Taps aff !

Not quite but my drysuit was. With temperature at 29c there was no danger of me getting boiled in a bag yesterday afternoon. Having taken a half day off work the targets were wrasse and pollack. I picked up some ragworm and launched at 3pm on a flat sea, perfect! The wrasse fishing was a bit slow but I managed three species, ballan, corkwing and goldsinny. It was maybe the dropping tide but they didn't seem to be in the mood. The pollack however weren't holding back and I had a great few hours fishing. With the wind gusting to 20mph at the end of session about twice that of the forecast it was a wet and chilly two mile journey back to the launch site. It was however nice to be afloat without a drysuit and have a taste of what kayak fishing would be like in a warmer climate. That said, the water temperature was 15c and it would have made for a bit of shock if I ended up in the drink.

Surprise silver

I did some prospecting today trying to find new areas to target Bass from my kayak. It was a fantastic day to be on the water but pretty crap tides to be fair. I fully expected it to be hard work and I was right. I tried deeper on the reefs and also the shallower areas along the transitions between weed and sand  trying to keep myself in as much flow as possible. It was in one such area where the tide was pushed between a couple of rocky areas being exposed as the tide dropped.There was a nice strip of sand between them that looked fishy. I hooked and lost what felt like a really nice fish. I presumed it was a Bass but ten minutes later sitting in the same spot the hooks stuck and after a great scrap I had a nice Sea Trout in the net. I then hooked and lost another one. Funny old game this fishing as I've only ever caught one tiny one down here before.

51cm

I had a lot of small reef Pollack and a few Launce to make up the numbers. Hard work in the sun but hopefully it will pay off in the long term.

Now this would  certainly make a nice livebait....

Is the bug back?

I'm on a forced lay off this weekend having damaged my back washing my drysuit. Of all the ways I could have hurt myself this happened simply leaning over the bath.The area in question is where my hip joins my spine, a common injury amongst gardeners I'm told. Painkillers and a physio have helped a little and I'll use Sunday to sort some kit out and get ready for a few sessions later this month. I've decided to put some time in to my Bass fishing again,mostly from my Outback. I didn't catch a Wrasse till December last year so I can hopefully set some time aside for a few session on these as well.

A nice fish from July a few years back.

When I've been speaking to Craig recently it's rekindled my interest in targeting Bass. He's on that daft journey, up at all hours, and with a fly rod. In Scotland I'm not sure there is a tougher but at the same time realistic saltwater challenge like it.I'll see if the bug bites me next time out, if I can pinch some flies from him I might have a crack as well....

Tope and Smoothound Video

Smoothie operator

The next trip on my yak, the targets were again Tope and hopefully Smoothounds. I fished 7am to 7.30pm. The Mackerel were hard to come by but I did have a string of nice Herring to add to the bait stocks. Not that it mattered a lot, I had one Tope run about 4pm but it dropped the bait. Saturday was more of a smoothie day, I've never caught so many. The gear I was using was on the heavy side but it was still great fun.

Most were on the small side. I only had 3 that were slightly better, seen here in the picture above, bottom right.

I had one hook, one hook length and no light leader. Somewhere between me cutting the hook length and tying the hook on, the tub I had some bits in disappeared, still got the lid....30 odd fish with this ,20 crabs and 4 squid is a proper economical use of resources. Species, Mackerel, Coalie, Herring, Tub Gurnard, Grey Gurnard, Whiting,LSD, Smoothound. A great days fishing.

Bass blank

The following day after my Tope session, I had my first shot at Bass from the shore with my mate Craig. Sadly we didn't catch any Bass. Craig had a small Pollack and I hooked and lost a rare Scottish Garfish. It was great to see though. I did have one in roughly the same area 4 years ago in May, not sure if the numbers are there to target them though ?

Since then Craig has been on a mission( with some success) I'll be back at it some time soon.

I don't know too many anglers that have caught one in Scotland but they are around.

A few Tope

I only had one proper attempt at Tope last year and kind of missed the early run of pack Tope. With a settled forecast I intended to put that right at the start of June.

I was on the road for 3.30am after a double dunt of coffee, launched for 5.45am after a quick call to Belfast coastguard to log my trip. I started fishing the last of the ebb. Nothing around in terms of mackerel I picked up a few Launce and some Coalies to supplement my frozen bait and then dropped the anchor. It was a cracking morning, calm and windless, not another person to be seen on the water. I knew where I should have been but I wasn't in the mood to be fighting the tide too much so, I was here.

After a couple of hours I had dropped a Huss after it spat the bait as I went to lift it out, from there, it was just a wall to wall dogs. I was kind of regretting my decision to fish this area but had a move further off shore as the tide started to flow. I picked up a few fresh Mackerel which proved to be the turning point of the day. As I waited, the bottom seemed paved with Whiting ,they came up 2 and 3 at a time if the feathers hit the deck. I then had an absolutely howling run, thankfully the hook didn't stick as a sizeable seal popped up down tide. Having just got over that, a Gannet hit the water like a rocket about ten yards from my yak. I shifted around in my seat to check I hadn't soiled my drysuit and put a fresh bait down.

I then had a couple of decent hours fishing with three Tope and a nice Thornback before it went quiet. I wrapped it up for about 1pm after trying inshore unsuccessfully for a Bass. Species for the day,Coalie, Launce, Whiting, Mackerel, Grey Gurnard, LSD, Tope ,Thornback and Pollack.

The Haunting

I had a shot locally for Pollack around the middle of May, a mid-week evening session on a lovely night. The area was all but devoid of Pollack, two small fish in 3 hours. A guy I met on a kayak last time out, he was in exactly the same place he left me on my previous visit. I had put him on some fish using my marker float as he didn't have a finder. As I was catching fish I could hear him shout “dinner dinner”. I later found out by speaking to him he had been out the day previously, that day, the next day and was intending to fish this spot on the Monday as well. The calm weather has a lot to answer for, this guys been haunting the place in his blue/light blue camo tandem. Revive the Clyde bollocks, the Clyde is Alive? All that's been done there is put more general pressure on one of the few decent marks easily accessible by a kayak. I've made the odd mistake myself but responsible and social media? Marks named and battered all over Youtube,? Not too clever in my book.