Dont drink on an empty head

Thanks to Craig for tying these for me, it’s appreciated, they’ll catch fish for sure. It would have been a lot better if I took them with me, along with my leader, permit and everything else that was left in my HPA pack, in the garage. My wife drove most of the way to drop it off to me, she’s a gem and I didn't ask, but it will probably cost me at some point ;0) So, this is what happens when you've not had a glass of wine for a while? Daft really, functioned almost without a flaw for years before this, I need to have a word with myself.

I had about 3.5 hours fishing with a couple of follows on the Alive Shrimp in the first 20 mins, which, unfortunately was it. I spent the last half hour with the lure rod on a spot that needed some range at the top of the tide only to be shown how to catch Sea Trout by seals. I just wasn’t my day, the seals were on the money, never saw Sea Trout jumping to get away from them before and both are always here. I know I’m in the right place at the right time but it’s difficult not to be annoyed, they, at the end of the day are not doing it for fun.

On this occasion there wasn't!  I enjoyed dusting down the fly rod ,something I'm keen to do more of.

Willie's Salmon

When I was flogging away on Saturday a few of my fellow club members were on the Tay for the clubs annual jaunt to the fresh stuff on the River Tay. I think this is year six of this fixture. My late mate Rodney had the only success over this period with a nice spring Salmon of 12 pounds.

Unfortunately these fish are increasingly hard to come by. When I had text from Willie on Saturday to say that he had a 22 pounder in the net I was delighted for him, what a super fish.

 

Tough start

Windy, cold, difficult and rock hard fishing.This was my opening day of the season. I’ve had better days, but it was great to be back at it again.

My permit hadn’t arrived by post. Thanks to Gareth, who went out his way to meet me. I was then able to participate on the first day of the season.

On a day like today I was glad to see this little fish.

They got smaller but they were still welcome.

I stopped on the way home to have a coffee and look at this, it would be rude not to.Till next time.

 

 

 

 

 

French style( or the lack of it)

Incredibly, I have never got around to fishing for Grayling. I’ve thought about it now and then over the years but didn’t put the thinking into action.

Callum and I haven’t fished together for a couple of years. In fact, the last time was a bonkers 6 hour round trip turn and burn to meet me on a Bass mark. The fishing had been good that day and I was pretty relieved he got a nice fish on a lure at night for his efforts. Callum will know that feeling all too well as he’s been busy building his thriving guiding business over the last few years.

 I gave him a call a few weeks back for a catch up, had a look at a few dates that suited us both and before you know it, we were in the car talking about life in general and of course, fishing.

 

Callum demonstrated, to good effect, how to use a French leader. I was pretty rubbish in all honesty. I could blame the strong wind blowing downstream, but truthfully, I found it difficult to work with. Every now and then I got the upstream angle just right letting the fly’s work properly. Just as I thought I hit a reasonable rhythm, a Grayling agreed.

Image courtesy of Scotia Fishing/Callum Connor

Tearing around in the current displaying the red edge of its raised dorsal in the sunlight will be a memory that stays with me for a while. I was delighted.

Image courtesy of Scotia Fishing/Callum Connor

I enjoy fishing with Callum, need to make sure it’s not years before next time mate.  If you’re visiting Scotland and looking for a first class guided fishing experience get in touch with Scotia Fishing top guy, top guide.

 

 

 

 

Some Spur action

On the doubles from Martin A on Vimeo.

On the doubles

We hit the road early this morning and were rewarded with a some nice Spurdog with three over 13 pounds.(correction from Gordon, the best fish were 13.7,14.2,14.3, 14,3)

              

  

Gordon insisted on calling me Brendan for most of the day, can't think why to be fair.

 

I really felt the cold today despite getting dressed in the dark with what I thought was warm clothing. It was good to be on a few decent fish nevertheless.

Pike -a short video clip from last week

January-The first fish of 2017 from Martin A on Vimeo.

The first fish of 2017

It was 8c when I left home at  6.30am. This was a full 12c warmer than last week on my journey to the loch. Would the Pike feel inclined to bite in the balmy winter conditions?

Certainly a high teen, perhaps a 20? My best Pike so far regardless

                           

                  

Relying on the GoPro in low light isn't the best idea for great shots but it's better for the fish just leaving the camera running.

And another nice fish. Both fish took a Westin Monster Teez presented

on an Uli rig.

I'll take the positives from today but I did have a few problems, bait, batteries  and I also left my paddle at home. I didn't travel too far on the peddles without a back up. All things considered I'm happy though, think I'm just a bit rusty after some time off.

I'll update the hit list as I work my way through the year, this was a decent start to the challenge.

It’s been a while

I’ve been getting lazy from a fishing perspective over the last few months so decided enough was enough. I had my first launch of 2017 today in sub-zero conditions. I would love to report a few fish but unfortunately it was a blank session. My plan was to fish deadbaits and do some trolling with large lures for Pike. This was scuppered right from the start, after I rigged up my float rod I noticed the mono furring up somewhere along the first three eyes of the rod as it took the weight of rig. Yes, another cracked eye…

 Given that the water temperature was just above 5c this was probably the method that would have worked best. In hindsight, I should probably have set up my heavy lure rod with a deadbait, instead I decided to track down the areas with plenty of baitfish and spend my time with the lures around these spots.

There is a lot of barren water, some areas had some life. These are baitfish represented in traditional sonar also showing in structure scan. There may be one or two slightly larger fish in amongst the mainstay of small fish.

When you see marks like this you might expect the predators to be somewhere nearby. Especially given the acres of lifeless water covered while searching.

On traditional sonar you just see the mass return on the left. It is open to interpretation  but I suspect there are a few dour Perch underneath that tree shown on the right. I spent some time with the dropshot rod around one or two spots like this.  A few worms might have helped. You can see the shadow of the tree on the structure scan on the top right.

I fished pretty hard to no avail.

 

These Patagonia gloves worked really well as did my new Thermos Ultimate Flask. Along with new neoprene socks over my drysuit feet I wasn't bothered by the cold at all. Just as well really or I would have been up the road after a few hours. I'm certainly geared up for the cold weather, I just hope it's worth the effort at some point.

 

 

 

Four days in Sin City

We had a short trip to Las Vegas recently, it’s some place. Amongst the various shows, trips and fun we had a half day’s fishing booked on the Colorado River. The intention was to target Striped and Smallmouth Bass. Surprisingly, high winds put an end to that. Pretty disappointing really as I’ve no idea when I might be able to do this again. We did however get to the range (again) making the most of some other opportunities that might not come along anytime soon, or indeed at all. If you don’t agree with the current American policy/access to firearms don’t watch this video. Outside of the military, police units as well as the majority of other countries this was a one-time opportunity to shoot some classic weapons. Nothing more.

If you try it, just make sure you’re standing behind your wife when a guy you’ve never met before hands her .357 Magnum. Even more so when it was her idea to go there in the first place :0)

Four days in Sin City from Martin A on Vimeo.

Winter is here

Not having been fishing for about 6 weeks I was starting to get crabbit (grumpy for non Scots readers) I had planned a Grafham trip but the forecast for day one looked shaky for the kayak 15mph wind limit rule. Saturday looked fine but it was too far for me to travel for a single days fishing, so I decided the trip was off on Thursday morning. On checking the local forecast at 6am before setting off for yet another plan B trip I couldn’t resist having a look at Grafham. The forecast was now fine, the laptop was thumped shut and I was out the door 5 minutes later.

It was great to be back on the water, if nothing else it would be a shakedown on my new Lowrance Ti/Berley Pro combo. In my mini refit I had also added a Yakattack dogbone camera mount fitting this to the mast hole with RAM 1.5 inch wedge mount. One of the first things I noticed was the water temperature, the last time I was on here it was 16c, it was now 10c, winter is here! I then took a run over the first snag which I like to target, wow! The structure scan was impressive, it looked like a pencil drawing of a tree. When I sold my old unit I had posted it off to the new owner before realising that I hadn’t backed up my GPS marks. Initially I was annoyed about this but they were so easy to find again with this I needn’t have worried.

I picked up fish here and there, this one came from one of my marks which looks like a boulder field about 20ft square.

This one from a ridge that looked around 40ft long.

I probably ended the day in double figures but without any of the larger Perch I was attempting to target. What surprised me was the general lack of fish in this part of the loch.

 

When I woke up the next morning there had been a heavy overnight frost, my C-Tug was frozen to my Outback. The stove wouldn’t light so it was cold pasta for breakfast and ice cold water, not the hearty start to the day I had planned. The water temp was now 8c, the water level had also risen by about a 1.5ft due to a release of water upstream. I knew I was in for a tough day and as my mate Scott once put it, I was washing lures for most of the day. Large lures like Bulldawgs, small drop shot lures and shads- it was a balanced day in this respect.

All in it wasn’t a great couple of days fishing but the new kit worked well. I can’t say when I’ll be out next as the month ahead is busy. The weather, as ever will also play its part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost normal?

It’s been quiet recently, almost normal apparently, according to my wife. No fishing over the last month has meant I’ve been able to catch up with friends and do some things I’ve been putting off for a bit. I don’t see myself being back on the water for a couple of weeks yet either.

I made this mash up recently, wish Rodney had been with me on some of these trips. It's been a year since the accident, he's sadly missed.


Mash up from Martin A on Vimeo.

I’ve  also been doing a few things in the background, sold some gear I wasn’t using as well as my Lowrance to pay for a fancy new toy. Really looking forward to using this with side scan in the months ahead.

At the minute I’m waiting for some bits and pieces to arrive for a mini refit of my Outback. It’s rubbish  having to wait for the post to arrive from abroad, just couldn’t source what I needed in the UK. I should hopefully be good to go by mid-October.

On the whole I’ve had a decent enough year, really can’t complain. I didn’t set myself any objectives, just kind of drifted along.  Over what’s left of this year till the end of 2017 I’ll be looking at some tougher targets which should push me a bit.

I want to hit 5 from 7, Pike, Zander, Common Skate, Conger, Blue Shark, Bass or a specimen Perch. All from my kayak. I might allow myself a substitute if I don't fish for Bass, maybe a Tope. Other than the Perch and Pike I won’t be precious about the proportions of the others, but I won’t be lacking ambition on that front. Doing this from my Outback will mean a lot of travelling and a reliance on others to a point regarding involvement and planning.

To be updated over the months ahead with the best specimen (or any specimen in some cases)

 

Solo down sarf

I’ve thought about going down to Grafham to fish for Zander for the last few years, so I decided I would just do it. The forecast looked great on Saturday, the full week ahead looked doable, so much so I changed my booking to four days. Monday morning came around it looked like two days- that’s what I got.

Things didn’t get off to a great start, tired from the journey it took me a little while to suss out a problem right at the start of my first day. It was either a cracked ceramic eye on a brand new rod or the same thing on my baitcaster. I bought that a year ago, this was its first trip out. 3 rigs and a lost fish later the rod was put away in disgust. Can’t say I enjoyed day one too much. I caught about a dozen Perch, picked up some info but I wasn’t sure how much further forward I was. I dropped a little Zander at the side of the boat about mid-afternoon but that didn’t provide much encouragement on the Zed front, I’ve had larger fish suppers.  I got some decent shut eye and I was ready for day two. Having carried out some late night preparation I was more organised. Not having to drive six hours to get here was a bonus. What did work well for me was my Lowrance 5 HDI. Having stripped it out of my Outback I rigged it to  a RAM mount on top of an old tool box. This held two 12v 9ah batteries, also from my Outback. I paired this to a Lowrance suction cup mount with a coating of Vaseline to assist in providing a better seal. A quick scrub of the transom with a scouring pad to get rid of the green gunge  provided a solid solution. I'm considering upgrading to a new Lowrance with structure scan. This would have been really handy on this trip, the more information you can get when fishing a new venue is always a good thing. Structure scan would  have been a great advantage.

The famous aeration tower

Some lovely Perch in here. I was somewhere between wanting to catch them but looking elsewhere. Maybe at the this time of year the best anglers on here can do broadly both at the same time. I struggled with this.

Long story short I didn’t land any Zander, certainly fished better on day two and gave myself some chances, lost two better fish, most likely  Zeds. I caught about a dozen Perch again in the process.  I fished better on day two, thought a lot more about what I was doing. I met a number of Grafham regulars, armed with experience earned and lots of electrickery catching good numbers of Perch and some Zeds.  I just wasn’t good enough for the latter on this occasion. I’m not too bothered if I fish much for the remainder of year, maybe a trip to Skye and back here. Grafham would be good again this month, would certainly save me the hassle of putting the Lowrance back in the Outback. Not caught a Zed for a year, being down here I could do the GUC tomorrow, doesn’t really hold the same prospects for big fish as here though. Up the road and a lazy Friday for me it is.

 

Recapture

Me -Sharkatag 2012 Cairnhead SW Scotland female Tope 9lb 4oz aboard Tickety Boo with Gordon

 

The same fish 20th May 2016. Caught by Neil Spellacy from the shore at  Rossbeigh beach Co Kerry Rep Ireland- 19lb 5oz

Some of these fish are much further travelled -who knows where it's actually been in the last four years though. Seems to be doing well enough.

 

Worth a try

I decided to push up the river and explore an area that I don’t know much about. It was lovely morning and I didn’t feel as lethargic as I have on my two recent visits here.

The water level had dropped around two feet since last Monday along with a sharp drop in temperature overnight. I had a kind of feeling it might be difficult today.

I focused my attention on the left bank, it has decent depth with lots of tree roots and shade on what was a bright day. There also seemed to be enough signs of prey for Perch with fry shooting around and a few fish topping. I felt I fished it effectively searching the water and focusing on the likely spots. All I had to show for about 2.5 hours was a single jack.

 

I dropped back to familiar territory and started to pick up fish, pretty small but after a barren few hours in the sun they were more than welcome. They seemed to be in dour mood and most of takes were very subtle today.

I had 5 or 6 Perch like these and the rest were tiny.

I might try the area again when the water level rises- might be worth another shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan B Pollack-video

Plan B Pollack from Martin A on Vimeo.

Another plan B

My intention was to be on Skye this weekend but minor car trouble put pay to that for the time being. Another plan B operation was deployed resulting in really enjoyable local session.

The rod was bent to the butt eye on a regular basis when I found the spot. Laughing, sitting alone, floating on a piece of plastic on a Saturday night in Ayrshire-who would have thought it. Pollack are just a lot of fun.

Cuckoo Wrasse, Ballan Wrasse, Pollack ,Coalfish and Mackerel made up the species tally.

It was a nice evening for the most part, maybe should have stuck with my drysuit right enough. The ride back in was lumpy and wet when the wind kicked up from the East after the sun set.

 

Staying flexible

With the ragworm gone yesterday and weather still a bit up and down I dropped back to the fresh stuff today. High winds and rain in the morning led to a lovely afternoon which saw me fall asleep in the sunshine during a lull in the action. It was like two completely different days. I opted to mix it up again, drop shot worm and lure – the Perch were having both. To disprove my theory from previous bait/lure sessions the best fish of the day took a worm. Only two Bream today but my drysuit is still caked as I made the mistake of bringing this one in for a picture. Another great days fishing with a lot of action. It would be nice to get some light winds so I can go and hunt the Perch- this approach is making me lazy! I’m not too precious about it though, sometimes it pays to be flexible.

I’m reverting back to the centre camera mount next time out. Not sure if the shots I lost were down to the camera focusing on the Lowrance or the rod butt in the foreground, maybe it is was condensation? This was the biggest Perch today-typical.

A day on the float

Once or twice a year I head to this spot, normally to float fish for the Wrasse that inhibit the kelp here. It was a traditional trip for Rodney and me over the years, tragically he passed away last September. We had a lot of fun here, plenty of fish - good times. I’ve used lures and ledgered for them but there’s something about just watching a float bob in the waves. Rodney thought so too, I stuck with this method today.

Gordon had a slow start (he was in Jim's spot from last year ;0) - as usual I provided words of encouragement from my hotspot)

This one had some damage which is healing. There's a bull seal that has no fear- it's a very big animal. No idea if Wrasse are on the menu?

 The Ballan Wrasse were all pretty small today, nothing larger than the two here. What was strange was the incredible numbers of Corkwing Wrasse.

 I usually catch a few, today the mark was loaded. A prolific days' Wrasse fishing on the whole though. I might try again in September with some crab,there should be a lump or two about by then.

A different angle

This was the second choice venue for today as it would have been pretty sloppy this morning where we initially planned to fish. Gordon was in his SIB and I was in my Outback and plan “B” was to catch a few species again. The venue presents a few hazards so won’t name it for references in searches, if you know it, you know. If you fish it, be very careful.

Going back a number of years when it was in better condition I had some memorable days and nights on here, Conger, Wrasse and Cod including a double shot of 12 pounds and 5 pounds-happy days! It was interesting viewing it from a different angle and using the Lowrance to have a look over the detail on both sides of the structure.

The plan was to scratch around the legs. It produced 16 species the last time Gordon tried this. So, the re-match from a few weeks back was on!

The water was a really odd colour no doubt down to the recent heavy rainfall. The species count was below our expectations, possibly as a result of this. I managed  Ballan, Goldsinny, Long Spined, Short Spined Sea Scorpion, Rock Goby and Mackerel( I think I took todays honours)

 

I picked up a cracking Ballan Wrasse which Gordon weighed for me - 3 pounds 10oz

The fishing was ok but I wont be hurrying back for obvious reasons. The old pier is showing its age.

This will provide an idea of the structural integrity although some of it is still pretty solid.

.