The sun's here and the winds gone!

I took the opportunity to get afloat with Jason on Tartan Spartan accompanying him and Gordon we set off early doors on Monday morning. We managed to eventually get enough Mackerel and I also fluked a solitary Herring. The targets were firstly the Smut's then the Bream, followed by a shot at Bass and all things being equal some Tope. I put out a two hook rig with some fresh crab and picked up a few doggies which were soon followed by a couple of decent smoothies and a smaller one about three pounds. Off to the Bream mark- no show but Jason got a small Huss- off to the Bass mark- no show. The weather was glorious so we set off to find some Tope with Jason eventually getting a good run on a live Whiting but the Tope then dropped the bait and disappeared. In total we had 9 species including a nice Tub Gurnard for me, stacks of whiting and Grey Gurnards, Dab's, Mack's and the usual Dog's

Jamie's first Bass of the year

After a pretty miserable time at the match yesterday Jamie got a lift today with his first Bass of the year, two Bass in fact. We ventured south again to an area that would provide some shelter from the horrendous wind which at times was so strong it almost lifted me me from the rocks I was casting from. Jamie's fish came as the tide turned and my reward was an 8 inch Coalie...

We probably overstayed our visit but in the absence of another suitable venue which would be reasonable comfortable to fish as well as safe we stuck it out. The Gannets worked the bay for 5 hours solid and as the tide rose they were hitting the water 30 yards from shore, it looked like both the Gannets and Jamie had their tea in the bag, for me it was the walk of shame up the beach and a chip butty on the way home!

Carrick in a hooli

We braved the elements today rescheduling the club match to a venue which was less dangerous than the proposed mark. Conditions looked promising for Bass at least and with a decent turnout hopes were high that we would pick up a few with the chance of a Smut or two on the cards. The first half of the match worked out well for me in terms of numbers of fish, the second part was well... crap! There were only three Bass caught two of which came to Will right at the start but there were reasonable numbers of fish and each angler had something on the score sheet. For me it was Eel's, Flounders and Doggies- 8 fish and 4th place. I didn't add any decent scoring round fish to my tally but there was also a Cod and a Huss caught and Stu ran out winner on the day with a total of 16 fish including the Huss. Jamie had the Cod and Malky the other Bass ,Will did well with his two good scoring fish and Stevie plugged away on the Flounders.

Species caught today were Bass, Cod, Flounder, Huss, Eel, Rockling, LSD and Dab so most anglers added a few to their list for the year.

The weather was bang on for the last hour but is not forecast to last. I'm heading out on Monday again as I've plenty of crab left over. Monday ain't looking good but I've taken a day off so I will be trying for my first Bass of the year! I will post some pictures from today shortly.

Double Shot Day

Busy day today, plenty of fish over two sessions which was nice. Tried Creetown got there a little late but it didn't matter,the fish were in the right mood straight from the off. I fished to two rods with crab resulting in 13 Flounders in about an hour and half. Having had enough of the sinking mud as the tide dropped I took the notion to put my feet on a beach with some surf.

I arrived at the beach in the picture to be met with the Dumfries & Galloway air force pounding the channel between the receding tide and the reef, the usual in fact for this mark. This is where the Bass generally work as the sandeels have nowhere to go at that point in the tide so my hopes were high for my first Bass of the year. I fished a rod short in the channel and another on the edge of the reef hoping to pick up a Pollack ,then the hounds arrived and pretty big ones at that. Three double shots later I had a decent bite but when I picked the rod up it was solid, with some coaxing it came free and delivered me a nice little Ballan Wrasse and another Dog. With the tide now well on the way in I was expecting a Bass. On my last cast the rod nodded nicely followed by a slack liner, bingo, but as it happens not a Bass but the best Flounder of the day. It was good to get a few fish today.

Micro Smoothies

The forecast for the weekend came to fruition with strong SE's which duly led to the cancellation of the club boat competition. With some nice fresh crab burning a hole in the fridge myself and Willie decided to have a shot at some early Smut's. We eventually found them, for me it was left to the last cast of the day to land one having had three delicate bites on my last three casts as the tide dropped away about 2 hours after high water. At the same time Willie managed two Dog's and two Smut's. They were indeed certainly small and could be described as micro Smut's but my fish saved a blank and both myself and Willie added another species to the tally for the year. All in an enjoyable day with the sun shining on us again, life aint that bad and the fish will be bigger next time.

The end of the decent weather for the moment

I have a club boat match this weekend with the potential for Smoothies, Bass and possibly an early Tope. The weather has different plans, at the moment it looks like 20-40mph SSE's, hope it changes but I don't see a lull in on Winguru with more of the same for around a week. I can see a shore session on the cards, with some nice fresh crab it might be an option.