Mexico

I managed to get a holiday booked, off to Playacar Mexico. Certainly looking forward to the break and while it wont be a fishing holiday there will be some opportunity to chuck some lures and maybe the odd livebat or two. Two weeks today...happy days

More Mullet

Bank holiday Monday, great weather forecast and not much else to do and cutting the grass can wait.

Had me second session for Mullet in three days. Why is it that nothing happens for an age, you then take a second to throw some ground bait in and then the float dips? This happened twice today, not just half hearted bites but the type of offer that takes the float down a foot or two, sods law, never understood that statement but that’s what it is I guess.

I managed one fish pictured here, I would give it around 3 ¾ but never weighed it. About 20 min’s later the float stopped its slow wind assisted drift from left to right then shot down. When I struck into the fish it went berserk and jumped clear of the water. It then tore off left, then towards me and then took a screaming run against a light drag for about 15 yards to my left again. I had the fish pretty much beat and was easing it toward the net when the hook popped out. Having had a real good look at this one I would say it was a good 5 ½ - 6 pounder, that’s showbiz as they say…. all summer to catch that one again. I don’t think it would have beaten my PB of 6.5 but would have been a great end to May.

May Mullet

The tide dictated another early start this morning leaving the house at 5.30am I double dropped two coffee’s and off I went. Today was the first Mullet session of the year, overcast with the threat of rain it mattered not,it was great to be up fishing at this time and not driving to work as has been the case lately with lots of early starts.

I decided to change from 4 pound to 6 pound line this year due to some obstacles I encountered last year, 11 inch Drennan waggler due to the strong wind and my usual mix of bait. I will keep it short, two bites one fish lost and this one landed 4 pound 10 oz. A nice start to the Mullet season with a solid fish which fought well and went back easily. The threat of rain became a reality so off home for some breakfast I went.

Have I got time to slink a Bass in May?

Battered Ling & homemade tartar sauce…lovely

Scoffed this two days back to back last weekend. I like to use Thai spices in my batter…braw!

Cod & Ling in the sun

Superb weather this weekend, along the same lines of this time last year 26 degrees on Saturday.

The weekend started with a visit to the SW on Friday afternoon, fished for around 3 hours till around 9pm. No sign of a Bass, nada. Having been down there working anyway it was no big deal I would however like to get my first one of the year sometime very soon please. If I had stayed till the light went I might have had more of a chance but the fact I had a two hour drive home and a 3.30am start on Saturday played a major part in the early finish. Les had invited me over for an east coast session with decent prospects so it would be worth the effort..

I dozed off at around midnight, alarm went off and up and out the house I went. Lynn asked me if that was me just coming to bed! I headed off to Edinburgh to meet with Les, short trip to Dunbar to a flat calm sea and the prospect of some fish at last. No disappointment this time, plenty of Codling for us both with Les getting a number of double shots on jellies. I opted for a baited pirk no shortage of fish for us both. We also tried two diving vanes trolled behind the boat which produced the first Mackerel of the year for me and some beautiful fresh bait for Ling.

The best Codling went about 6 pounds and we also caught Pollack, Coalie, Ling, Pouting, Launce and the solitary Mackerel.

The last time I wore the shirt in these picture was in Cape Verde in May 08. Checked the pocket before it went into the wash last night and found 1000 CV Escudos, couldn’t remember what they were worth. My excitement was short lived £8.21, not to worry; I still have the Lotto to check!

Mini Tarpon

My dry spell continued tonight albeit with some entertainment. The target was Sea Trout on a dropping tide into darkness. When I locate these fish in the sea any breach on the surface even a slight lump or wake usually pays dividends. The result in my experience is almost always an offer or a follow. Tonight I did this four times and had four hook up’s. On a bad night I would expect to get two from four, tonight was worse with no fish landed. Two of the fish hit the lure and took straight off into the air, second jump and then the slack line you dread. The next two solid head shakes and then the realisation that something’s not right more jumps….same result. I had one other fish follow me right in leaving a nice wave and boil in inches of water, probably the best fish of the night 16 inches or so, I flicked the lure out a short distance thinking the fish was still in the area, it was, same result a nice follow then off. On reflection I think I was a little sore on two of the fish being a bit out of practice. I use a softer rod for this and always nylon as mainline while the Bushie would have been nice to use in my opinion it’s just too quick for ST.

No surprise really

Being in the SW working this afternoon I packed the gear last night with a view to having a few hours this evening. To be fair the planned session was more out of complete optimism than reality, as was the session in March. Having set myself a probably unrealistic target of an early Bass on a lure at least I had to try.

Blank. No surprise really. After a cold winter my enthusiasm has got the better of me. I have however tried some new gear, had some exercise, got the boots on, walked a few miles and found some new marks again. The next two weekends I will be tied up and by that point things will have moved on again.

There was noticeable increase in gannet activity tonight, more sandeels and a few moulted crab shells. No holding the season back now.

The difference a month makes

I will be out this Friday for a quick session after work, the temparature looks a lot better. Here are two views today and this time last month. While far from being confident it's worth a try. I am currently in Inverness and will be at the other end of the country on Friday,,,,,

Rudd & Roach, something different

I decided after last weekend that the water temperature was still to low and that I was probably, at best about another two weeks away from a realistic chance of a Bass on a lure.

A friend called me on Friday night and suggested that we could have a try for some Roach, Rudd with the possible chance of some small Carp. Never having caught any of these fish in Scotland off we set armed with poles which was another first for me.

The fish here is a Rudd, beautiful little fish. I also caught Roach and Perch but no Carp unfortunately. I can see why people can get addicted to this style of fishing. A Carp would be fun on the elastic…maybe next time. I will need my specs when I try again, light lines, tiny knots and pin heads floats!

I also discussed some coarse fishing tactics which will be useful when Mullet fishing come May.

First Bass trip of the year....skunked !

Yesterday was my first attempt to target Bass this year. The water temperature was 7/8 and being March it was never going to be easy. To be fair I have never caught a Bass on lures or bait this side of May, but then again I’ve never tried.

Fished three hours late morning into the afternoon then had a break for a few hours then fished till dusk…..nada. I guess I put in around six hours in total.

To be fair I just felt I needed a day out and a trial run with some of the new gear I have bought since last year. The breathable waders were spot on cheapo’s from Bass Pro in the states. The Scierra Dynatrack studded wading boots Lynne gave me for Christmas were great and provided me with a massive improvement in grip. In terms of the lures the Komomo II and Z Claw look tip top. If the Komomo does not do the business for me as the year moves on I will be very surprised.

When I took a break from fishing in the afternoon I travelled a few miles and took a walk down a dirt track of some west facing cliffs. Never been here before but it looks great in terms of bait fishing opportunities. Bass will be a certainty and I would be surprised if I could not pick up a small Turbot or two. The picture is pretty naff but there was nice surf, plenty of tide and a number of features which are out of the shot.

Loch Etive

First trip out today since November. Myself and Scott made the trip north to Loch Etive for the first club match of 2010. The weather was better than expected with sunshine and for the most a light but cold wind from the north. We had around 90 Spurdog…all small fish with the best going 3 pounds 8oz, trebles and doubles at times with a few whiting mixed in. You can see Scott here with the typical fish for the day, a small male. Some of the guys found some doubles and there were a handful of fish to just over 11 pounds. No decent fish for us I’m afraid but it was good to get out.

Trying some new kit ahead of spring

Tried out these new lures today, all below £6 apart from one via Bass Pro Vegas. Great value!

Super Spook Jnr

Daiwa Chugger

Rapala Subwalk

Yo Zuri Chrystal Minnow SP

Daiwa Salt Pro

Lucky Craft Flash Minnow SP *

Bass Pro Laser Eye Lipless

No fishing and bad weather

Unfortunately no fishing this month, might manage out early January for some cod. I have however been putting my fishing kit to some use in the recent few weeks, not my rods but some of my clothes.

I’ve never been a fan of flotation suits either in the one or two piece variety. When I started going to Norway about seven years ago I had a look at viable alternatives to these. I needed something which would cope with the weather, could be worn with a life jacket and which would give me freedom of movement and the ability to lair up or down. I had a look at the range of clothes from Patagonia, this is extensive and covers everything from wading in streams for trout to climbing Everest. I realised then that I could pick up pieces of kit which could be used across all areas of my fishing and also day to day…especially in the winter and that’s been particular useful this last week or two.

Outer layer (red) – Patagonia Jetstream Jacket, breathable, waterproof lightweight compressible shell.

Mid layer (blue) Patagonia down sweater, very warm and again compressible

Base layer (black) Patagonia R1 hoody, this is the best piece of clothing kit I have bought. Zips up like a balaclava and makes you look like a ninja, thumbholes to keep your wrist and hands warm and dries really quickly. I wore this lot in the summer on its own or for early morning work I would put a Patagonia long sleeve Capilene underneath it. If I had bought this seven years ago I could have done away with every other base/mid layer I have bought and now rarely wear.

Anyway from this self confessed Patagonia label junkie have a fantastic 2010, hope it brings us a lot of PB’s

November -Loch Sunnart Tagathon

Just had great weekend at Loch Sunnart and the Shark Tagathon, the fishing was mixed and at times poor. The banter was top drawer as was the food and welcome at the Salen Hotel. I can recommend this hotel for food and accommodation. On this trip we stayed at the An Tobar B&B about 3 miles north of Salen, lovely couple great digs, great value and a fantastic breakfast

November- Thinking ahead

It’s the usual time of year when I start to think about next year’s objective in terms of what I would like to catch,where the I would like to go and what the available budget will be. The guys in my club are heading back to Kenya in January. This is a fantastic angling destination and pretty much has it all, just about every species of Billfish, GT’s, Amberjacks to name but a very few.

I was lucky enough to be visit in 2007.Willie Kennedy and I shared a boat on the last two days of our two week trip. The fishing went "tonto" and at one point we had five rods in with live frigate mackerel...five fish took each of the baits, Willie had 4 Yellowfin Tuna all about 50 pounds in the boat while I was left struggling with a Striped Marlin. Having done some damage to my elbow deep dropping speed jigs in 200 meters of water it was both painful and superb at the same time. When this latest trip was planned I could not commit to it. As it gets closer I cant help but feel a little jealous that I wont be there, good luck and I'm sure the fishing will be hot.

In fact I’ve been lucky enough to visit a lot of good angling destinations Kenya, Cape Verde, Pacific Mexico, Florida, Portugal and Arctic Norway.

I will get round to posting some pictures throughout the winter. Next year looks like France to lure/fly fish Bass. Having spent more hours than is right to do so I think I have it down to two places so… happy days.

October- Bass,Wrasse & wasp stings

Having been busy with Bass and Mullet I had not done any Wrasse fishing this year. This was pity as last year I had set myself a target of getting a fish of 5 pounds. My intention was to target these all summer but it just never happened. Still, being a decent month to target them Rodney and I got ourselves sorted out. The weather the day prior to our session had been unsettled, wet and windy. When I woke on Sunday morning I peered bleary eyed out the window not sure what I would find.... calm and sunny the trip was on.

Long story short we had 30 or so Wrasse. Surprised the size seemed to be down on our previous trips. To be fair the pair of us seemed to be hopeless for most of trip, missing bites stumbling about the rocks like bambi on ice. In fact he broke the tip ring on his rod when connected to probably the biggest Wrasse of the trip, I could see it clearly and it would have went 3-4 pounds when the hook popped out. On top of the tip breaking… hilarious. He followed this stunt up by screaming at me and clawing at his groin area about half an hour later. He then stood on the rocks dropped his strides and killed the wasp which had climbed up his trouser leg…. absolute quality.

I had one Bass session late in the month. Being October I had visions of landing a bass bigger than my PB which is 6 pounds 6 oz. I decided to have an evening session and then a dawn session via a B & B stay. Having been reading up on lure fishing at night I gave it a go. I took two fish at dusk and then two fish around 9.30pm..Totally black, no moon with a really slow retrieve using a Feed Shallow. In addition I had six or so small Pollack. The Bass? These were about the smallest I have caught all year, in fact come to think of it this mark has produced pretty much all small fish, note to self. I did learn a few things and you definitely tune into the environment. I have to say that I did not like the seal literally sniffing about me less than fifteen feet away in the pitch black, quite spooky. That was the end of the fishing for that night. I gave it go at first light and despite what I would say were good conditions I blanked, that as they say is show business! Nice sunrise though.

September-Bass & Mullet

With some settled weather I was back pursuing mullet. The fish I took in July was 88% of the Scottish record and I knew there were bigger to be had. In fact when playing that fish there were two of its pals swimming with it which were easily the same size if not bigger. I made a few changes and some fine tuning to me end tackle, ground bait and approach. This resulted in a superb session, can’t remember if it was five or six fish but I had another fish over 6 pounds. I did have some competition from a seal and was lucky not to lose two fish. I again involved a random, pics taken by a granny out buying a newspaper. The old dear stood and chatted off and on for about an hour and a half, bless her. Thanks for taking the pics!

I also had a couple of sessions on the Bass these were however proving a little trickier. I did have some more fish off the top including the one pictured here. It does not do it justice but I was perched on a boulder in 3 feet of water trying to be quite and not splash around. The minute the popper hit the water I paused, on the first few twitches walking it back it was totally nailed. In fact the fish almost cart wheeled over itself on the take, superb fish, great fight and it took ages to revive. I also took this fish at maximum distance which was interesting over the ground I was fishing. The Caldia I picked up for the Sun fish of the week worked well. I got the 3000 size , nice reel and a sweet little drag.

August-Bass

August was a difficult month, wind, rain, dirty water with suspended weed. As a result the wind direction throughout the month I was sort of pushed to fish one area more often than I would have liked. The weather seemed to conspire to be at it bests (along with the tides) mid week. But regardless of this I still caught, just had to try harder and put up with more weather.

Started taking more fish off the top on surface lures such as the Mag Popper and Luck Craft Sammy. For me it’s a really satisfying and also exciting way to take fish. What I did learn this month is that sometimes the less you do and only using subtle movements with this style of fishing the more you catch. I think I had about 8 fish on the surface.

The rain put the dampeners on the mullet but they would be back on the agenda soon enough…

July- Bass & Mullet

More of the same for me in July, good sessions on the Bass. Lots of miles, some warranted grief from Lynne as a result of being completely done in come Sundays. I drive around 50k miles per year in my day job and on top of that on a Friday night I was off on my travels, come Sunday…puffed out.

As a result of this I tried closer to home targeting mullet for a couple if quick sessions to get my fix. Now not having fished them for some time I was not that optimistic. This proved to be unfounded as had some quick success with 3 fish in my first session the best being this fish picture above at 6 pounds 5 ounces. The scrap these fish provide on the right tackle is just superb. The fish unfortunately died, after a doing its best to escape I put it back in the drop net to release it. Its dorsal became entangled in the net so by the time I brought it back up and then back down it had gone. I have to say it did eat pretty well cooked by mate Rodney on his barbi. Having released all but two Bass this year it provided a decent feed for us and a nice change.

The picture was taken by of all people a bus driver who's rig had broken down. I later cropped the finger out the pic but cant find that copy, did a decent job apart from that. This random pic request to a passing stranger was to become a theme when fishing for mullet as I did this mainly alone.

June-Bass

When I came back from Norway summer had arrived and the fantastic spell of weather continued into June.

Not having done much Bass fishing for a couple of years I decided to re- focus my attention on these fish. Having had a static in the Luce Bay area for a few years I knew the area pretty well so sort of picked up where I left off. The main problem here was that before the early morning and evening session were easy in there was no need to travel further than 30 minutes. Not so now, indeed a round trip of 4 hours was required. The answer was simple, pick the right tides where I could which suited the venues I could fish both at dusk and dawn. With darkness falling around 11.30pm and dawn at 3.30am there was not much point in putting a tent up or investing in a B&B so got my head down in the Merc. With a portable stove for a dawn brew or an evening pot noodle what more do you need when there are Bass to be caught?

My partner Lynne thought I was nuts… think she thought I was at it. I explained that her name was Betty Bass a somewhat prickly character, fickle at times and only available at the most unsociable time of the day.

I enjoyed some very good results throughout June with up to seven fish a session and average catch of around 5 fish using lures such as the Maria Chase BW and Maria Angel Kiss, decent lures for the money. Effective colours seemed to be holo silver, green eel, pearl silver.

I also tried a few more local areas only an hour or so from my home with some success. I remember one evening taking a fish off the surface on a mag popper enjoyed that one big time, two casts later a Gannet took the lure thankfully it was not hooked. I couldn’t believe that this bird came so close in on such shallow and rocky ground, anyway it was good enough to fool a Bass and a Gannet so I must have been doing something right. So all in a good month with a few barbies and some cold ones thrown in. It was a busy month. I was also in hospital for surgery and had to take some time off work this curtailed me a little. It did however give me some time to spend money online buying...eh lures, rods and more lures