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I’ve been neglecting the blog again, which is usually code for I haven’t been fishing much. In fact I’ve only been twice since my last post in September for a couple of impromptu plops into the local gully’s. I managed to extract a nice 6lb Cod on my last dart out, satisfying myself that I can still actually catch fish.

So, with a good session well overdue, the plan was set for a pilgrimage to South-West Scotland in search of a few early year Thornbacks to break my angling hiatus.

This is the time of year for a PB as the larger females hug the shallower inshore waters getting ready to lay their eggs in early spring. Although the area produces Thornbacks pretty much year round, the average size definitely seems to go up between now and March/April. While I’ve caught plenty of Thornbacks over the years, I’ve still to break the magic 10lb barrier – so that would be my target for the day, along with an optimistic attempt at a Conger once the light faded.

It was a crisp morning as I rocked up to pick Tony up just after 9am and we quickly embarked on the three hour journey westwards, stopping for the obligatory bacon butty along the way, before arriving at the mark about half an hour before low water.

Bites started pretty quickly, although it was obvious they weren’t what we were after. Frequent rattles had me thinking dabs initially, but the culprit was soon identified as Tony reeled In a match sized Whiting. It was gut hooked so went into the bait bag for Huss bait. I followed up shortly after with a Whiting of my own, so the blank was off, but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind as far as breaking my angling fast was concerned!

The Whiting continued to make a nuisance of themselves for the first few hours. This didn’t inspire much confidence – being a prey fish, the fact that they were out in abundance meant there clearly wasn’t enough predators around to deter them!

As the light began to fade though I got a bite that looked entirely different and, suspecting the target species had finally turned up, I lifted into the first Thornback of the evening. I could tell it wasn’t a bad size as it hung low all the way back to my feet and I soon had a nice Ray landed. Weighed in a sling she went over 10lb, but with the sling deducted her final weight came out at 9lb 9oz beating my previous PB by a single ounce. So I’m still on the hunt for that double!

Not to be out done, Tony followed up with a ray of his own 5 minutes later, this one comfortably over 6lb.

Generally when the fish turn up here, you can have at least a good few hours on them before they tail off again. Sometimes sport is so prolific it’s hard to keep up with 2 rods! This evening however was not so. Sport remained slow, with only the odd fish showing.

With the sun well set I turned my attention to conger, baiting up a large mackerel and squid combo, lobbing it close in and dragging it backward basically until I could feel ground, which is where the eels will be if they’re there. In the meantime I manage another smaller Ray and a dogfish

Things go quiet for the last hour and eventually we concede, with Tony having to be up early for work the next morning.

Just as I’m tidying up my first rod, I notice a very tentative looking bite on the Conger rod. This is quite typical of Conger, despite their size they usually take a bait very gently. I’m convinced it’s an eel and once I feel it move off I lift into it – and instantly the line parts on the barnacle encrusted rocks.

“S**T!!!”

Ahh well. Much as I’m tempted to have another go, the prospect of a sensible nights sleep wins over and we head back to the car.

So not the session we perhaps hoped for but not a complete waste. I’m happy to be back out and catching fish again after so long, and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

If life was different, I’d live in the highlands.

The draw back to rugged, Scottish territory is always sitting at background levels of insatiable, so much so that I haven’t really focused my travelling efforts anywhere else in the last few years. If the opportunity has come up for a few days away, it’s always been Scotland.

Fishing the various sea loch’s, Sounds and Firth’s of the north west highlands of “god’s country” is the pinnacle of the sport for me. There’s just nothing like it. Even if you’re blanking – who cares! The scenery alone is a good enough reason to go.

Obviously that’s not strictly the case, I go fishing to catch fish and when I don’t I get annoyed! But there are far worse places to blank than this:

The fishing up here is as diverse as the scenery – but in recent years the quarry that keeps bringing me back is the Common/Flapper Skate. They’re about the biggest thing you can hope to catch from the shore in the UK and I’ve spent many hours targeting them – with at least some success!

A late start

This time we were hoping to try out a couple of new marks we’ve had our eye on, as well as visit some of the usual haunts. So, with Steve’s van loaded with all the gear, we set off at tea time on Sunday night, arriving to one of our usual marks for the start of the flood around 1am in the morning. Spirits were high and it was an absolutely beautiful night as well – we’re more accustomed to fishing in high winds and driving rain in Scotland but we were certainly lucky tonight. We managed a few hours before tiredness got the better of us – static rod tips doing nothing to break the monotony, so we decided to get our heads down and rest up for a decent session tomorrow.

More of the same

The following day we fished another one of our usual marks – one which has produced for us in the past albeit a little inconsistently. Such was the case this evening on the Skate front, but during the hours of afternoon sunlight we did have some decent sport with the local populations of species in the shape of Ballan and Goldsinny Wrasse, Pollock, Poor Cod and Leopard-Spotted and Rock Gobies.

We were also treated to an appearance from up to three Sea Eagles which were riding the thermals surprisingly low, just about within camera range!

Darkness is generally the deciding factor on most of the Skate marks we fish as they’re pretty shallow, and while the tides and conditions were absolutely spot on tonight – frustratingly those rod tips still never moved all night! The fire did keep our spirits up though during the protracted periods of inactivity.

Slightly deflated we retreated to the van in the stupidly early hours of the morning to again try and rest up for the next day. The forecast for tomorrow was favourable for one of the new marks we wanted to try on this trip so we were hoping for an improvement in the sport.

A new mark

Day three and the conditions came good to get on our intended mark. This one was a bit of a trek – scrambling up and down cliffs and goat tracks for half an hour until we found a decent enough platform to fish from. There was a bit of a swell caused by the onshore wind, but this was dying all the time and we felt pretty safe. Fishing into over 100ft of water, we were hopeful of a few species during daylight but we were mostly just pestered by doggies. As usual we weren’t expecting the Skate to be present until darkness, so I didn’t actually bother setting the stalls out for them until the sun began to set and dusk settled in. I’d baited one rod with half of an unlucky dogfish and sent it out to the depths. Skate aren’t the fussiest of predators – they need a lot of food to sustain their huge size, and will happily chomp down on a dogfish. The benefit of using one as bait is that not much else will entertain it – so it’s a good option when other baits are being pounced on by dogfish, crabs or other nuisance species. In fact you can cast one out and pretty much leave it all night if you want to.

Anyway Steve was feeling the cold a bit with the loss of the sun and reluctantly decided to make the arduous trek back to the car for his jacket and some snacks.

The law of the sods

Naturally in his absence, Steve’s rod screamed off ten minutes later and it was left to me to deal with the fish. I was gutted as you can tell…

She was clearly not happy with being hooked and took plenty of line in her initial bid for freedom. It’s not a fight you’d forget in a hurry – the power of these fish is just phenomenal, demanding the utmost respect and testing your gear to its absolute limits. When they decide they want to run or dive, just let it happen – there’s nothing any rod or reel on the planet is going to do anything about it. That being said, you can give them some stick back, and in fact it’s best to do so in order to get them off the seabed quickly and facilitate a quick release.

Once she’d finished messing about I bullied her a bit to try and get her up quick – which worked and she was on the surface after just fifteen minutes, a nice female around the 150lb mark. Often times you can be attached to these fish for well over an hour, so I was pleased to get her up quickly.

Unfortunately we’d forgotten to bring the gaff down with us. The mark is not the flattest – you’re basically fishing the base of a cliff. I managed to get a hold of the leader but couldn’t negotiate the Skate onto the ledge I was standing on. Steve eventually arrived back from the van and took the leader, trying to coax the Skate up onto the ledge but the swell was making it impossible, drawing her back every time we got her up and rubbing the snood against the rocks until eventually the snood parted right at the hook and she sailed back off to the depths below.

Never mind. Im still counting it as a capture as we touched the leader – but I’m a bit miffed I didn’t get a picture! Anyway the hook was both barbless and bronzed and she was hooked right in the scissors, so I’ve no doubt she’ll get rid of it quickly. We both agreed she was around the 150lb mark so a bit off a PB but it was great to get one after such a long while.

I decided at that point to make the thirty minute scramble back to the van to get the gaff in case we hooked up again. Clambering over rocks, boulders and sheer ledges – I got a call half way back saying my rod that was baited with the half a dogfish had just had a run from another Skate! Sod’s law again! Sadly this fish dropped the bait and never came back. Anyway I returned nearly an hour later with the gaff, reset both rods and we sat in anticipation, hoping to get Steve a fish as we tend to take it in turns once the first fish has been landed.

The rest of the ebb passed with less activity – the Skate had obviously moved off as the dogfish were back to making a nuisance of themselves, less likely to find themselves impaled by our 10/0 hooks but still making every effort to destroy our perfectly presented baits!

That was until I got a more tentative bite that initially had me thinking Skate, until I hooked into it. It gave some really dogged headshakes and took a bit of line and was clearly a decent fish. This rod had been baited with mackerel and I’d actually misplaced the cast – the backdrop on this mark is quite difficult in terms of casting, even more so over high water, and I remembered I’d ballsed this one up a bit and only made it about 30 yards into some pretty sticky ground. Given the type of fight and the weight of the fish, we both thought it must be a decent Conger. Unfortunately we would never find out – as it managed to shake the hook before I got it to the surface.

Skate On!

As we got back towards low water things went quiet. This can be telltale of a Skate moving into the area – they’re a massive predator at the end of the day and will munch their way through pretty much anything they can get in their mouths. We were just contemplating whether it was going to happen when sure enough – Steve’s rod hooped over for the second time this evening as a fish made off hard and fast with his Mackerel bait. Just as he tightened up to lean into it though the fish dropped the bait again!

If a Skate does this it’s worth putting your rod back in the stand and leaving it as very often they will return to the bait. You’ll also find that where there’s one Skate, there’s often more. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later it was back and taking line a bit more tentatively this time but still with the unmistakable run of a decent Skate. Steve set his drag, hit the fish and this time it was on.

The Skate hugged the bottom really hard this time. Every time Steve dislodged it it would move no more than a couple of inches before sticking to the sea bed again. A couple of times it managed to find an obstacle and fears of being stuck solid would set in – but Steve managed the situation expertly by switching positions to get a good angle on the fish and get it to turn away from the snags. We were convinced by the nature of the fight it was a big female, as the males tend to be harder fighting and more erratic.

Eventually, after 40 minutes of solid pressure being applied (much to the protests of Steve’s back) it was directly below the rod tip – still down on the bottom in about 80ft of water. It eventually lost its purchase on the seabed below and Steve was able to negotiate it half way up the ledge. The Skate clearly wasn’t done though and took off back down again and all Steve could do was hang on. The next time he got it nearly all the way to the surface, before it shot off down again, taking double the amount of braid back! Cue all sorts of profanities from Steve!

Finally on the third attempt it surfaced and we were both surprised to see it was a big male fish. This time we were prepared with the gaff and with the fish secured well in the wing, he was landed without much hassle, enabling us to measure, unhook and get some pics.

The Skate charts are different depending on Male and Female, with the females growing bigger. This particular fish however was off the chart for a male – or in other words the male charts didn’t go big enough! It’s wingspan was over 80 inches, whereas the charts for male fish only go to 77 inches. Going by the trends in weight increments though we estimated somewhere in the region of a 140-150lb fish, comfortably beating Steve’s previous PB by a decent margin.

Given we’d now both had a fish we decided to call it a night. I was kicking myself for not getting a photo of my fish – but we decided if conditions allowed, we would fish here again tomorrow night so I could try and get another.

Change of plan

Sadly when we surfaced the following morning the wind had picked up. It was still a nice sunny day, but the onshore wind was strong and we knew the mark would be dangerous with the large swells. Unfortunately, while our other marks would have been fishable, the wind would be straight in our face, and we were humming and harring whether we could really be bothered to put up with it given the slow sport of the first two evenings.

So after a bit of a think and a couple of calls , we reluctantly decided to forgo the Skate fishing for the last night and set our sights on Conger instead up towards Fort William. It was a bit of a gamble, as the mark we had in mind was new to both of us – we had no idea if it would produce.

It was really quite comfortable though – a small jetty stretching out from a harbour into Loch Linnhe. And the views of the sunset were amazing.

Conger are a bit of a nemesis for me. I’ve targeted them quite a bit when on trips to North Wales and while I have had a few, they’ve been mostly small straps – with my PB only being around the 5lb mark. Last time I targeted them properly I hooked a huge one on Holyhead breakwater that was well into double figures, but the rig snapped as I was lifting it up the wall and I’ve been sore about it ever since. Other than that my attempts to catch them have either been fruitless, or limited to smaller captures. As much as I like targeting them, they don’t half bloody frustrate me!

Hoping to redeem myself somewhat, I sent one rod out at distance to see what else was about and then set my Conger rod up with a simple running ledger rig down the side of the wall baited with mackerel head and squid. To our surprise I had a take 10 minutes later and was quickly hooked into a small strap – which we got a glimpse of before it promptly spat the hook just before it reached the surface. On inspection of the rig, the hook was twisted up, suggesting the eel had taken the bait backwards and probably wasn’t hooked properly. It was nevertheless a good confidence boost though!

The distance rod then registered some interest, with the culprit turning out to be a small Thornback.

I decided to focus just on Conger and so rather than this rod going back out, i switched to another running ledger rig and dropped it at a different point down the wall.

Steve had a couple of Conger baits in as well but was also fishing at distance with one rod – and getting plagued by dogfish and other small species for his troubles!

The rods down the side of the wall remained untroubled for a few hours, save for some hungry crabs. Finally though, half way through the ebb at around midnight, we heard the tentative click of the drag on my Battle 7000 as an eel had picked up the bait. It’s surprising how gentle the bites are from these fish and Steve, being a little more experienced with catching these fish, encouraged me to let it develop – minimising the resistance as much as possible in the hope that it wouldn’t drop the bait. Eventually I felt it reversing back into its hole and hit into it. A brief moment of solid resistance before the fish dislodged from its refuge and was quickly visible in the shallow water at the base of the jetty. The depth could only have been 6ft at the most, but clearly enough to hold fish throughout the tide.

The Eel was landed swiftly and weighed in at just shy of 7lb – no where near a monster but a new PB! A few pictures taken before it was sent back to its home.

We fished on for another couple of hours, with me getting another take from a Conger which must have felt too much resistance as it dropped the bait and didn’t come back. Steve continued to wage war on the local Dogfish population until low water when we decided to call it a night as he wanted to get on the road for a couple hours in order to save some time tomorrow for the journey home.

And so ends another jaunt to the highlands and as I write I already want to go back. We’ve decided to take a bit of a hiatus on the Skate front for the time being though and both fancy targeting Conger a bit more often. It’s in the planning stages currently but hopefully there’ll be more eels featuring on here in the near future 😉

Finding a window to go fishing hasn’t been easy this past couple of months due to an onslaught of post-covid wedding invites and an increased workload at the farm on weekends.

I spent most of last week in Lossiemouth but once we were back in the North East I set aside some time to get out on the rocks hoping for a few Bass.

Despite the scorching weather inland, the coast was pretty bleak with a thick sea fret. This actually worked in my favour a bit – cooling things down as well as keeping the masses at bay.

The water wasn’t as gin clear as previous sessions but was still ok. I started off with a weighted Albie Snax in pearl, a new addition to the lure box. Like the other weedless soft plastics I’ve tried, it swims very enticingly and the weedless design makes it a good choice over the shallow, rocky and weedy ground.

The Bass however clearly weren’t as impressed as they never sniffed at it. I conceded defeat after an hour or so and started having a play with other lures. A few chucks with a surface lure (SG Panic prey) produced a similar lack of response, but I tend to make a point of at least trying the surface lures every time I go, even though they’ve yet to produce for me! In my youth though I used to catch Pike on surface poppers and skitterwalks quite a lot and there really is nothing more exciting in lure fishing than watching your quarry smash a lure off the top. Hopefully the Bass oblige me soon!

Eventually I clipped on a SG Sandeel Pencil which has produced for me in the past here. A couple of casts with this instigated a series of follows from a small schoolie which made it right to my feet a couple of times before turning away. Eventually it sussed something was amiss and it disappeared, and the monotony of fruitless casting recommenced as I continued to thrash the hell out of every nook and cranny trying to produce a take. With two and a half hours down I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen.

Exploring around the wider area it became apparent I was pretty limited as far as fishing space was concerned as wherever there was current, there was a mass of floating weed which was a constant nemesis, making it difficult to present a lure properly for more than a few seconds before it was weeded up.

After a short break I started up again, wading round into a small bay and away from the worst of the weed. Once again under the shade of the cliffs, casting as tight to the bladderwrack as possible, finally the rod was nearly ripped from my hands as a Bass absolutely nailed the pencil with only 3 turns of the reel. He put up a great fight in the shallow water, staying deep with some really dogged head shakes in his bid for freedom, taking quite a bit of line in the process. I confess, I landed him with a minuscule hint of exasperation that he wasn’t bigger given the account he’d gave of himself. Still though, he was a proper summer fish – well fed and in great condition.

Into darkness I tried a few new spots further down the coast to see if they would produce on the ebb but sadly that was the only Bass of the session. Still though I’m happy to have gotten out finally after so long. Hopefully next time the fish are a little more obliging.

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that rigging up to fish for Flapper (Common) Skate requires beefed up rig components capable of putting up with the abuse that they will suffer at the hands of these fish – which can quite comfortably exceed 200lb.

Using the thicker mono, bigger baits and bigger hooks seems to knock everything off balance compared to a standard rig and when I first started out fishing for Skate I was having regular problems with the rig helicoptering during the cast, impacting distance and very often causing all manner of tangles. There’s nothing more disheartening than preparing an immaculate, donkey choker of a bait, leaving it out there for 2-3 hours or sometimes longer, only to reel in and find that the whole thing is twisted up and has been sat 5 foot off the sea bed in an un-fishable mess the entire time.

Modified up and over rig

On the face of it you might think there’s a lot of components in this rig – and you’re right. Tying a standard up and over for normal species is pretty easy, but subtlety is lost in skate rigs; the thickness of the mono and bulkiness of the components just screws with the aerodynamics. I’ve refined this rig over the last few years based on trial and error and found that the setup described below performs the best in terms of casting well and minimising rig twist.

Note – in the example below I’m using 200lb mono as it’s all I have left, but I recommend you use 150lb as it’s a significantly easier to knot. As long as it’s good quality, 150lb is more than capable of handling any Skate you’ll catch.

Components

Minimum 150lb mono of choice (I use Rovex 10x)

Genie big bait clip (the ones with the long clip)

2 8mm beads

3 power swivels (295lb)

Breakaway or Genie lead link – your choice

Gemini splashdown baitclip

Rotten bottom clip

10/0 – 12/0 Bronze Mustad Oshaughnessy hook with the barb ground off.

It is really important that hooks for skate fishing are barbless so as to cause minimal damage. I highly recommend using bronzed hooks as they rust away far quicker should you end up deep hooking. At the very least – avoid stainless steel.

First things first you’re going to bend the eye of the genie big bait clip around 45 degrees using a pair of pliers. Put it to one side.

Attach a power swivel to your chosen lead link, then attach this to your Gemini splashdown. You can attach your rotten bottom to the splashdown now if you want or later while you’re fishing. A rotten bottom is a must though – even on the cleanest ground if there’s a snag to find, a skate will find it.

Next – take a length of your chosen mono – 6ft minimum but longer if you want. Using a 2 turn grinner knot tie on a power swivel. Moisten the knot before tightening, and use a pair of pliers or a knot puller. This is by far the easiest knot to tie with the thick mono and is strong as hell.

Now for the weird bit – thread the Genie big bait clip onto the mono and up to the swivel you’ve just tied. With a bit of fiddling – clip it into the lower eye of the swivel alongside the knot. This again is a lot easier with 150lb mono rather than 200lb. If you’ve done it right it should look like this.

This is the relay clip for the up and over. The reason for doing this is to ensure that the weight of the skate is on the power swivel rather than directly on the clip itself, which would end up bending out under the pressure. I’ve tried many different types of clips for these skate up and overs – most of the time the rig comes unravelled, whereas this way works far more effectively for me.

Next thread on an 8mm bead, followed by your assembled Gemini splashdown, followed by another 8mm bead.

To the other end of the mono – tie on another power swivel, again using a 2 turn grinner knot. That’s your rig body done.

Now cut a shorter length of 150lb mono which will make your hook snood. The important bit here is to make sure that the length of the hook snood is LESS than half of the length of the rig body. If it’s more than half of the length, you risk it twisting up your mainline as the rig sinks to the sea bed, especially if using braid. The shorter snood eliminates this as in theory the snood is backing up against the longer rig body rather than your mainline. So since my rig body is 6ft, my snood should be no longer than 3 foot.

Tie the snood to the other end of the swivel on your rig body.

Finally – tie on your hook. I like to leave a little bit of a tag hanging off which helps to anchor the bait when elasticating it on.

Note. The hook will be too big to clip directly into the Gemini splashdown. To get around this, I have a spool of gardening wire, which I use to make a small loop which I attach to my hook once I’ve finished baiting up. This loop is then what clips into the splashdown. See image here.

Hopefully that was helpful. I do have another rig which I’ve been using for Skate recently called the dingle dangle rig (not quite the ‘dongle’ rig which everyone seems to be obsessed with at the minute). The dingle dangle rig has its origins overseas in the likes of South Africa for shore shark fishing. It’s a lot easier to tie and casts like an absolute missile with big baits.

Unfortunately I don’t have the components to hand to build it right now, but once I do I’ll put another post up.

My new found interest in lure fishing for Bass has really served as a catalyst to the ever present ‘I need to go fishing’ niggle. I’m becoming obsessed, and like a kid in a sweet shop I’ve been easy prey for various online lure manufacturers as I start to amass a collection. Actually, that “collection” is rather modest at best (there’s a cost of living crisis remember) but I now have a handful of different metals, surface lures, shallow divers and other things in between to fling about in the hopes that a Bass might mistake one of them for sustenance. More recently I bought a few copies of popular soft plastics such as DoLive sticks and Albie Snax which can be rigged on weedless hooks. It was these I decided to concentrate on on my latest attempt to land a few silvers.

I’m thrashing the hell out of the same area at the minute – a stretch of Northumberland coastline a mile or so long with various shallow reefs, gullies and scars filled with all manner of rock and boulders amidst forests of green seaweed, bladderwrack and kelp. It’s almost daunting considering how much time and effort can be put into a single mark to unlock it and determine where and when the fish will be there. You could look at a single gulley for instance and fish it in all types of conditions:

Neap tide vs spring tide. Ebb tide vs flood tide. Flat calm vs surf. Then consider that mark may not produce in June, but it might in September. Then there’s lure choice – surface, shallow, deep. Hard lures. Soft plastic lures. early morning vs late evening – in short, almost endless variables!

And that’s just one gulley! The area i’m concentrating on is at least a mile stretch of coastline with hundreds of likely looking fish holding spots. It gives you a sense of just how much time and effort seasoned Bass anglers who’ve been doing this for years can spend figuring a mark out.

Anyway – i found a decent window to fish the area over the full flood to halfway through the ebb, with high water around 7:30pm. I arrived early afternoon and spent some time surveying the ground, much of it at this point unfishable due to the lack of water but it’s nevertheless useful to spend some time at low water scouting out the areas the fish are likely to move into with the prevailing tide. Noting loads of likely looking spots as I trudged along the coast, I found a large area of broken ground that even at low tide held a good 4-6ft of water so proceeded to start fan casting a Sandeel Pencil around the area to see if there was anything lurking. The Terns were diving close in so the area obviously held baitfish. One of them got a little too enthusiastic at the sight of my Sandeel Pencil fishing subsurface 20 yards out and made a play for it – and I had a time playing an angry Tern in flight for a bit before managing to get hold of it to extract the single hook. Thankfully i had just nicked it under the beak so the damage was superficial and, despite its livid protests, the bird flew off none the worse for wear and was diving for baitfish again two minutes later!

Anyway after maybe an hours fruitless casting I decided to try out the new soft plastics to try and get an idea of how they work. I clipped on a decent representation of a DoLive stick in an almost tea stained colour. According to the retailer this colour is supposed to represent a ‘mature sandeel’….

I’ll reserve judgement but I had a feeling that it could potentially be flexible in its appearance – with the colour not far separated from the small Rockling’s, Butterfish or Blennie’s that are an alternative staple for the Bass. I rigged it weightless on the supplied weedless hook and tested it out in the shallows.

The movement looked very enticing with a slow stop/start retrieve with the occasional twitch to get the the tail pulsing to mimic a weak baitfish darting for cover. As you pause the lure it almost hangs for a couple of seconds before sinking very slowly. This would seem like the perfect time for it to be snaffled by a hungry Bass. This is also my first time using a “weedless” lure – what an innovation! Casting this into the roughest, stickiest ground without too great a threat of it snagging up makes it a great option for this terrain.

So I set about fishing with this lure for a bit. I moved back up the coast, casting anywhere likely as I went, until I reached the area where I’ve had fish previously. There still wasn’t quite enough water here yet, so I took a break for a bit to have some lunch and generally watch the late afternoon flood progress – taking it in.

Suitably nourished and with the flood now well underway, I waded out as far as I dared onto a set of scars with some shallow channels running between them. The flooding tide was creating a nice bit of current off the front of here which looked promising, again into some shallow and rocky ground, so I began my usual approach of fan casting the area to cover it thoroughly. On the third or fourth cast I finally got a good solid WHACK and, delighted to have hooked a Bass on a new lure, I played a beautiful little schoolie to the landing net. He won’t quite have been legal size but he was welcome all the same and even more so to add another feather to my cap by catching my first Bass on a soft plastic.

Once he’s sent on his way, I continue my efforts to thrash the hell out of every inch of every nook and cranny where fish may be hiding. The flooding tide pushes me off one scar and onto the next and so on and I keep one eye on the water behind me to make sure I’m not getting cut off. Half an hour passes before Bass number two takes a liking to the soft plastic and puts up a great account of itself in the shallow water. This one goes a bit bigger, I didn’t measure it but I’d guess just over legal size – somewhere in the 45-50cm region.

Eventually the ever advancing tide calls last orders on this mark and I negotiate my way through an almost chest deep gulley to higher ground. Shortly after Marc turns up and sets about opening his account for the year, landing a Bass on his second chuck using a Savage Gear line through Sandeel.

The the last couple of hours of the flood and the first of the ebb pass relatively quietly, with both of us moving about a bit to seek out any stragglers. Marc lands his second fish of the evening, which absolutely smashed his lure just as he’s about to lift it out of the water giving him a bit of a fright!

As the now receding tide begins to relinquish possession of the scars I was on earlier, I decide to wade back out there to see if it holds any fish on the ebb. After miss-timing my foot placement a bit and going for a bit of a dunk – I manage to get onto the first of the rocky outcrops, safe but feeling a little damp! It would appear on this occasion though the soaking was not worth the effort as the Bass clearly had somewhere better to be. I move from skeer to skeer with the retreating tide, casting and recasting but to no avail and come 10:30pm I decide I’ve had my fill and head back to the car.

I have yet to fish into full darkness on this mark – mainly because the tide times have not been right when I’ve been able to get out – so I’m quite interested to see if this will make a difference next. With two more Bass under my belt though, confidence in the mark is beginning to take shape in terms of when and where to be at the right time. I’m already looking forward to get out there again.

Since getting out just over a week ago in search of my first lure caught Bass, I’ve been obsessing with having another go. I seem to have found in the lure fishing an inclination that I’ve lacked over the last few years to fish my local marks. This is especially handy on those spur of the moment occasions, like this evening, when the opportunity arose to have a few hours out and all I needed to do was chuck a spinning rod, my lure bag and waders in the car and make haste.

I’ve decided to concentrate on a particular area of Northumberland coastline (the same sort of patch I fished last week) and fish it at different stages of tides and in all conditions to try and figure out what works best. While last week I fished the last of the ebb and the first of the flood on a decent sized tide, this week was the complete opposite – the last of the flood and the first of the ebb on a smaller tide. The only similarities between both sessions was that both were flat calm, sunny evenings with clear water.

I went straight for the Savage Gear Sandeel Pencil this time, which is what I got the big Coalfish on last week. I’m not a seasoned saltwater lure angler, but these things just look so much like the real thing on the retrieve. I did a lot of lure fishing for Pike in my youth and most of the plugs I used to use generally required the angler to impart some kind of twitching and jerking to bring them to life, not unlike a lot of the Bass lures I’ve seen. Playing about with the Sandeel Pencil in the shallows though, it looks so natural with just a slow, gentle retrieve – one of those situations where you think “God – if I was a Bass, I’d smash that!”

And despite being a sinking lure, they fish really shallow – even with a slow retrieve you can fish them less than a foot below the surface, which is what you need on these marks, where the depth of water rarely exceeds a few feet.

I had a few chucks around the shallow reefs and gullies that were half filling with the prevailing tide. The whole area is carpeted with bladderwrack which has spent the afternoon parching in the warm sun – and I make a mental note to fish over the area in a few hours when it will be suitably covered at high water.

Sam – one of the lads from seaanglingreports.com – rang and said him and Steven were going to join me for a couple of chucks and confirmed I was fishing in the right area so on I plodged.

Making my way round into a weedy bay, I was fan casting to explore each swim as much as possible. I was searching an area of shallow water right in close and just on the edge of a raft of floating bladderwrack when – WHALLOP!! – something nailed the Pencil lure and started dancing about in less than three foot of water. With a nice bend in the rod and a few feet of line stripped off the drag, I convinced myself that it had to be a Bass, and I was right! My first lure caught Bass was landed less than a minute later.

I was over the moon! I didn’t come out expecting to get anything tonight, more to the point I expected it to take at least few more sessions to nab the first one on a lure, but there it was!

Photographed in all his spikey glory, he was popped back. I don’t think he was quite legal size anyway, and although I am partial to an occasional fillet of fresh Seabass I’m all about keeping the fish gods happy.

Five minutes later Sam and Steven turned up so we had a bit of a natter before they started fishing a bit further along from me. About 45 minutes later Sam shouted over saying they were going to try a bit further round the corner when I had another decent hit and hooked my second Bass on a lure!

This one came in without much fuss and, once the single hook was extracted and a photo taken, he was slipped back quickly none the worse for wear.

I continued to fish on for another couple of hours into dusk, making my way around the bay and then back again to where I’d started – the area now suitably flooded by the tide. It was a glorious evening to be out sure enough, but unfortunately no more Bass were willing to play. Sam and Steven popped back down towards the end and mentioned they’d not had any luck either. So I ended up calling it at around 10pm.

So there it is, I’ve achieved one of this years goals a lot earlier than I expected to and gotten a Bass on a lure – and it’s not even June yet! I’m not done with it yet though, In fact I think I’ve very much caught the bug and can see this being a big focus this year. Perhaps my goal has changed slightly and now it’s about beating my PB 😉

I’ve gone out of my comfort zone a bit.

Saltwater lure fishing has never really been my thing. I know lads who look forward to the warmer weather and the chance to get their spinning gear out to target Pollock and Bass but I’ve just always preferred bait fishing.

Then out of the blue, a divine power decided to intervene and bless/curse me with an overwhelming desire to try and get a Bass on a lure, something I’ve never done before. I’ve heard it’s a challenge and since I’m a glutton for punishment I’ve decided it’s my goal for the year (or until I get bored).

So I’ve clubbed together a ‘passable’ Bass setup – an Essox spinning rod designed for Pike fishing in freshwater and a 2500 size diawa crossfire that I use mostly for Mulleting or spinning for Trout. Really I could do with a bigger reel but it’ll do for now.

I got myself a handful of lures online – a surface lure, a shallow diving lure (both cheaper copies) as well as a couple of Savage Gear Sandeel Pencil’s.

So with the Mrs hosting a party for her mates, I pounced on the excuse to get out of the way on Saturday evening once I’d put my son to bed.

Arriving around 7:30pm I was greeted by a flat calm sea which wasn’t unexpected. The purpose of the session was more to scout out likely areas without much hope or intent of catching fish. Having done all of my Bass fishing with bait in the surf, I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I deliberately hunted out some of the roughest, jungliest ground I knew of to get started.

As the tide was an hour before bottom, spots were limited due to the forests of kelp and bladderwrack glistening on the surface in the last minutes of sunlight. I had to do quite a bit of mooching but found a couple of shallow bays and gullies that I imagine will hold fish at one stage or another. I’d tied on a white surface lure (a cheap copy of a patchinko) more for the purpose of stretching the new braid out a bit without being at risk of loosing the lure should I get any early wind knots.

Fishing these spots proved fruitless (not much surprise) so i continued up the coast a fair bit to the main skeers I had been planning to concentrate on, noting any likely looking spots for future reference. I could see a good amount of bird activity working the area further north of the skeer. Way out of casting range, but with a little more depth here I was a little more optimistic that there’d be something willing to have a go.

I’d switched patterns to one of the sandeel pencil lures and was quite surprised at how shallow these sinking lures can actually fish even with a slow retrieve, ideal for this kind of ground.

Although I hadn’t had any takes my confidence was given a boost when I saw a fish jump close in in the gulley to my left. I didn’t make out what it was but a fish is a fish so I kept working round the skeer over the course of the next hour. Eventually I got to the north side where the birds were feeding before. By now the tide has turned and there was a good bit of current coming round and into the shallow bay inland so I had a fair few casts here watching the world go by.

Just as the last of the light was fading I was completely taken by surprise when something slammed the pencil half way back and a healthy bend in the rod signalled I’d actually hooked something!

What a great fight on the light spinning outfit as well. It took line a couple of times with some decent dives, taking me back to my youth and my Pike fishing days. But what was it…

Turns out it wasn’t the Bass I was after, but a cracking Coalfish – certainly the biggest I’ve had in the U.K. I was actually a little disappointed it only came out at 2lb 10oz on the scales as I’d have swore it would have gone over 3lb. Maybe I didn’t zero them properly 😉

After a few photos he was sent back, probably the most welcome Coalfish I’ve caught in my life (and I’ve caught bloody plenty!) I have had them close to double figures in Iceland before but this was a new U.K. PB so for a first outing with the lures I’d call that a success!

There were no other fish as darkness settled in and with the flood well underway now I decided to call it a night around 10pm. But that’s got me hooked – I don’t know why I haven’t taken this seriously before! I’ll be keeping an eye on the conditions and will be venturing out again soon I think.

P.S. I tried to get some nicer photos but my camera stand packed up!

My fishing activity has been somewhat infrequent since the turn of the new year due to a busy schedule. Unless the opportunity comes to venture further afield, it’s a pretty slow time of year in the North East so a lower motivation to get out can also be a factor. By early April the winter fishing is a distant memory and the anticipation of the arrival of the summer species has well and truly passed the boundaries of patience . I’ve been known to turn my focus temporarily to fly fishing for stocky trout at my local fishery during the spring hiatus, but so far this year I’ve resisted the temptation to dust off the fluff chucker (the inflated cost of living does not marry well with the price of a rod license renewal and a day ticket!)

With an increasing niggle to get out and prove to myself I can still actually catch fish though, I decided on an evening at Druridge on Sunday in search of the first Bass of the year. The schoolies that frequent the area can at least be relied on to provide sport all year round as long as there’s a bit surf on.

I arrived at my mark around tea time and was greeted on the beach by a chilly northerly breeze which was maintaining the 4-6ft swell that the various weather apps had predicted. It looked proper Bassy and on first impressions I had high hopes – that was until I noticed the many clumps of bladderwrack peppered all over the beach between the low and high tide points. All along the beach as far as the eye could see was the same – sigh!

Confidence slightly dinted but refusing to be deterred I soon had 2 rods rigged up with 2 hook rigs and decent ragworm baits – one dropped in short into the channel that was just beginning to fill up at my feet and the other a little further behind the breakers.

Truth be told the conditions were a bit tricky. The surf was more or less managable – but the ever moving gullies on the beach that are scoured out by the winter storms are a little deeper than I’ve seen for a while. These were creating a hellish undertow when filling up with the flooding tide, and combined with the many clumps of unavoidable bladderwrack made for some challenging fishing. I had to keep on top of the rods – removing what weed I could in the surf to stay in contact with the rigs, conceding defeat more than once to reel in and recast.

Despite this, both rods were in what I would describe as very “fishable” water. It was absolutely screaming Bass at me and I was convinced it was going to produce. Isn’t that always the way though….?

In fact it took nearly three hours for the first rod to spring into life signalling the Bass had arrived. With some relief, I landed the fish, not a monster and below legal size but it opens the account for 2022!

On my next cast I missed another cracking bite and thought “great – looks like they’re here!” Wrong.

Unfortunately that was all she wrote and by the time 10:30pm rolled around an hour and a half later I was suitably bored of contending with the combined sabotage of current and weed so decided to call it a little earlier than originally intended. I’ve set a target for myself this year of trying to catch a Bass on a lure, something I’ve never done seriously before, so I’m sure I’ll be back soon once things warm up a bit. I’ve noticed the Arctic Terns are already diving for bait fish during calmer conditions so summer can’t be that far away right?

Title gives it away. Steve is tying the knot this June and never shying away from an excuse to go Skate fishing, this one has been planned in for near enough a year.

Despite the success of the last couple of trips however, this one was to be a little more grounding. For one thing no Skate were landed, although we did get a few tentative runs between us that were unmistakably from our quarry – though sadly they all resulted in dropped baits.

The reality of the week was mostly horrendous weather combined with a lack of activity. The wind absolutely battered us from the west for the first three days, mostly in tandem with driving rain – enough to keep our enthusiasm at critical levels at times. Thank god we took the beach shelters otherwise I doubt we’d have fished it as hard as we did. Three full grown men with boxes, bait and all manner of mashing gear sat huddled underneath, slavering and snotting over a spluttering camp stove willing the kettle to boil in a bid to keep those spirits up!

The first night passed with little landed save for a suicidal dogfish that managed to hang itself on Steves 10/0 hooks. Steve was the first to get what we suspect was a couple of skate runs, followed by myself, although all were far more tentative than usual and resulted in dropped baits.

The second night was much the same – in fact the weather was so disheartening on the second that we spent the third night mostly not fishing and turned attention instead to our favourite poisons – some sore heads the following morning!

Day 4 saw a break in the prevailing weather – the wind swung round to the north, bringing with it a bitterly cold drop in temperature but seemed to halt the brunt of the wet stuff, save for the odd hail shower. This gave the chance for a bit of early year species hunting during the late afternoon in which we managed pollock, codling and a few bonus black gobies to kick us off for the year. In all honesty early spring is a dire time of year for species up here, with most of the summer species having yet to arrive. Skate are still a possibility pretty much year round in the north west highlands at least, but if you’re looking for something to break the monotony whilst waiting for a run, then plan your trips later in the year when you’re more likely to find an abundance of wrasse and various other species to keep things interesting.

As darkness fell the wind died to all but a whisper making for a beautiful (albeit cold) nights fishing. Once again the skate weren’t playing, although the occasional nod on the rods kept us focused in anticipation, willing the rod to lop over. Steve managed a nice Thornback around 7lb that I would have put money on being a Skate given its initial run.

The following evening (the last evening of the trip) was much the same, nice and calm but with a distinct lack of activity. We slaved away over the fire trying to keep warm but after a tiring week and the prospect of an early departure, we decided to call it quits around 2am, jay having managed a solitary dogfish to break the blank for the evening.

So no Skate on this trip. A little disappointing on the fishing front, but as I’ve said before – there are worse places to blank – and we had a great laugh all the same.

Skate rigs

A few people have asked me about skate rigs, and I’ve went through a few years of refining my rigs to get to something that I’m happy with (basically an up and over with a few key features to help eliminate line twists and unclipping). On this trip however we experimented a bit with variations of the latest fad sweeping the U.K. sea angling community – “The Dongle” rig. Crudely borrowed from a carp anglers inventory (somewhat resembling a hair rig), these rigs aren’t exactly a new innovation and have been a firm favourite overseas in the likes of South Africa for shark fishing from the shore. As far as casting a big skate bait is concerned though, the performance was something we were really impressed by and we will continue to tweak to suit the style of fishing.

I will put a couple of follow up posts up about how to construct both rigs for those who’ve shown interest.

There’s only so much i can write about the patchy sport I’ve had this season so this is a short one.

Just a few photos from last nights session – the hope of a decent fish this season are quickly dwindling as only a couple of 40cm codlings were willing to oblige me last night.

Mackerel and squid did the damage for a change, now that it’s later in the season and the fish seem to switch their attention away from crab/cart to the less expensive alternatives – which is always a benefit I suppose!