Western Isles Day one, Kilmalaug bay , Skye.

[Wolf]

Nice catches,report & piccys well done mate

 

[The Third Earl]

So, Yesterday was a day off, blowing a hoolie and persisting down so went shopping to Portree , it must have the most fish n chip shops per acre anywhere in the world !

Back at the cottage spent the evening catching up on some reading in and amongst , and decided that as the forecast for today was improving by 5.00 pm after an early tea I would give it an hour of the rocks below Duntulm Castle which is only a ten min drive away.

Fast forward to today, rained and blew another hoolie this morning
After tea at 5pm, full of chicken , new potatoes , salad and some foreign stuff , I gathered together the lure gear and with wifey parked up at the castle . I grabbed the gear and made my way to the marks I had spotted earlier whilst Ruth went doing photo stuff.It was two hours to high tide, and near enough the biggest tide of the month, what could be better ?

Made my way down the sloping pasture to the first mark.



Mostly grass ! But lookes really good, looking behind there is this .



I proceeded to thrash the water into a fine foam , trying several of my vast assortment of plastics. Managed to catch some weed , moved around the headland to the below mark, nice deep spot with plenty of rock and kelp beds. Nothing!



After several moves I spotted something lodged on a flat bit of stone, result,a new spool of bait elastic , at least somebody else had fished here . Hope they did better than me
I continued to cast far and wide, along the rocks straight out, close in , fast retrieve , slow, retrieve , sink n draw, etc etc. Nothing doing but at least I had the elastic to show for my efforts. Wifey managed to take a couple of snaps of me blanking again.



After an hour I was becoming somewhat dejected , so decided to call it quits and with wifey head back to the Ponderosa.

I am beginning to feel like Minstrel, the only consolation is that nobody else seems to be fishing at all . Maybe everybody knows something I dont ?

Things can only get better .

Hopefully .

To be continued.

Dave

 

[Dutchman]

One nice looking place you are fishing.

 

[tdxs133pm]

Things can only get better .

I said that after your second report.Have you tried looking for Donalds Troosers.Do all the Lassies say hello.

 

[Dutchman]

I said that after your second report.Have you tried looking for Donalds Troosers.Do all the Lassies say hello.

Was'nt it Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to Skye to hide out.

 

[flappy]

So, Yesterday was a day off, blowing a hoolie and persisting down so went shopping to Portree , it must have the most fish n chip shops per acre anywhere in the world !

Back at the cottage spent the evening catching up on some reading in and amongst , and decided that as the forecast for today was improving by 5.00 pm after an early tea I would give it an hour of the rocks below Duntulm Castle which is only a ten min drive away.

Fast forward to today, rained and blew another hoolie this morning
After tea at 5pm, full of chicken , new potatoes , salad and some foreign stuff , I gathered together the lure gear and with wifey parked up at the castle . I grabbed the gear and made my way to the marks I had spotted earlier whilst Ruth went doing photo stuff.It was two hours to high tide, and near enough the biggest tide of the month, what could be better ?

Made my way down the sloping pasture to the first mark.

View attachment 44735

Mostly grass ! But lookes really good, looking behind there is this .

View attachment 44732

I proceeded to thrash the water into a fine foam , trying several of my vast assortment of plastics. Managed to catch some weed , moved around the headland to the below mark, nice deep spot with plenty of rock and kelp beds. Nothing!

View attachment 44736

After several moves I spotted something lodged on a flat bit of stone, result,a new spool of bait elastic , at least somebody else had fished here . Hope they did better than me
I continued to cast far and wide, along the rocks straight out, close in , fast retrieve , slow, retrieve , sink n draw, etc etc. Nothing doing but at least I had the elastic to show for my efforts. Wifey managed to take a couple of snaps of me blanking again.

View attachment 44734

After an hour I was becoming somewhat dejected , so decided to call it quits and with wifey head back to the Ponderosa.

I am beginning to feel like Minstrel, the only consolation is that nobody else seems to be fishing at all . Maybe everybody knows something I dont ?

Things can only get better .

Hopefully .

To be continued.

Dave

You’re definitely fishing like me.. results wize..although if I was fishing the bait elastic would be an empty bag of crisps.

 

[wingnut55]

Fantastic reports and Pictures mate, looks very scenic. Nice one...

Ian.

 

[tdxs133pm]

Was'nt it Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to Skye to hide out.

Nah! Andy Stewart.

 

[Mr Fish]

Good effort Dave but hope it improves!

Obviously the Skye fish don’t like sex toys?

 

[The Third Earl]

Day 7 … and an improvement !

Hi again. Today Ruth suggested we walk the coast from the car park at Shulista, to Rhubha Hunish , which is a headland at the top of Skye, with a promotory that just out into the sea . Always up for scoping out new marks I grabbed my rod, and rucksack, but noticed that I had somehow managed to damage the tip ting on my rod, funnily enough it was the tube that had fractured not the ring supports or the insert.I remembered that the tip ring had lasted since it had been replaced on Holiday in Florida a lot of years ago, so it had done very well, but that did not help much as there was as much chance of finding a replacement around here as hell freezing over.
Not to be held back by such stuff it was quickly replaced by stainless steel eye I manufactured using my leatherman and the wire from a grip lead, whippped on using some 60 lb braid. Not pretty but serviceable .




Job done we set off , car parked up , we grabbed our walking poles, and I also had the rod, reel, rucksack with soft plastics and some heavyish metal home made stainleless steel vertical jigs . A bag of apples, cheese and a bottle of water completed the load .
Off we yomped and about 3 miles later we were greeted with this view .



Checking the ordanace survey map,it shows that the height above sea level is 116 meters at the point above.Looking down the path wound its way down the cliff to the promotory you can just see to the right in the above picture. Off we trotted, amd made our way down the path.

Looking back up from below , you can just see another couple of walkers coming down.






Once down we explored, the promotory from above looked to have some really good sea level ledges, but when we got down the scale of land to sea was miles out and actually most areas were probably 50 feet vertical down to the sea . We searched around for ages, there were a few marks that could be reached with a bit of scrambling over weed covered rock , and climbing across and over deep inlets, but wifey was not up for it and as she was the camera operator we looked further afield, I did spot this chap who seemed to have more rope and ironmongery than was really needed, still if it made him feel any safer good luck to him !

Eventually we came to a spot that reminded me of a few marks I have fished at Hoxa Head on Orkney , about probably 30 or 40 feet above sea level , with a nice ledge to stand on and a vertical lift should anything be daft enough to get caught. The ledge was directly above deep water with kelp showing at the sides of underwater chasms and absolutley shouted that vertical speed jigging was the way forward.
After assembling my gear and attaching a home made jig of about 4 oz weight I made mybway to the cliff edge and cast in, it took what seemed like ages for the stainless jig to hit bottom, I started to speed jig it up to the surface, withoutbreally expecting anything to happen,suddenly, first cast and only a couple of “jigs “ up the rod was wrenched down and I had a fish on.



The Shimano Exage rod took on a healthy bend and I could feel the fish trying to dive and take me goodness knows where, using braid as I was, every movement was felt . Soon I managed to get the better of the fish and looking down I saw the golden flanks of a Pollack just below the surface , not a big fish, probably a couple of pounds , but I felt I deserved it after a few blanks so carefully I winched it up the cliff , the rod taking on a healthy bend. I think it must be softening as it has had some big fish on over the years .

Once the fish was level with the ledge I was stood on it was an easy matter to swing it in and grab it .



Very happy that I had “broke my duck” the fish was unhooked, and swiftly dispatched , one for tea !



I quicky cast in again and “ bang” straight into another, then another, then another . The home made jigger was doing its job, I have had Snapper on it in New Zealand, Mulloway in Australia, plus other species I cannot remember . I digress.

I kept 3 Pollack for the table, then returned a few to grow bigger . Time was passing and we had the cliff to climb and a good walk back to the car so being satisfied with what had been caught in less than an hour we packed up and started the yomp back .

Should anybody ever be in this neck of the woods, the below photo shows the location . I have no problems helping other anglers out , hopefully what goes around comes around .



Finally ….. The tip ring held out !




We have another 7 days here yet so who knows where the next cast will land ?

Dave

 

[Phis]

Excellent well done Dave great report and photos

 

[wingnut55]

Hope the next seven days go well for you mate. Tight lines.

Ian.

 

[Ollieollie]

Excellent stuff Dave, and the running repair is just fantastic. Well done mate

 

[tdxs133pm]

Nice one mi laird.Glad it came good for you.Onward and upward.Nice bottle of white should go down well with those.

Dave.

 

[ouchthathurt]

Great result mate, enjoy every minute of your trip

 

[Steve Arnold]

I do miss the pollack fishing! That was my main source of sport for many years, though I mostly fished from Oban to several miles south in a little boat. There was a time when I fished the rock marks but my various health problems put a stop to that. I have fished Neist Point on Skye a couple of times but would not do that now, plus I REALLY hate the midgies there!

The pollack may still be spawning, I have caught pollack around Kerrera (Oban) in May that were either leaking milt or totally spent. The spent fish were scarred and wasted, rubbish for the table!

I remember one day in May where I had searched all my usually productive marks with no success, then I found fish showing on the sounder tight to a little reef. Those pollack were obviously spawning! Then they took most aggressively, the best bait was a little rubber crayfish lure, I think the fish were more angry than hungry!

When I made plans for pollack fishing I always went for Spring tides, particularly timing the turn of the tide. The first couple of hours of both the ebb and the flood tides always stirred the pollack to bite. The pollack can be incredibly localised, so much easier to find in my little boat. Yomping cliffs for miles and climbing down to several marks during the day would kill me now!

Good to see you found a few anyway Your posts have brought back some good memories......

 

[The Third Earl]

I do miss the pollack fishing! That was my main source of sport for many years, though I mostly fished from Oban to several miles south in a little boat. There was a time when I fished the rock marks but my various health problems put a stop to that. I have fished Neist Point on Skye a couple of times but would not do that now, plus I REALLY hate the midgies there!

The pollack may still be spawning, I have caught pollack around Kerrera (Oban) in May that were either leaking milt or totally spent. The spent fish were scarred and wasted, rubbish for the table!

I remember one day in May where I had searched all my usually productive marks with no success, then I found fish showing on the sounder tight to a little reef. Those pollack were obviously spawning! Then they took most aggressively, the best bait was a little rubber crayfish lure, I think the fish were more angry than hungry!

When I made plans for pollack fishing I always went for Spring tides, particularly timing the turn of the tide. The first couple of hours of both the ebb and the flood tides always stirred the pollack to bite. The pollack can be incredibly localised, so much easier to find in my little boat. Yomping cliffs for miles and climbing down to several marks during the day would kill me now!

Good to see you found a few anyway Your posts have brought back some good memories......

View attachment 44816

Hi Steve, nice write up there, as far as the midges go, that is why we always come to Skye, or indeed any of the West Coast here before June . Both my wife and I suffer very badly from insect bites, in fact I have been hospitalised once due to insects and carry Epipens .

Shame about the bitey things ,as I would love to visit the west coast here later on in summer, but it will never happen .

Funnily enough we have never ever had any bother from them on Orkney .

Dave

 

[richtic]

Great reports and well done catching a few

 

[Another Angle UK]

Funnily enough we have never ever had any bother from them on Orkney .

Dave

That’ll be the wind up on Orkney - midges are grounded in a reasonable breeze. Damp and still, run like hell.

 

[The Third Earl]

That’ll be the wind up on Orkney - midges are grounded in a reasonable breeze. Damp and still, run like hell.

Been on Orkney about a half dozen times in July / August, must have been lucky because never ever been bothered at all by the little boogers , and thats with or without a breeze.
No idea why as we usually stay a little inland where you would expect them .

Hoping to go to Shetland , maybe next year so no idea if there are bitey things there .
Hope not .

Dave