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.

Fine fishing in Loch Fyne!

The past weekend saw me venturing a bit further away from my regular marks as I wanted to try somewhere new since my regular marks didn't produce more than the expected. Thus, in Sunday after spending the morning in the west side of loch Awe without much to show  for my efforts I decided to go to the opposite side and then drive down to Inveraray. I had read about some good fishing in the huge loch Fyne and especially about a mark that was described as 'terminal tackle graveyard'! I checked it out in Google earth and it did look very promising, being near a quarry , it was again a deep harbour with plenty of boulders and rocks in, as well as looking deeper than the surrounding water. I was secretly hoping for some wrasse action as I haven't located them near home so far and I really missed them since leaving Sark.
After some driving I finally reached the mark and it was looking really impressive..

Lots of rocks in the water..

The harbour..

 I was planning to fish with the lrf gear to see what was out there and mainly utilise the 'microjig' articulated jigheads for a different presentation that I wanted to try for a while. The microjig is mainly used in Eastern Europe for UL fishing bottom presentations and is really versatile as you can change hooks fast with a little ring/clip and/or add a trace for pegged carolina. Moreover it gives a nice wobble to the softbait as its dragged on the bottom. So I put on a #8 Owner spitshotter hook by breaking the top of the eye of the 4g microjig and locking it in place with the pliers. I prefer to do it this way so the hook is looking upwards but it can also be done with a double ring and a plugging single hook since the eye is looking accordingly.

The way I rigged the hook

With a shirasu worm..

I threaded a pearl white Ecogear power Shirasu worm  and started casting towards the middle of the harbour and working the lure back slowly on the bottom. I was simply retrieving and pausing without many jerks and that seemed to be working fine as I soon started getting bites and landing fish. Pollock, codling and shoaled poor cod were coming in numbers from the deeper areas. The fish were feeding hard even though it was low tide and an otter was diving about! The poor cod in particular surprised me with their sheer aggression... I made my way casting and getting fish around the harbour and I reached an area with big boulders and weed. I could see small wrasse species milling around and tried to catch them as they were probably a new species for me.. I had to change my presentation though as they had small mouths. I rigged a #12, 1g jighead with a piece of Jackall peke-peke and after a few tries I finally got one to hold on.. It was a goldsinny wrasse and a new species for me!

The first of many.. 

Many on this size.

The like the microjig.

Most poor cod I've ever caught in a session!

Codling of a decent size..

Love the variation in colour.

My first goldsinny wrasse!

 I changed back to the microjig/shirasu combo and kept casting and working the lure among the boulders on a sink and draw fashion as soon as the lure touched bottom. As I was retrieving the lure after a couple casts It came into view (since the water was pretty clear) and I saw a large figure moving towards it and attack.. i felt the bite and set the hook.. The fish woke up and it went on a mad run towards the deep. I could see clearly that it was a ballan wrasse and it was fighting hard on my lrf gear! After a few more frantic runs the fish started to tire and I manged to pull it up. It was a beauty and my first Scottish ballan wrasse!

Beautifull Scottish ballan wrasse..

I persevered on the spot and hooked another one although the hook pulled...
I wanted to see if there were any scorpions around the legs of a jetty and moved towards it as I didn't want to target the wrasse with such light gear. Working the legs of the jetty gave me more little pollock and poor cod but surprisingly no scorpion fish. The sun was setting and I decided to go home as I had enjoyed a very productive session although it was a pity I didn't have the action cam with me...

Doesn't that look fishy?!

Many smaller pollock were hitting anything falling in the water.

After all those fish!

I will definitely visit this mark again as it surely has more to offer but unfortunately yesterday I had to send my car for trash! This is a major setback and I wont be fishing for a while but I'm looking to get another one asap! The microjig presentation proved very effective and hopefully Ill be doing more of that when I'm out fishing again..

R.I.P

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: microjig, jighead
lure: Ecogear Shirasu worm, Tict brilliant

And another new travel rod!

Ive recently received the second travel rod that I bought mainly for LRF and UL spinning. The rod is the Spro Mobile Stick 80 UL, 2.40, 0.6-8g and I thought it would suit well my needs for travelling LRF as it's length and casting weight seem perfect for the technique. The rod as I discovered has a parabolic action without being floppy though. I took it on a session at my go-to pollock mark and used a variety of lures, mainly focusing on blade baits as I wanted to see if the rod would work them well and how easily I could pick the vibrations, in order to judge the sensitivity of the rod. Well even though its a parabolic rod, its a far cry from the usual cheap American trout sticks that you can almost tie a knot with! It worked the lures well and the fun started when I managed to get a couple pollock on it, as it was a pure joy fighting them on it! I got a video and hope you enjoy it although towards the end the lens got a bit foggy because of the heat and the biggest fish cant be seen very well!

Tight lines!

Weekend action.

The past weekend I had my two days off and I was looking forward in making the most of them trying some different presentations especially targeting perch and trout. Unfortunately the extremely beautiful and sunny weather in Saturday saw me doing a BBQ with my brother and this limited my fishing time! Nonetheless a new colleague from work wanted to go fishing and I thought it would be nice to introduce him to LRF and also possibly get him to catch a fish or two... Thus we set off for Loch Etive at my favourite mark in order to target the pollock. The water was quite low, the sun was high and there was little wind, exactly the opposite conditions for pollock fishing! But still I was positive that we would catch.
I started with a small blade but changed to a Fiiish Black Minnow 70 as I thought the reflections were a bit too much with this sun... My colleague was using a Black minnow 90. From the first casts we started getting bites OTD but the fish weren't committing hard and most of them seemed to be coming from small fish. I caught a couple small pollock, a coalie and a codling but my colleague nothing, although he missed a good fish that bit towards the end of the retrieve but he stalled on the strike and didn't hook it. I thought a move inside the basin to target the smaller fish was in order so that he would get something.. On the first cast from a rock in the new area he got hit OTD and the fish seemed good, after a while I managed to slip the net under a nice codling that had grabbed the Black Minnow while still having a large crab in its throat! My colleague was very happy with this as its the first time he caught a cod and didn't think they can be caught from the shore on lures! After this fish we both caught plenty of little codling before moving to a new area where we caught nothing. We did find some mussels though that we collected and they were excellent for dinner that night..

A couple of this size..

A nice codling on the Black minnow...

Greedy!

Plenty of these...

On Sunday I had one thing in my mind: Perch on dropshot! First though, I tried for the trout on my way to the perch mark. I wanted to target them with small pilkers and soft plastics instead of the usual spoons and spinners, but the fish weren't playing ball with only one caught after several bumps. The water had receded alot and there were loads of insects in the water that may have affected the fish's behaviour.

The only one of the day..

I then went on my perch spot and after a few casts with the Lunker city ribster on dropshot I got a typical bite and after striking, a feisty fish on the end of my line. After a short fight I landed a nice perch of about a pound and felt quite pleased at managing to get the result I wanted. I also managed to get the action on the camera.

Pretty fish..

 I persisted but no more fish came so I decided to do some run and gun down the lake in order to find some new spots. I identified some very fishy locations and I fished fast with my heavier gear and Salmo sliders as I can cover water easily and effectively.  I have great faith in this lure for both pike and perch and in the shallow bays its a killer. I managed another perch from a bay next to a point and got some hits without hook ups from some other areas that I will have to check out better soon...

Hungry!

Fishy...

It started to rain heavily at some point and after being out for most of the day, I decided to call it a day and head home to rest! I didn't get any pike but I'm sure Ill get on them again soon..

Thanks for reading!

Gear used.
Rod: Various
Reel:various
Mainline: various
Rig: dropshot, articulated jighead
lure: Fiiish Black minnow, lunker city ribster, Salmo slider