The first mullet of the season

I'd been keeping an eye on the local river for the eagerly awaited arrival of the first mullet of the season. Living & working so close to the river is an advantage & as I walk along the river every day, then I always look forward to late April onwards as the thick lipped mullet usually start to show in small numbers. We had an unusually warm & dry April & to my amazement the mullet started to show in very limited numbers from mid April. I always carry a few slices of bread with me as I walk along the river just in case I spot any fish. It's then easy to tell if the fish are catchable by noting their reaction to the free bread offerings. I noticed that those few fish that arrived in April were certainly interested in the bread but whenever I brought my mullet gear along with me, they were either no where to be seen, or conditions were wrong-and so I've been waiting for the main bulk of the mullet to turn up before concentrating my efforts on the fish.
I had noticed a good many mullet now in the river recently & had arranged with my good friend Jason to have a couple of hours mullet fishing recently. It would be a nice change for Jason as he has been chasing huge bream & summer pike on lures at a local fishing hole. Jason is a both a skilfull angler and a stimulating person to be with so I was delighted when he expressed his intention to join me for the mullet.
Tackle was as simple as you can get-decent barbel/ledger rod, balanced 4000 size fixed spool reel, 8lb mainline & a few small controller floats. Grab the remains of the weekly loaf from the kitchen as bait & you are ready to get after these wonderfully sporting fish. Jason had brought along a selection of what I thought would be superb alternative bait of artificial maggots. And as mullet love the maggots found in weed on the shore then this was a cracking move by Jason.
A short walk along the river soon brought us to about a dozen mullet in a shallow stretch of the river. They appeared to be feeding on the weed on the river bed & I felt sure Jason's latex lovelies would do the business. I stuck with my tried & tested floating bread flake & targeted fish as they swam about. Several good fish mooched about near Jason's maggots but unfortunately none really showed positive interest. My bread was getting the same treatment. But then, after a few free offerings at close range, one bold mullet made such a commotion as it splashed & slurped up the bread which was typical because I was targeting a few fish on the far bank at the time. A quick re-bait & cast out to 'hungry harry' and suddenly the bait was gobbled up. But as is all too often with mullet in my own experience, the fish seem to pluck & suck the bait rather than engulf it and although the mullet was indeed taking the bait, it wasn't taking it in a manor that would result in a positive strike. I waited and waited until the fish took the bait properly but unfortunately the mullet left the hook clean without me getting a good striking chance. Would that be the only offer of the day?
The mullet seemed to then vanish without warning but my local knowledge led me to believe they'd moved slightly up river with the rising tide. We grabbed our gear & moved about 100 yards up river to a wider section which is a bit harder to fish due to the fact the fish could be anywhere. I observed a few flashes out in the middle of the river so felt we should have a few 'blind' casts in that area. Although I prefer to sight fish for mullet, I find that during certain conditions, you just have to 'trust your gut feelings' and sling your bait in the area you feel has the most likely chance of a take. Jason was still continuing with the artificial maggots & I still couldn't believe that he wasn't getting a take.
On my second cast, within 30 seconds of it hitting the water, a fish showed deliberate intent & hoovered up the bread with a convincing slurp & it was in ideal opportunity to strike. I duly set the hook & was expecting to have a good tussle. Unfortunately this was a dour scrap & within about a minute, the fish was expertly netted by Jason. A quick photo & a weigh to confirm the weight & the fish was duly returned, unharmed & swam off to join the other mullet. At 3 and a half pounds, it wasn't my biggest mullet but it's always nice to get the first mullet of the season weighed & photographed. We fished on for a short while longer but the tide was pushing & the mullet had moved even further up the river & at this stage of the tide, they were staying deep & particularly difficult to catch. Conditions were slightly against us as was the interest of the local duck population. With that in mind, we agreed that we had had an enjoyable session & would meet up later that week over a coffee & a coke to discus the next trip out. Would it be pike or more mullet? We'll have to wait & see......

National fishing day

It's been a while since I have posted a blog. Couple of reasons for that. The main reason is that I was diagnosed with a shoulder injury recently and the injury has kept me away from fishing since February. I'm currently waiting to receive some specialised treatment on the injury but until then, I am pretty well sidelined as far as fishing goes. In fact, today is only the second time I've been fishing since end January & today's session on 'national fishing day' (otherwise translated as royal wedding day) was only a few hours worth of fishing with my good friend Jason & yet again, he showed me how to winkle out a nice pike from the local fishing hole. Although Jason can take the credit for the catch, it was almost certainly my surface popping lure that got Mr Pikes attention & Jason was skillful enough to cast his plug right over the area I had just 'prepped' for him & he was able to coax a very nice jack out from the water.

We continued to wonder round looking for suitable fishy looking areas & although we found plenty of likely looking spots, none produced any offers. Mother nature however, was showing off all her beauty and today we had a wonderful bonus of observing bream in the shallows getting ready to spawn. It was truly a mesmerising sight & one I had never been privileged to see before. Unfortunately for me, my shoulder was causing me considerable pain & carrying a back pack & casting into a stiff headwind was proving more & more uncomfortable for me & so I ended up calling it a day not long into the afternoon.
In less than 2 months, I am having a short trip away with my 2 friends up to the west coast of Scotland in search of large pollack from the shore. I always look forward to a few treasured days away with my friends from the North East. It takes quite a bit of planning and we need that little bit of luck with the weather, but it's always nice to get away from work regardless of what nature throws at us and if we get lucky with a few pollack, then even better.
I caught up with my friends in the North East a couple of weekends ago & we got down to some serious planning whilst spending a few hours aboard my friends boat - 'Wor Lass'. And boy were we lucky with the weather for the planned afternoon in the North Sea a few miles out of the Tyne. Conditions were perfect - very light winds, glorious sunshine and rather warm for the time of year. As we motored out of the Tyne, we kept a close eye on the sonar & before long we were sitting over the first wreck & it produced a couple of fish for us. Using light tackle made the whole experience even more enjoyable but nonetheless hard work winching 3-4lb codling from 100feet. A few hours later, all 3 of us had a nice bag of 4 codling each-a nice share of the spoils & good reward for an afternoons inshore wrecking.

My only sorrow is that I live so far away from my North East friends that it is not easy for me to get time up to see my friends as often as I would like-and the current price of fuel means that for me, those trips will be few & far between. I'll eagerly await the updated reports from my friends as to how well they are doing when they get out in the boat.
Meanwhile, I will have to make do with getting my mullet tackle ready for the arrival of the thick lipped mullet in my local river. They should be starting to show in large numbers in the next week/10 days & with treatment on my shoulder only 19 days away, I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

The quest for adventure

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.

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.

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.