THE time of the year...

 As per the title, when weather behaves even a little at this time of year then things seem to come together and make for some great fishing. I've had a few guiding sessions already this month and they have been very productive. 

What has stood out for me, is how important the lure retrieve can be.  I had 2 anglers in the boat the other day and even though the fish were biting well, it took giving them the lure at the speed and manner they wanted it. One angler switched on to it and it was like each person was fishing at a different sea! On the day they wanted a more aggressive approach with intervals of fast recovery and wouldn't look at a slow lure! In the end both anglers sussed it out and the fish kept coming...

Happy Garry with a run of the mill fish.

Good bend! 

Now we're talking! 

We've also had some 'big fish' bites that unfortunately couldn't convert into fish on the deck as they cut us off. Now this is always expected when pollock fishing but these encounters have increased this month. I have added a new rod to my selection (SPRO Specter finesse spin M) and whilst I like it very much, I think it's a bit light for these fish, hence I went and bought the heavier model the other day and can't wait to try it.

Pretty codling 

Dave clocked it!

And again.

Colin soon switched on.

Then THIS happened!

Get in!

These are freshwater rods but as they are designed mainly for soft plastics fishing for Zander etc, they can work well in the heavier models for the sea. They are fast actioned and sensitive whilst maintaining good hooking power. I just hope the MH model can fight the bigger pollock better... The price was good too (80£ish) although I've yet to find something like the Johncoo Ruffy as every rod I've ordered from China recently hasn't come through. 

I've yet to have a proper topwater day this season as I've not found the right conditions for it. I persisted with them the other day though, trying to at least get a blowup for the guys to see (and believe that it happens!) And typically a good fish smashed the lure when they were busy unhooking another fish on the other side of the boat...! 

Nevertheless things are definitely gearing up just now and with a bit of luck we'll get some settled weather the days I'm out. Plenty of fishing to be done into November and hopefully some big mamas will show up.

I've also recently sold my first sib the YAM380S but as yet no luck finding something to replace it. It was a cracking SIB but I really need one in better condition for taking people out in difficult to access areas. Been a while since I've ventured afield...

Tight lines 

 

Busy times.

Had a fairly productive September and it seems to be getting even busier next month. Fishing has been pretty good and the weather reasonable for the most part. A couple weeks back, I was asked by my manager at work if I could take some company visitors out for some fishing on our workboat. Of course I accepted and had 5 people on the RB boat midweek. The guys were keen fishermen though never fished Skye before or for pollock. I took them to a shallow mark near the cages and it was mayhem from the get go! We used mainly homemade softplastics in loud colours and they all caught well. There's no GPS anchor on the workboat so we were drifting. Sometimes, I think that in relatively shallow, extensive marks such as this one it may actually be better than spotlocking in the warm months.

We had a mad couple hours until the guys had enough and it was time to head back. Definitely wouldn't say no to more sessions like this! 

Unfortunately my HTO HOOLIGAN rod broke on a snag and I haven't managed to find a spare tip for it so I'm on the lookout for another cheapo rod now...

A good bend...

Solid group.

Good condition on them.

Among the better ones.

The week after that, I guided 4 lads on a shore session that didn't turn out too bad. We had to fish the 'wrong' part of the tide due to time constraints and the action wasn't as hot as I would've liked, but we got some good fish regardless. At times it felt like the fish were there but just not keen on feeding...

Rugged warrior.

On the edge!

Midges out..

Last week I had another outing with my mate Andrew. We fished from the tinnie and it was another great day. We started by hitting some coalies on the LRF gear as Andrew loves them! Later on we switched to the bigger lures and started getting among the better fish. It wasn't long till Andrew hooked a good one and after a hard fight I netted him a quality fish. Around the 8lb mark and a new pb for him. Soon enough it was time to go and another good session came to an end. There was a clear big lure = big fish pattern on the day.

Boat lrf is great fun.

Dark kelp pollock 

Love them cuckoos 

Solid fish for Andrew 

Big one!

New pb

We've already had a few rough days now and water temperature is slowly dipping, if it calms down a bit into the following weeks I reckon fishing will really fire up!

Tight lines! 

September's here.

 The summer has flown by and the golden time is upon us. I've been thankful that the weather has been lovely the past couple weeks and I reckon there'll be some great fishing if this continues. I've had a lovely boat session with my friend Zubair his dad and his son the other week. It was cool seeing three generations catching fish, with the wee man showing off by catching some of the best fish of the day!

We seemed to be finding fish in most places and in feeding mood. Though the bigger fish preferred otd and slow retrieves ( wee man caught them just holding the lure static).

3 generations!

Amaan tackling a good pollock.

Quality fish.

Grandpa caught some too..

Needed some help with the better fish...

Double trouble 

Showing the youth how its done.

A cracking coalie.

Quality fish.

Wounded warrior.

He's in again!

It was great fun guiding the guys and I'm sure little Amaan will follow his father in many more fishing trips. Can't think of anything better than fishing with your kids...

I've had a couple solo outings too with the tinnie but also the good ol' inflatable as the Tohatsu needed some running. Plenty of fish about, though almost impossible the get to the better fish through the 3lbers...    Soon enough things will change though.

Cracking weather. 

Loads at this size.

On the inflatable too.

I will be putting my inflatable boats for sale soon as they really don't get to see much action and the Yam380S is starting to get tired. I'm hoping to be able to finance a new 3.8m ish inflatable as its always handy to have for areas with tricky access and as a backup for guiding. The new Honwave T-38 looks to fit the bill...

Tight lines 

Holidays done.

 Back to Skye a couple days ago from my month long holidays in Greece. This was not strictly speaking a holiday as we went there to do our wedding and baptise the children, hence most of the time was spent with family and preparing everything. 

I only managed 4-5 sessions and most of them in freshwater. I did get a bucket list fish though as we visited Lake Plastira for a few days after the wedding. Its a dam  with rocky bottom and it has good numbers of predatory barbel. In my area in N Greece we don't have this species and I've always wanted to catch one on a lure.

Being midsummer I assumed that they would be close to deeper water and I caught one close to the actual dam. I used a variety of lures and presentations, trying to mimic crustaceans and small fish near the bottom by mainly bottom-bouncing and yo yo jigging but the fish preferred a bronze spoon on a straight retrieve a few meters from the bottom (!). Its always good to be surprised in fishing... Unfortunately i snagged and lost that lure a few casts later and didn't get any other bites. I was hoping that this trip wouldn't turn out to be a grind fishing-wise but the fish had other ideas... I fished a couple other areas with the ISUP and whilst I could see fish jumping (seemed mainly for parasite removal not hunting) they wouldn't hit. The last morning of our stay there, I revisited the dam and fished small metal jigs on a straight retrieve. It took a while but I got another bite and an unreal fight from a better specimen. These fish fight like salmonids! I released the fish and fished another hour or so for no more bites...

Streamlined power.

My first barbel on lure.

A much better specimen!

ISUP on the lake

To be fair I knew from my research that the autumn months are better for these fish and it felt like they were just post-spawn right now. Nevertheless I got another species scratched off the list. I'll definitely plan a dedicated trip for them sometime in the future.

The last few days in Greece saw me have a couple lrf sessions from the ISUP which has become my favourite summer fishing style. One day I had a good number of species and located a group of yellow scad but had to cut the outing short and the next day my efforts were thwarted by an actual storm that justified my purchase of a double paddle for the paddleboard...

ISUP lrf annular bream.

A wee melanouri (saddled bream)

Yellow scad are great fun!

Needless to say we also got covid as well and it seemed like nature was conspiring against me catching fish..! Perseverance pays off though and on my last session on my last day in Greece, I chose to visit my favourite dam close to home. It was raining but meant to clear later on (great conditions for midsummer fw fishing). I had a big fat chub on a fiiish black minnow imitation even before inflating the paddleboard and many more came afterwards along with some wee perch. The best action came near dusk where I experienced the best topwater bite in freshwater ever! The chub would attack anything that touched the water and I lost count of how many fish hit!

Fat chub!

A few of them about..

Topwater chublet.

It was tricky landing them on the ISUP with all the trebles flying about and I'll need to make a cradle or something for holding the fish on... I used cicada- like topwaters, small poppers and walkers. All of them got hit equally though I had better hook ups with double trebled lures.

I can't recommend the ISUP highly enough for summer fishing in calm waters. It has really opened up a ton of fishable ground for me and I'm seriously thinking of customising mine for more serious fishing, ie add seat, transducer mount etc. The low cost, speed of deployment, speed on water and quiet approach make it a perfect fishing platform. I suppose having my inflatable pedal kayak in Greece would be an even better fishing vessel but setting up the kayak and launching can feel a bit of a faff while the ISUP is a doddle. 

I'm really looking forward to some solid fishing here now. Need a few sessions on the mackerel and possibly sea trout but we'll see how it goes. Got some guiding booked and time to get serious soon as Autumn is just around the corner! 

Tight lines!