21/01/12
Loch Etive – MV Cregallan
Weather: sun , rain , sleet , snow , hail stones , strong to gale force wind
Bait: mackie , bluey , sandeel , squid , herring , kipper
Fish Caught: Spurdog , whiting , thornback , LSD , Gunard – 63 fish
Arrived at Taynuilt to be greeted with the worst weather i have seen for a few years , crew turned up then onboard we went .
1st stop after getting drenched by sleet and hailstones , well the few of us that were out the cabin .
lines went down within 2 mins the 1st spurs showed , followed by a few more , fishing was a bit slow but still coming aboard with a spur weighing 4lb , 2 lsd as well .

Tangles not the word due to wind and a few drags set light , but hey just leave it to 2 people to sort while the rest looked on , cold and wet but we got the lines , but i had another line right through my eyes to my reel 50 ft of it .
Then brian pulled in a spur 6.1lb that was a sight to see . then a couple of thornies , nuddy 4lb then foxy 4.2lb .The crew wanted to move so we moved .


2nd stop blooming hell wind was strong blowing the boat around , i think i only had a whiting there ,So off we went for another stop , but no hiding place from that wind .

3rd stop lines went down , nothing for around 40mins , by this time lines were getting fewer in the water , i pulled out another whiting , a few spurs came along .then i caught a thornie , then another thornie came aboard , nuddy caught a good sized gunard . By this time wind really picked up reel up was a cold wet time , i caught 2 more thornies , a few more spurs , 2 whiting also were caught .




So crap condition and we did get a few fish , but best bit was seeing most of crew hiding in the cabin ,

also a sea cucumber was caught on the anchor , that was a sight , thanks for the ID guys.

Biggest Spur – Brian

Biggest thornie – Silver Fox

Most species : Nuddy
Biggest Fish – Brian

I carried on and around 6am the cod meister arrived Kev as you may know him.It wasnt long before he was into a fish….

Oh dear was this the size of things to come……Kev assured me that as soon as dawn broke we would be into better fish,and to be honest he`s usually right so i was still hopeful.Low and behold as light broke he was off again…….

Getting bigger but still no good lol….ah well it was good to be out again we carried on.Not long after i had a nice two nodder and struck into what felt much better,it stayed deep all the way in and when i tried to lift it weed had stuck on my leader knot and jammed in the tip ring, so Kev did the honours with his drop net and i hand balled it into it,cheers kev.Happy new year and a new PB for me 57cm and weighed 4lb6oz was well chuffed………

We both missed a few bites and i had fish on but lost it to the snags,then i had another dab…kev had one as well so with no takers for him we kept them to keep him fed lol……he even scaled down on one rod in attempt for more and was rewarded with a double shot…………..Whiting and dab.

I had an undersize codling then as the tide turned me moved of the corner to the main prom to fish on for a bit,whilst i was baiting up kev noticed his line slack and struck into a better fish resulting in this…………………..

At long last a taker for him weighing in at 3lb3oz..happy new year to you kev we were both happy now.We gave it until 1pm then left to meet mal at eastham,where i watched the lads for a half hour then went home.First session of 2012 and it was a fairly good one plenty of action , two nice takers and a new pb for me,was nice to see Mal as well and i hope they had a few fish at eastham.

and it was just the 1 , the wind scuppered my original plan so I started at the blue bridge just b4 high tide , gave it 3 hours down for just the 1 fluke , but after all the blanks I,ve been gettin while chasing monster perch over the last couple of weeks it was welcome ., then I went over the border to eastham for a short sesh after cod with kev ,[who,d had a tidy morning with thomper at the woodside , gettin a 4-6 for gaz and a 3-3 to kev ], , but the cod did,nt wanna play and apart from 1 little that kev got it was a blank ., 

Well with the big winds and rain easing for one night (if you call 15mph winds light) enough was enough and we had to get out.
the dee was out the question so we haeaded for treauder bay and have a go at the coalies. went armed with crab squid maccie and plenty of fresh blacks.
got there and we were dissapointed at the size of the surf. to say hardly any in these winds was unbelievable. so we set up all the same me degs and wayne and roy who lives on the island.1st of was wayne with a good thick flounder.

 

then it was all small coalies with a few whiting thrown in the best coalie to roy about 2lb. roy also had a schoolie about the same size. and the rest of the night it was just lots of small one’s.

not much of a report but its just an idea to people how the islands fishing at the moment.

but it was great just to get out. and fingers crossed i’ll be fishing the mersey monday morning.