Species Hunting

Headed over to Troon for a couple of hours fishing with my two sons Shane and Nico.

Hoping to catch a couple of new species to add to our species hunt.

When we got there the water looked fine so I set up my spinning rod and reel.

Been fishing for half an hour and I had my first Blenny.

Then we had some nice Ballan Wrasse. The best one for myself  hitting the 2lb mark.

Nico`s 1lb 5oz Ballan Wrasse

Some 3 bearded rocklings

Shane took a nice bite which hammered his rod over but it took him into the kelp and lost it. He was not a happy chappie. Reckoned it as another Wrasse as I just landed mine.

 We finished off the night with 6 blennys, 1 codling, 2 Ballan Wrasse and two 3 bearded rockling.

  

Weekend fishing

Met up with Will and my son Shane at the weekend for a spot of specimen hunting. The weather was not to good as it rained no stop from the minute we set out. After fishing a couple of marks with no success we opted for our last mark of the day to see what was about.

As well as the rain the wind had got up and made the sea a bit ruff. Not looking good with the big rolling waves and white horses further out it was looking as if it would be un fish able. We started fishing and about half an hour later Shane had an nice common eel about a pound.

I decide to move further down the beach and got my first smooth hound at 5lbs. The next minute Will and Shane were next to me. Will had landed a nice smooth hound at 6lbs 5ozs and Shane was into another nice eel around 1lb 7ozs. 

Shane then got a cracking bite and his rod bent double as he fought it. As he got it to the edge of the water  the fish made a dash for freedom as it popped the hook. It was a nice bass around the 4lb mark. We ended up landing 5 smooth hounds  best one going to Will at 7lbs 3ozs. Two common eels and 4 dogfish. Sorry about the picture quality as I forgot my camera and only had my mobile phone handy and the weather did not help.

Thanks lads for getting me my first smoothie .

  

Jamie And Steve day out

Steve and Jamie went fishing on the 4th of May. We arrived just a the tide started to push in. Starting out with a rod a piece, we fired out a couple of crab baits at close range and sat back for the action. It wasn't long before my rod tip started to bounce and I was into my first fish of the day, a wee dogfish, nowt much to shout about but hey, it's a species I didn't have this year as yet. Next I get another bite and strike into a decent flounder, then another straight after, Steve still hasn't managed to get a bite as yet and is starting to worry that he's doing something wrong, shortly after he strikes into his first fish, a nice wee plump flounder. This continues for the next hour or so with a couple of double shots of flounders and dogfish coming in as well.

Eventually we are close to being washed off the shore and move to the higher rock ledge just round the corner, I have a trace baited and ready to go and send it out. Soon after it hits the bottom the rod get's an almighty bite and the tip goes straight down and proceeds to pull the rod from the stand, I grab it, strike and nothing! - I retrieve the trace and find the crabs to be pretty much intact and send them back out again to roughly the same location as before. Again almost instantly I get a huge bite, this time i'm ready, lift the rod and it's almost pulled from my hands, I strike and feel something hugging the bottom then moving up, I beckon to Steve that I think this could be a ray, to which her replies "I've never seen a ray from here….." 2 minutes later and i'm pulling a nice Thornback from the water… - weighed in at 5lb 1oz, photo's taken it's released back to the water.

The fishing was pretty much frantic and it would have been hard to fish 2 rods here as the bites were pretty much instant upon the bait hitting the water - plus it saved us using all our crab! - Next again I get another great bite then a slack liner, lift the rod, wind in the slack and get another great pull on the line, I strike and the rod doubles over, prior to the dogs and flounders this was a welcome battle to get this fish in with it fighting back and running from left to right and back again, I'm hoping it's a decent Bass, but am equally as happy to see a nice smooth hound break the surface. Thinking this was a little early for them but i'm later proved wrong. From that pint they just seemed to switch on for Steve and myself with very bait that we put out being instantly engulfed by a smoothie - there must have been that many out there in front of us that you couldn't go wrong. I was sending the same baits out 3 and 4 times without having to change it and getting the same result each time. Instant action! 

 
We finished off around 9 o'clock with the smoothies dieing off and the return of the dogfish again. In respect of the day, a fantastic outing with stacks of fish.