We're in the mad season now and the busy days leave me little time to write down what's going on... And there's a lot happening!
Have had some great fishing off the SIB and rocks. This year fish seem to be in excellent condition and much fatter than previous seasons (in salt and freshwater!). The sandeels have inundated the shallows and fish are showing a strong preference for small, thin lures.
I have also had a couple days in the freshwater where I fished for trout and pike with my fiance for my birthday. My new 4 stroke 20hp Tohatsu has recently arrived as well and this makes outings on the SIB so much more enjoyable!
Moreover we have started offering accommodation in our cosy 4 berth caravan on Airbnb and I'll be offering deals for anglers wanting somewhere affordable to stay along with guiding from September onwards.
Unfortunately, I can't write too much due to limited time, but below are some recent pics and vids.
A 3.2kg fish from the SIB.
Mad fun on the fly!
Sandeel imitations rule right now.
Such hard fights on the fly gear.
Another 3.5kg fish on a metal!
Been a while since I had such a nice pike.
Another one!
Some lovely trout!
Forgot how well pike pull!
Savagear linethru trout does the damage.
Baby ferox??
DUO Ryuki slaying...
Jungle...
Loch fishing takes some beating..
First sea trout of the season!
My client Andrew with a dark pollock.
Hottest day of the year and the fish were hitting!
It's sad how quickly Summer's going by for me but I'll try and make the most of it! Looking forward to my topwater fishing along with some more freshwater outings and even baitfishing(!) for various targets this Summer. Hopefully, weather and time will allow for it.
After my visit to the East coast last week I needed some easy fishing close to home and was contemplating a visit to the canal. On the last moment though I decided to go for something Ive never done before... Fish in a commercial trout pond! I had the idea for a while in my mind and thought that it would be nice to have some pure fun fishing with loads of farmed rainbow trout hitting my lures and also keeping a couple for dinner.
The fishing wasn't exactly like that in the end but it was an interesting experience and something I should consider doing more often when I got no time for venturing further afield.
I thus decided to visit one of the few such fisheries that allow spinning (Why aren't there more of them?!) and get a half day ticket. The weather on the day was very windy with a couple showers early on but was meant to settle down later in the day. Counting on this I started at about 12:00.
I was using LRF gear and my first lure on, was my old and trusted Megabass Izabella spoon at 2.2g.
I began fishing in one of the ponds and picked the side that had the wind face on, as I usually find the trout like that judging from previous occasions. It took a good few casts to get the first bite and this only came after I slowed the retrieve right down and fished the lure near the bottom. It was a nice fighting size for the LRF gear and I was hoping it was the start of many more fish to come!
First fish of the day.
Unfortunately things didn't work out like this and I had no more takers for another hour, even though I changed many lures (hard and soft) and retrieve styles. I kept moving though and tried another pond.
This pond was shallow and weedy and I decided to go for a small olive-coloured Ecogear SX40F.
Within the first few casts I had a take and a better fish on the end of my line. It was a nice rainbow with beautiful colours but very fat! It fought ok (nothing like their wild brothers of course) and soon I had it on the bank. I persisted on this pond as the weather was getting better and I could see some flashes in the water and after a while I got another good fish on a 6g spoon that managed to shed the hook soon after.
What a fatty!
Overall it wasn't the easiest and most productive 4 hour session I ever had but it was a welcome change from the saltwater and I reckon with a few more fish about and slightly less wind it could be quite enjoyable fishing. These fish may not fight anywhere near as good as the wild ones but on the LRF gear and adding the visual aspect of it, they can provide some excellent fun! Im already thinking of some different presentations to try and tempt these trout so I will definitely try these ponds again... Below a video of the day.
Once again on my days off I decided to head up to my familiar marks in the sealochs. This was not what I would've preferred at the moment as I had other plans for this time of the year but the lack of car has really limited my choices and of course fishing is fishing!
Thus I took the bus to Oban and then got picked up by my brother (not before I had some chucks in the little stream there though!), left him home and drove up to kentallen for an afternoon session there.
It was about this time last year that this mark really shone and although the session was productive, it wasn't as good as last year. something very noticeable is the scarcity of mackerel which I think is one of the reasons for the larger fish not showing up here... Still I had some codling, pollock, a ballan and a cuckoo wrasse on a combination of metals, shads on cheburashkas and stickworms.
An urban trout..
Lovely ballan on Linnhe..
Codling on the inchiku.
Love getting them on stickbaits!
Well hooked.
After a good few hours I got in the car and drove to loch Etive where I usually spend the night. I had a few casts around but it was already dark and other than a couple finicky bites I got nothing.
On the morning, things got much better and I lost a good fish on the first few casts that took the braid over a rock ledge. I think over-confidence by me was the main factor for loosing that fish though. I then decided to hike towards the northern part of the loch as there are some marks that I wanted to try there. The weather was turning noticeably more sour by the hour but I was hoping that the fish would still show. I stopped on the first mark were I had done well last time and the fish were there! I had some nice pollock and a few small codling until they stopped biting. I was surprised by not getting more codling as they are usually found in good numbers at the bottom of the rock ledges there..
I kept walking north and after a while reached a well known mark that surprisingly didn't give anything. I moved again towards a rocky outcrop that looked very fishy from afar, but it proved less so up-close and with shallower water than I thought. By now the wind was howling and the rain intensified and as a consequence the fishing suffered. Cant remember of a day that it wasn't like this in Etive for this Summer...
Unfortunately Ive got almost no pics from the sessions as my phone is
playing up. I did manage to make two videos though from Linnhe and
Etive.
A couple days later I went up to Loch Fyne (that I haven't been in a while) with a friend. This was a good opportunity to try a new rod that I bought and since the plan was to keep some fish for the pan, I decided to start with metals and a teaser tied 40cm above the lure.
The rod is a Majorcraft KG Evolution Basic KGS-902L, 7-23g, 2.70m and it was bought with my next trip to Skye in mind as well as fishing heavier metals at distance without losing the 'finesse' character that I love on my rods.. I paired it with my Abu Garcia Soron STX 40 and the balance was very good. The only think I disliked was that the reel was spooled with much heavier line than the rod is meant to have and this decreased the sensitivity and casting distance. I have now changed the line to a finer braid and I'm sure the setup will feel much better. Even though I had the heavy line, the rod still made excellent casts with the metals and I have now ordered more in the 14g-20g weights. Being Loch Fyne, the fish started coming from the off and pollock after pollock were landed. They weren't of any great size and didn't gave much of a fight on my rod, but I had set up my friend with my spro UL mobile stick and Shimano Biomaster 1000fb combo on 3lbs flouro straight through and it was a different story on that setup! After getting a few fish I got hit on the end of a long cast and was bringing up something relatively decent when all of a sudden the fish got heavier and started taking line at an alarming rate! The runs were heavy and strong with the culprit moving near the surface and making powerful runs from side to side. The rod was bent to the maximum and drag was peeling from the reel and for a few seconds I thought I had hooked the mother of all trouts or salmon! After a few minutes of this tug of war I started slowly bringing it in and then with the help of my polaroids I realised there was a fat seal on the end of my line!! Thankfully she wasn't hooked but just holding tight to my fish and then she let go of it (the only part remaining anyway!). Obviously she must have thought that this wasn't as easy a meal as it looked! This was the first time this happened to me and hopefully the last! Nevertheless, the rod performed admirably and I seriously recommend it... lol
The serenity of Loch Fyne
Couldn't resist having a go at them with the light gear!
The lack of mackerel was evident in loch Fyne as well and I'm not so sure as to why this is so... Very disappointing as I absolutely love them on my plate! Moreover the usual masses of anglers there, were nowhere to be seen although I'm thankful for that. I didn't try much with softplastics as we didn't have much time so again no major fish (or more species) were caught. I then proceeded in gutting and cleaning our catch and soon couldn't believe the amount of fish that were attracted.. Various wrasses along with gobies, blennies and even two strap congers came to feed on the fish guts. I tried luring the eels with the Marukyu crabs but only wrasse would nibble them...
Anyway they were a very enjoyable few days but to be honest I got my eyes on a second visit to Skye in a couple weeks and I cant wait! Until then I'm sure Ill have a couple more sessions on the sea lochs or even the East Coast with my friend Scott.
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: MC KG Evolution, KGS-902L, 2.7m, 7-23g.
Reel: Abu Garcia Soron STX 40
Mainline: Varivas uper PE. 0.15mm (too thick)
leader: Pline Halo 10lbs.
lures: various
Below some videos of my recent sessions with the most recent taking place at Loch Fyne.
I visited the loch along with my friend Scott from something-fishy-going-on blog as he wanted to catch some extra species for his species-hunt. Me instead was looking forward to encountering the first mackerel of the year that should be there by now.
We reached the loch in the morning and couldn't have asked for better weather (for once!). We picked a mark on its northern shore with a good depth and smooth though weedy bottom. Scott decided to fish inside of the bay while I headed straight for the rocks on a point nearby where I would have the best chance of success.
I fished metals in combination with tiny soft plastic teasers and the fish didn't take long to show up! In the first few casts I had a mayhem of double catches of serious 1lb+ mackerel pushing 40cms... Some escaped but I didn't care as they were giving me all the fun I wanted! After catching about 5-6 of them (in like 10 mins) I decided to head back and change rods to my lrf one (Majorcraft Crostage CRK-T782AJI) that would surely increase the fun factor exponentially. Moreover I fished a single metal and crushed the barb on the single hook as I wasn't intending on keeping more fish.
Unsurprisingly, by the time I went back to the point the fish seemed to have moved on with only a few smaller ones left behind that still went well on the Crostage! A few trout came to play along with a lonely codling and I then decided to head back to see how Scott was faring and take a brake.
Scott was catching loads of interesting small fish with plenty of dabs, gobies and sea scorpions but not the dragonets he really wanted.. I played around with the little fish catching a launce, baby whiting and baby codling on the metal/teaser combo before giving up and laying in the grass for some rest.
I got a kip there under the sun and after waking up I re-visited the point. The water was very low now (big tides) and there were no mackerel about. Instead I targeted the trout and after a few bumps I got hit by a solid fish on a cheap Chinese metal jig! I could see it was a good trout as it was swimming fast left and right and then jumped and spat the lure! Well that's trout fishing I guess...
Sorry for the luck of pics but my phone didn't wanna play ball.
All in all a very enjoyable day and we are now planning with Scott a session in Linnhe for the chance of cuckoo wrasse and ling...
After returning from my holidays the only thing on my mind was getting back up the lochs as the weather got a bit better. I got my chance a couple days ago on Wednesday. I took the bus up to Oban and my brother picked me up from there. I then got the car off him as he was going to work and drove straight away to Loch Linnhe at my mark in Kentallen. It was low tide by now but the weather was nice and I was hoping for some quick action. Moreover I wanted to try some new cheapo metals I got from Aliexpress and was determined to fish mainly with them.
I had only my travel rods with me and started fishing with the Savagear roadrunner XLNT 7', 3-16g. It took a while to get bites but I soon had a decent fish on the jig. It was clear that it was a codling and after trying to snag me a couple times I finally got it up. I then changed lure to a smaller metal (again cheapo!) thinking that the fish might want a smaller profile and I also slowed down the retrieve. This resulted in a couple sharp bites and after striking I had something small but feisty on the end of my line. It soon proved to be my first cuckoo wrasse of the year! After the cuckoo I changed spot moving along the coastline but only got a small pollock for my efforts. This didn't really surprise me as this mark tends to fire up towards the end of summer..
Chunky codling from Linnhe..
..on a cheapo yet effective metal.
First cuckoo of the year, on a metal..
The usual suspect...
It was getting late in the day by now and I decided to move to Loch Etive and continue fishing there.
I switched to soft plastics as the mark is more suited to them, but other than a few small pollock on 3" sluggos fished O.T.D nothing else showed. I was sure that in the morning things would be different though...
I slept in the car and woke up around 07:00. I picked up the UL setup (Spro Mobile Stick - Shimano Stradic 1000fc) and rigged my trusted ZX 35 blade on. I wasn't very optimistic about the blade pattern still holding on and was proven right as I only got a couple subtle takes but no hook ups on them.. I then switched to a 6g cheburashka and 3" scented paddletails and started to get bites. They were mostly from small pollock and I was surprised not to get a better one among them. I was getting frustrated after a while but at some point I got hit hard midway on the retrieve by something good! It took some line and got the mobile stick on a full curve and it then did something unusual... It swam fast towards the surface (!), I saw a familiar though un-pollocklike shape coming up and then jumping clean out of the water! A nice Etive trout took a liking to my shad and after a couple more jumps I brought her in.. Its been a while since I caught such a nice trout and of course I wouldn't expect to catch her in Etive! She was around 40cm and quite plump and the best part is that I also got the fight on camera and will post the video soon...
After the trout and while the tide was coming in fast I decided to walk towards the northern part of the Loch at another mark that I haven't fished since last year. I stuck with the cheburashka/shad combo and after a 20min walk I was fishing the new mark. On the first cast I let the lure sink with free line and started hoping it across the bottom. This mark is where a sudden depth change takes place as its a transition from a relatively shallow ledge to a bluff rock wall. I had great success last year targeting pollock and especially codling that hunt on the ledge or station just on its lip. As I was bringing the lure in and almost at the base of the rocks, i got hit by something decent. It made a slow but powerful run and then bore down with headshakes. After a couple minutes a nice rock-codling was brought up and released back to the loch after a quick photo. The mark change seemed to be bearing fruit and I persisted on the spot with the same presentation. Some more codling and pollock started to show and provided me with excellent entertainment! And all fish caught from a small area, goes to show how important knowing the bottom structure can be...
OTD with light jigheads and slims can be the best way for finicky fish..
Unexpected trout!
Fat codling..
Beautiful colours of kelp pollock..
Even small codling go for big lures..
Hungry pollock...
The time was going by fast and I had to stop fishing unfortunately as I was gonna return with my brother to Glasgow. Of course I didn't stop fishing before a number of 'last casts' took place and then I got hit hard by a steam train! Although my setup was UL/LRF I have caught plenty of good fish on it to know that this was something special... The first run was frenetic and truly uncontrollable.. Then the fish slowed down and changed direction coming higher in the water column. Another crazy run and the braid parted! I was left speechless and in awe... I believe that the culprit was either a supercharged pollock or perhaps something with an adipose fin... Hate it when I don't get the chance to at least see the fish that defeat me! I should have inspected the braid as it could easily have weakened somewhere after all those fish...Loch Etive is a magic place where you never know what you could catch next! Obviously I cant wait till I'm back there again..
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL, Savagear roadrunner XLNT 7', 3-16g
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc, Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: YGK G-soul x3 PE 0.4, Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
leader: Toray premium fluorocarbon, 6lbs. YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
lure: metals and 3" paddletails on cheburashka. 3" sluggos on 1.8g wheelhead for OTD.
