Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Steven Sinclair

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #15 on: 16/10/2016 at 17:17 »
Not that many Steven, one decent one is off the  rocks at the lighthouse at Boddam,  Pollack and chance of a Bass in summer.

Cheers Jim,

Was pretty much what I'd figured. I've had success with coalies and mackerel on the flea around stoney but little else. Mind you I haven't put all that much effort into it.

I may have to invest in a decent drysuit and take my kayak out for a blast.

Cheers,

Steven.

 :z18


Euan Innes

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #16 on: 16/10/2016 at 17:28 »
Guys,
I found these maps at the Aberdeen Thistle sea anglers site.

http://www.aberdeenthistlesac.com/Pages/FormsandMaps.aspx

I am also investigatingmarks around Montrose. There are a couple of guys at my work that chuck bait into the North Sea so I will pick their brains on Monday.
The West coast is a little bit prettier though... :z4

 :z1

Hamish Young

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #17 on: 17/10/2016 at 09:01 »
And H, i think this is  definite for one of next years trips, besides a jaunt up your way is Looooooooong overdue  :z14

Sandy

That it most definitely is  :X2

Euan Innes

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #18 on: 20/10/2016 at 15:18 »
Is anyone fishing marks local to Aberdeenshire or is it mostly westcoast and the Highlands?

Cheers,

Steven

I have had a word with some local knowledge chap and I have four locations south of Aberdeen. Check them out on Google or Bing maps.(Bing maps Birds eye view is really excellent and can be changed to OS for print outs)

Catterline Bay, North side.
Braiden Bay at Todhead Point lighthouse, just south of Catterline.
Downies below Portlethan, south of the road end, across the heather and down the cliff.
Portlethan Harbour, from the Bothy Mark north to the Deep Mark.There is also a "secret" beach just north of Portlethan with some nice outcrops.

All of the above are fly fishable with care and all of them have good kelp beds. Downies and Portlethan are not usually busy apparently. The other advice I got was to just try everything on all these marks. That and don't go alone just in case one of you goes splash.
I have seen photos and video of all of them and I am a little bit drooly with the prospect of big Pollock. I have started the fly tying already.

Maybe we should have a day out sometime soon. I have a some things to do over the next two or three weekends but I still have some holidays to take before Christmas so a mid week Pollock foray might be in order. Who's up for it?

 :z1

Derek Roxborough

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #19 on: 20/10/2016 at 15:46 »
I have a Masterline Composite reel for Salt water, I have only used it abroad in the US using a 7wt Fisheagle spinfly rod I was using an Airflo 40+ inter, this worked well in the surf , I am hoping to get more done in the west this winter, when I was working as a fisherman we used to catch Pollach full of Roe in March/April, this was important as the roe fetched a premium price, we used to get Coaly that would go 3 to a 8 stone box ,that's all you would get in , easgach 1

Euan Innes

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #20 on: 20/10/2016 at 18:34 »
That sounds ace! :z4
There are some places I have seen that I would love to be offshore and casting back in to the cliffs from a boat so I might have to look in to that next summer for a forum day out  :wink

 :z1

Derek Roxborough

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #21 on: 24/10/2016 at 15:00 »
had wander down to our local rocks, for a cast or two , I ended up with a small pollach on a size 12 Blue Zulu but out from me about 100yds. there  were shoals of fish skittering on the surface, I suspect small herring or sprats, funny though, there were no birds  any where , the pollach I caught was small about 4ins but it could have been that trophy fish  :cool: easgach 1

Mike Thornton

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #22 on: 24/10/2016 at 17:04 »
In the fishing ports of north east Scotland a Pollock is commonly known as a Lythe.   As a young teenager in the mid nineteen fifties it was common practice to fish for them from the north and south breakwaters at Fraserburgh  harbour.    A couple of Lythe helped to keep the wolf from the door.   Fish and tatties one day, and fish soup the next.
Dense fronds of kelp, known to us as "tangles",  grew along the sea walls.  Fishing was done using a heavy lead weight at the foot of  a gut trace, supporting half a dozen cod hooks tied with feathers .   The line was made from heavy cord which you scrounged from fishermen mending their nets on the pier.  Now comes the rod.   This was a stout bamboo pole which was obtained (scrounged again) from Maitlands furniture shop, who received them at the centre of rolls of flooring carpet.  These bamboo poles were about 12 feet long and this kept your hooks clear of the kelp. You simply worked the pole back and forth as you walked along the pier head, a few steps at a time.
  If a high tide occurred outwith school hours you would be sent to the shore to get a Lythe for the "denner".  Nae time for playin' fitba if there wis a decent tide.

Steven Sinclair

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #23 on: 24/10/2016 at 22:03 »
I have had a word with some local knowledge chap and I have four locations south of Aberdeen. Check them out on Google or Bing maps.(Bing maps Birds eye view is really excellent and can be changed to OS for print outs)

Catterline Bay, North side.
Braiden Bay at Todhead Point lighthouse, just south of Catterline.
Downies below Portlethan, south of the road end, across the heather and down the cliff.
Portlethan Harbour, from the Bothy Mark north to the Deep Mark.There is also a "secret" beach just north of Portlethan with some nice outcrops.

All of the above are fly fishable with care and all of them have good kelp beds. Downies and Portlethan are not usually busy apparently. The other advice I got was to just try everything on all these marks. That and don't go alone just in case one of you goes splash.
I have seen photos and video of all of them and I am a little bit drooly with the prospect of big Pollock. I have started the fly tying already.

Maybe we should have a day out sometime soon. I have a some things to do over the next two or three weekends but I still have some holidays to take before Christmas so a mid week Pollock foray might be in order. Who's up for it?

 :z1

Beings as both Dad and I are Stonehaven based it would be rude not to.

I also have a Kayak that could be put to good use.

 :cool:

Steven.

Steven Sinclair

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #24 on: 25/10/2016 at 22:49 »
I've decided to try and buck the trend and try both my 6# hot torpedo with a extra fast sinking head and cotton but tubes to keep weight and cost down.

Im also keen to have a play with my switch I'm sure it would launch a shooting head a mile double handed overhead.

Euan Innes

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #25 on: 25/10/2016 at 23:02 »
Steven,
The HT would be good but the switch might be a bit tricky. I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch. What you do need is the ability to lift (haul)a big Pollock from deep inside the kelp up to somewhere that you can play it. Most of the time my Orvis #9 is like bringing a .44 to a smallbore club but every now and again you will need the power. My Airflo DI7 tip Sniper line also needs the oomph to get it out, sometimes with a limited backcast, ten feet above the water.
Hamish uses a #12.....  :z13
If I am teaching my granny to suck eggs forgive me.

 :z1





Steven Sinclair

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #26 on: 26/10/2016 at 00:38 »
Steven,
The HT would be good but the switch might be a bit tricky. I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch. What you do need is the ability to lift (haul)a big Pollock from deep inside the kelp up to somewhere that you can play it. Most of the time my Orvis #9 is like bringing a .44 to a smallbore club but every now and again you will need the power. My Airflo DI7 tip Sniper line also needs the oomph to get it out, sometimes with a limited backcast, ten feet above the water.
Hamish uses a #12.....  :z13
If I am teaching my granny to suck eggs forgive me.

 :z1

It's cool 😎 I have a fair idea of what I am up against. I've had salmon. Giant gourami, Asian cat fish to 14kg and giant snakehead to 7.5 on it. I've made it. Personal mission to see just how many species I can land on it.

I've a 9# helios if I need to start doing it properly

Derek Roxborough

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #27 on: 26/10/2016 at 12:50 »
OOOer missus! I do all my fishing with a 5wt   :X2  easker1

Marc Fauvet

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #28 on: 26/10/2016 at 13:12 »
I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch.
your 'limited experience in the salt' shines here mate !  :z4 :z4 :z4
double-handers are just longer fly rods with another handle. sure, they're typically viewed as rods made for rolls and Speys but they're just dumb rods that don't know what they're supposed to do....
as such aerial casts with a DHer go much further (longer rod where the caster's force is applied with two hands instead of just one) and with more ease (no false casting, strip in to the back of the head, pick up, one BC and boom !)

all this to explain why DHers in the salt are the norm for striper fishing and a lot of other shoreline salt fishing around the globe. you guys are casting on rocks and they're generally wading but the presentation/distance/flies/targeted fish size requirements are about the same. something to think about  :wink

as an aside, i'm wondering why you guys aren't using stripping baskets ?

cheers,
marc

Euan Innes

Re: Pollock adventures
« Reply #29 on: 26/10/2016 at 16:09 »
Quote
no false casting, strip in to the back of the head, pick up, one BC and boom !
Marc, that is exactly what my 9' #9 does  :z12
My Sniper line has a short heavy head and it really flies out. My comments about switch rods are based on where I have fished so far and I really can't see how a #6 or #7 11.5' rod which is designed primarily for rivers is what I need on a rocky shore line with BIG flies. I always thought that a switch rod was meant to overhead and spey with a line designed to do both so when you are on a rocky out crop and can only overhead cast why would an extra 2.5' and a lighter line be a benefit? I really can't agree that overheads with a DH rod go further, but then it is probably 20 years since I tried something that daft.
The other reason that I prefer a #9 is that it handles a big Clouser fairly easily, something that a #6 might not. Also at Rhea Point near Ullapool I was drawing the line right in to the loop with just the Polyleader outside the ring as the Pollock were following right in to where I was standing, and being hooked there too. A DH would be a right pain to get back out from that situation.
Climbing down some of the cliffs I know near Lochinver would probably end in tears to with a long rod.
Hey, if anyone wants to try it go right ahead and I'll be there to cheer you on. I just think it would be a chore on several different levels.

 :z1

 




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