Roughly a month ago I managed a couple of back to back days fishing the east coast. Day 1 was a nice little trip out of St. Andrews, whilst day 2 was a visit to Trev in the wilds of Aberdeenshire.
Back at St. Andrews I met up with Ian and we headed out into the morning sunshine on his Raider 18. First up were a couple of drifts to pick up some mackerel for bait, my first from the east coast this year.
Running a few miles further along the coast Ian dropped anchor on one of his pollack marks and we got to work. Thin belly strips on flowing traces and 1-2oz leads fished just over the side, and a mix of metals and lead heads cast around the boat.
Ian picked up a small pollack and I followed up with a nice 72cm specimen (roughly 8lbs). Things were looking good, as we pulled out a reasonable number of pollack over the next little while. The only fly in our ointment being that they were all on the small side, with nothing else close to my first fish.
We shifted around a few different spots but the fish weren’t too keen and we couldn’t find anything else large and hungry.
We plugged away but the fishing quietly dwindled and we struggled for quality in either codling or pollack. Quantity gradually fell off also, possibly due to a bright sun and smallish tide.
Our numbers were actually pretty respectable, just a little short of what we’d hoped for on a fine summer’s day. Back at the harbour cafe and munching a bacon roll I didn’t need much consolation!
Haddock
Early next morning I picked up Ian and we headed north towards clan Trevor territory. Ian and I have been lucky enough to get a few trips with Trev the last few years, fishing the north coast of Aberdeenshire.
Haddock are our main targets here – nothing huge but enough sizeable fish to make some tasty dinners. It’s another venue where it pays to pick a decent day as it’s a very windy part of Scotland!
In the event I took very few photos, managing to picture Ian with just about the smallest haddock of the day :-). The fish were generally smaller than last year but with plenty of fillet sized specimens mixed in amongst them.
There was little wind and we drifted along slowly on the tide, enjoying the company and some sunshine. Other species popped up, including the usual mackerel, dab, small codling, whiting and a tiny ling. I also added this little scorpian fish to the pile.
East Coast Skate
Not a phrase you see very often, but skate have been making a comeback in the Moray Firth area and Trev has caught quite a few now. Later in the afternoon we headed to a new mark for a try at his pets – with the attraction that there were still haddock around whilst we waited.
Ian was cracking on trying to reach a gazillion haddock when all of a sudden both his and Trev’s skate rod pulled over as a sizeable fish grabbed their mackerel baits.
Initially it seemed both were into the same fish but it soon became clear that there were a pair of skate, cheerfully swimming off in different directions. Both pulled pretty hard in the shallow water (150 feet is pretty shallow, relative to west coast skating!), but unfortunately Ian’s fish shed the hook a few minutes later. C’est la vie 🙁
Trev’s beast kept on going and eventually surfaced alongside. A nice chunky skate and well over 120-130lbs, although we didn’t take her aboard. That’s the first skate I’ve seen from the east coast, and hopefully not the last!
Very impressive, a brilliant skate & very tasty haddock too. Well done!
Hi Ash, both of these are a bit of a novelty for us SE Scotland anglers. Not sure which I prefer – a fine haddock supper or the chance of shallow water skate – so I’m very happy to try for both.
Cheers,
Doug
Great report as ever. Blue sky and no haar – surely can’t be Aberdeenshire!? Really good to see skate being caught in the Moray Firth. We are so used to the idea that skate have effectively been driven to extinction from most of the North Sea that the thought of catching them there is beyond most of us. Well done you guys! Fingers crossed that we’ll see that population fragment do well and spread south.
Hi Martyn,
Trevor and one of his friends have been catching them for a few years now, and the numbers seem to be growing. They are quite handsome fish, living over sandy ground rather than their mud bound relatives on the west coast.
Cheers,
Doug