The tinnie cracks on...

Not had time at all to blog lately as it seems like everything is happening at the same time with work, fishing and family commitments. Nevertheless the fishing has been very good despite the rainy and windy June. After the early season glut, fish have become a little fussier with all the bait around and tend to patrol more instead of staging on one spot. They're also not as tightly shoaled and it has become a common thing to pick up a few fish before needing to move again to find more.  

Slim softplastics have been far better than metals in the past few sessions with brighter colours doing well. Although this could be down to my latest sessions taking place in the evening.  

I've had a good few people on the tinnie up to now and the feedback has been very positive. So much more space! I've kinda neglected my sibs and I think I need an outing on them in a more remote area than Staffin. There are reports of mackerel about and it would be good to head west for them.

I will be going for a month's holiday in Greece next month and I'm really looking forward to some good fishing there. Been a while since I had some hot weather fishing...

The other day I also opened my trout season account and this is probably the latest I've ever started fishing for them! Nevertheless, I'll hit some more wee lochans soon enough. 

Tight lines 

Autumn is truly here.

We've been getting some proper Autumn weather now with lots of rainfall and the usual wind. Saying that there's been plenty of good days to go out but I've been too busy with work and family commitments. I'm also setting up something to do with Aquaponics for next year but more on that in a later post.

Probably the highlight of my fishing the past couple of weeks, has been a couple nice perch I encountered whilst having a couple casts on my way back from a family day in Inverness. Its in a loch that I know holds some smaller ones along with pike but was pleasantly surprised by a couple fish over 1lb. It was dusk and both fish fell on a small sparkle-chartreuse creature on a chatter-cheburashka. 

Lump!

Chatter-cheburashka all in!

I also had a short boat session in the salt that resulted in some nice pollock. Got some great footage of them hitting the lure underwater and will upload when ready.

Last week, my parents have come over to see us and I managed a short session with my dad on the sib. It was a choppy day but we managed a couple keepers that mum cooked straight after! 

More than a decade since we fished together! 

He's in! 

Good eaters.

Haven't fished with my dad in more than a decade so it was great to see him catch!

More recently, I've been in Inverness again and devoted some time in finding those perch again. I've been given some lovely softplastics from Tom at Kelpie Lures a while back and thought it was a good opportunity to try some of them. 

I decided to fish the bulb tail on a ned rig  as they look great underwater and it's a natural presentation. I fished an area with structure and dome depth that looked very 'perchy'. Didn't do too much in terms of action to the lure, just a few shakes and bumping bottom. Got an abrupt bite and some energetic head shakes straight away.  Felt a bit too lively to be a perch and to my surprise it was a nice brownie!  I had to take a quick pic and put her straight back as the season is over. I kid you not, as soon as I released the fish I turned my head and was greeted by the fishery officer!  I explained that I was targeting perch and  seeing that I released the fish and my gear he was happy to let me fish on... After a few more casts I decided to try another area with a bit more current. I was working my lure with the current and a few meters before the end of the retrieve I got another sharp bite with heavier weight on the strike. I momentarily thought it was a pike but the fight was very different and after some toing and froing,  I managed to land a salmon! Yet again a fish out of season so a quick pic, unhooking and sent her straight back. Decided that this was definitely not a perch spot and hearing some more splashes in the water, stopped fishing. Don't think I've ever considered salmonids as nuisance species before...!

Trout like ned rig too...

As do the salmon!

Great presentation.

It was great to see that the loch has healthy numbers of salmonids and that the lures work on them but I really hoped to have encountered a perch or two! Might try another loch instead. 

Tight lines!

Tropical fishing.

 I've not gone holidays outside the country so far but it seems that the hot weather has come to us.  This, combined with big tides, very clear water and sunny conditions, has unfortunately made fishing quite hard especially in the salt. Its something I call the midsummer blues when every year around this time the fishing slows down.  Typically I had 3 consecutive days guiding from shore and boat! We had to work hard for our fish but we didn't do too bad in the end...

Cracking days...

A happy angler.

That's better.

Wrasse from 20m.

Nick with a dark kelpy.

Got one too.

And then the haar lifted.

It came down to fishing early mornings while the haar was still low and then choose deeper kelpy marks when the sun came out. Especially from the boat it became apparent that the fish moved a bit deeper and were keeping low in the water column.  Also they were more loosely shoaled and fairly spread out. Nevertheless a good number of them came out, fighting hard along with a couple ballan wrasse.

Mackerel and cod from a solo day.

Hadn't caught one in a while 

Have been really spoiled with the weather this summer and I can't complain even though it makes fishing hard work. 

Had a couple solo outings in the freshwater that didn't go too bad. Fished for perch on another hot day, and despite taking a while to find them, they were shoaled up in a weedy bay and in a hunting mode. I didn't use finesse tactics and instead opted for a chatterbait-cheburashka and 2" softplastics. The bites were instant and one after the other. No fish of any size but loads of them! Got a few slaps on a wee topwater as well but no hookups. I really wish I wouldn't have to drive 2 hours plus to fish for them. Also managed a lovely brownie that smashed a mini spoon almost at my feet!  

Perch on chatterbait-cheburashka 

Loads of them. 

A welcome surprise. 

Got busy times ahead with lots more fishing and guiding! Also need some LRF mackerel for the bbq...

Tight lines 

Some tough guiding to start the season.

 Over the weekend I guided for a second time (after many postponed trips due to various reasons) my friend Zubair and his brother along with 2 friends of theirs that haven't fished in Skye before.

The weather didn't allow for a boat outing thus we fished from the rocks. Unfortunately the boys were a bit late and we lost valuable time from the ebb in the morning. I got cut off by something with sharp teeth and Zubair dropped something big that stayed close to the bottom. Possibly spurdogs. 

After that the action slowed down and we had to move to a couple different spots. The bites were few and far between and mostly coming from deeper spots. Typically, the newbies both caught while the "veterans" didn't!  Took another move to get them to catch as well. 

Overall the fish were fussy and apart from the early morning losses, no lunkers showed up. Moreover, we caught  a couple males that were still exuding milk showing that they haven't spawned out fully. I'd usually expect fishing like this in March or April but not May... 

With the colder weather this year i suppose that everything's been pushed back a bit. Water temperatures are over 9C now so hopefully things will pick up quickly. 

I've been doing more wee lochan fishing lately as it gets me some exercise and those brownies are always fun. I got an UL telescopic rod for these smaller waters and every little fish feels like a monster.  Still a bit slow on the seatrout front. 

Only had one short boat session since my last post without having much to show for it. Was more exploratory as I had a few areas marked that I wanted to check out but just then my fishfinder's transducer stopped working and put me all wrong for the day. Had a few average fish here and there and played around with the boat before calling it a day. I've since bought a Garmin striker 4 Vivid with downvu imaging and also ordered a cheap transducer from Aliexpress for the old Garmin. If that works, I'll use the Vivid on the boat and the old one in the kayak...

Who needs hooks when they hit like that!

A cast from the pier after I put the boat away...

Looks good.

It seems that we'll be getting some warmer weather soon and there'll be an end to these Northerlies at last! Raring to get the boat out and do some serious fishing!

Tight lines