Something missing in my life

Hopefully not for too much longer. Delivery is now next week, apparently. I spent today bleeding radiators and tinkering with the boiler and on Sunday I'm lifting tiles. Living the dream....

Paul arrived last Saturday and headed back to the NE of England with my old boat. I'm sure it will get him on the fish, we might even meet up for a session. I was sad to see it go but it means I can balance things on the domestic front without any guilt. I've moved a few other bits on and the only thing the new boat will set me back is a new fishfinder and two Scotty rocket launchers. When I bought my Outback I placed an order with Yakattack in the USA, some of which was never used.I don't need much thankfully.The rest I've collected along the way so that's made the transition to a new boat much easier than starting from scratch, that was sore, especially in the Hobie world, no getting away from that. My Outback however was the best fishing tool I've bought, without question.







boat

Back in time

The last time I was here was around 30 years ago. The target then as it was yesterday was the  Conger Eel. Back then my efforts  resulted in a a monster, still my best to date. I fed the crabs for five hours and might have another crack on the 1st of January if the forecast looks good. It would be nice to start the tenth year of my blog with a nice fish or two. I'm pretty sure they'll still be here, lets see...

Was it a fluke?

After yesterdays trip the boat was left on the roof and the kit in the car, straight in the shower and a quick change before the family arrived for a pre Christmas dinner. I even had 5 mins spare for a glass of  Malbec. I watched my intake but hit the road later than I would have liked with the boat covered in a thick layer of frost, destination Jurassic Pollack reef. 

The ride out was bumpier than I anticipated given the conditions on shore. I had a spin around checking the finder and it wasn't looking good. Back in November there had been a lot of solid marks in the 25-40ft depth range, thick yellow and orange lines rising off the bottom that normally mean success is on the cards. Today the returns were narrow yellow lines hugging the bottom super tight. On standard sonar view they were not visible but the down-scan view using the Lowrance FishReveal feature showed me there was something to go at. After about an hour drifting and casting I decided  to troll. As much as I don't really like doing it, some days it's the way to go and so it proved today. I started picking up fish on a regular basis, Pollack with some Coalies in the mix, nothing big but decent enough sport. Top lure for the day was the Bass Assassin Sea Shad in chartreuse, they just seem to love that thin wrist on the tail. I took four fish for the table before heading home to wrap some presents. I'll try here again at some point, maybe my first session here was a fluke? One of things that keeps us coming back I guess.

Pollack thumb, a sign of a busy couple of days afloat!

All work....

Not much play.When the weathers been right I've been too busy keeping myself in a job. I headed out today and rigged up under a full moon before pushing off. It was a relief to get afloat again, been weeks since I felt a rod bend.

A dozen or so nice Pollack, good fishing on mild December morning.Paddle tails, fast, fast, fast! 

I managed one session before today in a lull in the weather, one of those rare bright, yet overcast days. The sea was like liquid chrome and it looked like a day more associated with summer. I decided to try a mark from way back. If I can get up on time on Christmas Eve morning I'll head back there. I had  9  fish and caught what are my two biggest Pollack, nose to tail, the width of the Outback, really big and also a real surprise. The video footage has been well played in my downtime, one of the highlights of the year that's staying off the blog  for a while before the spot has drones on it and features on someones commercial YouTube channel being sold as the latest adventure.

I've got a new boat arriving in January. This Revolution 16 was supposed to be with me a few weeks back but the hull was damaged in storage, just behind the drive well in the picture above. It would certainly make tomorrow's  trip faster and give me more fishing time.Who doesn't need more fishing time?

Test drive time

Three years in and I'm thinking of a change of ride. My Outback's served me well, changed my fishing completely and I've done pretty much all of the things I had set out to do with it. Over the last couple of weeks I've started thinking about next year and how that might pan out. It has to be said that the rekindling of my interest in bass fishing has something to do with me considering a change. Time for a test drive of a Revolution 16. I'll probably be in for a shock going from rock solid platform like an Outback, to what on the face of it, looks like an edgier boat. I don't suppose the perfect do it all fishing kayak exists and I might argue for and against for both. For me opening up areas of coast that don't get much or any fishing pressure is tempting. Not that Scotland is exactly shoulder to shoulder fishing, even at the worst of times. Having the ability to do some of the trips I want to do should be possibly made easier with more range and speed. I'll have a look anyway, failing that I'll just dodge on with my red barge for 2019.

The 16 is the middle boat, flanked here by a couple of Revo 11's and a 13. Also pictured is an orange Hobie Sport. My Outback is the same kind of shape as the sport but about 3 feet longer.

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.

Ducking for cover

As Mick Jagger once sang, you can't always get what you want, so were afloat again anyway. Hiding from a raging sea and high winds about the only place we could fish ,targeting bass again was the MOG. Jamie and I were both keen to get a few more fish before the season comes to an end, mainly due to the weather than the lack of Bass from here on in till November.

It was a nice day under the cliffs

We picked up some small Pollack before I caught a Bass in the middle of a tide rip, hooked in the root of the tail on a FBM, a first for me, being weedless that took some doing I would imagine.

I had two a little bigger, the others were like this, typical school bass that are around at the minute.

I had just got off the radio to tell Jamie to hold fire heading to where I was at, he was paddling to my area and the tide was drifting me along at 2mph, against the wind ! I had a confused sea and it looked like it was getting worse by the second. It didn't come to much and he eventually made his way to me. He was probably motivated by the fact I had got on the radio while playing a cracking fish I hooked while trolling back to start my drift. I turned the kayak to face it and saw it throwing water about on the surface about 50 yards back, lots of heads shakes. When I got close to it it went deep and had solid weight and made a few nice runs. It was at the point I reached for the net and said to myself that this is a great way to hit the number 70 that the hook came out. I used most of the four letter words I know and set off on the up tide journey to meet Jamie who was positioning himself to start. I got myself fish 70 about 10 mins later, the fifth of the day, but the one one that unbuttoned itself was still a sore point.

So a short session, had worse days, we both caught Bass, we would rather have been somewhere else though. Still, great to be out again, but the camera gremlins are back, some real issues on the timer I just cant work out.

Skinning Up

The last of the Mag Poppers/Duel Aile Mags? I'm sure there are a few tucked away in tackle boxes and garages, here is my stash. Discontinued about 4 years ago they changed hands for daft money(still do) Great lure that just inspires confidence for me when it comes to surface work. These will do me till for a long time, being surface lures they are rarely lost. They were made in three sizes 90mm, 105mm and 125mm. The favoured one on the UK Bass scene being the 105mm/18g, probably in HAJ, above, the fourth one down.

I picked up a couple more at a sensible price last week, mainly due to them being the least favoured colours. Personally I like white having painted a couple, to be fair I was happy with that, but thought I could try Jigskinz on the others. You can see a video of how this is done HERE

It's easy enough, cut to size for length, hole for the hook hanger, job done. I did cock one up, a new one at that. The face of this lure is where the magic happens, when I was trimming the face end I cracked/gouged the edge of one. If you need to do this make sure your craft blade is sharp! I'll try and repair it a little but I'm not too hopeful it will last. They do crack eventually and when water gets in the weight transfer system stops working, they then cast like crap. It casts best with a longish drop and a snap cast. Anyway, will see how the Jigskinz wear and report back. I bought these from the Lure Lounge, Mackerel, Cigar Minnow and Mullet. I really like the over size eye, one thing I've done in the past is take a sharpie on the ones I've painted and make the eye at least twice as big. Does it make a difference? Not sure, but on the pause they have a wee while to look at the lure if they're not convinced. I would like to have seen a bone pearl skin or a few other patterns, the full range might become available over here in the UK at some point.

I left two as they were, they might get a coat of white paint in the future.

The good, the bad and the ugly

It was an absolute privilege to be launching before dawn on a morning like this. I was genuinely excited to be here and it was good to have company exploring the area, turning over stones and trying to work things out. There were a number of things that went wrong today but when the fishing was this enjoyable, at the end of the day, it just has to be laughed off.

The fishing was good, certainly a numbers game. I broke my yak session record by a good margin and managed a lovely fish on a smashing morning.

The bad, Jamie lost his iPhone 7 in the drink! Hard luck squire, easy done.

A fish before sunrise with the full day ahead, worth taking the day off  work for.

The ugly, me getting blazae when handling fish. Yes, it happened again, also with a bass on the lure. Not as easy to sort out as it was a few weeks back and I'm glad Jamie was there to assist. That said, he did paddle off after taking the treble off the lure. He went kind of white watching me trying to get it out. I couldn't cut it or push it through. Even with a flattened barb it took some pulling. Jamie said he didn't hear me. I hardly use hard lures so I'm doing well at the minute.

When the tide turned the wind came with a vengeance, it was a lot harder to fish effectively. My Outback is a weapon to fish lures from but this afternoon pushed it a little.

Dodging a blank

I changed my mind at the last minute opting for a Pollack session instead of Bass. The lack of calm days recently forced my hand to tempt me to get the fly rod out. I had an absolute stinker on a similar tide earlier this year, this wasn't much better. If I had been on the water an hour or so later I would have blanked. The fish that were few and far between at the start just disappeared. Having checked every nook and cranny with my sounder they were nowhere to be seen. I didn't fancy hanging around too long as I doubt things would have changed. It wasn't the easiest presentation, super fast sinker, 2 gram lead cone and a pink/white/silver minnow pattern but I did what I set out to do. Hopefully a few Bass on Wednesday. I've been waiting to get to this spot for a while. I would have preferred better tides but with the wind strength and direction lately it's not been an option ,then again, small tides might be an advantage here? Fingers crossed.

MOG Sea Angling Festival

I attended the Mull of Galloway Sea Angling Festival last weekend. This inaugural event had a species hunt format. With 35 boats participating and the weather as usual playing up, we only got afloat on one of the two days, the Saturday.

There was a staggered launch with two start times to prevent congestion on the beach. We were on the first wave. After a nice sunrise and an average coffee with a great view, we set about getting prepared for the day ahead.

I was aboard Argonaut, 13 species finishing 7^th The winners had a tremendous 21 species, great effort for one day. The social on the Saturday night was good, great to see some mates that I hadn't caught up with for a while as well as meeting a few new faces. I wouldn't change much about the event, possibly a limit on the hooks /rods per boat as opposed to per angler. This might level things a little for a boat with only two anglers. It took me 6 casts to get a Bass from a spot I fish from my kayak, kind of makes a mockery of 5 hours with a zero return last time out, that's fishing I suppose. Anyway, on a personal level ,I'll  attend again, it was well run and had a decent prize table, good effort from those involved. I would  have done things differently on the day given the choice. I might have that choice next year. It was also a decent result for my club, think we had 5 boats in the top 8.

The details of this years event can be found here

Chips, hold the fish

When I woke on Sunday morning, against what should have been my better judgement, I loaded the gear up and headed off. Under no impression that the wind would be in the least bit easy to fish in, the desire to catch a few more bass pushed me out the door. I told myself it would be a short session and by the last few outings standards it was, just over 5 hours.It wasn't easy to set up the drifts properly and casting while on the peddles was hard work. It was all I could take to be honest.It took me 3 hours before a bass slashed at my lure missing it completely. It was like a desert and the fish for whatever reason were keeping their head down.

I stopped off for a bottle of full fat Coke and grabbed a snack to see me through my journey home. I've not had these for years, cant say I've ever looked at the wrapper, closest I got to a fish on this outing. I thought I needed 3 bass to get me to 50.I was wrong, my total is at 43 so my motivation to get out in those conditions/tide was ill founded. I deserved that one.

Bass blanks- x 3 kayak, x 1 shore. Caught 5 times, 71cm, 65cm, 63cm and 55cm being the best four fish. On balance, I would have taken that as a result on 9 sessions at the start year.  I'm not done yet but I can see time passing too quickly from here to October with what I have on. I've really enjoyed the surface action this year and if I don't manage another one, I'm alright with that, been great being back at it.

Now for something completely different, back to species hunting, from a boat this time.

Well observed

This is an interesting observation from a guy who clearly spends more time chasing bass than me. As I've fumbled my way through targeting bass from my kayak last year but more so this year, I had been noticing a number of similarities in relation to what's being said on his blog post here  

           

Me with a Wexford bass from a few years back

When I live as far away from the main area I like to fish for bass as I do, at the same time, being limited to a couple of sessions a month, the conclusions take longer to arrive at. I'm not fishing in the exactly the same kind of situations but what I've noticed in the last two months has been interesting. Great post.

The forecast looks pretty shit this weekend.I'm currently weighing up whether I want to be fighting the wind on my Outback on Sunday....

No pain No gain

Yesterday was a hardcore day. I arrived home at a minute past midnight,had something to eat and was in my bed about ten minutes later. My kayak is still on the roof of the car and I'll decide later today if it stays there till Sunday. Nice tides this week, I didn't like the look of how the wind was doing a complete 180 over 2/3 days so took Friday off. There were squalls and occasionally the wind would drop off, for the most part it seemed a constant 15-20mph.

As I drifted into a bay I had an explosive take on my mag popper, as the wind caught me I had to get on the pedals to manoeuvre myself back out . At one point the fish snagged me but I managed to get above it and coax it free. I netted the fish on the opposite side of my kayak and peddled out to open water to sort it out. I like a long handled net, the main reason being you can rest the fish in the water and get yourself sorted out. This normally works well, not today. I brought the fish in from my left(my routine is to the right) sat it between my legs and managed to got a loose treble deep in my finger with the point showing through on the other side. I went straight for the Leatherman and cut the shank and put the fish back in the net. Nightmare. Back on the pedals and out I went again, took a couple of pictures on timer and sorted the mess out.

I've put an effect on here to salvage something for this post

I thought about coming out the water an hour or two later but didn't and stuck to the plan. The fishing wasn't exactly fired up but with five fish and two crackers, on balance ,it was worth it. The water temp was a little cooler but the surface route seemed to be still the way to go. I'm just glad I crush barbs and on this occasion I wasn't on X3 hooks. Treble hooks are an absolute menace on a kayak. Having thought about using singles occasionally before it's maybe time to have a serious look at them. It was a tiring day with various problems. Yet again, I have had exposure problems on my TG-4 camera. I' have it set to auto and have a piece of electrical tape across the dial that can move the settings, despite this, the four images I took were ruined, in fact the worse yet. It might be the case that with the reflective nature of a Bass, of a decent size in the sunlight, at the distance my camera is at is causing the problem. I've had the same problem with any decent bass I've caught this year.

This was the best of the images

That was the longest 11 hours on my Outback yet, it was a very weary retrieval......

No August blues this year!

I had a bit of company yesterday as my old bassing buddy Jamie dug out his Prowler and joined me for a session. We made do with plan B as I didn't fancy how conditions might end up in the afternoon. The 4.30am meet was a shock to Jamie's system but I think he felt relief when I told him that I had a few 2am starts in the last month or so. As I put my Outback in the water the first thing I noticed was how warm the water still is. Now I don't track water temps much other than around May time, an 18.7c surface temp at 6.30am is high I would imagine.

As we set off there was a light breeze and a fishy looking spot so I clipped on a mag popper and went about making a few casts as we drifted off. On the third cast, as I let the lure settle for a moment or two before retrieving it, a small bass nailed it. I had another hit the lure right at the side of the yak about ten minutes later, both ultimately came off but it was an encouraging start. We tried a few spots, trolling and casting and found an area with some fish, we had some fun on surface lures before splitting up to see if we could locate a better fish or two. Jamie trolled off into the distance. I tried a different approach.

I've been thinking a lot about presentation recently. The kayak provides a lot of advantages but at the same time, a few issues to deal with. I'm pretty sure I'm missing opportunities to catch bigger bass, all part of the game I guess. I'm keen do some night sessions afloat and also some more anchoring rather drifting. This would enable me approach things differently and fish some areas more effectively if done quietly and with stealth.

I set up a few drifts using the Wexford worm fished weedless and weightless. Now I've not used these for a while but the Wave Worm tiki stick casts well and I did catch my PB on a white one, I just hadn't got around to using them afloat yet. I wasn't too happy with my hook choice as the Nogales Monster is quite a heavy hook and I didn't like the way the lure was sinking. This kind or stuff does my head in.... Anyway, I had a couple of fish and lost one before I joined up with Jamie again. The  afternoon was a dour affair, the wind got up and we couldn't find any fish. It was long session and a good effort from the big guy who hasn't been out for over a year. I guess we fished from 6.30am till about 3.30pm. To be honest I'm rinsed today myself, really felt that one! August is normally a month that I end up feeling burned out.At the minute I'm stuck to windguru and tide tables. I can't wait to get back on the water....

A weary paddle home for Jamie

Old faithful- the Yo-Zuri Mag Popper

Battered and bruised but still floating. It was all about the surface action today. There are some days when the good old Mag Popper out fishes anything in the box. I'm glad I've got a few tucked away, no idea why Yo-zuri discontinued this lure, on its day it's irresistible. At 18g and with a longish drop from the rod tip and a snap cast to get the internal weight system working, it can live with any of the modern lures of similar style/weight.Twice today I had a hooked fish come off only to be replaced by another that must have been following. Despite trying a few different approaches I only had a solitary fish on an another lure, a khaki FBM. With nothing much bigger than about 40cm it was nice to find the fish where I had previously blanked a couple of years ago. Still, with the number I caught today I was surprised I didn't sneak out a better one despite it being a nasty neap tide. Thanks for the tip Craig.

A couple of trips

I've fished the last two Fridays. I took a half day off work on the 6^th and I spent the rest of the week questioning my decision making. Having done more prospecting for Bass this year than actual fishing I realised that with 4 hour return journeys and life I don't have the time. I had some pollack on the reefs and packed it in after 4 hours.

I'm liking the latest software upgrade on my Lowrance though. The fish ID makes the down-scan on the right more useful. Previously the fish would show up as tiny dots that you could hardly see and it was more about showing structure clearly. These are pollack.

I set off at 2am yesterday and after leaving my head torch at home I launched later than I hoped for at 4.30am.

I shouldn't really complain, 7 school bass and at least I was catching again.

An early late start

Up at 2am and on the road for 2.45am I was wondering why I went to bed really. Having looked at what I have on in July I'll miss the nice set of tides around the middle of the month. Today was a bit of a push to get my first Bass of the year, in other words I'm late getting off the mark this year.

A lean 71cm

Gutted about the pic being out of focus( the other blurring is deliberate BTW) I had a magic fight off this fish and while it was resting in my net I set the camera on timer. In doing so I changed the mode to scene. I didn't muck about as I wanted the fish back so didn't check till I got back to the car. Lean for its length it will pack the weight on over the summer till the next time it does what it needs to do.

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 Four bass and a lot of fun with some pollack that seemed to be up for a party despite the bright sunlight and low tide combination. Great days fishing, well the worth the effort and early start.