starting up

This seems like months ago now but this was one of the last times out. just amazing how quickly the weeks roll into months.

Went with Alan for a trip out on the West coast of Gigha to find a few pollack which were a bit on the slow side to appear. Eventually we found a decent spot with a good number of quality fish in the 6-8lb range.

However things started to slow and we just thought we had worked our way through the local stock when i was bringing a smaller fish to the surface which i thought had fought particularily well, turns out it was not only fighting me but the dark shape behind it. when i slowed the wind down the dark shape had a bite! It turned and went.
Soon enough the heavy rig was on and the remains of the bitten fish were mounted in a 8/0 hook.
nothing happened so we had another drift over the same area and were just about to give up when off went the ratchet. Bingo! The fight was absolutely brilliant as there was no weight or float in the way as i had free lined the bait. the result, the top picture.
After that we went looking for mackerel rather unsuccesfully and ended up back fishing for pollack in another area. Ended up a nice surprise between the pollack which were unusally patchy.
Mind you you can see their point with these things lurking around chomping bits out of them.

the next trip was a West coast conger hunt that went fairly well with the best eel tipping the scales round to 27lbs. We had approx half a dozen eels over 20lbs so will have another bash next year when the weather is warm wet.

The last 2 months has seen me retire the fishing rods and concentrate on my cycling addiction however it turns out that's not a whole load of fun in the cold and rain either.