets over there (with the exception of the alien salmons and trouts in the South). Now it did cross my mind to wet a line for the salmonids when in the South but to be honest my attention was firmly set once again on the rocks...
Seeing a documentary about sea otters in Patagonia a couple months ago, only seemed to ignite my interest of what rockfish could be found there and all along the coast we were meant to visit. The only species I was able to find easy information on, is the robalo (Eleginops maclovinus) a sort of bass/corvina-looking fish though not related at all to them and being the only member of its genus and the only member of the family Eleginopsidae (!). Thus I was hoping to at least get one of them!
To cut a long story short, I fished very little while in the Valparaiso area. This was because of two main reasons: Firstly, the Pacific swell that rendered most of the beaches in the area dangerous to swim (red flag) for the duration of our stay, and secondly, the realisation of the inadequacy of my light gear for these waters! In any case, I tried a few casts here and there in sheltered marks but only had some success in Valparaiso harbour, by catching a few wrassy/blenny looking fish, that unknowingly at the time, were going to be the mainstay of my catches in all my sessions!
Unfortunately most of the harbours/marinas were working areas and I had limited access to them and that was a real pity as I'm sure they would hold plenty of fish...
Part of Valparaiso harbour.
My first Chilean fish!
Parts of the coast in Valparaiso.
The beach in Laguna Verde. Red flag - no swimming!
Outside Valparaiso harbour. Again not alowed to reach the lighthouse..
Seeing that my 'fishing expedition' wasn't off to a great start, I focused even more on looking for good marks in the South. We had booked a room in Puerto Montt and one area in particular, towards the Southeast stood out. Now Puerto Montt is situated at the northern end of the Reloncavi Sound, thus well protected from the Pacific swells, and the area that got my attention was the coastline near La Arena. It is there that the Reloncavi fjord meets the Sound and from the look of it a typical fish-holding mark, very similar to marks I have here! Moreover the South is very tidal and thus even more similar to here...
On the first day at Puerto Montt, I explained to my brother that we were here for business (meaning fishing) and he should quit his moaning and get on with it! We rented a car (a must in my opinion) and soon headed off to La Arena. On close inspection, the point was looking very fishy, with deep waters close in and rough/rocky ground, but the main problem was that the rocky shore was just too abrupt and the point too heavily forested to allow for easy (or even moderate) access. Not being in a mood for mountaineering, and not having a machete with me (!) we decided to have a couple empanadas (loco queso) which surprisingly doesn't translate as crazy cheese but instead means abalone and cheese! After our snack we headed a couple miles back the road we came from and I picked a precipitous, rocky spot to start fishing. I decided to take only my Spro Mobile Stick with me, just so I could 'scratch' around for what was there. I put on a 7g metal and started casting around. It didn't take long and soon after getting unstuck from a snag, I got a hit, and the fish cut me off straight away! This was repeated a few more times and I had to raise my leaders length and diameter (2m of 10lbs) while only having 0.4 PE mainline... I persisted with metals and soon got a fish on that stuck this time. It fought with short but explosive runs towards the bottom and soon after a dark shape came to the surface thrashing violently. I pulled the fish up by the leader and was looking at it like it was alien.. Something between a wrasse and a blenny, with teeth and soft, leathery skin (though with rough scales if stroking towards the head). Almost impossible to handle/hold with bare hands as well. It was clearly a larger specimen of the little fish I caught in Valparaiso harbour and the place proved to be full of them! After a bit of research I found the fish's name being rollizo (Pinguipes chilensis) or Chilean sandperch in English. I kept fishing for a couple more hours, trying many different lures and presentations, but they seemed to be unfussy fish with a very healthy aggressive instinct. A true rockfish! Below some pics and the video of my first serious rock fishing session.
Thick rubbery lips, teeth and an attitude to match its appearance..
So my first day on the South seemed to live up to expectations although it was clear that I would have to find a thicker mainline and this proved much harder than anticipated...
To be continued...
Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile Stick 80UL
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000FC
Mainline: YGK G Soul X3 braid 0.4PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs then switched to Pline Halo 10lbs.
lure: Various
Today I returned from a week-long holiday back home in Greece. Although this was most certainly not a fishing trip, still the little Spro mobile stick found its way among my stuff along with a newly acquired yet used Shimano Biomaster 1000fb and naturally I had a couple sessions in some of my old haunts... Unbelievably the bad weather followed me there and I didn't manage a single outing on freshwater. Moreover the sea-fish seemed to be affected as well from all that rain but thankfully LRF gear and tactics helped me have some fun!
One particular session stands out as I fished with my cousin Kyriakos, something we haven't done in a while, and catching a good number of fish. It was a long time since I taught him the basics but he soon put that knowledge to good use, managing plenty of painted and plain combers along with an annular sea bream. He was using cheburashka with isome and generally soft plastics while I was using metals, blades and soft plastics as well in the end. This saw me catching loads of painted combers, with the blades and small paddletails being the most effective lures while I lost something much bigger (grouper or snapper probably) on the ZX blade that didn't stick. Towards sundown I got a couple sea-bass on a 2" white Jackall Peke Peke on a Crazyg jighead. But also got a nice hit on a popper just a couple meters away from my feet without a hookup though..
What impressed us was the good size of some of the painted combers along with their expanded bellies so I'm guessing that they could still be spawning! In the end of June?!
Some pics below and a video will follow soon.
A perfect rock mark..
Painted comber will take a large variety of lures..
Chunky goby from the shallows..
Beautiful!
A happy lrfer!
Double hook-up!
A perfect target for Mebaring and Kurodai tactics..
Match the hatch.. If you look closely...
Baby goldblotch grouper
Two banded sea bream on isome..
Most of them with expanded bellies...
A bit of silver..
A good little fighter..
A serious painted comber..
A nice little break from the hustle and bustle of the city and although the weather yet again messes up my plans, I still thoroughly enjoyed my trip! Now I'm curious to see what July brings...
Tight Lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000 fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid PE 0.4
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs
lure: various
I think this summer somebody cursed me not to have a car! Last weekend saw me head down to Glasgow determined to buy another car (3 cars so far this summer and counting!). I closed the deal in less than 30 mins and was back on the road, now a proud owner of a Vauxhall Vectra.. On the drive up from Glasgow and although the weather was rainy I thought it would be a good idea to stop at my Loch Fyne mark for a few casts, as I had packed my tiny Spro mobile stick travel rod with me...
I reached the mark to find it devoid of other fishermen and campers (a very rare occurrence) and I took this as a good sign..
I paired the rod with a newly bought, used Shimanno Exage 1000fd and started casting paralel to the rocks and working the lure (2" tube with 2g jighead) OTD. On the first casts I got hit soon after started hoping the bottom and It was a solid fish! This rod really makes for enjoyable fishing as its semi parabolic and was now really bent on the fish, that was making some good runs.. Slowly I managed to bring it to the surface and I saw it was a nice plumb wrasse and my biggest one so far in Scotland!
White tubes are good..
A beautiful ballan!
I caught some smaller pollock after that and a few mackerel but nothing big.. I did see a pod of porpoises working their way around the salmon cages.. The salmon were jumping like mad!
Since that session I have only done another one on the burn near my village for trout and another one in Loch Etive trying some different marks that convinced me that there's no need for going too far in search of good fishing marks as there's plenty of them I havent tried in there..
Nothing major caught but a nice variety although I didn't take many pics since I was just happy getting back to fishing again.. I'm going to try for salmon this month and really hope to get at least one even not as big as the one I lost back in the start of the season..
Tight lines!
Gear used
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL
Reel: Shimano Exage 1000 fd
Mainline: Spiderwire invisibraid, 0.10mm
Rig: metal jigs, jighead, microjig
lure: Ecogear grass minnow s, jackall peke peke, Agm 2" tube
Ive recently received the second travel rod that I bought mainly for LRF and UL spinning. The rod is the Spro Mobile Stick 80 UL, 2.40, 0.6-8g and I thought it would suit well my needs for travelling LRF as it's length and casting weight seem perfect for the technique. The rod as I discovered has a parabolic action without being floppy though. I took it on a session at my go-to pollock mark and used a variety of lures, mainly focusing on blade baits as I wanted to see if the rod would work them well and how easily I could pick the vibrations, in order to judge the sensitivity of the rod. Well even though its a parabolic rod, its a far cry from the usual cheap American trout sticks that you can almost tie a knot with! It worked the lures well and the fun started when I managed to get a couple pollock on it, as it was a pure joy fighting them on it! I got a video and hope you enjoy it although towards the end the lens got a bit foggy because of the heat and the biggest fish cant be seen very well!
