Linnhe, Etive and Fyne sessions.

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

A sunny day on the East coast: St Abbs head.

Yesterday my day off coincided with Scott's and he invited me for a session on his neck of the woods. I dully obliged and took the train to Edinburgh arriving there about 09:00. Now there were some setbacks to this trip, first I recently realised that my favourite KG Evolution tip was cracked (from the return trip on Skye) but I managed to patch it up with superglue and braid.. And secondly only the day before I managed to cut a bit of the tip of my thumb at work! Undeterred I patched that one as well (not with superglue and braid I must add..) and was looking forward to some fine fishing...
We reached the mark about an hour later to find perfect conditions. Little wind, overcast but clearing and an incoming tide. I started with a Salty bait/gulp sandeel combo and got a pollock first cast but then things got really slow.. This wasn't very surprising as we soon saw dolphins passing at casting distance from our spot.. They were a beautiful sight but I was concerned about their effect on the fishing, as I believe they negatively affect the fish more so than seals etc.. And so it was for a while we had no takes (not even coalies!) until I started working the bottom with a 12g cheburashka and a 3" Crazy fish vibro fat paddletail. I got a take OTD near the bottom and then got stuck.. I gave it a couple seconds and then managed to get whatever it was unstuck. It felt like dead weight but I was sure it was a fish and after a while we saw a huge mouth surfacing from the depths.. It was a big mama short spined scorpion fish that got us cheering! I always get a kick from catching these guys, especially when they're at that size!

A beast!

Cant get enough pics of them!

Cavernous mouth!

Japanese pose..

Pollock on the Salty bait/gulp sandeel

After that, the action really slowed down again and it was time to move.. We had an arduous hike to the next point but we were fishing soon enough. I had a follow on my first cast, possibly from a pollock (usually a sign that fish are not active when pollock are concerned) but couldn't tempt it again.
The place was looking very 'wrassy' though and soon enough Scott's rod was bent into one that took some dropshotted gulp. Soon after I had one as well on the cheburashka and what I consider a testament to 'proper' lures effectiveness on them. I believe that when they are active they will happily eat a well presented softie and gulp/isomes etc are not the only way for Scottish wrasse. Certainly down South this is the case as wrasse numbers there are huge and I remember in Sark days that they would practically hit anything!
I decided to try and target the wrasse more specifically as the pollock were not playing ball and I prepared a Jika rig with a small creature. I consider the jika a deadly presentation for wrasse especially when using creatures and crawling/hopping them across the bottom. Unfortunately the wrasse weren't that hungry and neither me nor Scott got another one although I missed a solid bite...
As I was fishing for wrasse though I spied two silhouettes moving quickly near the surface of the water, and after a closer inspection, I'm sure they were bass and good ones at that, around the 50-60cm mark! I told this to Scott who informed me that they are regularly seen and caught here and after this I fan casted the area with a Savagear sandeel with no results though.. I then decided to fish a stickbait on a weighted hook just to see if it would make a difference to those passive pollock plus it could also pick up wrasse and bass. This quickly did the trick and a pollock engulfed the whole thing OTD, thus giving me little fight and in the end I had to keep the fish..

The point we were heading...

Scott climbing at the top..

Wish there were more of them about!

Jika rig.

Pollock on the stickbait

Sadly no more fish came from the point and I decided to work the deep kelpy bay on the right. I reverted back to the cheburashka (7g this time) with a 3" Long John paddletail. I stumbled upon these paddletails on ebay and I'm guessing they're Chinese, but Ive had great results with them and they look and move good. Moreover they are heavily scented and very cheap too! The tide was going out now and after a few casts at the deeper parts without luck, I moved closer to the back of the bay and made a cast near a big boulder that I could see was standing just before the water got deeper at the edge. I let the lure drop on controlled line and as I started picking up line on the reel, I realised I had a fish on! It felt pretty heavy but didn't do many runs only getting lively before I brought it up. A nice pollock of around 4.5-5lbs had engulfed the lure and this explains again the slow fight. Very carefully I unhooked the fish with the pliers and with a bit of help it swam back into the depths. I proceeded in getting another fish that gave me a screeching run but got itself unhooked in the kelp on the way up.. Another cast towards the shallows and another fish hit me hard and made a mad run! It went on a couple more peeling drag in the process before I landed it after a bit of scrambling on the rocks. Another fine pollock that I didn't bother taking too many pics of as I had the fight on the action-cam... or so I thought..!

Quality pollock.

Excellent fighter!

Anyway we decided to head back and after an arduous hike up the cliff we arrived sweaty back in the car.
We then drove to st Abbs harbour with flatties in mind but we blanked and it was time for me to get the train home. Below a vid of the day:

Some interesting notes on the day are that dolphins really do kill the action on a days fishing... I suspect this may also explain why the pollock were caught so close to shore. Moreover even though Ive only been a few times on the East coast I have to say that although it gives good fish, you have to work hard for them and you don't get the flurry of action that we get on the sea-lochs. The presence of bass was also very surprising and I guess I should make a session for them sometime soon but alas the lack of car has really brought my plans for the summer upside down...
Another quality day with my friend Scott and I really appreciate him showing his marks to me. Looking forward to his results form his holidays in a few days time and also to fish again after he returns.

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod:  MC KG Evolution, KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g.
Reel: Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: Duel Hardcore X4 PE 0.8
leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs
lures:Cheburashka with 3" paddletails, Duel Salty bait/gulp Sandeel, 4" stick bait on 3g weighted wide gap offset hook.

Lochaline and Skye adventure! Part 2.

The second day on Lochaline we fished mostly on the working pier but unfortunately there was a large vessel there not allowing us to fish at the front of the pier. Thus after a few casts around the sides, I wandered off leaving Scott to fish his baits for his species hunt. The coastline directly after the pier is rocky and as mentioned with good depth and I was sure I could tempt some pollock or maybe even something more unusual from the depths... I tried fishing the bottom at distance first but that proved to be almost impossible and very time consuming as the lure took ages to find bottom and practically emptied my spool! In my experience from similar marks in Etive, the great depths do hide surprises but it takes a long time and effort to get them and in the end its pretty boring fishing... I then started changing lures and trying to find the edge of the shelve before it drops off as its there where most of the fish are hunting/staging in such marks. The best approach was a 12gr cheburashka with a 4" Reins rockvibe shad that soon had the pollock biting. They were of an average size though and most came from surprisingly deep water for the time of the year.

Lochaline west pier.

The coast after the pier..

A plump coalie..

And some pollock as well from deep water..

After a while the bites dropped and I decided to head back to Scott and see how he did. he had caught some more cuckoo wrasse along with a few other mini species without any ballans though and no ling. I changed to the light gear and fished small metals around the pier mostly to pass the time.
Of course i caught more coalies and a couple mackerel along with a lovely sea trout.

Lovely silver..

The time passed and the fishing slowed down so we decided to take a break and look in Google Earth for any other marks around that would give us some more fish. We identified an area on a peninsula with better depth than the surrounding area and decided to go and fish it. On arriving there after a tricky drive, it was apparent that it was a 'fishy' mark even though not as deep as we thought but definitely wort a try. Scott fished with bait on a baitcaster while I used my heavy gear for long casts with a 20g Saltybait/gulp sandeel combo and a tiny soft plastic teaser about 40 cm from the lure. This rig really 'combs' the water and it rarely comes up without a bite or a fish, hence its usefulness in new waters. From the first few casts I was getting bites and soon I had some nice coalies that took the teaser as usual. I then proceeded to getting two double hook ups with decent pollock that made me think I had something much better on before getting some more coalies with a really fat one among them and then a lone codling as well.

Nice looking mark..

Teaser always gets them..

Double haul of pollock!

And another one!

Probably the fattest coalie Ive ever seen!

A single codling for the whole trip!

 Scott wasn't having much luck with the bait except a couple pollock that hit the bait when he was reeling it in and so, after a couple hours and while the sun was going down, we decided to head to the ferry pier for another frantic, coalie smashing night! The results were the expected and i had even more of them OTT this time! We head back at around 23:00 as we needed to sleep for the long drive to Skye the next day.
We set off for Skye early the next day and on the way up we decided to have a go at Loch Duich near the Eilean Donan Castle. The mark is a deep rocky point and after a few casts with a Salty bait I had a nice coalie and two pollock with one of them being of a good size around 3lbs..

Cant get a more picturesque mark than that!

It holds some fish...

A nice pollock from the depths..

After these fish we got back on the road  to Skye. We reached Portree in the early afternoon and we headed at once for a tidal mark called the black rock where there have been some reports of an interesting mix of species caught. Unfortunately since the mark can only be approached around low tide and with the water now coming up we had very limited time... Nonetheless I quickly got to the rocky point and started casting about with a 4g cheburashka and some isome threaded to a #10 hook. It didn't take long to get a fish and a pollock was quickly hoisted up the rocks. A few casts later and it was time to move though as we were getting cut off.

The black rock..

And my express pollock..

We moved further along the coast to some interesting looking rocks but the wind picked up and it made fishing very difficult. We weren't expecting the wind to be so strong and even more so to come from the Northeast in the middle of summer(!) and after a while we headed for our accommodation and then back on the road for a northern mark that Scott knew from previous visits. This proved to be a bad decision and in retrospect we should've  looked for areas sheltered form the wind but we didn't expect to find the mark in as bad a state as it was! We made a few casts and I even caught and lost a little pollock that shook the hook but in reality it was unfishable and the waves were huge. Distraught we headed towards other likely marks nearby that would be more protected from the wind but in reality we spend more time driving than fishing and in the end we decided to just fish the pier at Uig but with very meager results... Disappointed we went for a bite in town where Scott even had a play with the bait rod and some more little fish from Portree harbour while I couldn't be bothered from the cold! A fish and chips later and a few beers back at the hostel and we planned a better approach for the morning. We decided to head Southwest to a mark near Elgol that Scott had good fish in the past and moreover it would be largely protected from the wind... An almost non existent sleep later (never staying at a hostel again!) we headed to the mark first thing in the morning...
 I took with me the heavy and medium setups and started with the heavy one and the Salty bait with teaser rig. The mark had a good depth but little structure and snags further out. After some casts I got a few bites and a couple coalies showed up but it was slow going at first. We persevered though as we knew we were on the best mark with these conditions and as the sun came higher and the wind died down a bit, the fish started waking up... Below a vid form some of the action and some pics...

Stunning bit of scenery at Elgol.

A rainbow for good luck?

Scott braving the wind..

First one..

Stunning big daddy!

First ballan of the season!

They were quite aggressive!

The thumbs up of success!

It is interesting to note that I lost a couple of good fish that simply weren't hooked even after a good strike! I put this down to the new hooks that I was using the Hayabusa worm offset wrm 951 and in close inspection, even while they proved to be very sharp and strong, their shape and narrow opening seem to affect hook-sets with pollock. This cant be a coincidence as I didn't lose other fish with different hooks. I guess I need to watch this more carefully.. Another interesting point is that almost all of the large pollock were caught very close in at the rock wall and after examining the remains of a rockling from a pollock that Scott caught it is obvious that they are resident fish that hunt for sizable prey very close to the rocks. Next time I will probably use some weighted senkos and stickbaits for them as well...
Moreover we were surprised by the lack of codling but I guess we cant draw any conclusions yet...
Below another vid of various fish and some more pics of the stunning Skye! I'm already planning for my return in September!

In all it was a very successful and enjoyable trip and many thanks go to Scott for taking me there as well as managing the logistics (except that dreaded hostel!!) and hope we can do another 'expedition' soon!

Thanks for reading and tight lines!