fresh air at last

 OUT INTO THE WIDE BLUE YONDER

some maybe aware that i have a wee bit of a medical issue with my leg which causes me a bit of pain so my fishing trips are quite limited just now and along with being forever busy in the cave time to get out was going to be limited .and well the cave is always fun .

so im blessed that i live (almost across the road from a harbour) although fly fishing can be tricky here it is my favourite place to do a wee spot of lrf which im partial too (shock horror) although fly fishing will always be my first love, its nice to have that option  to get a quick couple of hours down here and its very picturesque location and  o also love the early morning tides when there's nobody around .

not saying i dont like people but i tend to wind them up when they ask me if ive caught anything 

tourist - anyluck 

me - don't need luck mate im skilled in what i do 

tourist (bemused look) - oh right , have you caught anything 

me - well actually yes ive had a couple of nice carp 

tourist - "carp" you can catch them in the sea 

me - well yes , i mean you've heard of salmon and sea trout coming up rivers from the sea haven't you

 

tourist -  well now you mention it yes i have , well i never knew that , you learn something everyday 

so you get the idea , if your going to disturb my peace im going to get my moneys worth from you but its all in good fun 

so a friend posted on the edinburgh anglers page on facebook a great picture of a gurnard that his mrs had caught there , now i was really surprised as id never heard of one caught there before and i have not caught one in a lot of years so kinda spurned me on to have a go for a local one. 

this is my 5:30 am face yea it was an early tide around 7 am , ben who i was meting wasn't getting down till 6:30 am so i decided just to head down 

i opted for a 1-7 grm rod 6lb briad to 4lb flurocarbon to a dropshot rig with a one inch isomme worm, well i just had a lazy first cast and within 60 seconds and as i bought it in i looked into the water as it came up and saw the unmistakable shape of the fins , it was indeed my target fish . well that was quick lol , beautiful little fish 

next on my list was a scorpion fish (i was pretty much on a mini species hunt today ) i cast back in close to the side where i know the scorpions hang out and after a couple of missed bites i got one , dont now what it is about these fish mabey just the prehistoric look of them or the tenacious fight on light gear but i always enjoy catching them .

on a side note its quite interesting that there seems to be more species around the harbour than in previous years and i wonder if its because of the harbour being dredged what seems to be yearly but certainly something going on and there seems to be bigger shoals of sprat around than previous years so im guessing thats a good sign .  

ben gets lucky

so ben arrives on a quest for his first Scottish mackerel , hes actually tried no end and didn't even get one last year despite his best efforts but i guessed he might today as i knew they were about as i had seen lots of sprat flashing in panic under the water below me 

after about 20 mins throwing a silver lead lure around he got his first one and was over the moon , he ended up with 4 so he was delighted , always great fishing with ben and never a dull moment  

 

so was bound to happen i hooked into a mackerel and what great fun on the light gear, even stripping line and going on long runs , i mean seriously isnt this what the say the tug is the drug , personally ill take that everyday than blanking , absolutely superb sport .    

aerobatic mac , gotta love em 

about the only time i keep fish is when i catch mackerel, very good for you and taste awesome when there fresh ,   

the tide was heading well out and was about 2 hours out from high and i had another scorpion and another couple of macs and that was about it for us as ben had to get away and my pains were starting to annoy me .

one this i noticed was the mackerel were quite fat this year , i gutted the fish to only find the odd sandeel quite well digested which was strange considering the amount of sprats about 

you really can beat this from sea to plate in a few hours the mackerel was baked in the oven with added herbs and garlic and was literally melt in the mouth 

CAVE LIFE

been a fairly hectic week in the cave with an order to finish and pack for Holland  

orange flies are something people usually fish as part of a colour combo (usually chartreus ) but can be deadly with some orange flash running through it as you can see below 

PERCH OF THE YEAR

biggest perch of the yea falls to mike on the pike blog , who caught this specimen on a robert the roach in 6/0 while pike fishing on a float tube on the thames , its been said that the biggest of big fish is a big perch , and i tend to agree , great fish mate .

ALL HAIL NIGEL 

(for he is the messiah)

nigel and i hooked up after he had a problem with a fly hook straightening out at the net and him losing a large catfish , the company i wont name but begins with f m  , now im sorry thats what happens when you buy African made garbage of course you think being a reputable company they would would be top notch but nope yet again another reason to buy from local tiers , i care about the bottom of the net not the bottom line i rest my case 

so nigel messaged me and told me of his issues and could i help 

not an issue job complete , below are some pictures that nigel sent in , caught on the flies he purchases from me 

as i was about to publish this blog i had the incredible news that nigel had caught the second largset catfish in the uk and the fly that caught it has been named "woods red devil" well deserved and couldnt have happened to a nicer bloke 

nigel congratulations 

here are the pictures 

i cant really follow that but nigel with be in the angling times paper in September  chatting about it 

again top angling 

mcfluffchucker (a cave in scotland)