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........
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