Well after months of planning and excitement on Monday my yearly trip to Luce bay came around . A little bit of added pressure this year as the numbers had gone up to nine and amongst them were some lads who haven't done any of this kind of fishing before 4.30 am after a few hours of snatched sleep we met up and were off 3 hours later we arrived at the Mariners cafe in Drummore and took on some essential fuel


Having shovelled in a fantastic full breakfast we made our way to East tarbet to meet up with the onyer marks team ... A quick bomb out to collect some bait soon resulted in plenty of fresh mackerel for bait and rubby dubby. Our skipper (Matty Burrett) then asked what we wanted to fish for ...
As always I left it completely to him , what's the point in paying for a top skipper then dictating to him about the fishing ?! the decision was then made to target the Tope for a few hours before moving onto the pollock . Fantastic I thought! Great chance to put my new ugly stik 12-20 class that I had picked up from Gerrys to the test
Didn't take long for the rubby dubby to work its magic and the bites start ...





It was a fantastic , frenetic couple of hours with 6 Tope brought to the boat along with a few dropped runs and of course a good few of those very rare creatures the dog fish
In no time at all it was time to move onto the pollock... This is truly superb sport! I'd opted for a light lure rod this year and really enjoyed putting it too the test ! Usually the pollock are targeted on float tackle and that initially was how I started but after quite a few pollock I encountered a fishing first that in the end forced me to change tactics I was just preparing to lift a good pollock in the 5-6lb bracket from the water when this huge brown shape snatched it a foot from my hand and proceeded to do its best to pull me in! Stripping off yards and yards from my reel and bending the rod double! A bloody seal had got me! Ping! trace gone! Skipper said this might happen a couple of times then it'd move on... 4 bloody times it hit me! Leaving everyone else alone old fella was in hysterics I just couldn't be arsed setting up another float trace so switched to lures and sidewinders which again was very exciting fishing



We must have knocked up around 40 pollock between us before the time to head in came all too soon
Was great to check in with the other lads who had all really enjoyed a great days sport and 9 giddy kids headed for clashwhannon caravan park in search of beer and food

Was also good to meet up with Sam and matt from Gerrys for a pint or ten!

The craic was fantastic !
Headed to bed ( eventually ) really excited for the second day of our adventure
On this day we decided to leave the bloody seal to the pollock and go out for the Tope and larger species
Big matt was on the case with his own special rubby dubby much to the skippers disgust
20 pints and a mixed grill will do that too you!
Whatever it was it did the trick and the bites started to come !


This second day produced some very large bull Huss , 6 Tope , spur dog , doggies and a thornie... Only bad part of it was how quick it was over! In no time again it was time to head home
Only remains to say a massive thank you to Matty Burrett for putting us into the fish and to his dad Ian and andy on the other boats for their help (and patience ) in helping all the lads out and putting them into fish . We had managed to wrack up 17 species over the two days . For those who haven't been up there before I couldn't recommend Onyer Marks charters enough , the skippers work incredibly hard and are in amongst the anglers all day assisting , it's well worth a visit! I will be back up again very soon!

Top Post Matty Excellent pictures, report and those fish are what we dream of catching Beats the north wall. Glad you had a great time Back to reality now

Jelouse much [emoji36][emoji36][emoji36]nice one Matty love it up there some cracking fishing love fishing for them pollock on the drift with launce and to top it of finish up at clash that's we stay it is as they say gods country cheers Matty [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]


.

Great report and pics, thanks for posting.

Top report Matty, great results, great pics and some fabulous fish! Have to try to top this with a Sandside session sometime..(???) glad it went well for you all..


Sharpey

Now I know where you got the jammygit from .ucky sod ,what a great report pal

Now that is what you call a fishing trip,including a good pi$$ up.Some cracking fish for you lads,well done.

Coud`nt get there mate ,jealous

Wow that's some great fishing you had there JG
what's the cost of a days charter? Do they charge per angler or for the boat?
Quality report and photos

Graham wrote:Wow that's some great fishing you had there JG
what's the cost of a days charter? Do they charge per angler or for the boat?
Quality report and photos

It's fantastic mate it's £240 a day for the boat , you can get 4 per boat but to be honest it's better with three as they aren't massive boats and it makes it easier to fish