I haven't really had much chance to get fishing down here what with work commitments & a busy family life. I'm getting older & feel older but the urge to fish is as strong as it was 30 years ago. I'd channeled all my enthusiasm into my annual fishing holiday with my 2 great friends Kevin & Steven. For 20 years, we've been searching for big pollack along the west coast of Scotland & having spent many trips to a mark in Dumfries, we recently decided to seek out new & more challenging marks along the west coast of Scotland. To give complete credit to my friends, they have done hours or extreme research into water depths, locations and the such like. For my efforts I look at different reports & blogs from other anglers fishing that area.
But we've found an area that has yielded considerable numbers of good pollack over the last couple of years and an average fish weight around 3lb. The area is wild & has huge potential & having had 2 trips up there, we were all eagerly anticipating this years 4 day trip.
Steve drew the short straw & was elected driver-mainly because it was his nice car we were going in & the cost of additional insurance cover for Kev & myself was cost prohibitive. I was charged with making breakfast butties for all of us and once the car was packed with more rods than your average tackle shop, and an array of tackle, we set off for an interesting drive through some of the most beautiful scenery this country has to offer. A few short coffee stops along the way helped to break up the drive & by late afternoon we arrived at our home for the next 4 days-a caravan. The setting was idyllic if perhaps the weather was not. But our spirits were high & so was our confidence & we had a lot of banter to keep us going. I was cook for the 4 days & had already made up the meals for us. Beef stroganoff was our first meal & having filled up on that, we headed straight out for a few 'speculative' hours looking for a new mark & hopefully having a few casts.
We decided on a location near to a favorite mark of ours and as we made our way along a dry rutted track, a local farmer happened to pass by & we got chatting to him. We would be indebted to him for the goldmine of information he divulged to us & gave us directions to 2 potentially great marks nearby. With a quickening step, we set off in search of a mark that the farmer said "wasn't quite as good as the other mark" but we reckoned we'd save the better mark for a couple of days later-given the weather forecast. Forty five minutes tramp later through some interesting boggy fields, and we got our first glimpse of a very tasty looking mark. It had everything that we were looking for & we couldn't wait to get set up. It was mid evening-around 8:30pm. It was still very much light & conditions were not what you would call summery. There was a bit of a breeze, it was chilly, over cast & the sea had a bit of a slight chop on. We all got set up & ready to cast. I had opted to use a slug-n-go lure as this was a perfect representation of the sandeel that the pollack feed on. I'd also invested in a bottle of sandeel oil which I have to admit is a bit of a throwback to my pike fishing - having utilised bait attractants and oils during the winter pike fishing. Kevin & Steven had opted for artificial lures as well-shimmer eels were given the job of catching the first fish. And with that, we all stood on our chosen mark & prepared to cast. A quick dip of the slug in the sandeel oil & I felt I had something better than the real mccoy.
Steven had now tackled up & was getting his casts away and was soon into the action. Kev & I were also getting a fish every 2nd or 3rd cast. Conditions were good & as the evening wore on, it began to get to that magical dusk time & there was a marked increase in takes & were enjoying superb sport. We easily landed a dozen - 15 pollack each & all bar one was safely returned. Luckily for us, the seal did not return. Maybe it was full after chomping on my first pollack? Before we knew it, it had gone past midnight & we decided to head off for the car. Headlights were duly switched on & we followed 'kev-nav' which is our usually reliable guide. Kev-nav was following a simple approach-straight line. The downside to this was the fact we had to straddle a couple of barbed wire fences. That's fine if you have long legs like kev-nav, but for those of us with not quite so long legs, it puts at serious risk, the family jewells. Kev also guided us through some very squidgy fields. I had donned my lightweight waterproofs & they were keeping my legs dry. Steve & Kev had not brought any waterproof bottoms & so they got wet legs from the long grass.
By 1am, we were enjoying a much deserved cold drink back at chez-caravan and a few packets of pork scratching later, we were all set for a good nights kip. Unfortunately for Steven, I had packed a remote control fart machine & I had hidden the device in Stevens bedroom. I do offer my apologies to Steven for this, but it did provide a glorious 10 minutes of rib aching fun as Kevin was convinced Steven was perhaps not the best choice to be in the bedroom next to! And so we all drifted off into our own dreams that night. Some dreamt of pollack whilst others had nightmares about seals.......
No comments:
Post a Comment