Shetland 2015

2015 has kicked off.

started by getting my shore rods out and bagging a decent bag of flounders with the best going just over 41cm.

Next up was the Shetland trip.

WOW

day 1 was a late start due to the weather but once the gale had blown through then it was all systems go.
we were soon on he mark and it was all cod. started with double shots of mid teens but soon we were into 20+ fish.
for the day we had a best of 29bs for Mark. 3 x 27-28lbs and many more 25lb fish.
every lure worked well.

day 2 was an early start and again once at the first mark we were again into hoards of fish.
best ling fell to Craig at 30lbs, to add to that we had several in the 20's. a few cod and coalfish came over the gunnels at this mark in the low teens.
we moved and mark 2 was just a coalie bonanza with double and triple shots for those foolish enough. the average size was about 16lbs with the best for Colin at 21.5lbs. to add I had a cuckoo ray and Mark had a whiting.

day 3 was cruel. severe gale, least said...

a great trip with everyone getting UK PB's.

I will add some pics and videos as they get done through the editing suite.

 

2014 fish

A few fish from 2014 - hopefully some to repeat this year....

2015

Been a log time since i blogged. demands on time through work and other interests has seen the amount of angling done drop significantly.

had a couple of god holidays in the last year and have purchased another SW caravan so summer sport should see an increase.

last year seen the tope sport a bit patchy likewise the mackerel. The bass fishing was okay however to be honest the number of trips was minimal.
what was strange was the number of codling caught from the shore in the autumn!

Ireland was excellent as usual with plenty of Blue shark, however the mullet were thinner on the ground due to excessive commercial work.
Cape Verde was superb both boat and shore.

lets see what this year brings.
to date no east winds at the weekend and we are into Feb?

After months of trying to find the angling Mojo December has seen an increase of interest.

I have had a couple of trips North, one to a west coast sea loch and the other a north east shore trip.

First trip was aboard the boat and the fishing was to start slow with all the usual marks producing a few dogs and a couple of eels to 20lbs. after a couple of marks we took a bit of a punt on a mark i hadn't tried for a few years and bingo the fish were home.
Overall we had 6 double figured fish with the best spur topping 15lbs with a broken infected tag in place. to that we added a couple of smallish rays and a couple more dogs before it all went earily quiet. Then the reason became apparent as the back rod arched over in that familiar hoop. its one of those strange moments in angling whether you don't know why but you are slightly relieved when the hook pulls and the bait comes back totally crushed! Skate on, skate off! on a day with no fish your delighted to get one however today the thought of a long battle wasn't top of the adgenda. you make up your own mind on that one?

After that we headed out with the shore rods hoping the gale that had taken place would have stirred things up nicely. we were surprised to se how calm it had become so quickly. obviously the feeding had been good and easy as the fish were sluggish. i had a particularily good day with my 2nd fish of the day being the slugger in the picture. to add to that one i had several around the 4lb mark however my fishing mate had one of those days quickly forgotten, it did start well with 2 in his first 2 casts but fell away quickly. its good to get a couple of decent trips in as its rejuvinated the spirit so there may be more 2012 trips to go yet.

 

2012 review

Its been a bloody awful year for weather. think that's the thing everyone will remember about 2012 when all the memories of summer sports events dies away.

To be honest my enthusiasm for my lifelong passion has been severely tested this year and with fishing in general becoming harder and harder some of the joy has gone. however i can think of a couple of occasions this year when i remembered what i see in it and why i enjoy it. Nothing better than a nice calm, sunny, warm day afloat and at the same time getting your string pulled on a frequent basis. Add to that time away from work spent with family and friends then its a very good reason to go. Back to my opening those days have been hard to find.

the winter started normally, cold with periods of snow. Kind of what we expect in Winter!

After a warm weather cruise we managed a couple of trips up north to see one relatively successful trip and the other was well the opposite.
Next up was a trip North but this time to the East coast for some shore sport this time we had a relatively successful trip but couldn't find a lunker to add to a combined bag of some 16 fish between 2-5lbs. this was to prove our one and only venture this way as again the weather gods conspired to be calm the weekends we could manage and howl a gale the ones we couldn't.

Spring saw the weather turn very freaky with hot and sunny in March and the start of April! very unusual normally summer comes for 2-3 weeks in May.

However we did slot in 2 trips for skate and both were highly successful with Alan and i bagging a total of 6 fish all bar 1 over 150lbs with Alan once again adding to the growing tally of 199lb fish he has captured over the years. Is it just me but we must have a different tape measure to most as he cannot break that barrier so easily passed by some others!

during the period where the weather gods smiled upon us we had some nice pollack fishing added to a couple of relatively successful trips to the SW where we found several early season tope. things at this stage were starting to look good fishing and weather wise.

By now the weather had changed and we were chasing good days which were few and far between especially at the weekends. Even the change of tactics and taking week days into consideration could n't help matters all that much. pick a wednesday and it would be good tuesday get the pattern. however we did get a couple of days and the fishing was reasonable without really being red hot, bit of that is setting the bar far too high at times after past adventures. However a couple of highlights were a shoal of bream so Alan could pop his cherry well and truly, a mark where Huss came thick and fast for a couple of hours and a new tope mark which proved very fruitful one afternoon. we never got back to any of these marks after the initial visit as they are all exposed and the weather dictated a no return for the rest of the summer.

 

 

By now we were well into the summer months and i was desperate to get Shetland ticked off my to do list but again a familiar theme and the weather decided it would take 2 attempts however it was well worth the effort for once and was probably the angling highlight of the year. Not often you can get cheesed off catching double figured fish 2 at a time especially cod. Shetland is the place. For now! Hope it lasts...

 After this my angling has been extremely limited and i have blogged the trips since.
What with the weather, builders crawling over the house for weeks and weeks, work we decided a 2nd Cruise holiday was in order and what a great 2 weeks we had, cor it was that good we saw 'Mr Blue Sky' and it was tee shirt weather at the same time. visited some nice spots all round the Med and even got to cycle around Palma to get our cycling fix in, how good is a cruise? still managed cycling, gym work added to a block spin class session and still put on a stone in weight. the food is to die for, heart attack i would guess.... 

 

starting up

This seems like months ago now but this was one of the last times out. just amazing how quickly the weeks roll into months.

Went with Alan for a trip out on the West coast of Gigha to find a few pollack which were a bit on the slow side to appear. Eventually we found a decent spot with a good number of quality fish in the 6-8lb range.

However things started to slow and we just thought we had worked our way through the local stock when i was bringing a smaller fish to the surface which i thought had fought particularily well, turns out it was not only fighting me but the dark shape behind it. when i slowed the wind down the dark shape had a bite! It turned and went.
Soon enough the heavy rig was on and the remains of the bitten fish were mounted in a 8/0 hook.
nothing happened so we had another drift over the same area and were just about to give up when off went the ratchet. Bingo! The fight was absolutely brilliant as there was no weight or float in the way as i had free lined the bait. the result, the top picture.
After that we went looking for mackerel rather unsuccesfully and ended up back fishing for pollack in another area. Ended up a nice surprise between the pollack which were unusally patchy.
Mind you you can see their point with these things lurking around chomping bits out of them.

the next trip was a West coast conger hunt that went fairly well with the best eel tipping the scales round to 27lbs. We had approx half a dozen eels over 20lbs so will have another bash next year when the weather is warm wet.

The last 2 months has seen me retire the fishing rods and concentrate on my cycling addiction however it turns out that's not a whole load of fun in the cold and rain either.