Myself and the younger one, Sam, had met with Terry and Billy on Weds for a session and had a great laugh, taking some quality advice away with us as well as a secret lure that Terry has lent me for a particular species I've yet to catch lol. They are both top blokes, full of stories and plenty of banter so it was a very enjoyable session on the whole with a few fish between the 4 of us thrown in. Lets hope I can do that lure justice though!
It was nice though that two days later I had a repeat invite from Terry to go and fish over his way on the island. I had a mark that I've been visiting regularly in the area and had some lovely fish from so I thought I'd return the favour from the last session and show him where it was, hoping it would produce. It turns out he hadn't fished the exact spot but had fished very close by. Having said that though, he mentioned he'd not been there for a good few years so it was a welcome change. We arrived at the mark shortly after first light with pollock and wrasse being our quarry. I was using a deep spinning type method with a small lead and a 3" purple reins rock vibe shad which made an almost immediate impact hooking into a pollock on just my 2nd cast. Not a bad fish either at over 2lb and 51cm. From memory I think Terry started with a prawn type lure but I'm probably wrong. We both kept at it and it wasn't long before I had my second fish, this time a tiddler of about 8oz. However on my next cast I was into a better fish again and thought I had the better of it before a last minute dive saw my braid catch the sharp ledge and ping, it was gone, lure and all. It a good job these SP's are cheap :) Whilst re-rigging Terry lent one of the purple shads I had been using and had a few casts in the area managing to bag a pollock himself. Again a fish of between 0.5-1lb. Set up and ready again, I managed another couple of small pollock on the reins shad before heading round the corner to the mark I've had loads of wrasse from. After 15 minutes though it was clear they were'nt in feeding mode though as usually its a hit as soon as you touch bottom. I returned to our starting mark to find that Terry had landed his 2nd pollock of the morning again I think on the reins rock vibe shad in purple. The last pollock of the session fell to me shortly after on an ecogear grassminnow in red/silver and again was around the 8oz mark. Then all went quiet for 30 minutes or so, so we called it quits. Again a thoroughly enjoyable session and we both got some fish to show for our efforts. I also got shown a few more marks on the journeys there and back to try later in the year so thanks again Terry.
This was only the start of my fishing day though as I was set to meet up with Garethp for a session on the yaks at 10. Having met Gareth, topped up with some bait and set off for cable bay, we were both fairly confident of some rays. From the off it was clear that Gareth was far better prepared than I was as this was the first time I'd been using the yak for something other than lure fishing. He kindly lent me an anchor for the day and we launched just after 11am. After paddling out to our chosen spots, it took me a while to get settled with my anchor being dragged whilst I slowly drifted further away from Gareth. In the end he let me attach myself to the back of his yak using some rope and I fished 20ft behind him. I opted for rag/squid baited feathers on one rod and a simple running ledger with sandeel on the other rod aimed at the rays. It took us a while to get a fish but Gareth was first in with a dab shortly followed by a whiting. I finally got my first whting after nearly 2 hours which was a relief, saving the dreaded blank. It was Gareth who had the tactics nailed though as he brought in a couple more whiting. I did have a spell on the fish for the last 90 minutes in which I landed a further 10 whiting but it wasn't what we were after and the wind chill was making me very cold. Again Gareth was the smart one, wrapped up in a dry-suit whilst I sat there in shorts. I have a lot to learn about bait fishing off the yaks and it was great to get some advice off Gareth as he knew what he was doing as has had some good fish. The last fish fell to gareth, another dab before the cold got the better of me and I decided to call it a day with Gareth following me in. My legs were so cold and jelly like that I could hardly stand when I got out of the yak making pulling the thing up the beach almost impossible. But after a good few minutes sorting my gear out it became much easier. After loading the cars it was time to go home but I enjoyed myself again and met another good angler in the process. A good day all round even though the rays had eluded us. Next time I guess
Tight Lines
Ross
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