Ouch!

Stewart  sent me this picture. He was fishing with fellow club member Davy this week when the trip was cut short with a trip to A&E

Davy let a Pike slip out of his grip when unhooking the fish.... Stewart was unhappy to have the trip cut short as the fish were just starting to come on.  It's just bad angling, how could  you be so selfish  Davy ??

But serioulsy, its easily done. Spot the dodgy crimp tut tut!

SW early Sunday morning

With the weather due to break on Monday with what looks like a particularly snotty forecast Jamie and I decided to fish Sunday early o’clock. This was a wee bit of struggle for me after fishing Saturday morning.

This fish took the SP confidently as it dropped into the water @ around 2am. There was a rock just behind me that made the self-timer picture easy enough.

It was a calm night and we both caught fish but wrapped it up at 5am with a strengthening northerly wind. By this point no amounts of Red Bull were working for me so we got the head down till 8am after a drive to mark B.

Jamie just happened to be next to me when this one hit the lure at range. There was a fair amount of activity from Terns, Sea Trout, Mullet and Bass given it was a smaller tide, hope we catch a break with the weather next weekend.

Connected

I’ve seen some discussion on a few forums recently about this fish versus that fish and reasoning why some people target a specific species. They’re easier, they’re only small fish, and it’s a diddy species essentially calling into question the angler’s ability to catch anything else. While I can sort of see the argument I guess you get extremists in any walk of life. It’s all just fishing to me.....

For me, with the exception of using a fly rod lure fishing provides the most connected feeling making an

inanimate  object animated enough to fool in this case the humble Perch.

 It was a dour morning and the Perch didn’t seem interested in any of the spoons I initially threw at them. The fish above took a Savage Gear 4play on a 10g head bumped on the bottom and then left motionless.

A Pike had a go at a small fish I was retrieving but didn’t seem interested in the 4play so I put on an orange Atom and it took it first cast.

To mix it up a bit I tried the suspending Flatt Shad but only had this fish to show for my efforts, worked hard with two sweeps of the rod tip then left stationary.

The wind had got up a bit so I tried a pink Savage Gear Dying Minnow, don’t think it’s supposed to be used rigged like this but nobody had told the fish. I was able to cast this a little further into the headwind to find some deeper water and it was fish after fish.

The Pike fancied a bit of the pinkie as well.

Teeth, stripes and some silver

The weather forecast for Saturday said bright sunshine and clear skies so I decided to park the Bass for the time being and head off with Stewart for Pike and Perch. Imagine my surprise when we found ourselves in the early morning rain and fog at our chosen venue…..

Anyway the fishing started brightly when I had a nice fish on a Flatt Shad after five minutes, Stewart provided this gem of me below.

Honestly I'm sober

This one but about 15 minutes later I caught another on the same lure.

I worked my way into a weedy corner with a stream running in which was a nice feature when I started to pick up a Perch or two after a switch to an Abu Atom, I call it the cannibal colour for obvious reasons.

Stewart had taken different approach using bait and lures and I could see him further up the bank catching some fish as I moved around from rock to rock.

I made my way back up and took and short break and after a catch up with Stewart switched to a 3.5g Illex Texas jig head and Lunker City Ribster courtesy of a fishing buddy Jake Schogler and on my first cast I pinched this from under Stewart’s nose who managed to get a video clip of the scrap, will post this up at some point.

I  swapped  lures and tried various SP’s and eventually connected with a better Perch on the Atom cast far and retrieved slow and deep.

A great mornings fishing ,with the sun now shining we headed home with Stewart having had the best Pike of the day with a fish of about 8/9 pounds and plenty of Perch.

After dropping Stewart off about 2pm I had a short visit home to say hello to Lynne, get some lunch and have a change of tactics. When I headed off Bass fishing I only took two hard lures and decided to stick to SP’s in the hope of getting a better fish.

As the sun set I was running out of steam to be honest.

This was the first of the fish to hit my white Wave Worm, it gave me a boost but none of the fish were much better than just over 2 pounds.

Wrasse & a barbi...true summer companions

Two days of sunshine on the trot at the weekend…yeah right!  Lynne packed the burgers and I packed a rod and some SP’s.

I like my Wrasse fishing and it’s something I don’t do often enough but my feet are not on firm ground when it comes to using soft plastics on them. Then again it’s just a fish and it’s just another lure how hard can it be? I’ve only tried once before in June so and while I caught Wrasse on bait and then some Pollack on some 3 inch stick worms I didn’t have any joy with Wrasse on the day in question.

To answer my own questions it’s both difficult and pretty easy. I only had a limited time to get a fish. Remember this wasn’t a fishing trip so while Lynne was doing two crosswords I was completing my own puzzle. Long story short after  trying Xlayers, stick worms, D Fins in quick succession I got a couple of tentative offers on a 3 inch Umiushi  on 3.5g finesse jig head so stuck with this.

Looks like a sort of translucent shrimp to me

Less is more and I found that putting the Umiushi   into an area and shaking the rod tip then doing nothing seemed to get a response. If nothing happened, move the lure a bit and try again. After a few missed takes and lures being bitten in half I landed this.

I got another about 1 ¼ about 20 minutes later but had left the camera with Lynne after she rudely

interrupted my train of thought. So a couple of fish in 90 minutes with a few more missed. I could get into this, a bit more to it of course, wish the summers were longer.

Fishing in Ayrshire

Stewart and I have had three trips this year all of which have been to different environments. I've enjoyed them all as it’s nice to get a change of scenery and target species. Both being members of the same club we catch up on the fishing chat on a regular basis.

These days Stewart does some guiding locally and further afield.

http://www.ayrshirefishingguide.co.uk/

I don’t think Stewart would mind me describing him as having a traditional approach to his fishing and he certainly knows when and where. So if it’s Salmon in Perthshire or Perch in Dumfriesshire or indeed something different give him a call.

A busy week

Bass in the SW, reasonable at some points & tough at others over 4 days. Wont be commenting on Bass numbers on this blog for a few reasons from now on....

The big fish are hard to come by this year, apparently...but there are a few. Just avoiding me again for the time being. I had a look at two 7 pound +  on Tuesday via a forum caught on Monday.

Nice camo!


I also had a trip with Stewart Clark this week AKA Mr Perch. He certainly knows some of these SW Perch & Pike marks. He knew I wanted a big Perch so when the fishing picked up he gave me a call.

Go large or up the road!

This is a Deps Bumble Shad. I got these for use in rough weedy ground where there are a lot of small Pollack and the theory larger Bass looking for them as prey. It has an 11/0 Owner Weedless in it. At 25g and sinking it works nicely at a slow pace. I have two nail weights in the belly to keep it stable.

Its also me new fav Perch lure! 2.4 oz

This jack took a Sebile Flatt Shad

It was good to get a break from Bass fishing, thanks Stewart!