Not much to report

In terms of fishing, it’s been the quietest autumn/early winter period I’ve had for a while. Having managed a few odd sessions here and there the results have been patchy with the exception of my last trip, today, a nice surprise with more activity that I expected. With the mindset of getting some exercise rather than the possibility of decent action I was telling myself I should have gone Pike fishing even before I had wet a lure.

I had a crack at Bass again in October, good tide and a nice day to be afloat but this part of the coast either needs darkness or the start of a building sea to produce I think. Really not enough tide to interest the Bass, seemed very sterile, a few small Pollack and a couple of school Bass from a tidal crease a few hundred yards off a point.I wont be hurrying back to this area on the kayak, in daylight.

2012/2013 look to have been good years for Bass survival. Lots of these fish around wide spread, first year for a long time as I recall it.

So being into November I booked a couple of days off, more for a break than much else. I checked the sea temps and tide tables and it looked good. The minute I got afloat the sea temp was a country mile out, 26% to be precise. Not just inshore but offshore a little bit as well. Despite this I hooked a small Bass that shook itself free and had some Coalfish, Launce and Mackerel, but I have to say it was a tough day covering a lot of ground looking for signs to life.

The following day wasn’t much better. I opted to fish for Perch, the loch water level was way up and the temperature way down. Despite having some bait with me I didn’t catch a thing with it. I had four Perch of an almost identical size on one lure, fished one way. If I could have found much to target I would have ground out a better result. The truth is ,I think I was lucky to catch what I did. I managed to plot a few features for my pre-spawn sessions next year. Till then, for my freshwater escapades I think I’ll stick with Pike next time out.

Someone’s been feeding this Swan. It was almost like a dog begging for food. It was sat at eye level for a while making clicking noises. I’ve no idea what’s bad for a Swans digestion so declined it’s advances for my Snickers bar and pasta, didn’t feed it any worms either. Being encouraged to be around angler’s gear isn’t really a good idea for such a tremendous bird.

So today we had decent weather. I had plenty I could be doing but opted to take a chance and drift some reefs locally. As I said at the start of this report, my expectations were low but I had a pleasant surprise. Some fantastic sport for mid-November in Ayrshire, couldn’t really ask for much more from here at this time of year.