Building on from our early trips to the Mull of Galloway, my friends & I were keen to explore possible fishing marks further up the north east coast along the Scottish borders. We set our sights on exploring St Abbs Head and we began our quest one April in the mid eighties.Finding new marks to fish is always a bit of a gamble but the fun is in the adventure.
After an hours worth of walking (it felt like alot more), we found a possible location at the bottom of some very steep cliffs. The mark itself was an isolated rock which looked like it was in relatively deep water close to shore. Actually getting to the mark was an achievement as it involves a very steep skree bank, and several treacherous narrow paths cut into the cliff face. But even once the angler has scaled all that, there is the small matter of a leap of faith to get to the fishing mark.It's a question of closing your eyes & trusting your feet as you are faced with a 4 feet gap to get across. Once that's done, you are now on a very steep angled rock with deep water & plenty of weed with just fulmars & puffins for company. We travelled light on those first expeditions-9 or 10 feet spinning rods, 25lb mainline and pockets of redgills.
Those first trips produced reasonable numbers of pollack-and our best fish nudged 7lbs. We didn't have any sophisticated tackle back then. Just tackle that was dependable & strong enough to bully fish out of the kelp. The problem we began to face was that we were loosing some good fish which had very strong determined runs. My friends decided to beef up their basic gear & used adapted beachcasters (super flick tips with a reducer butt) and 5000 size multipliers-predominantly Abu ambassadeurs which were more than capable of delivering the stopping power that was required. Personally I found this sort of approach a bit too heavy for me & so I turned to the carp market & invested in a very modest end carp rod. My friends scoffed at me for this, but coupled with a shimano fighting drag 400 size fixed spool, I was able to bully fish out just as easily as my friends with their stepped down beach casters. But the difference for me was that I was able to enjoy the fight from smaller fish as well as the larger ones. We also moved away from redgills & turned more to the growing influx of latex lures. My personal favorite was the Mr Twister lure which had much favour in the late 80's. I found the action of that lure perfect for spinning and easy to cast with my basic carp type outfit. My best pollack fell to one of these lures one friday evening. The fish was knocking on 7lb but was eclipsed the next day by my friend's 8lb beast. That mark always threw up a surprise or two.
We then moved away from the twister lures & moved to frozen sandeel which seemed to provide constant takes. But we began to find that our favoured & more 'local' mark at St Abbs Head was not producing fish as constantly as it used to even though we returned all our fish. So we turned our attentions back to the west coast of Scotland.
There are so many marks that are available to fish along the Scottish west coast. The roving angler can be spoiled for choice. We focussed our efforts on the Mull of Galloway & have over the years, worked our way up that coastline. We try to travel light as we invaribly end up walking mile upon mile in order to find that 'fishy' looking mark, but we have found most of the area is now regularly fished & does no longer produce the quality of fish we used to see when we first started to go there in the mid 80's. We fished hard & long days with a multitude of lures but for all our efforts all we were getting were a handful of 1-3lb pollack and even then, a 3lb pollack was considered a good catch. Without sounding conceited, we all felt that we needed fresh challenges or adventures & so we all put in some research and tried to find more remote areas which were harder to get to but would possibly hold better quality pollack. And so 3 years ago, we stumbled across great potential in the hebredes. My friends put in many hours on the net looking at fishy looking marks on video sites and used local maps to find deep water. But of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating-so to speak, and so we had to arrange a trip up there to see if it was any good. From my old stomping ground of Newcastle, it was an 8 hour drive to the hebredes. But what a drive. It was stunning scenery from start to finish. The adventure was just beginning for us and blessed with glorious weather on our first trip, we roamed around the island, picking up advice from locals and using the knowledge we had gained over the last 15-20 years. Getting to a new mark is not always easy but in rare cases, the effort put in can reap rewards with what you end up catching. I always look on a new fishing challenge as an adventure no matter what it involves & my friend Jason has invited me on a very local adventure this weekend as we continue our search for a late season pike. Whilst I am keen & looking forward to that now, come saturday morning, I will be totally sparked up & raring to go despite the silly o'clock start time. Hopefully I will get my first pike run since mid November.
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Wednesday 2 February 2011
The art of spinning
A new spinner arrived on my doormat tonight. A design that I'm hoping will bring me some degree of success when I go back to try my luck on the Norfolk Broads with my good friend Jason later in the year. We had our first taste of broads pike fishing last autumn with a couple of hard days fishing there, staying at a very convenient caravan site in nearby Caister. The accommodation was good, but the company provided by Jason was even better and it's a priceless art to go fishing with someone who is very knowledgeable in a specific area of fishing. One of the most interesting aspects of fishing is that if we want to, we never stop learning.
I started my fishing journey over 30 years ago as a young boy with a very cheap fishing rod spinning for mackerel in the few summer months we had in the North East. A 6 mile cycle to the fishing mark with a rod, reel and a few of those triangular mackerel spinners that you always seem to find in seaside tackle shops yielded very little reward for all my efforts, but I will never forget that first exciting take from a mackerel and from that moment onwards, I think I was 'hooked' on that art of spinning.
It's strange looking back 30 years and those years seem to have flown by. My friends have all got older but our friendship remains as strong now as it did all those years ago. The common bond we all share is fishing and we are passionate about that indeed. But as friends we have all had our ups and downs and we've always been there for each other.My first real taste of serious spinning was back in the mid eighties when my friend Steven & I spent a week in the Mull of Galloway. Since neither of us possessed a car & neither of us drove, I was fortunate enough to have an extremely good friend who was financially persuaded to take us to Mull, leave us & then return a week later to pick us back up again. Words cant describe friends who will go to those lengths and I will be forever grateful to my friend for making such a long drive twice within a week.
Having been dropped off on a remote headland (long before the days of mobile phones), Steven & I were left totally isolated, without any contact with the outside world. We camped on the beach and were totally self contained for that week in terms of food & water. The nearest village was 6 miles away or a good 90 minute walk. Being a virgin camper, my food supplies consisted of a weeks worth of pot noodles and crisps & biscuits. Steven on the other hand, had camped before & was much more sensible in his selection of non perishable foods-tinned raviolli & spaghetti were his food of choice. Luckily for us, the area is prolific in mackerel shoals so we were never that far away from a fishy meal if we wanted to.
We fished hard for that week-spinning every day for pollack and mackerel. Early mornings resulted in pollack up to 6lb which for us then, was a good result given the limited tackle choice we had. Pollack were more plentiful from Mull then, as they have since declined in numbers due largely we think, to over fishing in that area. Mackerel shoals were prolific in the bay area (luce bay) and we caught and returned dozens of pollack and mackerel that week. We targetted dogfish at night but they became quite a nuisance in numbers. But my spinning 'teeth' were cut during that week in Mull and we learned a considerable amount about deep spinning with redgills and toby lures. Working redgills just off the bottom was highly successful and when the pollack stopped feeding, we could target ballan wrasse just over the side using limpets as hookbait. We didn't need ragworm or peeler crab to enjoy great sport with hard fighting wrasse.
Some 10 years after that trip, I was fortunate enough to be successful in my application to join a local salmon club syndicate on the Tyne and all those years spinning for pollack on the west coast of Scotland would prove essential for my success with salmon fishing within the club.
My first outing for salmon was a harsh lesson in how not to translate sea fishing techniques to river fishing. My friend Richard was highly knowledgeable about the salmon beat and we spun on a fast stretch of water. I was insistent on 'working' the lure through the water and feeling proud of my sea fishing skills, fished the run right through without so much of a sniff. Richard followed in behind me and without 'working' exactly the same lure, hooked 3 sea trout from the same stretch I'd just fished! A harsh lesson indeed but one that I took away & learned from.
My next trip up the the same stretch of the Tyne meant I was better prepared & my second cast produced a fine 6lb sea trout. A gentleman not 30 yards away had been fishing that stretch of water all day without seeing a thing and commented on how we were so fortunate enough to land such a prized hard fighting fish. Local knowledge from Richard was the difference on that trip and I learned quickly from Richards vast knowledge of the river. My third trip (still with spinning rod) produced 2x 6lb salmon and a smaller sea trout but I was learning quickly the difference between spinning for sea fish and spinning for river species.
Having become a member of this syndicate, I spent my first year watching & learning from Richard and we caught salmon regularly and in that first year, had amassed quite a catch rate between us.To this day, I am still the only member of this syndicate who has received the '1st fish of the season' trophy 3 times. A record I am proud of but unable to now enhance on because I am not able to get up to the river as much as I did when I lived in the North East.
In my opinion, spinning remains one of those slightly scorned areas of fishing especially as far as salmon fishing goes, as there is without question, a much more skillfull way to catch salmon & that is on the fly. But do not under estimate the potential that spinning with lures has, especially on light tackle for hard fighting summer shore species. Take care to scale down the tackle accordingly and you can enjoy extreme fishing sessions with only a few lures & some local knowledge.
I started my fishing journey over 30 years ago as a young boy with a very cheap fishing rod spinning for mackerel in the few summer months we had in the North East. A 6 mile cycle to the fishing mark with a rod, reel and a few of those triangular mackerel spinners that you always seem to find in seaside tackle shops yielded very little reward for all my efforts, but I will never forget that first exciting take from a mackerel and from that moment onwards, I think I was 'hooked' on that art of spinning.
It's strange looking back 30 years and those years seem to have flown by. My friends have all got older but our friendship remains as strong now as it did all those years ago. The common bond we all share is fishing and we are passionate about that indeed. But as friends we have all had our ups and downs and we've always been there for each other.My first real taste of serious spinning was back in the mid eighties when my friend Steven & I spent a week in the Mull of Galloway. Since neither of us possessed a car & neither of us drove, I was fortunate enough to have an extremely good friend who was financially persuaded to take us to Mull, leave us & then return a week later to pick us back up again. Words cant describe friends who will go to those lengths and I will be forever grateful to my friend for making such a long drive twice within a week.
Having been dropped off on a remote headland (long before the days of mobile phones), Steven & I were left totally isolated, without any contact with the outside world. We camped on the beach and were totally self contained for that week in terms of food & water. The nearest village was 6 miles away or a good 90 minute walk. Being a virgin camper, my food supplies consisted of a weeks worth of pot noodles and crisps & biscuits. Steven on the other hand, had camped before & was much more sensible in his selection of non perishable foods-tinned raviolli & spaghetti were his food of choice. Luckily for us, the area is prolific in mackerel shoals so we were never that far away from a fishy meal if we wanted to.
We fished hard for that week-spinning every day for pollack and mackerel. Early mornings resulted in pollack up to 6lb which for us then, was a good result given the limited tackle choice we had. Pollack were more plentiful from Mull then, as they have since declined in numbers due largely we think, to over fishing in that area. Mackerel shoals were prolific in the bay area (luce bay) and we caught and returned dozens of pollack and mackerel that week. We targetted dogfish at night but they became quite a nuisance in numbers. But my spinning 'teeth' were cut during that week in Mull and we learned a considerable amount about deep spinning with redgills and toby lures. Working redgills just off the bottom was highly successful and when the pollack stopped feeding, we could target ballan wrasse just over the side using limpets as hookbait. We didn't need ragworm or peeler crab to enjoy great sport with hard fighting wrasse.
Some 10 years after that trip, I was fortunate enough to be successful in my application to join a local salmon club syndicate on the Tyne and all those years spinning for pollack on the west coast of Scotland would prove essential for my success with salmon fishing within the club.
My first outing for salmon was a harsh lesson in how not to translate sea fishing techniques to river fishing. My friend Richard was highly knowledgeable about the salmon beat and we spun on a fast stretch of water. I was insistent on 'working' the lure through the water and feeling proud of my sea fishing skills, fished the run right through without so much of a sniff. Richard followed in behind me and without 'working' exactly the same lure, hooked 3 sea trout from the same stretch I'd just fished! A harsh lesson indeed but one that I took away & learned from.
My next trip up the the same stretch of the Tyne meant I was better prepared & my second cast produced a fine 6lb sea trout. A gentleman not 30 yards away had been fishing that stretch of water all day without seeing a thing and commented on how we were so fortunate enough to land such a prized hard fighting fish. Local knowledge from Richard was the difference on that trip and I learned quickly from Richards vast knowledge of the river. My third trip (still with spinning rod) produced 2x 6lb salmon and a smaller sea trout but I was learning quickly the difference between spinning for sea fish and spinning for river species.
Having become a member of this syndicate, I spent my first year watching & learning from Richard and we caught salmon regularly and in that first year, had amassed quite a catch rate between us.To this day, I am still the only member of this syndicate who has received the '1st fish of the season' trophy 3 times. A record I am proud of but unable to now enhance on because I am not able to get up to the river as much as I did when I lived in the North East.
In my opinion, spinning remains one of those slightly scorned areas of fishing especially as far as salmon fishing goes, as there is without question, a much more skillfull way to catch salmon & that is on the fly. But do not under estimate the potential that spinning with lures has, especially on light tackle for hard fighting summer shore species. Take care to scale down the tackle accordingly and you can enjoy extreme fishing sessions with only a few lures & some local knowledge.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Looking forward to summer
As the frost starts to form on the cars outside, thoughts start to drift towards those warm summer evenings-which is a little unusual for me in my advancing years because for a good portion of my angling life, I have been found waist deep in the north sea in my birthplace of the Northeast, in the depths of winter waiting for the cod to bite. Those regular sessions are now a bit of a memory for me now, and having moved out of the North East, I am finding fishing thrills for other local species. Summer seems a little too far away right now especially as the car needs a good scrape in the morning, but when my summer contains exciting shore sport in search of hard fighting pollack & mullet, then a few minutes spent with a can of de-icer makes me appreciate those sun filled dawns on the west Scottish coast. But those trips involve considerable planning and thank goodness for the internet and on line shops. It's strange looking back on those photos from over 20 years ago when our trips to Scotland for pollack involved nothing more than one standard spinning rod, a reel and a pocket full of red gills & some spinners. Now we seem to take everything including a kitchen sink! Standard kit is now at least one carp rod of 2.5lb test curve or heavier, 2 rods gives more options, at least 3 spinning reels (a back up reel is always better), spare line, a huge assortment of red gills & every conceivable latex lure that's been created, enough 1oz ball leads to sink a boat, landing net, camera, food, drink and frozen sandeels. For some reason, my friends & I have chosen to fish marks that even the local wildlife struggle to get to so we usually have a long walk to whatever remote stretch of headland we fish-hence the need to be as self contained as possible. Personally I'd give a medal to the person who invented the water bladder of the type that cyclists use to great benefit. However, all that gear needs to be sorted & usually replaced year after year as the marks take their toll on our gear, so my winter evenings are now spent trawling through all those marvelous web sites looking at the growing assortment of artificial lures and armed with a suitable method of payment, I can now get the latest 7 inch super black rubber thingumybob delivered to my door. Isn't the internet marvellous. Of course, it will never replace the warm & friendly welcome you are always assured at the local tackle shop, but when your job usually keeps you past the time that shops stay open, then the internet is a salvation in terms of getting the gear sorted. Of course I usually end up buying a few extra lures for my friends with whom I've shared well over 20 years of memory filled gloriously happy times with, and our main summer lads away weekend has become a bit of a ritual in terms of giving each other new lures to use. Our banter is unique to us and is really what makes those trips away special. It's a catch up time for us-sometimes happy, occasionally sad, but always enjoyable. So, having been relieved of a few hard earned pounds tonight, I now eagerly await the sound of the letterbox.
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