Signing out with some silver

It's been a short season for me but that's my bass fishing done and dusted till May next year. I was out on the water in the lull after storm Callum and blanked with only mackerel to show for four hours fishing. I tried an area that I wasn't that confident about in the first place. Essentially the only spot I could find some water that wasn't manky! 

 I had six hours on the water today, the air temperature was -5 when I packed the car, sea temperature outwith the shallow fringes was 10-11.5c. I struggled to find the fish. I then had two in three casts on a white FBM, both on the drop. Still fish to be had ,but it's now making less sense to me now with four hour round trips, short days and dropping water temperatures.

These fish were little heavy chunks, they seem to have filled out over the last month or so.

Sandy, if at first you don't succeed...

A few months back Sandy mentioned he fancied catching a common skate. The biggest fish he's caught before was a fine 28 pound salmon. Over few conversations a plan was hatched to have an attempt at smashing this, pulling a few back muscles and working up a sweat! I had warned him it wasn't for everyone, possibly me included these day, but we pushed on regardless with the idea and booked a trip with the guys at Seadog Charters out of Ardfern.

I met Sandy at 6am sharp and we set off on the long drive arriving with enough time for a bacon roll and a coffee before pushing off at 9am. This was last Tuesday, and as you know, if you live in Scotland, it's been a tad windy lately with next to no sign of giving it a rest for the foreseeable. In all honesty I knew it would be a real challenge dealing with it, getting to the deeper water, and that was before we started thinking about the fish. We anchored up in a spot at about 50 metres that the guys have had a few fish before, not the best spot, but workable with a chance of a fish. I think the size of the baits surprised Sandy as the lads baited up with a couple of mackerel and large octupus. We dropped the baits and got to waiting, laving a few laughs and enjoying the weather....

With four big baits out and about three hours gone and nothing doing, we opted to drop a single rod with a smaller bait down to see what was around. It had hardly touched the bottom when it was taken. This produced a Thornback for me. Sandy was up next, think he had a dogfish and then a Thornback, then it was just dogfish from there on in. I was kind of hoping that a few Spurdogs might have made an appearance to break things up a bit. The guys mentioned they were in the deeper water in numbers. I can imagine with 1-4 pounds of lead on and with the constant re-baiting, it might be a chore with the big rods at times. It got to the last knockings when Sandy lifted into something on the small rod. Now anyone who's done this type of fishing will know how Skate have an uncanny knack of landing on the smallest baits and lightest rods. To be fair, I thought this was exactly what had happened and I was thinking, here we go for two hours! Sadly it turned out to be the mother of all tangles. With 4 huge baits and 8 pounds of lead we could have been forgiven for thinking we were in. Given how rough it was I secretly think Sandy was actually relieved. So unfortunately, no Skate on this trip but we've agreed to have another crack at it in the spring. The pain will stay deferred for another day!

Still dodging the autumn storms

A small weather window opened up, and at a weekend for a change. I got my gear ready on Thursday night as I knew to make the most of it I would have to be on the road early Saturday morning. My intention was to put eleven hours in to make the most of the opportunity. Unfortunately I had to cut this session short as I felt the start of an ocular migraine coming on. Not had one for a while now and the timing was bad. Nobody would want to be on a kayak with one of those. I sat in the car for an hour or so till I felt I was able to drive home. Having looked at the weather for the next week it's disappointing to only have had half the time I wanted on the water.

Anyway, I'll keep pushing on if I can , weather permitting. The numbers of fish is encouraging but 50+cm Bass are few and far between, for me at least. 82 Bass now on lures since the start of July and just more than a hand full over that size. I'm maybe doing something wrong? I'll be doing a few exploratory night sessions next season for sure. I just need to be out there more in all probability, think that was session twelve yesterday, not a lot in the scheme of things by comparison to the hardcore guys.