Oh Ireland!

Been a couple days back home from my holidays in Ireland and one thing I have to say is that I will definitely be going there again!
I went with my girlfriend Claire and we spent a week in County Kerry. This was most certainly not a fishing holiday but the travel rods went into the suitcase of course...
I didn't have any serious targets or 'must catch' fish list in mind, though I definitely wanted to get some wrasse and if possible a bass or two. Moreover I'd be taking the LRF gear as well so any of the smaller predators would be very welcome especially with some scad among them!
I had done some homework before the trip and had scores of points on Google maps ready to be sussed out...Most areas were exposed rocky coastlines and beaches with the occasional harbour/pier for the light stuff. I had heard only the best and was fired up to get started!
The weather was ok to begin with and we got a couple decent days but I only fished a bit here and there with the LRF and managed to catch my first Irish fish... Not a scad but a coalie 😆
Little did I know that the weather would turn bad and I'd get few chances to fish the more exposed marks I wanted.

Not a scad!

The first area we stayed in was Valentia Island and from Google Earth and the web I could tell that it would be very suitable for wrasse fishing, plus having some piers/harbours close by would offer ample opportunities to fish the light gear.
This being the open Atlantic, the swell was present at various intensities throughout the week and I only managed one HRF session for wrasse before the swell build up.
What a session it was though!
After a bit of a hike in the wind and rain with Claire we found the path down the rocks and on first look it was pretty rough (but still fishable). Thankfully we found a hollow at the rocks and out of the wind to settle down and fish from.
I was using my Spro Mobile Stick 80MH paired with the Shimano Stradic FK C3000 and the rig of choice being the good old Texas rig with a 20g tungsten bullet weight, glass bead and #1 wide gape offset hook. I would be using 3" Gulp Alive swimming mullets in a simple drag and pause retrieve.
From the first cast the fish showed their presence but instead of wrasse I got some pollock! Definitely not what I was looking for there..! Soon enough though, I started getting the familiar sharp taps of wrasse and after setting the hook a different fight ensued...
It didn't take long to get the first ballan out and there were many more to come!
All of them around the 2lbs mark but fighting hard and in a ravenous mood... Haven't had similar wrasse-fishing since I left the Channel Islands...

Toothy...

Them lips!

On the act!

Decent size...

Cant say no to them!

Big gob!

Conditions were lively...

I love wrasse!

That was my most memorable session of the trip. The next day the swell intensified considerably and
I had to find sheltered areas to fish. This meant more LRF and I had good sessions with mackerel, coalies and smaller ballan and corkwing wrasse but unfortunately no scad!

Dingle harbour breakwater.

Lovely corkwing.

Loads of mackies about.

My LRF setup was a 7'2'' (0.5-7g) Snowbee Kuroshio travel LRF rod paired with my Shimano Stradic 1000fc and using mainly small cheburashkas and metals. I didnt take too many softplastics with me as the space was limited and again I relied mostly on the Gulp.
We spent the last couple days on the Dingle peninsula and in retrospect we could've spent the whole week there as it simply has got it all!
Got pollock from the rocky points, wrasse in the harbour and while I snuck out before breakfast for a few casts, had a feisty bass on the trusty Megabass Zonk Gataride. Unfortunately this was gonna be our last day in Dingle and I didnt get the chance to fish there more... What a place.!

Before breakfast.

It was a great holiday in all and got some useful observations/notes for the next time:

• much cheaper and convenient to get the ferry there in my own car. Too much unnecessary hassle renting one there..
• No need for fancy rigs and many lures. 
• A tubular tip LRF rod might have been more suitable as when I encountered a bass following my tiny softplastics, I couldn't use a topwater or a jerkbait to potentially tease it into striking.
• Just 2 setups would be enough. a 1-10g for light game (but capable of something heavier) and a sort of 10-30g for the bigger stuff. 
• Swell forecast more important than weather forecast...

 I'm working on the videos now and should be up next week sometime!

Tight Lines!

My first guiding session and a lot of rain!

I was unlucky with the weather this week as it was raining practically non-stop during both my days off! Moreover there were strong Southwesterly winds that made fishing even more unpleasant..
I had a session alone on Wednesday and caught some fish in the shallows with a mixture of hard and softbaits. Unfortunately the wind didn't allow for the use of topwaters and that was a pity as I found a good number of fish active and willing to hit shallow runners but not OTT...

Looks like a scene from Jurassic park!

Megabass Zonk 120 sw...

DUO Realis Jerkbait 120sp for the best fish of the day..

 A video of the session.

On Thursday I met up with a friend who wanted to get a taste of saltwater fishing on Skye. Robert is from Poland and had never before fished in the UK. Therefore I promised him that he would catch his first Scottish fish on the session! Thankfully the rain was less intense in the morning along with a lighter wind. Thus we quickly drove to one of my northern marks as we would only have a short window of opportunity before the tide and conditions change.
We arrived at the spot and it was looking pretty good. A light chop on the surface and plenty of birdlife about along with a seal, indicated that there was something going on under the surface. I prepared the rod for my friend and set him up with a 15g darting jighead and a slug type lure.  I pointed him in the direction that I though the fish would be holding and told him to just let the lure sink on a tight line and to start a steady retrieve as soon as it touched down. Well that didn't happen as the lure was intercepted on the way down (first cast!) and my friend had a good bend in the rod fighting a decent sized pollock!
This is how the session unfolded with more fish and some good fights. No monsters on the day but considering the conditions, I think we did well...
It was interesting to note a good blitz we saw on the surface although we didn't see what caused it...
We had to cut the session short as the weather deteriorated after a while and it just became too much hard work trying to control the line, feel for bites etc.. My friend Robert was very happy though as he had a few fish for dinner and a very productive session. I think he is now hooked on rock fishing!

Happy faces...

A good bend on the rod!

Number one!

A happy angler!

Something Ive realised on these two days is how insufficient normal rain-wear is under these conditions. On the first day I was wearing my usual Vass waterproof smock and waterproof trousers, but by the end of the session (a few hours long) I was absolutely soaked to the bone! I think its time to look more seriously into some dedicated rough-weather clothing as it appears that I will be on Skye longer than I had planned and autumn and winter will bring even worse conditions...

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g and Tica Seha graphite 2.70m,~10-30g
Reel: Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG and Abu Garcia Soron Stx40
Mainline: YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5 and Duel Hardcore x4 PE1.5
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 20lbs.
Lures: various

Trying out a new rod and fishing with hardbaits for pollock.

As per the title this has been what I've mostly been up to this week. The warm weather has definitely helped and on my first session I found plenty of fish in the shallow kelpy marks. I began the day on the deeper water with the usual softplastics and metal jigs as I have a new rod  (MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g) that I wanted to try out. From the code you can understand that is a light shore jigging rod and I had been thinking for a while to purchase one... I only needed a serious justification and the Skye pollock and marks gave me just that!
On first impression the rod behaved very well and its pretty much what I thought it would be. Powerful yet not stiff, good caster and with a sensitive tip. Comparing to my other rods it has a thicker and more powerful butt yet the tip is almost as thin as my 7-23g rod.
Clearly metals are its forte but I also found it very good at working jerkbaits and even softplastics, albeit better with exposed hooks and with a jighead of over 12g weight.
I caught plenty of fish on it and fished with an almost locked drag. I had no fish lost to snags yet I was pleasantly surprised to see 2-3lbs fish putting a good bend to it! Such power in them! Yet it easily lifts fish like that on the shore.
After spending most of the morning fishing with metals and softplastics, The tide started to ebb and I could see the kelp reaching close to the surface now. I had a few fish take just above the kelp and I thought it would be a good idea to try a shallow running minnow. I put on an almost forgotten Megabass Zonk and after a couple casts and while I could clearly see the lure dancing to the jerks near the surface I got a fish shoot out from the kelp and strike it!
The strike was ferocious and the fish crash-dived straight for the kelp. I soon had the upper hand though and I was ecstatic when I landed the pollock. I proceeded in releasing the fish and kept fishing, managing some more fish on a few more lures I had with me. After a while and with the water being almost in low tide now, I made for the shallows and fished the same tactics with the hardbaits over the kelp. I got some more fish but I'm convinced that if the day was overcast I would have caught even more... As expected in the clear water and sunny conditions, natural colours were the best producers with lures that could dive that bit deeper more successful. Namely the classic Rapala X rap and a sinking Ryobi minnow. Towards the end of the session and after i had covered the area with the hardbaits, the metals winkled out a couple more fish from distance.

Zonk does the damage!

Ryobi sinking minnow.

The type of mark..

X rap...

Metals are indispensable though...

On my second day off, the weather was very different, being muggy wet and misty and staying overcast for most of the day. I consider these conditions positive for pollock and thus I decided to visit Rubha Hunish again and this time fish it more extensively.
I also had with me the finesse gear as I wanted to try slower bottom presentations in order to find if there's any wrasse about. Again I begun with softplastics but after a while and seeing that there weren't any big fish about, I put on the hardbaits and started covering water. To say I had a blast would be an understatement! I had fish even jumping out of the water and hitting the lure as I was lifting it out of the water! On one occasion, the front treble of a slim jerkbait tangled with the line and the lure was swirling on the surface. I slowed it right down and  a few meters from my feet I saw a pollock smash into it! The best part is that i caught many of the hits on my action cam and I will put the videos below. The fish were clearly much bolder with the overcast conditions and the ebbing of the tide accentuated that. Fishing in the gullies and around the points where the water was choppier saw fish hitting brighter lures while inside the bay, natural colours ruled. The retrieve was erratic with plenty of jerks and pauses and fish would usually hit the lure very close to the shore. Towards the end of the session I found a pocket of fish in a corner of the bay and the little Ryobi got four fish in equal number of casts. A very enjoyable day even without the lunkers.
As to the lighter gear and slower tactics, well I tried but couldn't avoid the pollock! At times its hard to comprehend the numbers of them here...!
Another thing I tried on the day was a plastic lip gripper (The Fish Grip) as I want to give my thumbs a rest! I have to say that it proved very useful and much more gentle to the fish comparing to the metal ones I used in the past...

Another good spot...

Some finesse...

Ima Nabarone..

Savagear prawn on dropshot, yet more pollock

The fish grip proved much gentler...

A secure hold.

And some videos!

I really enjoyed my hardbait fishing and its been a while since the last time I did this. I really see why so many lure anglers get a kick out of  this. especially when the hits are so visual, only topwater fishing can get more exciting... Next time I will be getting some topwaters with me!

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX40
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 1.5
Leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon 20lbs and 16lbs
Lures:Various