Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:43 am
People: Bruce Vaughan and myself
Duration: 12 noon -5 pm
Tide: around HW at 2 pm, but on a small tide
Weather: stunning
Bait: frozen mack, sandeels and various other things which to be honest could be described as "vintage". New bait please!
Rigs: rotten ground rigs, float rig
Results: several pollack, 1 mackerel
Catch and Release:: Yes to all but the mackerel
Report: Bruce took some nice pollack on this new mark in the last week or two, with several fish over 2 kilos and one just shy of the shore specimen weight (8 lbs). He wanted to fish it for wrasse it being a deep hole or gully with a strong tidal flow. I took the lure box and spinning rod.
Long trek. Stunning weather, absolutely soaked with sweat by the time we got to the first mark. Met some walkers out who had the right kit with them. Definitely not a spot you want to get caught on in bad weather, full Atlantic breakers, very exposed and no shelter until you get back to the car! Bruce got the float out and started to fish, I spun away with a Maver Moy Distinction 10 foot spinning rod, Shimano reel and 30 lb grauvell braid. The rod is nice, cheap apparently, and has quite a soft tip to it but a decent backbone which is a very useful combination for stopping big pollack. Anyhow, brilliant sunshine meant we had not expected much - the best pollack had been taken on the flood near darknesss near HW.
Nothing for the first hour and then Bruce lands - as it transpires the best pollack of the day - on the float. Stunning dark fish, clearly in from far deeper waters. Depth here was around 3-6 metres, possibly more in certain holes. Very uneven ground with a big swell and current, and this on what seemed a flat calm day. Would not like to be here in a storm!!!
Landed a nice standard shore pollack on a silver lure, around 1 kilo, and after some misses on the float and some plucky bites that never amounted to anything, we decided to move on to the final headland.
Another trek but what a mark! Really lovely stuff, very safe, sea otter swimming around below us, rocks shelving gently in from the sea, sheltered to the SW by rock walls, nice weedy margin and then sand, and around 10 metres of water under your feet! Damn near perfect...
Lost my first rig in the weeds but a fish followed the remains back up. Tried float fishing and took a nice small pollack. Changed to spinning and hooked what I thought was a sea trout on a surecatch pike lure (casts a mile, great little lure) and lost a very big mackerel at my feet. Much cursing ensured. Bruce landed a small pollack to a german sprat from nearby and I took another from above the kelpy rocks close in...
Finally added a few old hookais above the lure to try to find the macks and hooked what I thought was several mackerel. Nice fight on light gear and proceeded to land a truly massively long mackerel, definitely close if not exceeded 1 kilo. Bruce gutted it on the spot so we shall never know but definitely a PB. Funny, I had said that if the buggers grew to 4 lbs we'd never fish for anything else. Ain't that the truth! 8)
Anyhow, lovely day out, nose burnt off my face as usual, very enjoyable.
We know the ground offshore is very rough, slides of sand in between reefs and that it harbours all sorts of lovely fish - double figure turbot and cod have been claimed by reputable boat anglers. We'll be back, and we might even consider giving it a lash after a gale in the depths of winter.
Tight lines