Motivation

I’ve had the image at the bottom of this post as a screen saver for a while now. For the avoidance of any doubt it's not a fish I caught. It serves as a little bit of motivation now and then. I know this fish was caught from one of the lochs I visit. In the dull moments or on the early starts I’m wondering if it’s still swimming around with a few of its mates of a similar size. You can but day dream I guess.

                                                                      To get from this

 

To this

 

                                                                               To this

                                     In a cold Scottish loch takes some doing for a Perch

                          A proper wild beast and not a pond fed porker, think I read it was 4.8

Striped thuggery

Not been out for a couple of weeks  but managed a trip yesterday afternoon and today. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’ve been plotting a map of snags here. For the most part that’s the game and there are not too many shortcuts to finding features on a big loch. The Perch were in isolated pockets here and there and a couple of Pike provided some excitement. Next time out I’ll try bringing them to me.

These were the best pair. Two of the sunken tree thug gang, bossing the branches and crunching crustaceans and my plastic.

First time  I've slipped  a fish in a weigh bag for a while, 3 pounds on the nose. I thought it might be more as it was so broad across its back.

                             
The first glimpse I had of this fish was when the dorsal popped up and it swam towards me on the surface. It was an outrageous shape, like a little football with  a big head and spikes attached. It too had a visit to the weighing bag coming in at 3.4. My target is a  4 pound fish before the winter kicks in so this was decent progress.Early to bed tonight, ten hours in the saddle today. The Hobie Vantage seat is awesome.

Not long now

Our trip to the Ebro was booked about 10 months ago. I've just really started to think about it this week and the hype is starting to creep in. Having been in the garage sorting gear out  again tonight I've  established that I have pretty much what I need, probably too much. They're will still be the odd purchase I dare say. A definite will be sun protection as it’s between 34-40 Celsius at the minute…..ooof!

As usual , the web surfing has started as I get closer to a trip. Hopefully Scott and I have a good one and we get in amongst the fish.

 

A trip to the Trossachs

I headed north for the first time to Lubnaig. I’ve fancied fishing here for a while as it seems to have had some reputation for producing decent Perch. It was a late start for me, first cast about 9.30am on a baking hot morning. I’m not really a fan of making a start at this time of day but I had to buy a permit so tied my start in with opening time purchasing this then getting on the water. I was looking forward with anticipation, as you do fishing somewhere for the first time. I initially had some issues with the Lowrance for the first hour and fished without it till I worked out what was wrong with the settings. In truth there was not that much to see apart from the very odd fish mark. The most interesting point over the day was a clearly visible thermocline crossing over a point transiting areas. The water was 100ft deep and the change was at 80ft deep for about 100 meters till the depth changed. I've not came across this marked as clearly before on any sounder, not that it made any difference to me on the day either right enough.

Brownie on a little HTO sp

I picked up the first fish on the drop shot next to a weed bed about 300 yards from where I started. This size of Perch set the tone for the day. I found plenty of them in one spot at two points in the day and the second time drop shotting worm bait. Having gone over the area again with a few different lures I didn’t get a touch. I tried a worm and it was all action. There was the odd fish here and there in deep water which I targeted but it was pretty poor apart from this one area. It was a nice spot, 20ft deep close to the bank with a little burn trickling in, nice fringe of weed in tight with some shade. You don’t need any electronics to find these spots. I could see why it seemed to hold the fish. It’s just a pity about the average size.  There were some really nice weedy areas but various approaches proved fruitless. The best Perch of the day came when I was heading for home about as fast as I could after covering about 7 miles.Having been looking at the sounder I was doing just shy of 4MPH, about twice the speed I normally would consider fishing. It might have gone ¾ pound. This was followed by another smaller one at the same speed; maybe I missed a trick on the day?

Looking south from the top of the loch, its a decent kick back to the launch site from here.

 It’s certainly a nice setting but having been from one end to the other it’s too noisy for my liking with everything from motorbikes to yapping dogs. Having had good numbers of Perch this padded out the reality that most were from one area, probably the same shoal and the size of these fish were smaller than I would have liked. I’ve no doubt that it has some nice Perch but it’s not the water for me.I might have another shot here if Scott can borrow a kayak. Other than that I think I’ll stick to the lochs which I know can produce better Perch and at the same time, enjoy some tranquillity. It was however some day to be on the water and better than working on a Friday.

Drysuit tan. Can you tell we've had a pish summer and I've not been abroad yet? Might need to get some Oil of Olay and some creosote for balance , these don't look right.

All's well...

I made time to get a trip in this weekend but I’m not sure how wise it was as I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me socially.

Arriving about 8pm on Friday night I got rigged up and on the water dodging most of the midges thanks to a downpour of rain which didn’t last.

I shouldn’t have been in too much of a hurry as it was about 11pm before I had my first fish.

I emerged from my sleeping bag when the alarm went off at 4am to be met by thick mist. I had another 15 minutes kip till it got a little lighter.

The loch was alive with silver fish jumping  and rising which had me thinking about casting a little CDC at them. There’s only so much gear you can take with you, maybe one for another morning. There was also lots of activity down below but I didn’t have as much as a bump from a fish after trying a few different methods including shads, drops shot and a Carolina rig.

Another modest little Perch obliged to break my duck. I’m going to look into this pink fleck colouring I see on most of the fish here, not a great picture but I suspect it’s due to their diet.

I reached a spot where I could see tiny fry just about making the water ripple so I cast my rig behind them and worked it towards me pausing it where I thought the edge of the shoal was.

I had 4 fish then hooked a much better one which I tried to lift in, but of course the inevitable happened and the hook shook free. I’m buying a scoop net the first chance I get, just daft not having one when you’re chasing a specimen.

This nice one sort of made up for the loss.

My second Pike of the day. All in a good session with a recovery after a shaky start. I was off the water for 10am and the traffic on the way home was much better than expected which was handy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rough with the Smoothie

Scott and I hit Luce Bay at the weekend aboard Go West with Spike. We never did get around to having a shot for Smoothies last year despite talking about it a few times so we put a plan in place to sort that out. With the boat booked about a month ago it was the usual situation on the run up to Sunday. We watched the conditions turn from being bright and flat calm on Saturday to gusting 20 mph from the west with some squalls in the mix. The Tope were very hard to find for the boats fishing on Saturday, we wondered how our day would pan out.

We set about getting our fresh bait shortly after leaving the beach. Mackerel were pretty easy to come by and with these in the box and some fresh and frozen crab we were off to the main event. This was the first part of a three day trip for Scott and the three of us chatted about the prospects for the various species Scott was chasing.  It wasn’t long after the anchor took grip that I had a decent bite and the expected Tope run produced a nice Thornback.

                                The bait must have landed right on its nose, it was really that quick.

It was then Dogfish time for us both for the next hour or so till I picked up the first Smoothie.

I think this was Scott’s first Doggie of the year and I’m pretty sure the novelty wore off fairly quickly.

Eventually working through the Doggies he found himself a Smoothie as well as some Whiting and the occasional Grey Gurnard.

Scott had a list of fifteen potential species for his trip but the next one up was a real bonus. Spike reckons he gets one or two per year.

                                                        A happy chap with a bonus Spotted Ray.

We were both happy we had crab with us as it was tough day on the Tope front with not a single run. I believe there were four boats out and one run was had between them all. An enjoyable day just the same with Scott making some progress towards his target despite not getting a Huss or a Tope. The Spotted Ray is however a bonus and definitely a harder target to catch in Scotland.

 

                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

First launch in Luce Bay

I decided to bite the bullet and go for my first Bass trip aboard Das Bite. This area deserves some respects when it comes to tides and wind direction. Before setting off I checked in with Belfast coastguard providing details of my trip and when I would return. On setting off conditions were nice and I was fishing a part of the coast I know well. I’ve had some good fishing here in the past so I was interested to fish it from another angle. There were a few terns here and there which I felt was a positive sign. Not long after setting off I marked a couple of shoals of what were probably sandeels. One of these had three or four fish of some description trailing them but none of them fancied my FBM.

I zig zagged around getting a feel for the bottom consistency and any features. I came across a spot with some fish showing and thought these might be Pollack. I put on an SG Slug and 20g head and spent about 20 mins covering the area without a touch. I then went on to set up a really nice drift which took me about half a mile along the coast at just the right angle.

Having set my drogue from the rear of the boat it was perfect, just the right angle and the right speed. Perfect with the one exception, no Bass.

 Not long after this I could feel the wind picking up and changing direction and white tops started to appear. As I worked my way back to the launch spot I got snagged trawling a Rapala. I got this loose but it was quite tricky, when I turned and went back I was side on and going into a few breaking troughs. It was time to get to the beach as I wasn’t particular comfortable with how it looked and felt. I managed to get the boat on the beach without going side on which was something I was worried about, nearly but not quite, I was glad to be in.

It’s sensible to match your limits to your experience especially when fishing alone . It looks calmer than it  actually was here.

If there were any Bass around I’m pretty sure I would have had a fish having covered the ground I know holds them. You cannot catch what is not there but I’ve gained a little more experience and my drysuit tan is coming along nicely.

Midgie hell ends well

Well, you know summer has arrived in Scotland when the unbearable scourge descends in thick clouds threating to turn your leisure time into some kind of sick endurance trial. Having been up at 3am I really didn’t need it!  That’s what happens when the wind I’ve been cursing disappears which serves as a reminder to be careful what you wish for!

Thankfully when I was about 20 yards from the shore they all but disappeared. I started to get a few hits on my shad which I didn’t convert.  I picked up the other rod which was set up with a drop shot rig and cast around the general area letting the rig settle giving it the odd shake. This worked well and I started to pick up little Perch.

It was a good start, plenty of action but when I covered the same area with various shads the hits stopped and there didn’t appear to be any bigger fish around so I moved on. This was repeated regularly. I found what looked like a tightly packed group of fish sitting on top of a pile of rocks and trawled past them without a hit. I did however take notice of two trees as a marker as well as the depth and carried on to another spot and picked my only Pike of the day. I actually lost it a minute or so before when it jumped and threw the hook, must have been properly in the mood.

I went back to the spot I’d noticed and cast roughly into the area which was about 25ft deep and kept my lure deep and slow and picked up a couple of better Perch.

The Perch just kept coming.

I felt as if I was cooking in my drysuit but despite this I had really enjoyable day, clear, warm and quite for the most part except for what seemed like a Cuckoo in every tree.

The factor 30 was running off my face in the afternoon and the 1lt of water I had with me just didn't cut it.

Electrickery

Here is a short walk through the sounder I’ve been using delivered in a typically American fashion. I found the Lowrance to be invaluable at the weekend when faced with a large expanse of water. Reading the shoreline looking for points, bays and reed beds is one thing.  Finding the hidden features which were holding fish away from these areas is another. It clearly didn’t take the effort out of covering the ground to find them so my conscious is clear! I found the trackback facility really useful. If I was traveling down wind for instance I was able to complete a tight turn and come back on myself, hold into the wind and cast to the target area. I won’t be buying a Navionics mapping card for the sea as the basic plotter set up is good enough for what I need it for. I just wish I could work through the menus as quickly as the product manager in the video. I’ve also just realised I can use the micro SD card from my GoPro to record  what I come across so I’ll take some data from my next trip.

Worth the effort

I’ve not fished this loch for a while and today was a good day to give it a try as it provided a little shelter from the ever present wind. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to fish it from a kayak or a boat so thought it was about time to find out. Getting to the launch spot with the gear was challenging and for the first ten minutes on the water all I could think about was the return trip. This would be up hill on the return through a marsh, hillocks, dead bushes and a few boulders so I decided to park the negativity and focus on getting some fish.

Thankfully the fishing was steady starting off with a couple of Pike and moving on to the target species for me which was Perch.  

This fish had been hooked and lost before. The hook had all but disintegrated and I didn't notice the trace till I was about to put it back.

The fish seemed to have a preference for the shad you can see in one of the pictures as well as the SG dying minnow fished on a drop shot rig.

I'll feel it in the morning even with a short break to stretch my legs.

The haul up the hill after 8 hours on the water was a pain but I could still crack the odd smile when I was on the water.

                                                         More like the fish I'm after

That’s that out the way

The first Bass of the year was not going to catch itself. The wait for decent conditions to target them on lures might be a long one given the weather we have had in May so far. I had some frozen crab left from last year so rather than sit at home reading various forums I decided on Sunday afternoon that I would give it a shot. The high winds that would have torn the beach up on Saturday had dropped a little and when I arrived there was a nice surf running ,plenty of colour and some lovely driving rain. I knew the weed would be a problem and a few minutes after my first cast it was apparent things would be very difficult in this respect. I could see the weed strung out along my line building in volume by the second as the tide dropped. I did get a bite before I had to move and had some sort of fish on. The weight of the weed built up on my leader knot resulted in 20 foot of leader coming in horizontally and my second hook got snagged resulting in a break off. Having moved along the beach to find a spot with less weed things improved. I fished the best part of the tide but didn’t have any offers despite putting some nice big crab baits into surf that looked ideal. Thankfully I don’t have too many blanks but I’m happy I at least tried to scratch the itch for the first Bass of the year.

Some bait and a wait

I seem to have spent more time than usual recently looking at Windguru and weighing up what my options are of a weekend. By Friday a one day window of opportunity opened on what seems like a relentless period of high winds. With this in mind I decided to get myself back afloat and put my first Bass trip of 2015 on the back burner for at least another week.

Arriving at Loch Ken in mid-afternoon I intended to fish till dusk, start off with lures and switch to some ledgering. It was a cracking day albeit not a great time to start for the predatory Perch so the first hour or so I didn’t have as much as a touch and decided to drop the anchor for the first time. A couple of hours later I made a move as even the crayfish were absent which is unusual for here. This got me wondering about the whereabouts of the clawed menace. I should take more notice of the bottom consistency. I would imagine like crabs they might be holed up in some areas with a rocky bottom moulting around now; it’s fair to say the Perch wouldn’t be far away.

I put the hook down in an area near a sunken tree which was painted clearly on the screen of my sounder and got to work with two rods.  Having made a start on a sandwich and a mouthful of water the rod tip typically hooped over while it lay in my lap.

This was the start of a purple patch which ended in a double hook up and a massive tangle which saw me switch to one rod.

The best of seven Perch

The Bream were like peas in a pod

A really fat well fed little Perch. Is there a soft Crayfish in there??

After getting sorted out I only had one other fish before it went quite. The wind had changed my position slightly and just as I got to thinking that there might also be a Pike in the vicinity the rod tip slowly folded over as if it was snagged. I backed the drag off as much as I could and the little drop shot rod absorbed the lunges of what felt like a sizeable Pike. I eventually got it to the surface and I could see the size 8 hook in its scissors. My intention when it comes to landing Pike is to chin them out rather than carry a net. On this occasion my rod was leashed to the opposite side of the boat and too short for me to get in position. This resulted in more pressure than I had realised on the 8 pound line and it popped.  I would think the fish would be fine, using a bunch of worms can catch Pike but it’s not something you can really account for. I decided to wrap it up shortly afterwards but not before I had a few jigs around the boat to see if it was still in the area.

A frustrating day

When I made my way around the point I was heading for after a 20 minute walk I thought someone had laid a bunch of pot buoys. I stood and watched as they moved around counting seven over an area of about 100 yards at varying distances from the shoreline. Nice to see, not really a bonus when you’re after skittish Sea Trout. I don’t recall every coming across as many seals on one spot while actually fishing. There appeared to be a few pups launching themselves around in a carefree manner as well as possibly females and a big bull. The last time I was here there were two seals and each of the fish I caught were tight to shoreline. Sometimes they are a good indicator but I couldn’t see any type of fish being in the area.If they were they would be passing through mighty quickly. I walked back the way I came after a few casts. Spot number two, when I arrived it also had a pair of seals on the hunt. I was soon back at the car.

Spot number three, second cast and I had a solid hook up with a very nice fish which I unfortunately lost in the floating bladderwrack. Thinking the fish was still on I went in over the top of my waders to get it…. time for a coffee as  the plan for today was in the bucket by 10.30am. A short drive later and I was on another part of the coast, great no seals! I changed lures and put on a sparse epoxy minnow teaser. This can be really effective either below or above the lure but it does however complicate things with floating weed and snags so I don’t always use it.

A very welcome sight leaping in the two foot waves shortly after starting. Despite the days frustrations I think I might have cracked a smile. There was a downside, the energy I must have used smiling wiped me out and I feel asleep in the car for two hours.

I awoke refreshed and pushed on for the next instalment of todays events.  I made some casts over the top of a slipway along the shore and had another nice fish of about 3 pounds leaping in the air. The in-line lure was doing its job travelling right up to my leader connection and by doing so not providing the fish a leverage point at which to throw the hook. There was some fairly big waves rolling up the deep side of the slip and the glare even with my glasses on was pretty bad. You can imagine my delight when I made a stab at the fish, got it in the net but also apparently got the hook stuck in the edge of the net. When I lifted the net out all that it contained was some weed and the hook, awesome….

As I made my way back to car I picked up this little fish as well as  some information from a fellow angler visiting the beach with his son. This might end up being a handy tip with a fresh head and on another day. It was a pity to lose the two best fish of the day but sometimes that's just fishing for you.

Sea Temperature getting there

Sea temperatures are slowly getting there. The seasonal warmer water will creep all too slowly around the coast of Donegal and up through the Southern Irish Sea. Machrihanish is almost there and is showing 9.1 at the moment, slightly above the average. I doubt the hardy surfers that arrive there will notice the marginal change in temperatures that makes for better prospects for catching Bass. This reminds of a good reason to go back here again at some point. It gets warmer faster than most of the Scottish coast as you can see if you know where to look on the map below.

Last year I had my first attempt for Bass on the 17th of May, then again five days later.^. At that point they seemed to be about in numbers. I even caught a Garfish on this trip, a first for me in Scotland. I’ve not spotted any reports of Smoothies being caught yet but I would imagine that will change over the next week or so, won’t be long now!

First day at School

It was time for the first fishing session on my Outback at the weekend as Lynne and I hit the shores of Loch Ken. With the sunny conditions forecast I had planned an early start on the Saturday morning. This would let me make the most of any dawn feeding opportunity and get back to Lynne at a reasonable time.


The hard overnight frost made for a fairly cold nights sleep in cabin but I was on the water for 5.30am. I fired up the Lowrance in anger for the first time and was glad to see it was working. I was soon under way zig- zagging around a bit and getting a feel for things. Fishing on Loch Ken for the first time with no engine ticking over in the background was a different experience. As I made way along the shore I could hear Cuckoos, Woodpeckers and the noisy arrival of Geese, what a great time to be on the water. 

I was marking fish and structure in detail that I’ve not seen first-hand before. The broadband sounder and downscan really gave me a great view on what was down there. In particular  the separation of structure and fish was a real eye opener with the downscan marking fish sitting behind things like sunken trees, the questions was what were they?  I worked along various contours and it was clear to see that in anything less than 15ft it was barren, between 15ft-25ft there was more happening. I came across vertical columns of fish 10ft high, most likely Roach and sitting below and behind one or two bigger different looking marks , most likely Pike.

I turned the kayak around in a circle and came back up wind and cast towards where I reckon I had marked baitfish and made a few casts and Das Bite was eventually christened. It took SG double blade/tinsel spinnerbait on a slow retrieve.

As I travelled a little further there seemed to be less sign of activity but occasionally I would come across a shoal of fish,  travelling past one of these the rod arched over  and I had my second fish of the morning. Not a great example of fish handling but it looks worse than it is due to angle, just the same I need to be better organised. Even on a spacious rig like the Outback it was easy to get in a muddle. The guys that fish in more traditional shaped kayaks must be super organised.

I made it back out for two hours on Saturday afternoon and the only thing I caught was sunburn. The shoals of prey fish were certainly harder to find although I did take a look over a different area.

When I arrived back Lynne opened a bottle of wine, we had a barbecue and that was the fishing over for Saturday. 

As a result of the night before I was pretty knackered on Sunday morning getting up about 7am dehydrated, slightly hungover and sunburnt but got underway anyway. My intention was to find likely looking targets and cast some soft plastics at them. I did this off and on for three fishless hours. If I can get this outfit working in a targeted manner when the fish are in the mood I’m sure it will be very effective. I had enough when the breakfast bell rang in my head and it was time for home.

So, not a bundle of fish on my Kayaks first outing but interesting nevertheless. There are large expanses of void water but I was surprised at how thick some of the shoals of fish were, Roach, Bream and I’m pretty sure, here and there the ones I’m after, Perch. I can make some assumptions on which of these targets might have been Perch but till I start picking off one or two I won’t know for sure. They might well be spawning at the minute but that should be over for my next visit. I won’t be able to use that as an excuse next time. It was like the first day at school for a lot of this trip but it will get easier.