Tay day Salmon

Ten club members attended and we landed in Dunkeld at the Merryburn Hotel at around 8am to meet up with Arthur and his wife who had stayed overnight. Stuart Clark having organised the day sorted out the hospitality with a round of bacon rolls and coffees to kick start the day and we were on our way. With exception of Stuart nobody had any experience of river of this size, fast flowing, wide and pretty daunting. We met up with Colin the ghillie who made us welcome, more coffee and then down to the river.

Eddie and Martin took to the boat first off for a spot of harling with Davy and Willie taking the afternoon shift. The rest of the members took up position on the various parts of the beat. Within two minutes Martin was hooped into a fish which came as a shock in what is normally a waiting game. Colin put the boat ashore and after a spirited fight the fish found its way into the net( a bit of stab it in anyway)... unfortunately so did a hook point of the Kynoch Killer and with a thrash the fish was free. Pictures here taken by Eddie just before Colin used the rubber net technique on the fish.

 After some banter and some verbal abuse directed at Colin the morning was over and we had  break for lunch.


The afternoon session proved to be eventful. Colin dropped Stevie and Martin off on the other bank and Willie and Davy headed upstream in the boat. As they rounded a  bend they could see Rodney had a fish on and beached the boat see the video here shortly.

Super fish, bar of silver12 pound springer...... caught on a Firetail Pollack lure and a jig head! Rodney having talked it up during the week had delivered the goods. A fish to be pleased with in anyones books and while not the biggest a lot of people try and spend lots of money chasing these elusive fish. Clearly you just need jellytail Pollack lures " ya dafties"
 
Colin took Willlie and Davy back out and they were straight on the fish with two back to back seen below, not fresh run fish but nice to get just the same.

Meanwhile John Wilson was downstream quietly going about his business catching his first ever Brown Trout out of season so this was returned as well.

Great day out so thanks to Colin and Stuart.

SOLWAY COD HUNT

After some news of big Cod being caught by the Whitehaven trawlers last week with a fish of 42lb reported Stuart and I decided to have a go .... Eternal optimists !!!! ( bloody nutters more like ).

Stuart spoke with Rab Gallagher from Glenrothes who had been told of the fish through one of his contacts .... Arrangements were made to meet at Kipford early Sunday morning.

We arrived at around 7.00am to a beautiful calm sunny morning full of hope ... With the tide rising we set off out to Heston Island and through in the anchor. We have fished this mark many times over the years with many a decent Cod boated. First cast a few bumps of my uptide developed into breaking out my grip lead .... A COD ??? .... Alas not a Cod but a nice fish all the same as a 10lb Thorny was netted ..... A lovely fish for this time of year.

After a few Dabs we headed to a mark further offshore where we continued to catch dabs and a few doggies .... no Cod :-(  

Since the turn of the year this will be our third trip to the upper Solway area in search of Cod ( what did I say about eternal optimists ) - we have fished Rascarrel with only a couple of Cod to 2.5lb between 3 off us and then Colvend again with 3 off us fishing with 2 rods catching only Dabs.

Who knows if the reports of big Cod last week are true or not ... all I can say is that like a lot of our fishing it ain't what it used to be .... no doubt I will be back next season to try again.

Willie K

SW boat trip as told by John Wilson

We left Ayr at around 7am and arrived at 9.30am and started fishing for10.00. Having got to our mark and made a start the first fish aboard was a whiting and then a dogfish. The whiting  came in three at a time with best one going to myself at 1lb 4oz. Mixed in with the whiting were some haddock but nothing to write home about, nice to see all the same. This proved to be the norm with Scott also getting a small Codling. Stuart and Willie pulled along side to see how we were getting on to which point Willie held up a cod of 5lbs 8ozs  caught by Stuart which was a nice fish for the area. As the tide started to pick up we called it a day as we could not hold bottom with a 1lb of lead. Good to get out fishing.... thanks lads

Sunart Spur bonanza

The Black Pig & Tickety Boo had a sortie north again at the weekend and were rewarded by a bundle of fish which included 30 doubles for Kenny, John and Gordon.

AYR SAC SHORE MATCH ARBROATH 4/2/12

ASAC Shore Match 4th February 2012
The first shore match for the club in the calendar, was fished at the Arbroath area. On arrival the sea looked very fishable with a severe bitter chill in the wind and unfortunately a fair bit of rain - although there was a fair bit of snow whilst driving through Dundee, but thankfully none in Arbroath.

9 members attended the match, including Stuart Cresswell, John Wilson, Iain Grant, Chris Grant, Malky, Shane Wilson, Will Miller, Robert Edmond and of course myself.

Big stu and myself opted to give easthaven a bash, whilst Iain, Malky, John & Chris opting for the beach at Ballies, Will & Shane were blown off at Rhumness and when I phoned them for an update they were found to be it he McDonald's in Arbroath... You'll catch no coddies there guys!! And Robert fishing the shore at Vicki park.

The match commenced at 3pm with the low tide at 17.46 stuart and myself fishing at easthaven, we fished almost 3 hours down and went for a stroll whilst waiting for the tide to turn and try and get some heat back in our digits as mine were in the process of turning blue.

Upon the tide turning we fired our baits out again, resulting in stu getting a double shot with fish around the 3lb mark, then as I'm enviously looking on, I turn to see my rod bouncing in the stand... Happy days!! I won't be going home to the caption of "Screwdriver" this day, and lift is nice fish of what I thought was around the 4lb mark, blank off at least!! I then managed another 4 fish also around the 3lb mark, with stu managing another 4 fish to add to his bag. Then the fishing seems to drop off so stu opts to move further along the beach to another gully, thankfully it's on route back to the car anyway, upon arriving i decide to just fish the one rod, bait up and fire it out, stu, still fishing 2 rods lands another 4 baits out in the gully, stand for a bit, trying to work the blood back into my fingers then notice a knock on stu's rod, I give him a holler and he returns to lift yet another double shot on to the rocks... BUT then I get a knock too and after a few bites then nothing I eventually tire of the torment and lift into another wee fish. Match finished at 10 so we head back to the weigh in.

Turns out that the others didn't fare to well at their chosen venues, with the only others lifting fish were Malky & Shane - pestered by he weed at ballies. Robert Edmond had already headed home due to the lack of fish, with will and Shane heading off for some further torture else where... Oh to be young again...wheres my bed!!

Round up... Well conditions looked good when we arrived and there were big hopes for numbers of fish, unfortunately this wasn't the case - still nice to get out and wet a line for my birthday and top up the freezer again with some nice platter sized fillets!! Results as follows....

1st with the heaviest bag ... Stuart Cresswell ... 24lb 11 - hst fish 3lb 7 (8 fish)

2nd with heaviest fish ... Jamie Soons ... 3lb 14 (hst fish) - bag of 13lb 3 (6 fish)

3rd Malky with 1 fish for 3lb 7

4th Shane Wilson with 1 fish for 2lb

Jamie.