The hunt for the skipper continues

I was back in Dundee as usual for a midweek stop off on the way back up to Aberdeen. The water level would be dropping after the rain of last week and my concerns were about this, water clarity and size of the tides which were building up. Initially it looked OK so I started to work my lure up and into the current and along the colour changes. I felt confident that there would be a fish or two around. Three hours later I took the walk of shame back to the car; all that was missing was a can for me to kick along the beach….

I won’t be fishing this weekend so not one to admit defeat too easily I decided that I would have another crack on the way home. I was prepared for more of the same but on my second cast hooking a fish actually caught me totally by surprise. The fish gave a great account of itself; it had me thinking how good it might have been on a fly rod. The speed and random changes in direction were hard to keep up with, superb!

47cm

A squall came through about an hour later. I had the thought that I never seem to catch anything when it’s raining, again, another surprise as a fish thumped the lure and threw itself about in the rain and was quickly netted. The shower was so heavy I couldn’t be bothered to unzip my jacket and get the camera off the lanyard around my neck, nice little chunky, fat maiden fish, I guess about a pound.

I was starting to think about driving home when I connected again. This fish was another acrobat and took the lure on a very short line which saw it quickly netted and slipped back. Time to go home.

Three different looking spring Sea Trout, the first I think, good condition but looks like it’s spent some time actually in fresh water last week after the rain. The second a hands down maiden fish and the third for me was hard to say. It has a split tail but is bright silver, firm, solid and in A1 condition and no sign of being in a river this past autumn. So, the hunt for the elusive“skipper”continues. To anybody fishing for Sea Trout in the salt this is probably the Holy Grail. Trying to catch one of these bigger fish in spring which unquestionably has missed out heading up the river for a season or maybe even two is where it’s at, but like all good things, never easy.