Rough with the Smoothie

Scott and I hit Luce Bay at the weekend aboard Go West with Spike. We never did get around to having a shot for Smoothies last year despite talking about it a few times so we put a plan in place to sort that out. With the boat booked about a month ago it was the usual situation on the run up to Sunday. We watched the conditions turn from being bright and flat calm on Saturday to gusting 20 mph from the west with some squalls in the mix. The Tope were very hard to find for the boats fishing on Saturday, we wondered how our day would pan out.

We set about getting our fresh bait shortly after leaving the beach. Mackerel were pretty easy to come by and with these in the box and some fresh and frozen crab we were off to the main event. This was the first part of a three day trip for Scott and the three of us chatted about the prospects for the various species Scott was chasing.  It wasn’t long after the anchor took grip that I had a decent bite and the expected Tope run produced a nice Thornback.

                                The bait must have landed right on its nose, it was really that quick.

It was then Dogfish time for us both for the next hour or so till I picked up the first Smoothie.

I think this was Scott’s first Doggie of the year and I’m pretty sure the novelty wore off fairly quickly.

Eventually working through the Doggies he found himself a Smoothie as well as some Whiting and the occasional Grey Gurnard.

Scott had a list of fifteen potential species for his trip but the next one up was a real bonus. Spike reckons he gets one or two per year.

                                                        A happy chap with a bonus Spotted Ray.

We were both happy we had crab with us as it was tough day on the Tope front with not a single run. I believe there were four boats out and one run was had between them all. An enjoyable day just the same with Scott making some progress towards his target despite not getting a Huss or a Tope. The Spotted Ray is however a bonus and definitely a harder target to catch in Scotland.