Slow start to the Summer.

 While May was pretty good weather wise, it all turned crap as soon June arrived. Cold temperatures and strong winds meant that little fishing was had. 

I continued with my seatrout fishing and although I didn't break any records, any session where I hookup and land more than a couple of these fish is a success in my book! Something that I've come to use more in their fishing is sinking pencils especially those models that have a fast shimmying drop and an irregular wobble on the retrieve. They tend to cast great and are good for covering ground. I haven't found the fish as close to the shore as I tend to later in the season and lures like that seemed to perform better than the usual spoons. 

Not photogenic as usual...

I did a bit of guiding but I had to cancel quite a few trips due to the poor weather. Nevertheless the days I've managed to get out have been good. Pollock have been kinda slow to get back in condition but they're also into the early Summer pattern of preferring small, natural presentations. I've witnessed big shoals of good coalies smashing fry in the surface in a few occasions but even they were hard to tempt and moved very quickly. I suspect they were feeding on sandeel or small sprats.

The girls smashed it!

On my most recent guiding trip i was joined by my regular Zubair with his son and brother. It was a slow start to the evening but once the tide started running a bit more and everyone getting dialed in to what the fish wanted, they started coming in thick and fast. We also encountered a few coalfish blitzes but they only lasted a few minutes and we didn't get hit.

At some point Zubair saw a long eel-like fish follow his caught pollock up. Then about 10 minutes later he hooked up to a lovely ling that brought some variety to our session! 

Proper fishos!

Such a cool fish!

This has been it for the most part.  I've had a few ventures in freshwater (especially when weather wasn't ideal for the sea) and I have to say things seem very slow. Even in the small lochs it certainly feels like this cold and rainy summer hasn't helped at all as fish were non responsive. I do think they'll have to switch on at dome point and I hope I'll have the time to get out then! 

Tight lines 

Hj

Good weather at last.

May came and we saw some lovely weather on the island. I've actually had time for a few solo sessions and ventured to my usual places but also further afield. 

From the boat I decided to get my fly rod out from collecting dust and actually use it (!) as conditions were perfect. Plus, fish really like small presentations in early Summer so a fly is a good choice. I got a new extra fast sink line on the reel and along with the usual clousers it didn't take long to tempt plenty of pollack and coalies.

They're great fun.

Mental on the fly!

The bigger ones always complicate things...

On the conventional gear, results have been pretty steady and I'm always a bit surprised on how hard some of those fish can fight this time of year, lean and mean! Also a few cod have showed up too.

Fighters!

Beautiful rock cod 

It's also the time of year where my mind turns to sea trout and I've had a short session for them with one fish landed and plenty of their infuriating follows! 

It stood still for a millisecond!

Overall a pretty good start to the Summer and I've got a few trips further afield planned too. Let's see how it goes.

Tight lines 

Only one!

 On Saturday I met up with my Greek friend Achileas, who I hadn't fished with since 2015! We kept in touch and he always wanted to come fish with me up in Skye. He mainly fishes for sea trout and mackerel thus I thought it would be good if I'd take him out on the boat and show him something different. 

Conditions prevented us from visiting any Northern marks so we launched from a Southern slip and headed out. The fish are well into spawning now and this makes them tricky to find and tempt but I had high hopes for a few but quality fish...

We reached my preferred spot and started casting slim home poured Sluggo imitation soft plastics. After a few casts I got a bite and solid resistance...

The fish didn't seem to realise what happened and it was sluggish but I could feel it's weight as I was bringing it in. A couple short runs and I got her up. A fat mama was in the net moments later and we were delighted! I was expecting quality but not a double in the first few casts! I urged Achileas to cast to where I got her while I unhooked the fish. He got no bite and we then took a couple photos before releasing her and continuing fishing. 

Fat mama!

Same fish...

It was unfortunately one of those days that they didn't want to show up and even though we could see them on the fish finder, they weren't responding to our lures. We persisted for a couple hours but my friend needed to head down to Edinburgh so we decided to call it and head in. 

I was glad Achileas witnessed the quality of fish up here but disappointed I couldn't get him connected to another one. There's always next time I suppose...

Tight lines!

A Spring like last year?

 I've had a single session so far this month but I have to say I was surprised with the results and the fish behaviour considering the time of year and weather conditions! 

I set off with an ok forecast that, as is so often the case up here, got worse by the time I reached the mark... The northerly swell had persisted throughout the night and I decided on a quick change of mark to a more sheltered one.  This mark is very sheltered but in close proximity to deep water and strong currents. It mainly holds good numbers of average pollock and usually big shoals of coalies.

As soon as I arrived I found the fish holding deep and close to the bottom. I started with the usual soft plastics and it wasn't long for the bites to develop. Once I got a couple fish up, I started switching up the presentations using some lipless/vibration hardbaits and A-rigs thinking they would fire the fish up as it usually happens this time of year. Surprisingly the fish didn't show much interest in these... It was near high water and I saw some bait fish passing higher in the water column, this possibly raised the pollock up and called in a big shoal of coalfish. I had a couple shallow attacks of them on the A-rig and I thought to try a topwater since they seemed fired up. The coalies didn't disappoint and had hit after hit for the best part of an hour! When casting closer to the ledge I noticed a couple pollock coming up for the Autowalker and it wasn't long until they got fired up too. I had a couple hit and misses from good fish until one of the bigger ones stuck! Cracking action for the beginning of March! 

A cracking fish and a cracking take!

Big and small wanted the Autowalker!

Plenty of Coalies.

Rugged fish.

Standard size.

I kept some fish for a feed and all of the pollock were very close to spawning with enlarged gonads. I don't think it's my imagination but in the past couple years Spring fishing has definitely improved...

Water temperature is slightly colder than what it was at this time last year but still close to 9C which may have something to do with the perkier fish. I really hope I can get out soon before all the fish spawn and get myself a couple of fat mamas!

Tight Lines

Belated report...

 Somehow we're in February now and I've realised I haven't made a report of last couple months  fishing. To be fair we've had storm after storm hitting us and any fishing sessions were few and far between weeks of bad weather. 

I kicked off my first session of the year at the beginning of January and the fishing was hectic! Plenty of topwater fish with the coalies being especially ravenous...

First of 2024.

First topwater fish of 2024!

Loved this strike!

Ravenous...

That session was pretty much all my fishing for January as I couldn't go near the sea because of the storms!

Then once February came the storms let up a bit and I managed to get a guiding session last weekend. Still not perfect weather but doable with some hardy souls...

Then yesterday I managed another solo session with adequate conditions and got a few fish for a feed. The coalfish loved a bit of A-rig action although soft plastics and vibration hard baits gave fish equally.

A-rig action...

Average size 

It does now feel more like prespawn and winter fishing with fish responding better to bright colours, slightly smaller sized lures, closer to bottom presentations and some 'annoying' lures like vibs and A-rigs.

Hopefully the Spring fishing will be as good as it was last year although some settled weather would be good enough for me.

Tight lines.

Ding a ling...

 November has been unusually busy for me but the few times I managed to get out, I did some scouting but also visited areas that I've not been in a while...

I've been on the lookout for a mark that would give me good shelter from northerly winds as Staffin can be too exposed at times but also productive enough to worth the effort. Thus I towed the boat and launched at a pretty decent slipway. I had only a couple hours to spare and quite some area to cover. Thus I runned and gunned my way past saved fishy spots on my Navionics app. Most proved very quiet but typically on the last 40 mins of the day I struck into a hotspot with good numbers of solid pollock! I hooked a number of hard fighting fish with a few spitting the hook so I will definitely be returning to this mark... The weather was pretty good on the day but I'm hoping for similar results on a less than ideal day.

Hard fighter

The next session took place in one of my favourite marks that I tend not to fish very often as access with the trailer can be a bit tricky. The wee Honwave and the Tohatsu were needing a good run though so I decided on a tech free day just wanting to get the rod bend. 

Well, there was plenty of that as good pollock and ravenous coalfish were on my lures cast after cast. It was a good day on the topwaters with a couple pollock on the autowalker 115s but also the good old whopper ploper, that drove the coalies in a frenzy! I had two of them hooked up on the same lure a couple times! 

I had to move out of the way as a creel fisherman put the fleet out but waited around as this can be a good trigger for bringing in fish since the fresh bait attracts them... I focused on soft plastics and moved in as soon as the creels were down. Plenty more pollock but the cherry on the cake came as I slowed right down the retrieve and a nice ling hit my shad! Always a pleasure seeing them on my lures...

Nice ling!

Only took one pic as they're a bugger unhooking in the inflatable!

They love that thing!

Excellent condition 

I got some more pollock after that and it wasn't long before I called it a day. It's really refreshing sometimes to fish with minimal gear and just enjoy the tug!

Hoping to get some more outings this month before the holidays. As long as the weather doesn't get too bad it should be pretty good right now.

Tight lines!