My last visit to Loch Leven was back in early March and the only thing I caught was an ambulance ride to hospital with a broken leg, so I was rather hoping to avoid a repeat performance when dropped the inflatable into the water at Ballachulish. The intended target was thornbacks, but I was conscious… Continue reading More Leven Thornbacks
Category: Boat fishing
Anything to do with fishing from a boat
Oban
I’m always a bit wary of Oban – there’s some big fish around but it can be pretty hit or miss with a lot of waiting around between any excitement. And hauling up a large skate in over 500 feet of water is a taste I’ve never really acquired, all of which perhaps explains why… Continue reading Oban
Boat camping in Sunart
Three days fishing and wild camping around the Fort of the Storms on Loch Sunart. It’s a lonely and beautiful spot to spend the night.
Etive shines
Etive is an wildly beautiful place (at times!), and it’s surprisingly unspoilt the upper loch is given how accessible it is from the central belt. Even if it was a fishless desert its upper reaches would attract anyone wanting to experience the beauty of raw nature and the almost complete silence that goes with no roads… Continue reading Etive shines
Charting Scotland
Anyone fishing the areas around Mull and the sea lochs such as Etive, Sunart and Linnhe will be aware of the limitations of both the paper and electronic charts for the area, as most are based on very limited and old survey data. Widely spaced soundings can make it difficult to visualise the landscape underwater,… Continue reading Charting Scotland
Inshore codding off Skateraw
Given the weekend is probably going to be a washout for boat fishing, I nipped out of Skateraw for a short session on Friday afternoon. The weather was calm, but with a small swell running from the NE. First up were a few mackerel for bait, and I took a few shots with the GoPro… Continue reading Inshore codding off Skateraw
A New Personal Best Ling
Catching up for lost fishing time earlier in the year, and still trying to stock up the freezer with some cod fillets, I went for another session off Dunbar just before the weather turned nasty for the weekend. It was a fine day as Alcatraz sped easily down the coast towards the Torness area, but I… Continue reading A New Personal Best Ling
Fishing the Haar
Anyone fishing the east of Scotland gets very familiar with the summer haar, or thick mist that rolls in from the sea after a few days of fine, settled weather. Often it burns off by late morning, but it can last for days as a thick blanket limiting visibility to a few 10s of metres.… Continue reading Fishing the Haar
A few hours off Dunbar
This past Sunday I took Alcatraz out for a morning trip from Dunbar – her first launch there in almost a year. There was a fairly chunky NE swell running for the first hour or two and, although this settled down a bit as the tide eased off, the wind and tide combined to a pretty… Continue reading A few hours off Dunbar
SIB-ing off Skateraw
Spent a few hours this morning running around off Skateraw, near Torness, in search of some codling close inshore. The weather was stunning, with clear skies and flat seas and it was a joy to be out and skimming the surface of the ocean. Once drifting all you could hear was the occasional whump! of… Continue reading SIB-ing off Skateraw