The early part of October saw me out on Ian’s Raider, fishing out of St. Andrews. The pollack and cod played a little hard to get so we ended up spending 2 or 3 hours chasing wrasse.
Ian’s hard-dug rag proved highly successful and a rapid succession of small to middling ballans appeared alongside the boat. Nothing very big, but good fun in an otherwise fairly quiet session.
We managed a few pollack and codling too, and we managed a few between us, although not particularly large fish. The one above took my favourite lazy man method of mackerel strip on a flowing trace.
We had bucketfuls of ballans, painted in all sorts of bio-camoflage. The range of rainbow colours is one of the reasons I like these little bruisers so much, as Scottish fishing can sometimes get a little mono-chromatic.
Given this website is named after a species of wrasse it’s about high time I actually caught a Corkwing. I got close today, but the fish above belongs to Ian, not me!
I did get lucky though, landing a Goldsinny wrasse, which is a new species for me and not one I’ve seen before.
It was a rather strange day all round, with Ian landing the smallest pollack I’ve ever seen lure caught. I’m not sure what it planned to do with a lure that size if it had turned out to be a fish!
We also managed a few mackerel, although these are definitely thinning out now (early-mid October). They’re still handy additions for the bait freezer!
We didn’t get any particularly large wrasse, topping out around 2.5lbs, but we must have had well over 50 between us. I do like to catch a few wrasse and seeing a couple of new species was a definite bonus.
Good to see you back out again Doug – been a bit quiet on here! Watched your Etive video the other week as well – camp looked well cozy with that tent stove!
You not hiked into the Loch for a bit?
Hi Liam,
I’m way behind at the moment and have a few trips to write up, although I think there’s just one that hasn’t appeared either here or YT. As a teaser trailer, the missing link also features a good hike and a lightweight titanium tent stove 🙂
Lockdown’s really to blame for my lack of Etive hiking! I did actually get there for an overnight trip with Trevor just hours before the last lockdown started, although I don’t think I posted anything about it. The midges make it miserable there over the summer months, so I only fish it over the winter months, maybe as late as early April – and there are better places to explore over the summer too. I’ll definitely be back over the next few months!
Cheers,
Doug
Looking forward to seeing it Doug. I tried to hike in to the same area a few years back but undershot it – when I looked back at the maps I think I was only round the corner!
Gonna try again when I get a free window at the right time of year. The fishings secondary really, just like the idea of being out there.
Hi Liam,
It’s quite hard to find that spot. Heading from Glen Etive I’d suggest you keep going along the path until you hit the start of a commercial conifer plantation to your left. Backtrack about 50-100m and you should have a boggy meadow area and then woodland between you and the loch. Work your way down through this and then to your right for a few hundred metres and you should find it.
Cheers,
Doug
Cheers Doug I’ll find it eventually! Looking forward to Ewing more reports/vids 🙂
Quite a variety for you both there & a posh boat too, well done. Here’s hoping for some high pressure clear weather in the months to come. Good luck!
Posh boat!! – don’t encourage Ian too much. You can’t even get a decent cup of coffee out that skipper 🙂 The Raider is a lovely boat though, just a little big for my purposes these days. As for the fishing, the weather’s looking OK at the weekend so I might try my luck somewhere, although the tides are pretty small.
Cheers,
Doug