I have been given four days off from work this week and I thought it would be my best chance for a good fishing trip before the season ends. I had two places in mind, either going south and fishing at the Mull of Kintyre or going to the North East and fishing around Wick, Dunnet Head and Thurso. From a look in Google Earth I was immediately drawn to the rugged coastline of the North East and the many points and cliffs there. I chose to go there in the end and on Saturday morning I made the long drive to the town of Wick. My first stop was at the Old Castle where the water is very deep and there is access to the rocky fingers below the castle.
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of 'life' in the water as I could see loads of fry and coalies moving about. I decided to use my favourite presentation at the moment that does a good job as a 'searcher bait' and thus a Shimano madai jig rigged with some Berkly gulp was cast in the depths. I got some sharp bites but I reacted too fast and missed them, but I was sure they were form wrasse.
I re casted and this time worked the lure slower with twitches near the bottom and soon I had a bite and a fish on! It was fighting well but it wasn't something big, so I hurriedly retrieved line wanting to get my first Northeastern fish in my hands.. I could see colour after a bit, and a lot of it! It was a male cuckoo wrasse and my first one (male)! I got another one after some missed takes and then a female. I noticed that the males where hanging deeper than the female and this maybe a reason why Ive only caught females at my mark back home....
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| That's Fishy! |
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| Very interesting rock formations. |
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| Stunning colours. |
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| Had to put him back fast... |
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| And another one.. |
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| There she is... |
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| A good sign? |
Surprisingly I got no codling or pollock and I worked pretty hard for them covering a lot of water and making many casts. I was sure the presentation was good and it seemed that the fish just weren't there... After a while a seal popped up and then another one! I moved to a different area but there were even more seals there! I think they may have affected the fishing as I caught nothing around them and so I decided to change location.
I moved to the harbour and decided to fish the outer breakwater. It is a very fishy looking harbour, with three separate harbours (inner, river, outer) and it would be my main venue.
I kept the madai jig, only I now tipped it with a Keitech sexy impact for a faster retrieve and started casting and working it near the lighthouse. I soon got a nice codling but then lost the jig to a snag! I changed presentation to a 12g cheburashka (was getting very windy) with a #2 offset hook rigged with an Ecogear grass minnow M. I move towards the inner harbour entrance and after a couple casts, I started getting subtle bites and hooking into codling. They were shoaled up near the entrance of the inner harbour and were attacking the Grass minnow every time! I managed about a dozen or more of them until night fall and then they stopped feeding. They were all about the pound mark and really good fun!
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| Wick Harbour. |
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| Codling on the jig. |
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| They were tightly shoaled and hungry.. |
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| Feeding on baby flatfish! |
I spend the night in the car and woke up early to target the river part of the harbour. I was hoping to encounter some new species on this trip and I wanted to fish in different areas and not just the rocks! I was thinking that I might get some flatfish and so I got the Solpara and the lrf lures and started working my way from near the bridge towards the mouth of the harbour. I was using mainly Ecogear aqua Katsu mebaru and Berkley fish fry's and suffice to say the place was stuffed with small fish! I was getting hit as soon as the lure touched bottom and among the usual codling and coalies I started getting a stream of whiting and some small flounders as well... Job done and I now had two new species at this trip!
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| My first whiting! |
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| My first flounder! |
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| They are akin to poor cod in their behaviour, hunting in shoals. |
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| Plenty of teeth on them... |
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| Coalie country up here... |
After the morning harbour session, I moved to a rocky outcrop on the northern side of the town but other than a couple coalies, nothing showed so I was back on the road heading to John o Groats and then Dunnet Head. I fished for a bit at John o Groats harbour where I witnessed the most ravenous coalies ever, that would even hit lures on the surface and even higher when I was lifting them up!
At Dunnet Head I fished at a small slipway where some rock pinnacles created interesting structure in a relatively deep bay. I used my heavier gear to cast larger madai jigs and shads and I finally found some pollock! They hit the jig hard and got hooked straight away!
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| John o Groats pier. |
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| Rocks from Dunnet head.. |
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| Good looking ground. |
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| Flashy but effective.. |
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| I finally found them! |
I then drove up to Thurso with the intention of fishing Scrabster harbour and indeed the harbour looked very inviting but unfortunately I was running late as I didn't want to be driving in the night or stay there so I decided with a heavy heart to leave this for another time and head home.
It was an interesting trip and a needed change of scenery. The Northeast seems more productive than anticipated and I'm sure with more effort much better fish would be found. Its very interesting to see such differences in both the landscape, marks and fish and although I was hoping for some larger fish I enjoyed the trip and the variety.. Some notes from my trip:
- The numbers of coalies are unbelievable!
- So much life in and out of the water.. Seals, birds, fry everywhere!
- Proper rough ground..
- Where are the pollock?!
- A lot of commercial fishing activity..
On the next part I'll describe the fishing at my usual marks...
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Various
Reel: Various
Mainline: Various
Rig: cheburashka, jighead,
lure:Various Ecogear Aqua, Berkley Gulp, Madai jigs, Grass minnows.
After a while and while the tide had receded considerably i decided to move to the opposite arm of the harbour as I was sure more fish were to be found there.. On reaching the other point I was left with my mouth open as fish were going on a blitz and smashing fry on the surface! This is an unusual occurrence in the warmer months but in the middle of February personally its something Ive never witnessed! I knew at once what fish was doing this though... Coalfish! At once I started casting the little shad and was getting hit every cast but some fish didn't stick so I changed to a metal (if only I had a popper!) and was now getting coalie after coalie.. They were of a good size and excellent condition. I was fishing with the heavier gear but nonetheless I lessened the drag and enjoyed the fights with a wide smile on my face! I was also reminded how much i like coalies for my dinner so i kept five while releasing all the rest, possibly around twenty fish altogether. superb fun!
