After the lord mayors show.

After such a stunning days fishing with Steve & Kev on the previous day, it was always going to be hard to follow that and the mood in the caravan on the sunday morning was slightly downbeat. It had been a somewhat disturbed night at times with very strong winds battering the sides of the caravan & the rain sounding like someone throwing stones at the outside of the carvan all night. It was cold as well, and as I cooked up the last of the bacon, sausages & eggs, we discussed the plan of attack for fishing on such a vile summers day. Indeed, the key word here was 'summer'. It was in fact the back end of June & here we were on the west coast of Scotland, staring at gale force winds and driving rain & a daytime temperature of 9 degrees. Had this been April or October, I wouldn't have minded, but the end of June? It just didn't seem right & I couldn't get my mindset into the fact that this was summer.
The full English breakfast went down well, and we began to sort out the gear that we would need for the days session. Watching tv was ruled out so we got our gear together & prepared to do battle against the elements. I had decided to err on the side of caution & wore 7 layers of clothing - a wicking base layer, followed by a thermal body suit, then a tee shirt, another mid layer, a fleece shirt and 2 - yes TWO rain coats. Over the top? I don't think so. I had wanted to wear full neoprene chest waders but I let Steven & Kevin talk me out of that as they figured that I'd sweat like a pig on the long walk to the mark we had decided to fish-the same mark as the previous day. I must admit they had a point, but I did like the idea of keeping dry. But I let my mind rule my heart & I opted for light waterproof over trousers in a vain attempt to compromise lightness yet maintain dryness. I was wrong!
It was a predictably wet walk-very wet. And the wind sounded like a constant express train in your ears. Standing up was a challenge, let alone walking. Now I like watching Bear Grylls. I think he's great & admire him so much, but I tell you, the conditions we endured on that walk to the fishing mark would push even his reserve to the max. It took an age to walk to the rock mark. It was then that I discovered that the lightweight waterproof over trousers weren't. And my supposedly water proof walking boots were not. In fact, I would have been altogether drier if I'd jumped straight into the sea which was by the way, in a state of 'getting rough'. And then there was the cold. Bone chilling, skin numbing cold. Combined with the rain & the wind, it was not a million miles away from how we would fish during the depths of winter on the north east coast for codling. But now it was the end of June & it was a strange way to fish in summer.

We arrived at the location  & began to set up the gear. Even that was a struggle. With the extra layers on, everything took so much longer to do so I had decided to stick to simple rigs & hopefully not have to re-rig too often during the day. And so we began to fish the area. It was predictably hard. The fish were not as abundant as they were the previous day which is hardly surprising given the drastic change in conditions. All credit to Steven & Kevin-they battled away in the elements & caught pollack throughout the day. Another ling came in, this time to Steven & it was a good fish at about 3lb. Finding any sort of shelter or protection from the elements was almost impossible as we were on a very exposed rock ledge. It was a simple matter of put up & shut up. But it's hard to keep spirits up when conditions are so extreme. We were all wet & all cold but despite the conditions, we'd still managed to catch. Steven ended his day with a cracking 6lb 6oz pollack
which justified all his efforts & was a well earned reward for such brutal conditions. Kevin averaged a good 4lb catch rate & he too got fitting reward for sticking in at the task. I finished the day with a 9 pollack haul with the best fish knocking on the 5lb mark. Photos were rare on that day given that it was so windy & wet, but I did manage a few snaps for the photo album. It was a brutal walk back to the car & it was made all the more hard by the condition we were all in. I'm sure Steve & Kevin were looking forward to getting into the dry caravan & tucking into a hot dinner-which was going to be sausage casserole. I have to say that it was the best meal of the 4 days, and it was a perfect meal to warm us all up. We stoked up the small gas fire in the caravan & started to attempt to dry out the clothes. It wasn't going to work. But it was our last night so we really didn't mind that much. We agreed that this had been probably our best trip to date even though the weather had done it's level best to spoil our last day. We had discussed what we hoped for on the journey up & what tactics we would use and I think it's fair to say that we succeeded in most of what we wanted. We fell short of the elusive double figure pollack that we have so longed for, but it's likely that we may well have lost fish that came very close to that. The biggest landed was 7.5lb and with a second biggest fish at 6.6lb, which by any standards was a great result. An average fish of 4lb and plenty of happy memories for us all to take away. Job done.

Red letter day

It is an over used title for sure. I'm sure most of us as anglers have had at least one red letter day. That special fishing trip where we caught unforgettable fish or weight of fish. I've had a few red letter days in my fishing life. I've had spectacular codling sessions from the shore when conditions were perfect, I've had great cod sessions when conditions looked unfishable, but I adapted to those conditions & had some great catches. I've also had superb salmon sessions with one memorable red letter day when I had 2 salmon & 2 sea trout in half an hour-the salmon were 12 & 14lb & the sea trout 6lb & 4lb. Those days will live with me for the rest of my life, but the latest red letter day on the west coast of Scotland ranks up there with the best of them.
The day started like the previous morning-a few sleepy looking characters waking up to a full English breakfast and a good cup of coffee. We then discussed where we would fish. Conditions were quite different to the previous day-gone was the clear blue sky & light winds. We now had over cast skies, a bit more wind & it was a lot cooler. Steven has always been of the opinion that sunshine & flat seas are not good for pollack fishing. After the previous days disapointing session in those conditions, I was coming round to agree with him. And so we all agreed we would have to return to the mark we fished when we arrived. It would mean a bit of a hike across fields again, but we'd have daylight this time & we knew the area we would be fishing.
Which leads me onto the tackle we use. I haven't mentioned the specific gear we use for our pollack fishing-it seems like a good time to go in to that. My own personal choice is for a good beefy carp rod-12 ft 3lb test curve as standard. I have found the TF range of carp rods suit these needs perfectly as these give me great feedback & power when I need it. For the reel, I prefer a Shimano fixed spool reel. I find these are dependable, strong & have superb clutches. I've never had any problems with shimano reels & have used them for 20 years now. Choice of line is extremely important for us & I've been a fan of braid for many years now. It's direct response is just wonderful. I'd just invested in some whiplash braid but I was finding that it wasn't quite responding well to hard casting. I decided to go back to using one of my spare shimano reels loaded with fireline-which I find is a much more resistant to my style of hard casting. But that's down to choice. I prefer to use 17lb braid-purely because of habit. I used to use 17lb nylon or co-polymer & the diameter was just right to fill up the spool on the reel with. Obviously with braid you get more bang for your buck, but I've never changed the breaking strain & so I stuck with 17lb mainline. The business end of the gear is as simple as you can get. There's no point making anything complicated for pollack. You have to get down deep for them & you are fishing rough ground. If you get too fancy with rigs & end tackle, you just end up asking for problems. So keep it nice & simple. I use 1oz ball leads straight on the main line with a small bead running up to a swivel. A 2 or 3 foot rubbing leader is then tied direct - usually about the same breaking strain as the main line. If you are using frozen sandeel, a 3/0 or 4/0 hook is tied direct. I have experimented with using the leads on a sacrificial drop line-still running through the main line but in the event of a snag, there is a good chance the weight will snap still leaving you connected to the fish.
Kevin prefers to use an 8 foot beach caster tip section & reducer butt coupled with a 6500 size multiplier & 30lb braid. I used to think that was too much for the fish, but Kevins approach gives great security & can easily deal with one of those unexpected biggies that we are sure we will connect with. It works for Kevin.
Steven uses a similar set up to me-carp rod, fixed spool reel & also 30lb braid. As it would turn out, the lads choice of braid was probably a wiser choice than mine.They had that extra security to increase their rubbing hook leader to 20-25lb whereas I was limited to 17lb or less. A good haversack or hiking backpack, some containers to carry weights, hooks & odd bits and a good assortment of lures & you are good to go. As far as the lures went, we had built up a substantial assortment of different & favorite lures over the years. My recent favoured lures were of the slug type. There are slug-n-go eels that give superb action in the water, and there are also hogeys which are similar in make but give an astonishing action when worked in the water. Fished texas style, they give a little bit of extra help when fished deep as the hook is fished upwards & therefore avoids immediate hook ups in weed & rocks. We also love using redgills with red & natural a firm favorite but we had also got some newer versions to try-blue mackerel & glow in the dark versions. Would they work on the pollack? We'd have to wait to see.
We packed the haversacks with an assortment of lures, some waterproofs & food & drink. I'd brought some Asda pork pies for lunch on the rocks. We loaded the car with the gear & set off for a relatively short drive to the mark we fished 2 days earlier. Although it was overcast & cooler than the day before, it was still a good day to fish. As we drove up to the small car park area, we happened to bump into the farmer we saw on the night we arrived. We thanked him for such wonderful information & he divulged some further information on the better of the 2 marks. We were getting very excited about this & we had high hopes of a good day ahead.
We set off in search of the mark-through the fields, looking for landmarks & avoiding the rabbit holes that were abundant in the area. As someone who has suffered more than his fair share of sprained ankles, I am extra cautions about walking over ground like this as one misplaced step will result in me spending the next few hours in some casualty department waiting to get one of those expandable ankle socks. I really didn't want that this time.
After an hour of pretty stiff walking, we had failed to find the better mark & so we had agreed to go to the mark we started at 2 days previously. It was a fairly comfortable mark to fish and didn't seem that brutal on the end gear. Having had a very good couple of hours there previously, we all wondered if it would produce the same sort of fishing over a longer spell & during the day rather than in the evening. The sea was a little choppier than before & it was certainly not t-shirt weather so a coat & jumper were needed to keep the cool wind off. We chose our first cast baits & lures & got ready to send the first casts seaward. I was starting off with rubber lures again-a hogey this time. I also had flashbacks to the seal attack & scanned the sea for any sign of a bobbing head-just in case. There seemed to be no sign of the seal & so we aimed our cast seaward & crossed our fingers.

The first few casts produced nothing. Was this a good idea? Then, suddenly Kevin & Steven got some action-the frozen sandeels were doing their job. Then my shimmer eel got hit by my first pollack. Steven & Kevin were getting almost a fish a cast. I decided to move slightly down from them onto a more exposed point which was on the corner of a bay. That worked for me. I started to get some hard takes from pollack averaging 4lb each. We were also having to deal with changing currents. One minute the current was pulling slack, then it began to pick up to a much stronger level & we then found our lures and weights getting hung up on a ledge that was about 10-15 yards out. But the pollack were also sitting on this ledge so it was a trade off. Speed up the retrieve before the ledge & avoid the inevitable snag, or keep the lure working & tempt a take from the pollack. The frozen sandeel continued to keep a steady rate of hits for Steven & Kevin whilst I persisted with a variety of latex immitations. Steve & Kevin were also at an advantage to me because they had sensibly stepped up their mainline to 30lb braid which gave them a much greater chance of bullying a fish out of the ledge & kelp. Kevin's beachcaster tip set up also enabled him to really bully stubborn fish out.

Steven decided to change to a red redgill & this was an inspired change. 8 fish in 9 casts came in from that. Kevin continued to haul out pollack on his reliable & beefed up outfit & then produced a small ling on a frozen sandeel. That was a first for us-we'd never seen that before. By mid afternoon, after several hours of arm wrenching pollack action, I called for lunch-much to the annoyance of the lads who were reluctant to give up their fish a cast average. But the promise of an Asda pork pie was enough to get them both to have a rest for 20 minutes & we chatted about the mornings action. For sure, we'd not experienced anything like this before and we were keen to get started after lunch.

However, things went strangely quiet & for the first 5-10 minutes, we didn't get any hits. I was beginning to think that lunch was perhaps a bad idea & then the fun started again. The fish were back on the take & we were getting 2 & 3 ups.
The tide hit top water & the actions slowed down, but once the tide began to shift & the current picked up again, the fish were still keen to take. We all moved up & down the rock mark, finding different platforms to cast from. By about 7pm, we'd noticed a very positive drop off in takes & we decided to call it a day. A red letter day at that. We all reckoned we had landed 30 fish each-and that was being conservative. At an average of 3lb a fish and allowing for the odd bigger fish that we had all had, we estimated that we had landed 300lb of pollack between us. By any standards, that is a phenomenal haul and made the walk back (not as boggy as the previous visit) all the more sweeter. And to round off the day, circling over the car was an eagle. We're not that good at wibbly-wob spotting so none of knew for sure what kind of eagle it was, but it rounded off the perfect day. And for tea, it was a home made chilli, washed down with a few bottles of cold beer. What better way to finish off the day. The only downside was the forecast for our last day-end of the world stuff. Gale force winds and persistent rain. It was not going to be a pleasant day to finish our short trip on, but we'd come to fish & fish we would.

Perfect weather, not so perfect fishing

June 2011
The 'wind' had died down during the night-or at least it had died down in Stevens bedroom! We woke early on the Friday morning and it was time to refuel our bodies with a good old fry up. Bacon, sausage & eggs were hastily rustled up & served along with some fresh cups of coffee. Outside, the weather had turned summery-cobalt blue skies, a few drifty little clouds & a very flat calm looking sea. We had a picture perfect setting in our little caravan & once we'd got breakfast out of the way, we assembled the gear for a full days hard fishing and loaded the car up ready to set off for our next chosen mark. We couldn't set off before taking a few choice photos of the harbour we were situated in, so we could remember it in all it's glory.
An hour later, we were pulling up at a very remote spot. It looked simply gorgeous. A yacht was slowly making it's way round the headland & it was just begging to be photographed. We were being given the full treatment today from the area we were going to fish. If nothing else, it was going to be a nice day to fish. But before that, we had the small matter of a few steep hills to negotiate. Normally I wouldn't mind, but when you have a days worth of tackle with you at an area notorious for it's snaggs, plus spare rods, food & drink, those hills become mountains. Half an hour later, we were setting up our gear again, ready to do battle with pollack again on day 2 of our 4 day expedition. Steven & Kevin had opted to start off with frozen sandeel-a wise choice at this location given it's reputation & the devistating effectiveness of frozen sandeels on pollack. As with the previous night, I had opted for rubber (lure that is, not attire). I'd selected a shimmer eel which given the extreme depth we'd be fishing, I figured I'd be at an advantage with the strong sunlight & reflectiveness of the latex lure. A quick dip in 'pollack crack' - aka sandeel oil, and I was ready to cast.

As with the previous day, we all cast out together & I must say we were all tense winding in that first cast. But we had nothing on the first cast, or second. In fact, despite the perfect weather, the pollack were not playing. Then after an hour, something grabbed my frozen sandeel (yes, I'd changed to the real deal and also boosted it's appeal by giving it an oil bath). The line went tight & then sizzled off the reel. The rod kicked & buckled under the strain & I knew this was either another seal attack, or I was connected to something substantial. Several agonising minutes passed & I had to work hard to bully this fish out & stop it from getting it's head into the kelp & rocks. I was still suffering from a serious shoulder injury & my arm was aching & I had to adapt how I played the fish as I just couldn't give the rod as much clout as I normally would. Then, out of the crystal blue depths I got my first glimpse of what I was connected to and I knew it was big. I shouted for the drop net & Steven duly came to my assistance. As the fish wallowed on the surface, I could see this was my best pollack by a long way. I was nervous as Steven skillfully guided the net towards the monster and I slid the fish over the lip. Stevens timing was perfect & he hauled the fish up the side of the rocks and we then got our first look at the prize. It was obvious that this was indeed a very nice fish & we weighed the fish in the net. We had a small audience-a dutch couple had stopped to watch us & they were clicking away on there cameras. The scales went on & the fish & net were weighed. Taking into account the weight of the net, we put the pollack at 7.5lbs. Cameras were at the ready & a few trophy shots were taken. Bragging rights were mine now. My priority now was to get the fish back into the water quickly & we put the great fish in the drop net & lowered it back into the sea. It took a few anxious seconds but the fish slipped away out of the net & bolted straight down into the clear blue water. So, that was the target we had to beat. But for some reason, the fishing was agonisingly slow. Kevin picked up a few nice fish-all between 2 & 4lb. We worked through the lures-redgills, shimmer eels, frozen sandeels, shads. They all got an outing. But despite all our efforts, we just couldn't get any action. We decided to pass an hour by fishing for wrasse. Kevin was the first to lure these beautiful fish out of the kelp with float fished ragworm. Steven then got into the action and these were the first fish he had caught this day.
I managed to winkle out a small wrasse but went back to trying to tempt pollack. The sea state changed slightly as we moved into the afternoon but it was still a very pleasant day to fish. But still the pollack were elusive. By 4pm, we were more than frustrated & Steven suggested giving it one more hour before calling it a day. This was unheard of. Steven is a formidable pollack angler. He never blanks. But here he was looking at a blank session at a mark that had been so productive for us in the last 2 visits to it. But, as with all the best trips and with time running out, Steven had his day saved by a passing pollack that probably nudged 3lb but as far as Steven was concerned, it had saved his blank and all credit to him, he fished hard & persevered & this is the ultimate lesson to all of us. We fished on with slightly renewed enthusiasm, but we still were unable to catch any more pollack. By 5pm we all agreed it was time to say goodbye to what was usually our most productive mark. Whilst it didn't produce numbers of pollack, it did produce my best pollack to date & that was worth it's weight in gold. I was assured that it took an hour to drive back to the caravan, but I thought it only took 20 minutes. Someone reckoned I was alseep. We all tucked into a good hot curry-another home made effort by me and the lads agreed that it was a fitting end to the day. The lads ended the night in a local drinking establishment whilst I sorted out my gear ready for the next day. The forecast was not as good and it was not looking good for a couple of days ahead. But we'd have to see what the next day would bring.....

'Seal' of approval

June 2011
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 a crack off-not a good start. Kevin & I made safe casts & Kevin soon got into the first fish on his first cast. A promising start. A nice 3lb pollack was duly landed & I had a second cast. Steven was still busy setting up his next rig & my second cast produced an aggressive take. The fish battled hard & it had been a long time since I had had a such a hard fighting fish. But as the fish was close to being landed, all hell broke loose. The pollack went absolutely nuts, bending the 3lb tc rod to it's absolute limit. My mind began to rush ahead & started to wonder if this was possibly a double figured pollack-the holy grail for us. Then, as I started to make line on it, Kevin yelled out "shark" and I had a sudden panic. Shark? Here? I suddenly got a vision from jaws. I don't know why-I just did. I peered over the rock ledge just in time to see half a ton of spotty blubber with a twin tail, chasing my prized catch. It took a second or two for it to register but I realised this was no shark, it was a seal and it was after an easy supper. Sadly for the pollack on the end of my line, supper was most certainly going to be it. And with one skillful turn, the seal engulfed the pollack-estimated to be an easy 4lb. The line briefly screamed off the reel before the inevitable snap & with that, it was goodbye to one of my few slug-n-go lures but more importantly a good pollack met an unfortunate end. Much to my mates amusement, I had now adopted a new nickname of 'Seal'.
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.......