In the right Plaice

Easter bank holiday Monday and I had a free pass for the day. The forecast was for Easterlies, fresh at times, so the East coast Cod bashing was on hold.

Cumbria is only a couple of hours away for me so with a few lug left from yesterday's outing I made my way over to Allonby on the South side of the Solway. Early April heralds the return of the Plaice and although they're thin they're usually numerous and more importantly....... ravenous.

It's a beautiful location and even on a warm sunny Bank holiday like today it was almost deserted.

It's a long haul down the beach with the Yak, nearly 3/4 mile on a spring low. Today I timed it to perfection, the tide was rushing in to meet me as I made my way down the beach.

You have to paddle a long way off here to get any depth of water but don't let that put you off. Four to Ten feet of water is all you need to get amongst the fish. Once you get over the ten foot mark the Dab to Plaice ratio starts to change in the favour of the Dabs. First fish today was a cheeky wee Dab, these increased in size as the tide came through, infact I thought about nailing a couple for a fry..........

Once the Dabs took over I upped anchor and made my way closer to the shore. When I was trollying the kayak down to the LW mark I passed a nice depression with a gutter running parallel to the shore. I stopped and saved a waypoint into the plotter with the intentions on anchoring over it once it was covered with water. Now was a perfect time to try it out. When I got back inshore over the mark it was only lying in three feet of water but the tide was now flooding at full flow. Within Ten minutes there was Four foot, time to get some bait in the water. This was more like it, it was a Plaice a chuck, none of them huge but even the small ones give you a run for your money in such shallow water......

I even managed a couple of double shots before I had scraped the last of my bait from the bottom of the tub.

I couldn't honestly say what the final score was, into the high teens of Plaice and probably a dozen or so Dabs. Makes up for some of the blanks of late........

Loch Crinan

This was virgin territory for all of us on this trip, the little bit of information we had dug up was sketchy to say the least but it would hopefully point us in the general direction.

I arrived at Crinan harbour nice and early and found ample parking in the large public carpark. The launch was visible from the car and was only a 100yd walk along the sea front. The others arrived soon after and we all proceeded to rig up and make ready for a day afloat. Our target at this venue was Common Skate. These leviathans of the deep are a challenge for conventional boat anglers, for us in our kayaks, well.......... madness springs to mind !

We set off into a sea shrouded in mist with the sun threatening to burst through at any moment. Our forecast for the day wasn't good and the local coastguard confirmed the worst, a local gale warning was in place and now imminent.

With the forecast in mind we kept the launch in our sights and found a 305' hole with a conveniently placed mooring buoy.

By now the sun had broken through and we were left becalmed. The light breeze had left us and it felt more like July than mid March, the lull before the storm possibly ?

After an hour of inactivity on the Skate rods Ken's scratching rod arched over and he was soon winding up the first fish of the day from the Abyss. A nice Thornback Ray was soon on the surface for a quick photo shoot before it was released to make it's way back down through the depths.

At this point the breeze had returned, now in a more westerly direction and increasing in strength by the minute. We assessed the situation and on safety grounds we decided to make for the shore. Ken took advantage of the following sea and popped up the sail.

Our timing was perfect, conditions rapidly deteriorated on our way in. By the time we were level with Ardnoe point we were surfing some of the bigger swells.

After a brew on the shore we put our heads together and came up with the idea that there might be some deep water over on the North side towards the Castle . We made our way across the bay, a challenging paddle with the sea running beam on to us all the way. When we reached the other side we were disappointed to find that the only bays that allowed us some shelter were only knee deep in water. The realisation was hitting home that the deeper Skate marks were now off limits for us.

We all made our way back to the shore and started to pack the gear away. By now the wind was showing signs of dying away. Ken kept his kayak rigged and decided to go for another look out to the deeps. At this point I was loaded up and set off for the four hour drive home.

It was disappointing that we had been victims of the weather but half an hour into my journey home I was already planning my return. The thoughts I had of returning soon were bolstered by the phone call I received as I made my way down the M8.

Ken had managed to hook a Skate right on last light, what's more he had boated it, unhooked it and returned it to the depths all single handed. A great achievement in any ones book I would say. The fish was a male around the 50lb mark. A hard fighting fish that definitely gave him a run for his money.

For me this was my third blank trip in a row, surely it can't go on..........can it ?

Shake Down

A week of strong Westerly winds left the sea settled and clear. Although it's still early March, if you can get afloat, there's always a slim chance of catching a fish. Today's venue was to be Coldingham Bay. Parking at the car park at the top of the hill, a short carry takes you down to the the sheltered sandy beach of Coldingham Sands.This is a good launch for strong Westerly winds but check the swell heights before you go. Coldingham is one of Scotland's premier surf beaches. Even a small ground swell approaching the shore here will quickly increase in size and make for some interesting paddling. Our main objective today was to test out some of our winter modifications and check that any newly acquired gear was up to scratch and ready for the forthcoming season. I had a new GPS/Sonar combo to try out, a Humminbird 787c2i . After a few early programing glitches It seems to be working ok and it certainly shows a clear depiction of the sea bed, in this screen shot the lack of fish is also evident. We paddled South and threw a few fire-tails around the shallow reefs that held a good head of Pollock last summer. Unfortunately they were not in residence yet, infact the bottom looked a very baron landscape with nothing showing but the usual rocks and tangles. Our next plan was to throw the pick in and anchor up in the bay. I put three lug baits down into 30' expecting to see a small Dab or two to rectify my impending blank. Unfortunately they were also in hiding. Things were looking dire! An hour spent at anchor in the cold wind was enough for us so the decision was made to throw the towel in early.

This gave us a spare hour so a perfect opportunity arose for a bit of early season re-entry practise. Brian had finally parted with his thirty year old lilo and invested in a state of the art 70n Palm Kaikoura buoyancy aid.

Re-entry drills complete we then went on to see just how easy it was to scratch a composite kayak on barnacle covered rocks...........

So for the second trip in a row we ended up fishless but with the fishing being poor at the moment anyway, I think we made good use of our time by covering some essential safety drills.

Fishless February

Getting afloat in the North Sea during February is challenge enough, boatng a fish into the bargain certainly proved to be a bridge too far on this day..

We parked up at Eyemouth swimming pool car park and launched into the North end of the beach. It was a fine morning with a NW breeze and the remnants of the previous weeks swell dying by the second. The tide was well into the ebb so we decided to tackle the North going stream and fight our way down towards Burnmouth. That's after we had paid our visit to the Screaming Man below the Cannon's of course...........

Our journey South towards Burnmouth was the highlight of our trip. There was a fair bit of tide running round the headlands, this was against the wind and caused a few overfalls. The redundant swell was also against the tide, it made things a little interesting to say the least.

Gunsgreen point created one of the most active runs and a unusual seaward break made an ideal kayak shower.......

Once we rounded the final headland Burnmouth village lay in front of us and the sea was settled in the lea of the towering cliffs. A few drifts over some decent ground with good bait proved fruitless. The water was clear enough but it seemed the fish were not in residence.

Maybe someone else had been there before us.....?

With the fishing a non event there was nothing else for it but to head back amongst the rock ends for some fun...........

We failed to see any fish on the day but we did blow away some winter cobwebs and recce some good looking ground that will definitely be getting a visit later in the year.

RNLI Species Hunt, Loch Etive

This turned out to be one of those days when getting afloat was a bonus, catching a few fish on top of that made our journey all the more worth while.

We left Coldstream at 5am, driving through fresh snow, the prospect of 180 miles more of the same conditions was rather off putting to say the least. Never the less we plodded on and within 4 hours we had reached our destination of Loch Etive in beautiful snow capped Argyll.

Once daylight broke , the snow had turned to sleet and the white veil on the hills around us slowly receded to the peaks, a promising sign at least, as we contemplated our journey home that evening.

As we arrived at the loch we were met by an armada of dinghies and a few kayaks. Today was the inaugural RNLI benefit day, a species hunt on the loch. A total of sixteen boats, four kayaks and two charter boats were all chomping at the bit ready to get afloat. One small hurdle lay in front of us though. The wind was howling down the Loch, reaching gale force 8 at times. The saving grace, it was dying and dying fast. By the time we had rigged up and had a cuppa it looked a much better prospect. The match had been postponed for an hour, a wise decision, as although now it was still windy, the tide had turned and the narrows at Bonawe no longer resembled the maelstrom of white water that they were 20 mins previous. It was now viable and we slipped in, making our way for some shelter behind the quarry on the North Shore.

After half an hour sitting at anchor with nothing to show we opted for a change of venue. A long,slow slog against the now fiercely ebbing tide took us up to the rough ground inside the Quarry. It was a nightmare to try and set an anchor in such conditions so we threw the towel in and made for the South shore to stretch our legs and make a long over due brew.

Now refreshed and full of new found vigour we tied off to a couple of Buoys at the old Quarry fish farm. By this time the wind had dropped away to nothing and in it's place came a steady downpour of sleety rain. It didn't cause a problem though as a few fish came on the feed and the species tally started to grow as they came aboard.

I struggled to get a Codling so a quick shift back over to the quarry proved to be fruitful as i nailed three off the belt end.

From there I made my way down nearer the launch site and tied off to a Buoy near a mark that was renowned for throwing out a few varied species. True to form it produced the goods, but unfortunately I had encountered most of them already today, if only I had went there first in the morning. Time was running out and I noticed a few of the boats heading back to shore so we made our way back in. A total of five species for me which I thought was ok considering I hadn't touched a Spurdog, Thornback or even a Dogfish throughout the day.

The prize giving over, we beat a hasty retreat and thankfully we had an uneventful journey home. The conversation on the way home soon turned to fishing as we discussed how we were going to put a fish on the table in the month of February. A tall order if ever there was one........