Opening up my trout season!

 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...

Tight Lines

More Loch Fyne action!

On my days off I managed to do two good sessions. On Friday the weather was nice and me and my friend John decided to head down to Loch Fyne, at my favourite mark for species variety. He is interested in LRF and I thought it would be the right place to have some good action! On arrival, there was a strong wind and the resident seal was swimming around but I was not deterred as this mark never fails to provide something.. I rigged the Solpara for my friend, first with a small metal jig (Jackall mame jig) as he wanted to target mackerel and later with a 3g cheburashka and a Jackall peke peke. I used my Crostage with a heavier cheburashka and an Ecogear grass minnow S.
We started casting from the left point of the harbour as the wind was behind us and helped getting distance on the cast. Moreover the current was strong and I was expecting predators hiding or patrolling around the point to intercept food coming with the current.
 John was into the first mackerel pretty quickly followed by plenty of small pollock. Things were slower for me in the bottom but as I was retrieving the lure I got hit hard close in and the fish started taking drag. It hit among the boulders and at first I thought it was a good wrasse, but after a while a nice pollock of around 2kg surfaced! I got some of the fight on video and here it is.

For the rest of the session we caught a good variety of fish with John getting the only ballan wrasse of the day. We managed a good few mackerel that are always superb on light gear along with a couple more decent pollock among the little ones. Codling, poor cod, a lonely coalie and some goldsinney wrasse were also caught and it just shows that this mark is a species hotspot! I made another video with some of the other fish caught along the day. We left with smiling faces and a bag of mackerel for dinner..

Some pics.

The only ballan of the day..

Stunning colour1

John with a nice red codling!

Aggressive goldsinneys!

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI, Majorcraft Solpara  SPS-S792M
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000, Mitchell Mag Pro lite 1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon fluorocarbon, 3lbs and 4lbs
Rig: cheburashka, hard lures
lure: Ecogear Shirasu worm, Tict brilliant, Ecogear grassminnow S, Ernest Mago Ika sama jig, jackal Mame jig.

Code name 'Cheburashka'.

Although LRF is a relatively new thing, the idea of fishing ultra light with lures has been around for a while... Especially in eastern Europe where anglers for a long time have utilised ice fishing jigs (eg mormyshka, pilkers) and small lures targeting various freshwater predators of smaller size. The perch in particular have a large following and gear specialised for their fishing such as micro and nano jigs (mikrodzhig). From YouTube videos I got interested in some of the gear used there and what caught my eye were those small simple articulated jigheads with the double 'ears' called cheburashka. It took me a while to find somewhere to buy them from, as I didn't know their name at first, but I finally managed to locate some on eBay and an e-shop in Latvia. After receiving them I started using them more and more in my fishing and to be honest they almost replaced normal jigheads at my bottom fishing! Their versatility where you can clip whatever hook you like in an instant and also use them quickly for pegged carolina rigs, the attractiveness of the combo with the soft bait moving more freely (sort of like a jika rig) and most important, their cheap price have made them indispensable for my fishing  especially when working the bottom.

Various types of cheburashka..

Productive combo for clear bottom.

Killer!

My favourite combo is a 4g cheburashka with a #8 Owner Slim Offset hook along with a slim soft plastic such as a Jackall Mebaru Bushi, Ecogear shirasu, Sakura AJ worm etc. A variety of fish will take and the combo is pretty weed/snagless although not as good as a standard texas rig.
Ive been using them for a couple months now and have only positive points for them. They come in various sizes and types, with the most simple one having two eyes where you can add a split ring and a hook although this would need plugging single type of hooks so that the hookpoint looks up (not that important I find). My way though, is to cut with pliers the top of the eye, pass the hook and close it with the pliers. Then again you can just buy the ones with the clips where adding the hook is easier. I have also used such variations of the articulated jighead form Japan by Ocean Ruler and although they are very good, the eastern European ones are just cheaper!
Some pics of fish caught on them in recent sessions and also a video from my day off in Loch Fyne. The weather was really crap but I still had a productive session!

Pretty wrasse!

The mainstay species...

Poor cod are an underrated beautiful fish..

Gurnard are always a pleasant surprise.

Thanks for reading!

Gear used.
Rod:  Majorcraft CRK-T782AJI
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon fluorocarbon, 3lbs
Rig: cheburashka
lure: Ecogear Shirasu worm, Tict brilliant, Mebaru bushi long, Sakura AJ worm, Ecogear grassminnow.

Return to my roots..

As I mentioned on my previous post, I am without a car now and this has really started to get to me! Especially yesterday on my day off, I stayed at home and I was feeling like a caged bird... Today I was having none of it.. I was determined to go catch some fish no matter what..
I heard of a little burn that holds plenty of small brown trout and even the occasional salmon in season and I've been wanting to try it out for a while now, though I was getting distracted by the lochs. Today it was the day, but the only problem was the distance... The burn is approximately 2.5 hours walk (!) from my place but nevertheless I was bent on doing it..
After the long walk I finally reached the burn and it did look very fishy with lots of cover and pools. I could see some little fish moving about and I cautiously approached the bank..
My first time fishing with lures was exactly in a place like this back home, ultra light spinning for brown trout and I must admit that its been a while since I've done it... So unsurprisingly, I was a bit rusty and a few casts didn't go where they were meant to!
I soon started getting the hang of it and I was rewarded with some little trout hitting my spinner. I caught plenty and lost some as I was making my way upstream, moreover I got some salmon parr as well, which proves that the burn gets salmon indeed...

Its been a while...

A beauty!

Plenty of parr, a good sign.

Sunken tree.. typical fish magnet!

After a while I reached a nice large pool and I decided to use some soft baits as well. I rigged an orange
Ecogear grass minnow s on a 1.5g jighead and started casting under the little waterfalls. It didn't take long before I started getting bites and more little trout and parr. I got a decent trout that came off but I wasn't bothered as I was having a really good time!

The pool.

They like softies as well!

I fished for a couple hours I think and caught plenty of little fish, so considering the time it would take me to walk back home and the midges eating me alive, I decided to call it a day and return some other time.. Possibly after some good rains later in the season for that elusive salmon.. Next week I'm looking forward to visiting the isle of Islay and doing some fishing there, hope it goes well!

Thanks for reading

Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft Solpara SPS-S792M (7'9", 0.5g-5g)
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon fluorocarbon, 3lbs
Rig: spinner, jighead
lure: Ecogear grass minnow s, Lukris and Jaxon #1 spinners.