I have had a couple of trips North, one to a west coast sea loch and the other a north east shore trip.
First trip was aboard the boat and the fishing was to start slow with all the usual marks producing a few dogs and a couple of eels to 20lbs. after a couple of marks we took a bit of a punt on a mark i hadn't tried for a few years and bingo the fish were home.
Overall we had 6 double figured fish with the best spur topping 15lbs with a broken infected tag in place. to that we added a couple of smallish rays and a couple more dogs before it all went earily quiet. Then the reason became apparent as the back rod arched over in that familiar hoop. its one of those strange moments in angling whether you don't know why but you are slightly relieved when the hook pulls and the bait comes back totally crushed! Skate on, skate off! on a day with no fish your delighted to get one however today the thought of a long battle wasn't top of the adgenda. you make up your own mind on that one?
After that we headed out with the shore rods hoping the gale that had taken place would have stirred things up nicely. we were surprised to se how calm it had become so quickly. obviously the feeding had been good and easy as the fish were sluggish. i had a particularily good day with my 2nd fish of the day being the slugger in the picture. to add to that one i had several around the 4lb mark however my fishing mate had one of those days quickly forgotten, it did start well with 2 in his first 2 casts but fell away quickly. its good to get a couple of decent trips in as its rejuvinated the spirit so there may be more 2012 trips to go yet.
