From North to South

[Rossco]

Saturday
Myself, John & Big BOBO headed to the shores of Loch Etive on Saturday
John picked me up just after 2pm after a 2hr+ drive and a wee bit of a treck in a heavy downpour we were at out mark with rods in the water around 5pm soon as the rain stopped the ever obliging midge were out in force again, whilst setting up John advised me I was fishing to far to the left with him being about 60yds to my right but after the treck I decided against his advice and parked my arse where I was for the night ahead which in the end no doubt proved to be my failure although I still managed a few, but with John pulling in Thornies from the off I was starting to think I should have moved, with the tide pulling our rigs hard squeezing in at the other side of them would have only ended up with crossed lines and an even more crossed BOBO
So onto the fish, John was about 4-0 up on both me and BOBO with a quick succession of Thornies all around the 2-3lb mark I decided to stick on a few sandeel instead of the mackerel I had been using and was quickly rewarded with a Thorny of my own around 3lb Bobo got a nice wee Gurnard on a peeler or rag, we were all getting little 'vibration' bites from the vicious little whiting which were stripping our baits fairly quickly but Whiting normally = Spurs so wasn't all bad, I pinched a few ragworm off Bobo and switched over to a size 4 hook 3 hook flapper just to pass the time on 1 rod whilst waiting for darkness and caught a little bait robbing Cod
With darkness coming in so did the Spurs Bobo getting the heaviset 1 of the night 1st at just over 7lb followed by John at just under 7lb another 1 each around the 5lb mark and I got a solitary 1 also around 4-5lb.
I had a really strong bite which took my tripod and both rods over, fought with it for around 20 seconds and all went light when I reeled in I had been bitten off, using some amount of protection around the hooks I was quite surprised at this but on closer inspection I had been bitten off approximately 2 1/2 ft up my snood :confused2: 5 mins later John suffered the same fate, both of us mystified but a little lesson learned and snoods will now be getting a little more 'armour'.
Totals for the night.
John
8 Thornies
2 Spurdog
4 doggies
Bobo
2 Spurdog (Heaviest 7lb 2oz)
4 Thornies (heaviest 5lb 4oz)
1 Gurnard
Rossco
1 Spurdog
1 Thorny
1 Tiny Cod


Next Pic was Bobo's Spur I held for the pic as he was busy tying another rig


Sunday
With John dropping me off at 4am and another John (brother in law) picking me up at 0545 there was little point in grabbing an hour so stayed up RE made my flask, RE made my pieces and stuck another bottle of coke in the bag OUT with the Etive rig wallet IN with the Pollack & Wrasse wallet OUT with the Etive rods IN with the heavy spinning rods OUT with the multi's IN with the f/s and so on lol,
Brother in Law John arrives on time gear in the car and off to get my old man who was 'trying' to fight me over the back seat in the car for a sleep after what looked like a night on the couch for him. I won he lost, kept John right until we got onto the M77 and decided to rest my eyes John woke me up at Stranraer for directions arrived at our club meeting point (John & my dad fishing as guests for the day) a half hour later, thinking this was a mark I hadn't been to I was a little reluctant to get out the car (in the rain) when I seen the monument up the field which meant there was a bit of climb on the way back which had set my lungs on fire a year before !!
After a yomp through the fileds and cow dung over the electric fences, which were by the way ON as 1 of the club guys found out TWICE :highly_amused: (sorry Robert ) we climbed down a steep hill to the rocks below,
The hammering rain slowed to a stop and we were treated to a day of sunny intervals, 2nd cast I got a tiny Pollack then lost leadhead after leadhead about 8 in total managed a slightly better Pollack and a grand 15oz before I'd lost interest after losing so much gear, tried round the other side of the little out crop we were on planked my arse got the ragworm on and caught about half a dozen ballan wrasse all colours & sizes, with my scales been over the other side and nothing overly big I never bothered weighing them for the club competition deciding better to get them back in the water whilst they were still fighting fit tried casts at range and in close all resulting in Wrasse around the 1lb mark,
With an hour to go I decided it was time to "wake up" and went back round got the spinning gear out 1st cast with a sidewinder caught a better Pollack coming in at 3lb6oz was tapped on the head which later shared the sweep for the heaviest fish of the day the other being a Ballan at the same weight. Caught another 4 Pollack arounf the 2lb mark which were released unweighed as the scales were still out of my reach as my dad had been keeping them busy with 15 Wrasse up to 2lb8oz John had 5 to just over 2lb and a 2lb Pollack,
Time up and time for a Climb, having regularly exercised this year the climb was nothing compared to last year a healthier diet and exercise had now begin to show but with my dad just being told he has chronic bronchitis I was more worried he'd be alright so we took our time on the climb up,
A haggis supper at Stranraer on the way home was the perfect end to a great weekend,





Cheers

[liphook]

Good work lads

[sharpey]

Brilliant trip out for you all..!! Great results too, nice work!!

[sultzer]

rossco a great report as usual .

[mac]

Great report , a good few miles put in but well worth it with plenty of fish , some good size wrasse too.