Xmas over.

Well, that's Christmas over for another year and so far we've had a not to bad winter but things always change for the colder in Jan and Feb.
I need to look for some winter wear to keep me warm when I go out fishing, hopefully straight after the new year, probably on Friday.
I think i,ll go for pike, I will head for the hills and try a loch that I tried a couple of weeks ago and blanked, I got a few bites but never got a hold of anything.
it hasn't put me off there, although the walk up those hills kill me, but I think I know where I went wrong and hope that I'll do better this time . I believe there are decent pike there and intend to get one or two.
The last time there I thought I was prepared for the cold but I wasn't and have been thinking of getting new fishing clothing.
I like the look of jack Pyke hunting clothes and may pick some up in the next day or two.

Wee sea scorpion

I managed to get out for a few hours on saturday and decided to head over to greenock at the custom house quay.

I caught a couple of wee codling and another first for me, a long spined sea scorpion. This was one ugly looking fish, although it had a nice pale blue underside. I have since been told that these can give a nasty sting but not sure if this is true or not.

species list for 2013 is..

mackerel

flounder,

brown trout,

LSD, lesser spotted dogfish,

codling,

pollock,

pike,

sea scorpion.,

biggest of the year was the Pike at 8LB 7oz.

I don't think i,ll be getting out again before the new year.

One of those days...

I finished nightshift and instead of going to bed for a sleep before starting my next shift I decided to try a new venue.
As the area, a good sized loch, was about 6 miles away I decided to go by bike.
I got to the area in about 45 mins and found that the only way to get to the loch was up and over a couple of hills, not easy pushing a mountain bike.
As i got to the top of the hill I saw that I now had to go over a bard wire fence (bike too) and then through a muddy slopping field full of cows.
I eventually got down to the lochs muddy shore and set up, I was using a ledger rig with mackerel bait, and cast out.
Nothing was biting so I moved over a bit and tried again.
still no bites, I decided to try a float.
After 2 hours without as much as a sniff of a fish, it started raining, then it just got heavier and heavier till I was soaked through. yes I had waterproofs and an umbrella but being in scotland they didn't do me any good.
I was baiting up under the umbrella and then standing up to cast out, which took about 10 secs, but the rain was that heavy that this was all it took to soak through my clothes.
when the wind started to pick up and my fingers started to get numb, I decided to pack up and head home. back up the muddy cow filled hill over the fence and then peddle home in the rain before getting a quick bath and back out to work.
it was just one of those days when I should have went to bed instead of going fishing, but it wont deter me in any way because as soon as I have another day off i,ll be heading out fishing again... no pain no gain.

New pike rod.

I picked up a new pick rod today, a Ron Thompson pike rod which casts up to 1.5 LB. Although this is a cheap rod, the quality is good, I already have a Ron Thompson spinning rod ( which I caught my first pike with) so had no hesitation buying the same make again.
The rod is 11 feet long.
I look forward to using it at the start of the week when I'll hit the local canal again.
I also picked up a couple of  

30Plus Twin Treble Rig Snap Tackles -Size 4  so will try for pike again.

Pike fishing.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours today and thought i,d try my hand at fishing for pike in the local canal.
I was using my spinning rod with a wire pike trace on it and mackerel heads as bait.
I managed to catch this little beauty, it is my first pike and was around 30 inches long and about 8 1/2 LB.

Loch Fyne.

I managed to get out for a days fishing on saturday, I was working friday nightshift and finished at 8am on saturday morning and left around 9.30am to head up to furnace for a bit of shore fishing.we parked up, me, my nephew chris and his father-in-law archie and went on to crarae pier which is a small almost demolished concrete pier.

We were soon set up and I was first to cast out, I was using a french boom between my weight and a small bubble float to keep my float away from crabs.

It was not even in the water for a minute when I got a bite, pulled it in and it was a small pollock, (third pic) a new species for me, nice start.

Archie was next up a minute later with a small codling and then within another couple of minutes I had another bite.

 This time it was bigger and I was hoping it was not a mackerel,and pulled out a nice Lesser Spotted dogfish (LSD) (first pic) which was about 3LB, another new species for me.

Chris was next with another small pollock, before he lost a bigger fish just as he was bringing it out.

Archie struck again with two at once, a mackerel about 2LB and a small codling.

I pulled out a wee codling (second pic) minutes later to make it my third new species that day.

Chris got a wee codling and then a mackerel and after just 30 minutes of starting we had about a dozen between us.

Soon after the tide started to go out and I decided to take of the french boom and float as they were getting tangled every cast with the strong under current.

 we pulled up a few more codling and pollock, all small, and some good size crabs, one of which was large around the 2-3LB mark, which I was taking home to eat.

It ended up a good day out, 3 new species for me and a nice crab too. we headed for home as I was back in work nightshift on saturday night so would not be getting a sleep till sunday, but it was well worth it.