Whales are still rare enough round here for a sighting to be memorable, and this Minke looked very purposeful as it ploughed steadily along in the direction of St. Abbs. Close enough to be impressive, but too far for a decent photo! A little later its baby cousin, a small porpoise, also paid a fleeting visit, so a good day for cetacean watching… More welcome than the seal that hung around for a while earlier on – I’d swear there’s a smile on its face.
Earlier in the morning I’d slipped out of Dunbar on the ebb tide and nosed Alcatraz out onto a sunny and windless North Sea. Not exactly calm, mind you, with a steady NE swell rolling in – nothing major, but enough to remind me that the weather lately has been anything but summery.
An inshore drift produced mackerel, codling and Pollack – but only one of each before my blubbery “friend” turned up and outstayed his welcome. A move out to the wreck resulted in more activity, with a slow but steady stream of ling and a couple more codling.
Getting tired of constant short drifts and only lacklustre fishing I switched back to the inshore marks for a couple of hours, trying a few spots near Torness. Nothing dramatic but more Pollack and codling were my reward – no tiddlers and no monsters either, with the best fish a 6lb ling.
A long final drift as I filleted the codling produced a couple more Pollack and mackerel, which hit a slim silver belly fillet of mackerel fished on a long trace from a spinning rod – great fun as the light rod hoops over hard as the fish hits.
The final tally was 22 or 23 fish for the morning, split pretty evenly between codling, Pollack and ling. Very few mackerel showed up, although they were of good size and I wasn’t really targeting them.
This was my first shot out of Dunbar since May, with most of the summer lost to a variety of little time-stealers and a fair bit of rubbish weather. On the plus side, I’ve spent a fair bit of time pulling together a little expedition to somewhere warmer, which hopefully kicks off in a couple of weeks. Nowhere near saltwater though!
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