The east coast has been slow to get going this year but I reckoned there had to be fish around by the end of May – besides I’d only a very short session available so it was Dunbar or nothing today.
To be honest I do like an early morning SIB session, as the sea breeze isn’t usually a problem, and there are no traffic hassles, so the idea of setting the alarm for 4 a.m. was OK by me.
Once afloat I headed over to the River Garry wreck as it’s usually a reliable spot for a few fish on a calm day. And so it proved again today, with a small ling hitting the bait within 5 seconds, and a nice stream of both codling and ling following it.
As the tide slackened the bites on bottom baits dried up and I switched over to a spinning rod and jellyworms to target pollack, only to find more codling and another ling.
I could’ve kept catching but I’d already outstayed my welcome, given I was supposed to be in the centre of Edinburgh by lunchtime so the Avon was pointed back towards Skateraw.
Coming inshore and pausing to fillet the catch the sea near Skateraw seemed filled with kayaks and a couple more inflatables, and it’s quite striking how much more popular the small end of small boat fishing has become in the last few years.
Final score was 13 codling and 10 ling, with the best fish going 4 lbs 10oz, and I was happy enough with that result for a few hours fishing.
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Hi Doug ,was down today myself thought you might be about !pity I missed you mind I launched my sib from dunbar at about 8.30! Had a good day for me 20codling to 5lb and five ling to about 4lb ,long shift though.Think the extra traffic might be down to your excellent web site !Good honest info that’s well shared by your self a rare thing these days ta
Thanks for the compliment Pete, and glad you had a good day out as well – although a long session in a SIB gets a bit cramping after a while. I think things seem a bit late to me this year partly because we started trying the east coast a bit too early and have been left waiting for fish for quite a while now. Onwards and upwards, as they say!