The sun's here and the winds gone!

I took the opportunity to get afloat with Jason on Tartan Spartan accompanying him and Gordon we set off early doors on Monday morning. We managed to eventually get enough Mackerel and I also fluked a solitary Herring. The targets were firstly the Smut's then the Bream, followed by a shot at Bass and all things being equal some Tope. I put out a two hook rig with some fresh crab and picked up a few doggies which were soon followed by a couple of decent smoothies and a smaller one about three pounds. Off to the Bream mark- no show but Jason got a small Huss- off to the Bass mark- no show. The weather was glorious so we set off to find some Tope with Jason eventually getting a good run on a live Whiting but the Tope then dropped the bait and disappeared. In total we had 9 species including a nice Tub Gurnard for me, stacks of whiting and Grey Gurnards, Dab's, Mack's and the usual Dog's

Jamie's first Bass of the year

After a pretty miserable time at the match yesterday Jamie got a lift today with his first Bass of the year, two Bass in fact. We ventured south again to an area that would provide some shelter from the horrendous wind which at times was so strong it almost lifted me me from the rocks I was casting from. Jamie's fish came as the tide turned and my reward was an 8 inch Coalie...

We probably overstayed our visit but in the absence of another suitable venue which would be reasonable comfortable to fish as well as safe we stuck it out. The Gannets worked the bay for 5 hours solid and as the tide rose they were hitting the water 30 yards from shore, it looked like both the Gannets and Jamie had their tea in the bag, for me it was the walk of shame up the beach and a chip butty on the way home!

Carrick in a hooli

We braved the elements today rescheduling the club match to a venue which was less dangerous than the proposed mark. Conditions looked promising for Bass at least and with a decent turnout hopes were high that we would pick up a few with the chance of a Smut or two on the cards. The first half of the match worked out well for me in terms of numbers of fish, the second part was well... crap! There were only three Bass caught two of which came to Will right at the start but there were reasonable numbers of fish and each angler had something on the score sheet. For me it was Eel's, Flounders and Doggies- 8 fish and 4th place. I didn't add any decent scoring round fish to my tally but there was also a Cod and a Huss caught and Stu ran out winner on the day with a total of 16 fish including the Huss. Jamie had the Cod and Malky the other Bass ,Will did well with his two good scoring fish and Stevie plugged away on the Flounders.

Species caught today were Bass, Cod, Flounder, Huss, Eel, Rockling, LSD and Dab so most anglers added a few to their list for the year.

The weather was bang on for the last hour but is not forecast to last. I'm heading out on Monday again as I've plenty of crab left over. Monday ain't looking good but I've taken a day off so I will be trying for my first Bass of the year! I will post some pictures from today shortly.

Double Shot Day

Busy day today, plenty of fish over two sessions which was nice. Tried Creetown got there a little late but it didn't matter,the fish were in the right mood straight from the off. I fished to two rods with crab resulting in 13 Flounders in about an hour and half. Having had enough of the sinking mud as the tide dropped I took the notion to put my feet on a beach with some surf.

I arrived at the beach in the picture to be met with the Dumfries & Galloway air force pounding the channel between the receding tide and the reef, the usual in fact for this mark. This is where the Bass generally work as the sandeels have nowhere to go at that point in the tide so my hopes were high for my first Bass of the year. I fished a rod short in the channel and another on the edge of the reef hoping to pick up a Pollack ,then the hounds arrived and pretty big ones at that. Three double shots later I had a decent bite but when I picked the rod up it was solid, with some coaxing it came free and delivered me a nice little Ballan Wrasse and another Dog. With the tide now well on the way in I was expecting a Bass. On my last cast the rod nodded nicely followed by a slack liner, bingo, but as it happens not a Bass but the best Flounder of the day. It was good to get a few fish today.

Micro Smoothies

The forecast for the weekend came to fruition with strong SE's which duly led to the cancellation of the club boat competition. With some nice fresh crab burning a hole in the fridge myself and Willie decided to have a shot at some early Smut's. We eventually found them, for me it was left to the last cast of the day to land one having had three delicate bites on my last three casts as the tide dropped away about 2 hours after high water. At the same time Willie managed two Dog's and two Smut's. They were indeed certainly small and could be described as micro Smut's but my fish saved a blank and both myself and Willie added another species to the tally for the year. All in an enjoyable day with the sun shining on us again, life aint that bad and the fish will be bigger next time.

The end of the decent weather for the moment

I have a club boat match this weekend with the potential for Smoothies, Bass and possibly an early Tope. The weather has different plans, at the moment it looks like 20-40mph SSE's, hope it changes but I don't see a lull in on Winguru with more of the same for around a week. I can see a shore session on the cards, with some nice fresh crab it might be an option.

Pint

Had a few tonight, Aloe Blacc in Oran More, good night. Fish can wait for a while...

Little Corkers!

Two of nine Corkwing caught tonight. The female would shake the Scottish record of 6oz without a doubt,where are the little digi scales when you need them!

Turnberry Tomato

Decided to take Lynne to Turnberry on Monday, she asked if it was for a Spa and a nice lunch. As you can see she was disappointed and the nearest she got to the hotel and its facilities was around half a mile( in the background to her reading her book)

With a nice surf rolling in and fresh rag and mackerel for bait the targets were flounder with an the outside chance of a school Bass. In the end I would have been better taking a book as the fish were not in the mood to play, we did have a laugh though especially at the colour of my head which now resembles a tomato. Anyway, I will be back a few times later this year as it has some potential but I will be sure to take a hat!

Nearly that time again!

Lure's at the ready, 10+ and we're off. I said I would leave it to the first week in June but I'm tempted to try in the next week or so

More sun, plaice and dabs

Headed south this morning on the quest for a few additional species. The intention was also to have an few casts for an early Mullet. I stopped off and watched the river for 20 minutes but saw nothing that would motivate me to get myself organised, so off I went again. I rigged up two rods, ragworm, squid and crab. I started to pick up a fish here and there, all small stiff again. I did also spend some time trying for a Wrasse but this proved pointless. When the Doggies started to make an appearance it was time for the road, sun still shining with the thought of a chilled cider in the garden keeping me focused on the 2 hour journey home, might end up having a few.....

Dogs breakfast

A nice early start for me today, too early as it happens, anyway the ongoing species hunt this year is going to get pretty addictive.

I headed up to the Bistro on Loch Fyne this morning which is a mark known to me for producing plenty of fish and strangely enough plenty of species albeit mostly small. Large tides this weekend, good forecast and plenty of bait saw me optimistic about adding four or maybe five to my list. At 6.30am I put two rods out with three hooks apiece baited with variety of offerings, crab, ragworm, squid and mackerel. It didn't tackle long before the rods were nodding with the tell tale sign that some days you might be grateful for... but not today. By 7.20 am I had bumped twelve Doggies up the beach including five double shots without a sniff from my intended targets, by 9.30am the tally was nineteen. I stayed on as I thought if I worked my way through them I would pick something else up but that plan didn't work out!

I had a quick bite to eat and moved on to somewhere I might winkle out something for the list, and so I did. Not anything to be proud of but they all count so I added a Common Blenny and a Dab that brought the tally to eleven species for me so far. I did have a quick shot for a Sea Trout but being the wrong stage of the tide I failed so that will be saved for another day....

Plaice in the sunshine

Weather forecast was good over the weekend, noted this during the week so the target was a Plaice or two with the potential to a add a few more species to the club's ongoing species hunt.

I headed down to a mark near Portpatrick to hook up with Will and Shane. These lads are keen and love their fishing so much so they were down there on the Saturday night had a session and had slept in the car. Will was duly rewarded with a hard to get fish . In fact so much so it would be pretty difficult to target,not impossible, just very difficult- Spotted Ray !

Baits were crab,worm, mackerel strip and squid. To be honest the fishing was difficult and the mark fished much slower than we would expect. I had a bit of nightmare with aborted bites, missed bites and a nice Plaice dropping off as I lifted it out. Anyway another species knocked off for me and two for Will, good banter and a few fish to boot.

Football or fishing ??

I spent last weekend in Perth with the travelling support of the mighty Killie. A nil nil draw on a pitch as bald as my head. I couldn't do that every weekend, but again like fishing sometimes your there just for a day out. Good company with a few light refreshments but I did probably play in better games when I kicked a ball.

I looked these two classics out today, Daiwa Amorphous Whisker's . The BTB's in better nick for its age than me to be fair. I intend to put these two to some use over the next six weeks or so with maybe Plaice, Flounder, Turbot and possibly an early Smoothie. Bass will start to make an appearance around now not to mention Mullet at the end of the month.

The lure gear was dusted down, Ireland's been booked since January and July wont be long till its here so happy days!

Loch Etive RNLI Species Hunt & a tale of two Cluggies

After a hellish club match two weeks ago won by a Cluggie (also known as Short Spined Sea Scorpion in Scotland) I headed back up there on the 19th with Gordon and his daughter Sarah on Tickety Boo. The weather was better and having the flexiblity of the boat this time would put us on some fish. It was a slow start but I made some headway with a small Thornback and a Cod within the first hour or so. We stuck mainly to the margins around the buoys, mussel beds and empty Salmon nets. Gordon, Sarah and myself picked up a number of Pouting more Cod, LSD and then headed out to the deeper water hoping for a Spur or two which we got fairly quickly. The weather came on a bit with the rain and wind increasing and it was time for a move. We went back to the margins where Gordon and Sarah added a few Whiting while I tried casting into the margins with a lure on a spinning rod looking for a small Pollack. In the end up we finished up where we started next to Scott on Scary Mary adding Grey Gurnard and lots of small Coalies and a solitary but crucial Cluggie! I missed out on a Whiting for my own count but the boat ran out a winner on the day. 15 boats and 3 Kayaks took part raising a few quid for the RNLI. Sarah tied with Kyle on Scott's boat for best junior. The ragworm I had got the day before fished on size 6 hooks or smaller seemed to do the trick on the day. A good day out with some nice Ling to double figures caught as well for those that didnt fancy scratching around. I can still hear Scott's abuse as the crucial King Cluggie made an appearance again, better looking than me on the day to be fair! Thanks to Gordon for having me on board

Careful what you wish for

The conditions have been good this last week with easterlies blowing and good bags of fish being produced. We hoped that this wind direction would continue at the weekend, it did but just too much, 30mph with gusts to 50mph to be precise.

Safety was the first concern for the club match so we switched from our chosen venue to Ferryden. This gave us protection from the howling SE's. It started well with a few fish early on this faded fast and as the tide started to empty the flow grew stronger and the tackle losses also grew in proportion. Not to worry, we all came home safe with a fish or two.

Check Will out in this pic .I'm sure he thinks he's on the cover of FHM lol

Been very quite, Ola 2011!

I fished the Loch Sunart shark tagathon in November, good craic, poor fishing two years back to back for me I'm afraid. I will be giving it a miss this year

I had a shot for Cod on the east coast in December, couple of fish good day out.

Tried again in January in the first club match of the year. Calm and clear conditions with the worst possible wind direction did not fill me with confidence. I managed these fish and added another three to end on eight, second in the match to a six fish bag. I was pretty pleased given it looked like a long and uneventful night lay ahead, you just never know sometimes...

Blankety blank cheque book....

Never caught a Guillemot before, one this weekend and another two weeks ago. Both birds went for my plug. Curios as I have not heard of anyone catching one either, must be starving to be honest. Anyway both safe and sound, probably still looking for their next meal. That aside, no fish on Saturday. I had one nice follow just when I announced to Jamie I was finished for the day and possibly saw another fish near my lure. Not exactly exciting stuff but I enjoyed the chase as ever. Maybe one other shot with lures this month and then it will be a switch in tactics although I’m not sure what that will be yet.

The Gambler

It’s been good this week, Blackberry switched off, no Excel and no clients to speak with. Since Friday I have enjoyed a couple of sessions, caught some fish and got some domestic choirs done and have even taken my mother and mother in law out for lunch…check me!

However cant help thinking that if the weather would have played ball I would be in Wexford with Jim, fishing, talking fishing, thinking fishing, learning fishing and quite possibly catching. I have to say that while I am genuinely disappointed that the trip didn’t happen there is a Kenny Rogers song that sums it up.

Next year….

More weed than Cheech & Chong

The weather has been true to forecast this week, wish it wasn’t but that’s showbiz! So with this in mind I went back to the same area I fished on Monday, bigger tides and possibly bigger problems with weed but I was optimistic with the incoming tide coinciding with the fading light. Anyway fished the tide down, good news, no weed to speak of. Weapon of choice fresh crab, like McDonalds I went large and didn’t hold back on the baits hoping for a big back end fish to beat my PB. Things looked promising from when on my third cast the rod indicated a solid thump followed by a standard issue slack liner which produced a fish of 3.10. This was followed by a slightly smaller fish about 20 minutes later. With the incoming tide still to come it looked like a promising session lay ahead. Well it came and went with no joy and instead the dreaded weed arrived, not a massive problem but enough to cause me to pull my hair out (if I had any). It was manageable till I got about 20 yards and the gripper, trace and leader knot picked it up like a hoover, lovely. I gave myself to 7.30pm and with the light almost gone I sat watching both rods as I tidied things up when the rod in the left cup displayed a decent bite which developed into a rod stand wrenching pull which sent the whole lot , 2 rods , stand and the bag suspended below it seaward. Having seen this happen before on this mark it’s usually the sign of a decent Bass and once I got a handle of saving the gear and with a slack liner I picked up and felt for what was surely a good fish…nada. I disappointedly wound in one rod and then the other and my reward was a surprise 2 pound cod on the other rod, not really what I was looking for but it was a fish. Makes you wonder how they can do it and not get a 2 x 3/0 pennel rig to stick, maybe a full on line bite in or around the bait and rig but I will never know that’s for sure…