I feel as if I have stomped all over the Central Belt of Scotland with just a hint of travelling far North. To my shame I have traveled more in England than I have in Scotland. Before the kids arrived I went camping up North for a couple of weeks with my wife however never made it up as far as John o Groats, well finally we did make it and have a picture to prove it.
We were up for a few days staying at Thurso which would have been great for the trout fishing if it had been a couple of months ago however now the season has ended and the Salmon season was way over my budget I was faced with the Sea. So I managed to affix my beachcaster and tripod to the roof bars and some advice sought on some forums and from pals I was off.
I have got to admit that I am a total rooky to Sea fishing however learning about a whole new branch of the sport has really got me interested. Up in Thurso it was fairly standard that I wanted to go fishing, I mean the fishing boats came in at Scrabster and I should maybe have fished their however I decided to fish along at Dunnet Bay purely as I had visited it during the day and it seemed nice. Seemingly Sea Bass are caught at this bay (which seems to be a bit of a sea fish holy grail) however I would be happy with a small flounder. I think it was while I was on the telephone to fishing buddy Alex that I realised my hooks were to big. Anyway, I had been fishing for a while with some mackeral strips that I had carved off a whole fish that I had bought from Tesco that morning when I realised that I did have some smaller hooks in a packet in my bag however by this point it was getting dark and I could not continue because I could see nothing and had forgotten a torch.
Of course what made me feel like an extra special amateur was when a couple of blokes walked down the beach looking like the characters from Tron, I mean they even had little neon things on their tripod and fishing rods. “These guys..” I mused..”know what the fuck they are doing” Of course, these guys had timed it right for proper dark and had all their stuff set up. You learn something new every time you go fishing and this time I learnt some serious lessons:
- Take a torch
- Take a proper knife
- Take something to wipe your hands on as they will stink for at least a day if you do not.
- Take smaller hooks
Still, I had a good time and even when a boy zipped up on his quad bike it was only to ask me if it was ok to zoom around behind me – he looked like he was having great fun speeding up and down the beach.
On the way back up the road I got a chance to see some of the scenery which I missed out on when I was driving up.
The point about small hooks is spot-on. Most of the sea fishing I do is on summer jollies to France, where a lot of the shore anglers use tackle not dissimilar to carp gear. I tend to use light spinning gear with trout-size hooks and small baits. A wee tip I learned from the crew of the Catamaran Picardie (www.catamaran-picardie.com) is to cut up your mackerel or sardine baits to size, then salt them to make them tougher. They’re easier to get on the hook and they stay there.
Nice Pics! Nice family,andI understand your lust to have a line in the water.If there is water there ,it should be fished,:-)
Nice pic of the castle. Dunbeath? Wouldn’t fancy paying the home insurance though!
That’s right Dubeath, we actually stopped at another castle just along from here to break up the journey!