Just came doon from the isle of Skye

We had an early start on Thursday morning driving up to fort William where Col and I had arranged to meet up with his brother Lindsay, after a much needed coffee we then continued on the journey to the Isle of Skye for a long weekend of non stop fishing, yippee!
After what seemed like an age we eventually arrived at our chosen mark, a sea loch at the north west of the island, firstly we tackled up our lrf rods to see what was about on the rocky outcrop in front of us, and It didn't take long for the bites to start coming to bits of raw prawn, we landed some small pollack, coalfish, poor cod and the ones we were really after, Ballan wrasse.

nice orange one for col

the sea was a little too rough with the northerly wind to comfortably fly fish for Pollack so later on in the day we upped sticks and went of to try another more sheltered mark which was a new one to us, it looked great but despite trying every rocky outcrop around the bay we failed to connect with any pollack, never mind it had been a long tiring day so we went back to our accommodation for some food and a couple of beers to end the day.

Friday morning feeling revitalised after a good nights sleep we decided to fish the same venue as the day before, we did have other marks in mind but this one seemed like the best bet what with the wind direction and it also had the benefit of only being  a short drive from the cottage where we were based. Over coffee in the morning we discussed how cool it would be to catch a cuckoo wrasse, and would you believe it, it only took Col about five minutes after starting to fish, jammy sod!

 

another couple of females followed from the same area

Lindsay caught a monster of a sea scorpion!

Col and Lindsay seemed to be catching plenty of poor cod, it took me a while on the other hand but i got one in the end, pretty little fish.

 plenty more ballans about too

another new wrasse species for Col, a rock cook 

later on in the day Col landed a couple of pollack on the fly from his "rock" before the wind picked up, all in all a great days fishing

On Saturday morning we headed into Portree to see if we could buy any more raw prawns and some leads, we got the leads ok but no luck with the prawns, we did notice however that the harbour was stuffed with Mackerel so we grabbed the rods from the car and caught a few for chucking out a bait on the big rods later on. So after some food we were back at the same spot yet again! Col thought there would be a good chance of a goldsinny and he was right!

Lindsay's big rod with the mackeral bait registered a bite, it turned out to be a dogfish which was quite exciting for us as non of us had ever caught or even seen one before.

Col took some more rock cook wrasse on tiny bits of squid

after a while we decided on a move so headed around to Neist Point where we took some nice Pollack on the fly, orange clousers worked well as did chartreuse, great fun on the fly rod.

on Sunday morning Lindsay headed for home whilst col and i had one last chuck for an hour or so, i failed in my attempt to catch a rock cook wrasse but Col took a few Pollack from his rock to end a great weekends fishing, can't wait until next year! 

Its all the rag!

At the weekend myself and Brian went to St. Abbs to see if the wrasse would show up. There was quite a cold breeze blowing and i dont know if it was a factor , but it was a no show on the wrasse front. But the sea scorpions and the flounders were there and they kept us busy through out the day. A visit to Ebbscar cafe on the harbour was great to get out the cold wind and fill our bellies, next time we will make sure we get there before 11am just to get the full English breakfast!

Yesterday i had a visit to Burntisland with the sun shining brightly an a warm day it looked like a great day to sit by the Fife coast.

First place to visit was the Bakers shop , where i got myself a scotch pie and a baked bean and potato one of the same variety .

Stomach contented i set up for a afternoon  in the harbour , the target once again wrasse.
I drop shotted angle worms,  gulp sandworms  and isome had the odd pluck but no real commitment in the bites . Then a gent offered me some rag worms , using a small sections the bites came fast and furious and i began to pick up wrasse steadily through out the day , all ballans , nothing big but beautifully coloured , and great fighters, i also had a small pollock a few tiny coalfish and a blenny, surprisingly no goldsinnys today .

As high tide approached and the ebb began , the bites slowed so i called it a day a little burnt from the sun  , next time ill also have to remember my sun screen and ill be sure to dig a few  Rag for back up.

Pollocks and paracetamol at the Pinnacles

For our last day we were tempted to go back to the loch we fished on the Friday, but that would be predictable , so we went to a new mark on the north eastern side of the island known as the pinnacles.
On the way we stopped for plasters and paracetamol as Brian had a sorehead., the Skye version of the tour DE France made the journey a bit slower than usual we passed a few landmarks such as the old man of Storr.

It was a lovely day the sea flat calm we arrived an hour after high tide , plan was to fish the tide down then back up again , with a bit lrf  during the middle part of the day just to mix it up and probably

more importantly give our arms a rest.

First few casts i took 3 small pollock,  Brian took another then it went dead.

So we went looking for a decent rock with good depth to fish from, depth seems to be the key, a deep gulley fringed with kelp being ideal. brian spotted a rock which looked good so we went there.
He quickly took the first decent fish of the day on his lure rod he had taken a gulp Sand eel.

I stuck stubbornly with the fly rod , couldn't get a fish on a clousers so changed to a chartreuse and white deceiver dressed on a 1/0 hook , this seemed to be getting a response , the fishing was extremely visual with fish appearing behind my fly 20-30ft down following , sometimes they would take most times they would turn away at the last minute. Sometimes a take would be registered by watching the White fly only for it to disappear, then it was fish on.

 Others you could clearly make out the fish , and you would be willing for it to take, on one occasion a massive pollock followed my chartreuse and red clousers, only for it to turn its nose up last minute I could almost work out the unconvinced expression on his face as it slid away into the depths , which only left me punching the air in frustration and shouting obscenities in its general direction.

I now also had a sore head, perhaps too much sun? So I went for a walk , by the time I returned Brian announced he had just had his first lrf wrasse, he followed that up withe two more and a colourful long spined sea scorpion.

beautiful or ugly?

I managed a poor cod when I decided to have a break from the fly, then after trying unsuccessfully for a wrasse I decided to try for pollack on the soft plastics, when I got a few modest pollock.

A late return to the fly rods seen a few more pollack followed by a late appearance of some coal fish , speaking to another angler  it seemed we hadn't done to bad in the bright conditions as many had blanked even the boats struggled.

On that orange fly again

That concluded our fishing in skye as the following morning we headed for home. Another trip wiser we will be returning again next year for some more of the same.

Skye Road trip day 2 (Pollack fest)

Next day we woke early just after 5 am after probably not the best nights sleep. The wind had got up through the night an 18mph from the south  , got showered and brewed a coffee and were on the way to a sheltered sea loch i fished with some success in south westerlies in July. we were on the water by 6:30am , two hours before high water.

We fished the most obvious outcrop first, the tides were spring tides so the water was much higher than usual , and strangely the deepest water off the end wasn't fishing that great , i had the first few fish some small pollack.

 and it wasn't till Brian moved to my inside he got sport as the tide came in until sport almost dried up altogether,

unfortunately Brian's fly line sustained some damage it was the 2nd line in 2 days , the same thing happened to me last month on my family holiday , perhaps a durability issue or maybe just the harsh environment taking its toal?

I got itchy feet and just after high tide decided to head for another part of the mark where "my[cols] rock" is , first two casts two fish the second being a nice one.

Brian noticing the action soon  followed. It was fish after fish for me.

 Brian though found it a bit frustrating trying to get the distance with his damaged fly line and missed out on the best of the sport, though he still managed a good few.

 his smaller fish in the pic below took a orange fly , which turned out to be a great fly, more later.

   We decided at 1:30 to retreat for some coffee. we started to boil the kettle on the stove then it ran out of gas, left the others in the tent , so in the end we decided to head back to the camp via the "fishing shop" and return later for the incoming tide. First though i looked out a line i repaired from my last trip  and we put it on Brian's reel for later .

On our way back to camp we tried to get some mackerel for bait with the intention of putting a couple of rods out early on in the tide , the best we could do was these pieces of fossilised salted mackerel , £1.80 each , looks like the shop keeper saw us coming!

crap bait!

After that we went and looked at another mark but it looked a bit choppy so after a bite to eat and a coffee we were fit to return for 5pm  .

It was a really grotty wet evening and the midges were out in force. We took the bait rods complete with fossilised mackerel, and lobbed them out hoping for a dogfish or perhaps a thornback ray. Meanwhile we pottered about till the tide came in with LRF gear. The odd baby pollack took hold, and i toyed with what i think was a small wrasse till it eventually got fed up with me .

lrf pollack

The bait rods went untouched , it wasn't that surprising really the bait was crap resembling a piece of leather. So i reeled them in with the tide now looking good for a bit fly sport. I headed out to my rock , meanwhile Brian loaded his spinning rod with a sand eel , rigged Texas style but still had the hook on from drop shotting , and he caught a coalfish on the bare hook, he then decided to put on a 2" hto knights lure on that hook, and promptly took a good  pollack  just over 4lb, it appears the pollack there like small lures over large as he went to take a few more , we also  found that  in our fly choice with size 2 clousers being best .

on a pink hto knight worm

Out on the rock i tied on a red fly took a few pollack before hooking a good one he was beat on the surface when the hook popped out, reckon he was about 6lb , never mind .

marooned!

Brian then joined me with the fly rod and was happy with the fly line on the reel , which was getting good distance , and we caught   loads of pollack, the best 6lb for Brian followed by another around 5lb both on his  effective all orange clouser  . In all for our day i reckon we had around 70-80 pollack between us , great sport.

6lb

orange fly does the trick again

Thoroughly contented we headed back to base camp after what had been a long day , not at any speed though as we ushered a herd of cattle along the way  .

The usual beers consumed and then off to our tents for some sleep in preparation for our last day fishing.


 

Skye road trip day 1

Finally our yearly trip away had had arrived After a few weeks of planning .  Brian picked me up at 7 am on the Thursday , we were heading for the Isle of Skye.
 We arrived stopped for a bite to eat on the way  , and arrived at Dunvegan campsite.  We got out tents set up , with a bit of difficulty,  and brewed up a coffee before heading out fishing. As the light easterly wind looked favourable we headed for  Skyes most western point  famous for its fishing and whale watching opportunities called  Neist point.

We  arrived at  the mark  just an hour or so  after low tide, so the plan was to fish it up to high tide , or until it got dark as it was beautiful warm day with the sun shining.

We headed out the front to the rocks to the left of the lighthouse armed with the fly gear . And Brian hooked a coalfish on his first cast.

 It was almost a fish a cast and in almost consecutive casts i completed the grand slam of a coalie,then a mackerel then a small pollack , if i had a bit foresight i would have kept the mackerel for bait , but i was confident we would not struggle to catch them at other marks, i was wrong as it was the only one of the weekend !

Brian finally  managed a decent pollack out the front on his chartreuse/white  clouser but most of the fare was with the coalies and a family group fishing feathers along side us were pulling them in groups of 3 and 4  .

Coalfish

 The minkie whales also put in a show occasionally porpoising at distance, a great sight.

from out the front

For the last hour and nearing high tide, we decided to fish the harbour in Moonen   Bay , here the sport was much better we both got pollock Brian with the best of them going over 4lb.

A stoater!

It had been a good days fishing , difficult at times to locate quality fish particularly out the front  perhaps it was the bright weather ?

After that we took the steep walk  back to the car then returned to the campsite cooked up some sausages  a couple of beers then went to get some sleep for day 2.