Scotlands weather obliterated our plans for a 5 day trip to Galloway, so we had to make the best of a bad deal. Consequently, we snuck out on a very breezy day at St. Andrews for a few hours fishing. Trev and I were crewing Ian’s Raider 18, targetting cod and pollack rather than tope and hounds.
Despite what the photos may suggest, the wind was pretty strong, although blowing offshore. Most of our usual marks were unfishable so Ian hugged the shoreline and made our way along the coast for a few miles.
We simply dropped anchor very close inshore and fished very shallow and rocky ground. At this time of year there are usually good numbers of codling and some pollack to be found.
Our fishing was fairly quiet, picking up a few pollack and some very pretty red cod. The red codling were around in good numbers, but mainly fairly small fish.
The sun was shining and it was a pleasant day – although the boat was birling around crazily in the gusts. All crew had more windburn than sunburn by the end of the day!
In the end, I think I had the largest pollack of the day, whilst Ian had the largest codling. Both decent but not spectacular fish.
By mid-afternoon the tide was dropping, so three rather battered anglers made our way back to St. Andrews.
Back at the harbour it was still blustery, but pleasant enough sitting in the sunshine at the harbour cafe. Caroline joined us for a plate of chips and a coffee, with some fishermens tales chucked in for free.
In the end Trevor got packed off home with a decent supply of codling, although they only quarter filled his cavernous ice box.
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Well done, a good day out for the boys again. Those red cod look beautiful too. My turn next !
Hi Ash – I’m always a little suspicious of red cod, as experience suggests they tend to have quite a few parasites. Trev swears these were nice, clean fish though – and he’s the guy that will be eating them!