A day that had it all

 After struggling for a long period, the day before I wasn’t sure how it would play out as I jumped on the boat. We had started fishing together just after the full moon period, the tides were getting smaller, and the weather was very changeable. Given how barren the offshore action had been yesterday it was clear the fish were covering huge distances and not really holding in areas outside of the harbour. We decided to pass on the live bait collection again and got straight to business on a fishy spot on the corner of an island with a rip. Joe hadn’t got the boat into position, and I was straight into a fish on the glide bait. With another awesome sunrise in full effect, it was another great memory for me to take away from my trip.

Joe then repositioned the boat to drift onto the rip and we were both into stripers. It was very much like fishing for bass at home with the fish being on the upside of the rip. I couldn’t help thinking how good it would have been to fish spots like the this from the shore at night for fish like these, someday maybe.

Before we left the dock Joe got a tip that there was a big blitz near Boston light at 8am the day before. Given how we had struggled he decided to go and check it out, maybe they would make an appearance again. As we got closer, we could see birds, boats and stripers hitting bait. There was wind against a strong ebb flow which made it sloppy and with other boats in the area just a little bit chaotic. The other boats had ring fenced the blitz at that point and with a view to some kind of etiquette in our entrance to the mayhem we looked for a spot. I clocked a few fish on the right-hand side and Joe edged the boat in that direction. This proved to be a stroke of luck as the minute our lures hit the water we were doubled up. As it happened the fish were moving towards us. I think we were doubled up three times back-to-back with some serious fish. When the fly rod came out, I was a bit of shambles, after throwing lures then switching to 10 weight my casting was poor. I managed to slow things down after a few minutes and Joe threw a 9-inch spook with no hooks to tease the fish within range of my fly.

After coming close on numerous occasions I had my 40+inch striper

When things died down, we went slowly around the area keeping our eyes peeled for breaking fish. I decided to put the fly line out the back, Joe asked me to slowly work the fly with long pulls and a drop back. I had just commented on how good it must have been fishing when I hooked up. The fly line left the reel along with most of the backing but after a few moments I got broken. That one hurt, even after all the fish I had caught this week.

Sunrise eats, blitzes, fly rod action and a trip PB, the day that had it all. I had started to think about going home and how the last day would pan out. This would have been a good point for my trip to end but I had another day. Having been completely sated by the fishing experience over the last four days anything else would be gravy.

Officially Autumn

The weather read the script for the 1^st of September, cooler with some rain in the forecast as well as a potential swing to the east in terms of wind direction. We passed on the live bait collection; Joe had kept a few in a cage at the dock and we hadn’t needed it so far.

To start the day, we made a perfect drift along an island with the ebbing tide casting as tight to the shoreline as I could with Joe’s $110 glide bait. Joe called it perfectly on a little point of rock where he said there should be a fish waiting.  Just at that I had the first fish of the day as the sun came over the horizon, good start.

From there we were offshore, inshore, tight to the shoreline, up the coast for miles and even tried trawling large X Raps for Porbeagles around wrecks. These were being caught with some regularity using this method, so on a day like this it was worth a shot. Joe had also packed two heaver set ups for Bluefin as a few had been spotted recently. The truth is the ocean was completely dead everywhere we went, no birds, no bait. With the early starts, rain and throwing heavy lures and no action, I was starting to feel it. It was at that point I made a cast to rocky bay and snapped off Joe’s glide bait. It was in about 6ft of water, and I was set to go in for it. Joe took the boat in, and we kept an eye open for boulders. He wasn’t having me do then honours but fortunately there was some braid floating which we were able to pick up with another lure. My lucky lure, big pink had survived!

We made a run back to the islands around the harbour to pick up on the flooding tide, I wouldn’t say I was hopeful. However, when you persevere good things can happen. It had been 4 hours since I had any sign of a fish, things can change quickly.

We continued that drift as Joe tied a new FG knot and I managed to hook another big striper from a stretch of beach he hadn’t caught from before. His mate sniped the action, I had no idea where he was, he also got a good shot of us with Boston City in the background. 

And that was kind of it, or so we thought. When we got back to the moorings there was a lot of activity with bunker splashing around but no signs of stripers. That changed when I threw the glide bait in for one last chuck and it got smacked within a few turns. Joe also hooked up on a live bunker while he was on the phone. The fun continued for us both till we had enough and called it a day. You know your lucks in after a tough day and you find fish 30 yards from where you started at 5.15 am

Another blinder of a day, pretty much out of nowhere. Joe went to his house on the way back to my digs, picked up a bag of cold beers and gave them to me. These were made for a fund raiser for a Great White Shark tagging program, I got tagged. I woke up at 5 pm starving after polishing them off. Daytime drinking and early starts, I was on holiday after all.

 

Stripahs!

Day two and I’d already decided my attempts at the Boston accent weren’t going well. If I couldn’t manage stripahs and Boston Hahbah as the basics, I’d be as well packing it in. We the left the dock in flat calm conditions after Joe stopped for a coffee. Being on the water at this time of the morning is special, we were blessed with another light show from the east.

We stopped for mackerel but caught mainly coalies which Joe called pollack in this part of the world. Apparently, the stripers don’t like them as much as mackerel or bunker, so these went back. It was then full throttle and off to find the main quarry. By about 6.30 am the stripers were active and crashing through mackerel shoals a couple of miles NE of the harbour.

As we found the fish hitting bait it was a case of approach with care and get the lure amongst them or in front of them. Being up front again gave me the best of view of the melee. I told Joe it was going to happen, and he get this shot of me just as a big striper took the lure and did it’s thing. You can see the fish on the right hand side of the image, absolutely superb action.

By about 8 am it was all over. We could find bait but no stripers so we headed back in to try right up in the city.

We tried slow trolling live bait and throwing lures right under the flight path of the airport, through Boston and right up past the city. It was really interesting to see many of landmarks that I remember from movies like Black Mass and Mystic River, any fish would have been a bonus. We stopped to put some fuel in the boat for the next day, and Joe produced some lobster and brioche rolls. A great way to end another super session.

I was even starting to feel the love for this monstrosity, pink with a chartreuse tail, not a colourway I would have picked. Having also now had a chance to have a look at some bunker, the profile of that fish was very similar to lure.

Bound for Boston

For about the last 25 years I’ve wanted to fish for Striped Bass. Having tried to put a trip together or join someone else’s it hadn’t worked out, I wasn’t sure it would ever happen. Ideally that would have been on a beach or rocks and preferably at night, but it wasn’t to be. My 60^th birthday gave me the reason to eventually go and get it done.

I chose Boston as it was pretty much fly in and fish, did some research and made some calls. With that being done and the Tartan Army having left the city, a lone Scottish foot soldier jumped on a flight with high hopes. My fingers were crossed for better results.

I opted to stay in Winthrop, just outside the city and a 5-minute walk to the boat ramp of my skipper Joe Gugino. After a quick F2F intro on day one we drove down to the dock, he handed me three Costa Del Mar truckers caps, I picked the one I thought looked the luckiest and we set off into my first Boston sunrise. First stop live bait, mackerel had been thin on the ground, we needn’t have worried as I made short work of filling the live well in 20 minutes. I was thinking, was this a good omen?

With the back up bait collected it was off to find some fish on lures. With about 8 rod set ups to chose from, Joe handed me one which was set up with a glide bait attached. He went on to explain how he wanted to hate on them initially. I felt the same way. At 9 inches long and about 5 oz it was going to be hard work. Being assured of their effectiveness I started making some casts watching how the lure worked at various speeds and on the pause and twitch. About 30 mins later I had a follow and then my first Striper exploded on the lure. In the early morning sunshine, it was one of those anticipated moments you get in fishing which didn’t disappoint.

At this point we were fishing amongst the islands, and I had another couple of fish in quick succession. In all honesty if the day had ended there, I would have been happy. Joe then got a heads up from a contact that there was a blitz on a few miles outside of Boston light. When we arrived it was absolute mayhem, being a weekend there were lots of boats but also lots of birds, bait and Stripers! Keeping your eyes peeled for breaking fish and running close to them to set up your drift for your best guess as to which direction they were traveling was the name of the game. It was some of the most exciting fishing I’ve done. Casting up front gave me a great view of multiple fish following my lure, missing it numerous times, hooking up coming off and being hit again.

Day 1 had been an absolute screamer. Joe assured me it wasn’t always like this just to keep my feet firmly on the ground. I knew this to be true as invariably this is how fishing is. Like football, it’s the hope that can kill you. For today, it was fist bumps all morning and a few beers when I got back to my Airbnb. 

Great session at the weekend

 

Rumours of my demise

Just about two years since my last blog post. I’ve met a few lads recently that wondered if I was still alive, thankfully and for the time I am 😊 To be fair I’ve not pestered the fish too much this year, but here’s a few from winter, spring, and summer.

I’ve spent some time getting into MTB over the last 2 years, it's been great. I’ll never make the Red Bull Rampage scene, but I’ve had a lot of fun (and some injuries) trying.

Anyhoo, van time this weekend, if you look into my blog, good health, tight lines, and bent rods

Martin

Seat with a view

No van or fishing this weekend, we climbed a local hill for the sunset on Friday night and chilled out over the weekend. Even up there with the sun going down, I was angling with the Mrs. I think we'll be be on a ferry shortly. Just about where the sun went down, I would imagine they'll be decent winter Pollack waiting.

Making the most of the weather

 We had a nice van day on the beach on Saturday, followed by an excellent BBQ as we watched the sun go down.  I guess it was too much to ask that the aurora showed this far south, as it did in some areas of Scotland over the weekend.  We did have a look, but the warmth of the van was way too tempting.  This was the first time I’ve used the Propex gas heating in anger and we were glad to have it. 

Jamie joined me on Sunday morning and after waving goodbye to my wife and dog on the beach, we set off in mirror calm conditions. The sun was low and blinding, the fishing was initially rock hard. There weren’t many signs of life, but I picked up a couple of bass and a little pollack. After suggesting a move Jamie was way out in front and I got on the radio to say I had two bass back to back when trolling, he turned tail and joined me.  Over the next few hours, I picked up bass and pollack on a regular basis. What I found interesting was how the results were much better in terms of how I was able to set the kayak up on the drift. The direction of the breeze meant that I could drift across the direction of flow and cast up tide.  This isn’t always possible, but it made a big difference presenting the lures like this and resulted in over a dozen bass.  

It was nice to pick up a few better pollack as well.

As usual with pollack, there's always the one that gets away.  The fish kelped me but I took my time and held the kayak as stationary as I could and fed it some line. It managed to swim free and just as I was getting it moving again, the hook pulled!

All in, another good days fishing and a weekend with great weather for September. We know this wont last. When there's the odd break in October, I'll be rinsing it any opportunity I get.  The next six months will be tough.

Talking Pollacks!

 

                                  The less you talk Pollacks the better....

Gear Review

I thought I would share my views on a few items that I’m currently using.  These have made life a little easier both on and off the water on my trips. These have been bought by me, not given to me, this kit works for me, it might for you.

On my last boat, the Hobie Outback, initially I ran a Lowrance 5HDI with one Hobie 12V 9AH battery. This equated to one average days usage on the water.  When I swapped this out for a Lowrance 7Ti, I had to carry two of these batteries. They were heavy and despite the connections being waterproofed to a point, the salt does everything in eventually. The old battery was mounted in the rear hatch, off the waterline and out of way.  Eventually I had to replace the pigtails and over time, the batteries degrade with use as well as cold weather.  When I moved to the Hobie Revolution 16, I had a look at the options on Lithium based batteries, there were lots of options going down the DIY route. There were no options available retail, at that time, in the UK, circa January 2019.  As such I opted for the FPV 12.5 17AH as I didn’t fancy risking my DIY skills, lithium batteries and water. The advice from the guys at FPV was good, the delivery from Australia was decent. 

The battery which you see in the bottom right is waterproof (heard that before?)  The weak point that I could see was the rubber washer connecting the female cable to the battery block, this looked over tightened to me, even marginally crushed. If it were to fail, other than the connections corroding, this would be where.  As such, I decided to encase the battery, connections and fuse in a Lock & Click box.  I drilled a hole, installed a gland and even kept the FPV inline fuse inside the box.  It might well be overkill, but if you’ve every driven 3 hours to a new venue to fish for two days and had kit like this fail, you’ll understand. The connections have a rubber o ring to provide a seal, if you were to install it without a watertight box. It's rated IP67 when connected, just make sure not to over tighten the connections. The weight saving versus SLA batteries is huge, this is just over a pound, against about 6 pounds on the old battery. Every ounce counts when I'm hauling out at the end of a session on some of the trickier launching spots. I also purchased caps for the connections, these keep all the components clean and out of harms way. All in, it should now be bomb proof and it has been so far. In terms of usage, it’s been faultless. The 7Ti is a thirsty unit but I can get two average days usage from this, without playing with the brightness settings to conserve power.

Speaking of power, this All Powers 372wh portable power supply has been great in my van.  It’s got AC sockets, 3 USB, 1 USBC ,2 DC outputs and a 12v cigarette socket. If you have a mobile that supports wireless charging it also does this.  It’s simple to use and while it's not switched on in the image here, it displays how much power you’re drawing and how much battery time you have left in use. It’s a lightweight and compact unit, check the detailed spec online. It’s been great for powering our phones, iPad and recharging things like headlight batteries or topping up the FPV battery. I went for this rather than another battery and split charger for the van for a few reasons. I could probably stretch a 5-day trip in the van, off grid, before it would need charging. I’ve done 3 so far and it’s been spot on. Add a solar panel and some Scottish sunshine and you’ll be good to go longer.  It has it’s limits in terms of what it will power, but it does what I need it do, so far at least. There are detailed reviews online, check them out if you’re in the market for power for camping and the like.

As far as coolers go, this is loud. At least we like the colour! I was in the market for a passive cool box after discounting installing a fridge and anything powered by gas.  Icey-Tek have a good reputation and after spending some time researching the options, I went for this. On unpacking the box, the first thing I noticed is that it’s incredibly sturdy, especially in comparison to the rubbish I’ve used in the past for bait or going to the beach for the day. It’s also heavy and has lots of insulation, I went for the 40L. This might go someway to the claims Icey-Tek make about keeping contents cool for ten days. In practical use, I would doubt it. When you factor in opening and closing and the variable volume of contents and the human factor, it would be a stretch. That said, I left 3 beers with some food in the van as a test, day 5 and I was so pleased I had 2 of the beers. It passed the test.  It has a drain plug on each side if you use ice. I got two of their large gel packs as this keeps the contents dry, throw in some ice on extended trips and you’ll be sorted. It closes with two heavy duty rubber toggles, if you keep these unfastened when not in use it will extend their life, they won’t stretch over time. I also added a cushion, so it doubles as spare seat inside the van or outside. In terms of capacity, they supply these from 25L to a huge 1100L commercial option. I’m really pleased with it. Just mind how you lift it when it’s full, less bottles might help of course….

Getting a 16ft 30+kg kayak on top of roof bars 7ft off the ground when you’re 5ft 8, presents a challenge. I can do it without the Rhino Side Loader, but somewhere shortly down the line, I would damage the van or myself. After a few shots at it I’ve got it working well. I add a towel on the roof, just about the side door, to protect the paint, then lift the front of the boat up on to the bar.  From there, I take the end of the boat, climb the step and push the lot across the bars. They’ll be a mistake made somewhere, probably the steps at the end of long day; I just need to take my time. To be fair I couldn’t consider some of the other loading options. The boat was overweight for two of them and the other looks like you’re carrying a selection of angle iron attached to the roof. It’s well made, has a few fitting options specific to different fittings at the roof bar end.  In terms if this, it looks like it would fit most roof bars but it’s worth checking.  It hooks around my Yakima Whispbars snug enough that it wont budge.  The support poll adjusts to height and it all packs away in the travel pack provided.  If you use it properly, it will help load a boat on to any vehicle if you need some assistance.

 

August round up, it ended with an explosion!

Since my last post I’ve had four sessions from my kayak, two of these were in the mini heatwave we had mid- month. I sweltered on 12th on my shore session and it wasn’t much cooler on 14^th and 15^th which made it a challenge.  One of the things I’ve wanted to do is chill out a little more, see some sun rises and some sunsets rather than driving two hours and then start my sessions. The van has been great for that.

Anger management!

I had a beer and watched the sun go down and at that point realised I had left my kayak trolley in the garage, super! So the three-day trip was not off to a great start.  My wife met me halfway the next day so I got off to later start than I would have liked but I was fishing for 11am. I found some consistent surface action for the first time this year, the Bass were small but plentiful, even in that weather. I got bored and after a few hours went exploring the coastline, caught lots of Pollack and found the source of all the seals in the area.  This is a rarely fished stretch of the coast and I had a few close calls having them come close to taking fish a few times.  For the shore angler this would be a long walk to find yourself competing with a dozen plus seals.

A cracking cave, when I see these I always wonder if it's been explored or has some history of being used by smugglers. Or, is this the hole through which seals are deposited into the sea down in the SW!

I felt a change was needed and relocated that evening.  I launched at dawn with high hopes of some better fish.  I set up some meticulous drifts along a stretch of coast that normally produces the goods, but it took me an hour to get an offer. I eventually found some fish but they were finicky and in 25ft of water.  I had to finesse to some slimline soft plastics and 7g jig heads to hook them, initially I thought it was mackerel hitting the FBM, but the change converted the knocks into fish. With sun burning a whole in me by mid-morning and a dozen schoolies returned, I didn’t feel the effort was worth it and peddled back.  The small tides, weather and finding two nets strung up in 12ft of water burst my bubble.  I had a look around me, without mentioning the area, this stretch of coastline is having much more pressure applied to it this year. Campers, kayaks and centre console boats and almost 100% from England, left me feeling it’s best avoided till the end of September for my next visit.  The number of fish had been reasonable, but the size was a disappointment over the two days.

My intention was to fish for Perch on the Sunday.  The best part of a bottle of Port put that idea to bed and the next morning I had a lazy day and watched a movie before travelling home. That was a decent enough Sunday morning in the sunshine and nice way to wrap up the trip.

I had another early launch last Thursday, I’ve only fished here once before, mainly as launching and retrieving is a problem. The storm from two days previously had left some lift in the sea. As I paddled the gulley parallel to the shore to avoid the weed and boulders directly in front of me, I must have past over a submerged rock. When the following trough arrived, it deposited me on a large boulder that was now exposed, and yak went over! Thankfully I was quick to bail out before it went over completely.  I was in about 5ft of water, so it was no big deal, but not a great start.  The fishing was pretty good but it only lasted 3 hours as the forecast was an absolute fantasy, from the three sources I use. I checked these again when I was on the water, I was sitting in 1 metre swells and a wind from a different direction?  The fishing was good with decent numbers of Bass and the Pollack were a nuisance to be honest. Knowing what the landing was going to be like and having already taken a dip, I cut my losses.  It’s as well I did to be fair; it was the trickiest I’ve had. I’m pretty sure if I were in my old Outback there would have been problems.  The Revo is easier to control coming on to a beach with some surf.  I’ll be back here but it will take some really settled weather. I’m just glad I didn’t head the 4 miles along the coast that was my intention, the fact I caught fish straight away saved the day.

This brings me to yesterday.  I had a nice evening in the van on Saturday night, a view with a sunrise in the morning, my kayak trolley is in the van and I’m having a coffee looking at the weather apps, cynically thinking, what shit show is on the cards today? 

   Jamie joined me and off we went, into the tide.  It was good to have some company and some chat, the venue can be challenging, we both feel better buddied up here.  We had our arse kicked here in September last year and as we went out, we were both thinking about what was coming down the line, fishing and weather. For once the forecast was actually better than expected. The fishing was just something else.

Decent sized schoolies from the get go.

Waves of Bass, some of these returns lasted about 50-100 yards on a drift. Fish were hitting the surface at points.

As I was landing fish at times there were two or three others coming up with it, the fishing was on fire!

We would drift and cast and then troll back.  At one point the fishing actually went up a gear and we couldn't get back to start the drifts without hooking up. We took a break here and there and chatted about what we could do to sort out a better fish or two, livebait was spoken about be we were not geared up for it.  The bigger lures I had were in the 60g range and were only fit to be trolled on the both the rods I was using.

There seemed to be some bigger targets in there but there was a lot of competition.  I've never had a session from the yak that's been as relentless, peddling, casting and catching for 6 hours, totally exhausting. Jamie said at one point he'd had enough.  I reminded him that days like this are few and far between.  I was just dialled in, for me, every cast I was expecting a lump and I was like that till we headed in. In the end we didn't get "the" one, but had some nice fish. I had 9 over 50cm, the best was 54cm and most were high 40's and plump.  

The big guy was nearly asleep at the helm on the way back in.

With the numbers, a tremendous days fishing when the kit you use, fish and weather all come together, just a fantastic overall experience.

 

 

Predictably difficult

I’m off for a few days now so looking at the forecast I decided to fish yesterday afternoon into darkness. The calm spell was coming to an end overnight Wednesday into Thursday and I intended to be fishing when that happened.  Despite the tiny tides I thought this would present an opportunity as I’ve done well in the past when after a calm spell of a few days, the wind kicks in.  Possibly one of the hottest afternoons I’ve fished in Scotland at 28c, predictably the fishing was rock hard, but I had a couple of small fish.  As the sun went down, I managed two school Bass on the Autowalker as well as a couple of Mackerel.  If Dimitrios @Lurmaniac looks in, that’s the lure christened!  I switched over to a Dolive when it was dark and had another couple of fish just as the wind picked up and the tide dropped. I was feeling positive that the prospect of a better fish was on the cards. A couple of flashes of lightning put an end to that and my first night session for years ended abruptly just as I was getting into it.  Being on the rocks at night alone, with a rod, didn't feel like the right place to be in those circumstances.  I’ll get a few sessions in somewhere Friday to Sunday on the kayak, not sure on the prospects to be fair but I’ll have a go.  I’ll check the forecast, load the van up and see where it takes me.