Isle of Whithorn 7/08/10

[Rushy]

Myself, Paul and Terry made the decision to attend the Donkers Isle of Whithorn meet as we fancied putting the beachcasters away and doing a bit of light spinning and floatfishing
I'd never fished these parts before, although I've fished the Mull of Galloway across Luce Bay extensively a good few years back, so I was looking forward to catching plenty of pollack and Wrasse.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of googling other fishing websites and they pointed towards the possibility of Tope from the shore, good sizes too this put the 'fishing light' scenario firmly to bed and all eventualities were to be covered, so the boxes were loaded too and were crammed to the gills with wire traces and 6/0 hooks

On our way up we stopped off for ablutions and our eyes were caught by the cafe.........so.............


Three large Scottish breakfasts please with potato cakes and a square lorne sausage...delicious!!


Terry likes a bit of breakfast with his pepper



Suitably 'set up for the day' we pressed on to Whithorn, when we realised we'd not arranged with any of the guys where we were supposed to be meeting Not to worry, we can ring them....no signal!!

We decided to press on and lugged our gear over onto the headland were we quickly set up our gear, I opted to float and spin whilst Paul and Terry tried legering and mackerel bashing with feathers launched to the horizon.




I was first in with a small pollack..


Terry and Paul lost 4 or 5 sets of gear straight away, this spot was seriously snaggy and a tackle graveyard. They changed tactics and went onto the float which resulted in Terry's first ever pollack (no pic, so it doesn't count Tez....Paul, did you see a pollack? No? Neither did I..........)
I managed a mini species...



Then Paul used his knowledge of rock ledge fishing for Wrasse in the IOM and hit upon the perfect method for winkling them out. It was a fish a chuck from this point...





A nice one for me...












The scenery was fantastic......








I had one attempt at launching a tope bait out as the tide slackened, hoping less tide run with result in getting my gear back...some hope! We'd slogged all the extra gear down the cliff for bugger all! Is it normal to get pains running down your arm from your chest? I was fooooked!



We couldn't have wished for better weather, we'd packed the car with waterproofs and all sorts of wet weather gear expecting the worst, and left the suncream and sunglasses at home!


The craic was brilliant as usual, the fishing pretty good once we'd sussed it out and the venue and scenery superb we buggered off at low water and in hindsight we should have stayed and fished the flood into the dusk, it probably fished its head off. But we decided (joint decision lads...c'mon!) to go in search of other venues....bad decision as it turned out! Still, it didn't spoil a cracking days adventure

[Paul]

Great report Dave

A couple of slight inaccuracies which ill touch upon later once my 43 pictures have uploaded (Daz would be proud )

[Paul]

As above we all trekked up to Whithorn for a bit of rock fishing. The craic was was fantastic despite all being pretty tired with a 6am start, and not much sleep before!!

The fishing was a little hit and miss at first but we soon sussed it out and all caught a few decent wrasse....
Me with a nice one




Shanny for Terry


Goldsinny wrasse


A few boats flying around....


Tezzler coaxes one out


Rushy with a wrasse




The point came where Dave had bullied us enough into having a look for another fishing spot, eventually myself and Terry gave in as the suggestion of an ice cold cider at the pub on th way was just too much...

It turned out that this was just a ploy to get us to move and we ended us with a couple of ice pops and a bottle of Fanta instead

SO off we went in search of another mark. After driving around for a while we came across a sign for Wigtown..... "They have a harbour there" jeered Dave excitedly....

7 miles said the sign, now this would have been fine on "proper" roads but around here some of them would be better described as dirt-tracks

Eventually we arrived in the town of Wigs, and a quaint little market square greeted us.... Terry spotted a sign for the Harbour and we changed course accordingly, which led us down a dirt-track, i say dirt track, however this makes it sound better than it really was.

As we continued on our journey down the bumpy path, through the trees we kept getting glimpses of the sea....

Th excitement grew and we were rewarded with a delightful view of the small haven... We were all in awe of the magnificent sights and somewhat nostalgic thinking about all the ships that must have visited here over the years seeking safe waters and shelter from the high seas.







We were extremely impressed with the launching facilities for small trailered craft at the harbour, with a wide perfectly inclined ramp just to the side of the harbour.
The port authorities also provided perfect habitats for peeling shore crabs that the anglers using the ramp could exploit.





Near to the harbour entrance is the tourist information office where you will find lots of useful information about the surrounding area





Cheers Dave, an inspired decision!!!

All joking aside, I had a great day out with the boys as usual we even caught few fish as well, unfortunately we didn't get chance to visit Stafford on the way there and so one thing i did miss was the coffee from Stafford services, although the Morrisons in Dumfries was pretty good and the breakie certainly filled a little hole

[TerryG]

The fishing was good but the craic was awsome, Thanks lads:D As usual,This is a beautiful part of the country and a must to visit but you don't need loads of fishing gear, Do we Dave

[Nige]

Glad you enjoyed your weekend chaps , the smiles say it all .

top report and top piccies

gutted I couldn't make it up there . I could of carried Rushy's kitchen sink for him

[tony c]

exellent post chaps looks like a cracking weekend