East Coast with the heavy gear.

On my last days off, and after finally having the car back on the road as well as my heavier reels back from service, I really wanted to head to St Abbs again and tackle with the big fish that I lost on my previous session there with my friend Giorgos. The conditions weren't identical, as it was much colder now, but the winds were from the West and would change to Northeasterlies later on... I have always found that fishing just before such changes can be very productive and was hoping that this would happen again... It has to be said though that I wasn't expecting any great flurries of fish and was just counting on a few good bites throughout day.
I was going to fish from the low tide onwards and high tide was about 19:00. I reached the mark around 12 o clock and started hiking down the cliffs to a spot that I haven't fished before but looked good enough and was near my favourite rock ledge anyway.
Thankfully the rocks were dry and I didn't have any serious issues even though the studs on my boots were almost worn out. I did however realise that I should have carried some rope with me as there was a very fishy rock-point just out of reach... Maybe next time..

Bright sky early on..

Overcast and cold later in the day.

Nevertheless I started fishing with a 15g cheburashka, #1/0 offset worm hook and a 3'' Scalp Minnow by Crazy-Fish. I aimed for a protruding rock about 30m away and after a few casts, I got hit on the retrieve! I was retrieving over a reef and that's where the fish hit so my first thoughts went to a good coalie or pollock. Unsurprisingly the fish went straight into a snag and I pushed it too hard till I heard the line ping! In retrospect I should have let the fish come out but I was just too impatient...
After some more casts around, I decided it was time to move to my usual spot.
Its important to note that although cold, the place felt more 'alive' than last time, with plenty of seabirds and even a seal swimming about..
I reached my favourite spot after an energetic hike up and down the rocks and started fishing straight away. I tried some metals as well but had no joy and decide to get the 'secret weapon' out! Being nothing else than my favourite Salty Bait inchiku with Gulp Sandeel combo.
On my second cast I got hit soon after touch down and this felt like another good fish. After a couple strong runs and some drag I managed to bring it close enough to see colour, and I thought it was a good pollock, but then the fish made a last run into the kelp and got unhooked with the well known 'kelp leverage method'... My disappointment couldn't be described...
I soldiered on but the place went dead after that. Moreover the weather was already turning and it started raining. I headed off as I was concerned about my boot's grip again and started walking back to the car. On the way back I thought of doing a few casts from a ledge that I don't fish very often as its the one most heavily pressured (in summertime. I didn't see another angler in both sessions). I didn't even bother to take the camera and hastily put on a cheburashka and an old Berkley Pogy paddletail that I found in my lure box...  As it happens I got a take on the first cast O.T.D! I gave the lure a pause and a twitch and the fish was on! It fought well but this time I took it easy and I soon had it at the base of the rocks. Now this spot is like a rock wall and very steep so I had to scramble down and perch precariously on a small piece of rock while trying to pull the fish up with the line. The line was just about holding and I managed to hoist a good pollock up to my feet. I held it there for a second while tying for a lip-grip but the fish wriggled and managed to throw the hook and back it went! I was left speechless! At least I got to see it and I touched the leader so it counts..lol

The 'lost trasure'!

I kept casting in the vicinity and then got snagged. I popped the rod a couple times and managed to set the lure free.. As I retrieved it back though, I got a good take and this felt like a very serious fish!
Unfortunately it threw the hook after a screeching run and I soon discovered why.. The hook point got blunt and bent from the snag!
Bellow the vid of the first two lost fish.

Lets just say that this wasn't my lucky day but despite the lost fish, I somehow felt positive. This maybe because I realised that all the fish were pollock and not the big coalies or cod that I was really after.  It would have been soul-crushing if I lost a 5+lbs cod...
I believe that I'll give the East Coast a rest for a while, not because the fishing is not worth the effort, but because I believe it will be even more productive in a month or two, while the sea-lochs offer much more action right now.

Tight Lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g.
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX 40
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5
Leader: YGK Nitlon DFC flouorocarbon 16lbs
Lures: 20g Duel Salty Bait/4"Gulp Sandeel, 15g cheburashka with 3" Crazy-Fish Scalp Minnow and 3'' Berkley Pogy.

First fish of the year! Almost...

A while back I was contacted by my fellow Greekspinners forum member and Facebook friend Giorgos, that he would be in the UK for holidays and that he would really appreciate if I could take him fishing. This made me extremely happy as I love nothing more than going fishing with like minded anglers and showing off my marks! The month he selected to be in the UK though is definitely not considered prime saltwater lure fishing time... Being almost the end of January now! Nevertheless he was extremely lucky to have his arrival on Friday coincide with unseasonably warm weather, brought by strong Southwesterly winds. This window of opportunity weather wise wasn't going to last long and in similar previous occurrences I always had good results in fishing.
My main worry now was where to take him?
I knew he wanted some spectacular Scottish scenery but also he preferred to fish with the LRF gear and had to find a suitable target for him. The first target that came to my mind were of course coalies! One shoal of them and we would thoroughly enjoy ourselves but as of my last session on Loch Fyne, they still hadn't shown up there. Moreover my quarry mark there is really not considered very scenic and thus also taking the wind's direction in consideration, my thoughts turned to the East coast...
We would have the wind on our backs and I've been wanting, for a long time now, to check how it fares in the winter. Obviously not as sheltered as the sea lochs but on this occasion it wouldn't matter.
We woke up early on Sunday and packed the gear into the car. Had a coffee and made the drive to St Abbs head, arriving around 10 o clock there. High tide was around 14:00, the sea was relatively calm though the wind was threatening to sweep us off our feet! At least the casts would go a long way...!

St Abbs on January..

Giorgos was very excited seeing all the cliffs and couldn't wait to start fishing.
We started on the first accessible rock ledge and put on some metals searching for the coalies. Our position was very elevated and the wind made things very difficult, but we soldiered on.. After fishing next to Giorgos for a while, I decided to move on the other side of the ledge. Not much was happening there as well so I went back to see how Giorgos was doing after some casts and break offs on snags. I found him with the rod bend over and the drag screeching! Straight away I scrambled to the rocks below him and managed to land his first Scottish fish, a plumb coalie! Needless to say he was over the moon and honestly I felt even happier that he caught a fish than I would've felt had I caught it myself!

A very happy LRFer!

Thinking there would be more of them around, we kept casting our metals and working the area but we saw no more signs of them. We soon decided to move to another rock ledge and after a bit of strenuous hiking we reached the spot. Unfortunately my friend wasn't wearing studded shoes and couldn't come all the way to they rocky point so he decided to fish the deep bay instead. I made my way to the tip of the rocky finger and started casting about my metal jig again without success. I saw some water birds diving though and then switched things up and tied a Texas rig with a 7g brass bullet head, glass bead and my favourite Decoy RS WORM 101 offset hooks #2. I mounted a 7,5cm dark coloured (UV) Vibro worm by Crazyfish and started making long casts and working the bottom.
I would let the lure touchdown then give it a few jerks to get some noise from the bead, and then lift and drag it on the bottom. After a few casts I got a proper take and felt some good weight on the end of my line. the fish wasn't tearing about in speed, instead moving relatively slowly but with force and thumping its head about. A typical cod fight although it wasn't meant to be long, as the fish cut me off on the bottom...  I was gutted and really annoyed with myself for getting caught unprepared (only with LRF gear).. I was then further annoyed as I realised my action cam battery had died without me realising and I didn't get the action...
I retied the same rig, changed battery and after casting out got a couple sharp bites (possibly coalies) but then got snagged. Another rig and another long cast saw me get a good take again but this time to something with much better speed that unfortunately cut me off again!
This time I got it on video:

I'm thinking that this probably was a good coalfish for reasons I will explain further down.
After loosing the two fish, things slowed down and since it was getting late, I went back to Giorgos to see how he fared. He didn't have a sniff but didn't seem too concerned as the one fish was enough for him to make the trip worthwhile. We made the arduous hike back up the cliff, got in the car and headed home tired but happy!

Giorgos on the ascend..

I may not have managed to land a fish but I was more than happy that Giorgos got one and also was pleasantly surprised at the potential for big winter fish on this mark. Needless to say Ill be back...
Back home, I gutted and cleaned the fish and was left amazed when I found what it had been feeding on!

Cockles?!

The seemed like cockle shells or something and the fish was full of them! This may explain my belief that my second fish was a coalie as they were obviously feeding on the bottom. Would never have thought that coalies would feed on shellfish but always love it when fish surprise me like that! You never stop learning in fishing... Next step try shellfish shaped soft plastics?!
Something else that Giorgos showed me was  the existence of  anti-fogging pads for action cameras and even gave me his to put on mine! Was always annoyed by that phenomenon and I'm looking forward to making better videos now!

Anti-fogging pads.

It was a real pleasure being a host and fishing with Giorgos and hope we will meet again soon. All in all a great day out despite not landing my fish.
I am now really looking forward to my impending two week holiday trip to far away Chile, and can't stop thinking about the fish I might get there!

Tight Lines and best wishes for a fish-packed 2016!

Gear used.
Rod: Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Shimano Biomaster 1000fb
Mainline: Gosen mebarin braid 0.3PE
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs.
lure: 7.5cm Crazyfish Vibro worm on a Texas rig with a 7g brass bullet weight, 8mm glass bead and #2 Decoy RS worm 101 hook.

A sunny day on the East coast: St Abbs head.

Yesterday my day off coincided with Scott's and he invited me for a session on his neck of the woods. I dully obliged and took the train to Edinburgh arriving there about 09:00. Now there were some setbacks to this trip, first I recently realised that my favourite KG Evolution tip was cracked (from the return trip on Skye) but I managed to patch it up with superglue and braid.. And secondly only the day before I managed to cut a bit of the tip of my thumb at work! Undeterred I patched that one as well (not with superglue and braid I must add..) and was looking forward to some fine fishing...
We reached the mark about an hour later to find perfect conditions. Little wind, overcast but clearing and an incoming tide. I started with a Salty bait/gulp sandeel combo and got a pollock first cast but then things got really slow.. This wasn't very surprising as we soon saw dolphins passing at casting distance from our spot.. They were a beautiful sight but I was concerned about their effect on the fishing, as I believe they negatively affect the fish more so than seals etc.. And so it was for a while we had no takes (not even coalies!) until I started working the bottom with a 12g cheburashka and a 3" Crazy fish vibro fat paddletail. I got a take OTD near the bottom and then got stuck.. I gave it a couple seconds and then managed to get whatever it was unstuck. It felt like dead weight but I was sure it was a fish and after a while we saw a huge mouth surfacing from the depths.. It was a big mama short spined scorpion fish that got us cheering! I always get a kick from catching these guys, especially when they're at that size!

A beast!

Cant get enough pics of them!

Cavernous mouth!

Japanese pose..

Pollock on the Salty bait/gulp sandeel

After that, the action really slowed down again and it was time to move.. We had an arduous hike to the next point but we were fishing soon enough. I had a follow on my first cast, possibly from a pollock (usually a sign that fish are not active when pollock are concerned) but couldn't tempt it again.
The place was looking very 'wrassy' though and soon enough Scott's rod was bent into one that took some dropshotted gulp. Soon after I had one as well on the cheburashka and what I consider a testament to 'proper' lures effectiveness on them. I believe that when they are active they will happily eat a well presented softie and gulp/isomes etc are not the only way for Scottish wrasse. Certainly down South this is the case as wrasse numbers there are huge and I remember in Sark days that they would practically hit anything!
I decided to try and target the wrasse more specifically as the pollock were not playing ball and I prepared a Jika rig with a small creature. I consider the jika a deadly presentation for wrasse especially when using creatures and crawling/hopping them across the bottom. Unfortunately the wrasse weren't that hungry and neither me nor Scott got another one although I missed a solid bite...
As I was fishing for wrasse though I spied two silhouettes moving quickly near the surface of the water, and after a closer inspection, I'm sure they were bass and good ones at that, around the 50-60cm mark! I told this to Scott who informed me that they are regularly seen and caught here and after this I fan casted the area with a Savagear sandeel with no results though.. I then decided to fish a stickbait on a weighted hook just to see if it would make a difference to those passive pollock plus it could also pick up wrasse and bass. This quickly did the trick and a pollock engulfed the whole thing OTD, thus giving me little fight and in the end I had to keep the fish..

The point we were heading...

Scott climbing at the top..

Wish there were more of them about!

Jika rig.

Pollock on the stickbait

Sadly no more fish came from the point and I decided to work the deep kelpy bay on the right. I reverted back to the cheburashka (7g this time) with a 3" Long John paddletail. I stumbled upon these paddletails on ebay and I'm guessing they're Chinese, but Ive had great results with them and they look and move good. Moreover they are heavily scented and very cheap too! The tide was going out now and after a few casts at the deeper parts without luck, I moved closer to the back of the bay and made a cast near a big boulder that I could see was standing just before the water got deeper at the edge. I let the lure drop on controlled line and as I started picking up line on the reel, I realised I had a fish on! It felt pretty heavy but didn't do many runs only getting lively before I brought it up. A nice pollock of around 4.5-5lbs had engulfed the lure and this explains again the slow fight. Very carefully I unhooked the fish with the pliers and with a bit of help it swam back into the depths. I proceeded in getting another fish that gave me a screeching run but got itself unhooked in the kelp on the way up.. Another cast towards the shallows and another fish hit me hard and made a mad run! It went on a couple more peeling drag in the process before I landed it after a bit of scrambling on the rocks. Another fine pollock that I didn't bother taking too many pics of as I had the fight on the action-cam... or so I thought..!

Quality pollock.

Excellent fighter!

Anyway we decided to head back and after an arduous hike up the cliff we arrived sweaty back in the car.
We then drove to st Abbs harbour with flatties in mind but we blanked and it was time for me to get the train home. Below a vid of the day:

Some interesting notes on the day are that dolphins really do kill the action on a days fishing... I suspect this may also explain why the pollock were caught so close to shore. Moreover even though Ive only been a few times on the East coast I have to say that although it gives good fish, you have to work hard for them and you don't get the flurry of action that we get on the sea-lochs. The presence of bass was also very surprising and I guess I should make a session for them sometime soon but alas the lack of car has really brought my plans for the summer upside down...
Another quality day with my friend Scott and I really appreciate him showing his marks to me. Looking forward to his results form his holidays in a few days time and also to fish again after he returns.

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g.
Reel: Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
lures:Cheburashka with 3" paddletails, Duel Salty bait/gulp Sandeel, 4" stick bait on 3g weighted wide gap offset hook.