A mixed bag from the Firth of Lorne

[Vagabond]

Species Hunt 2007 No 26

After our adventures in the Sound of Mull, we had some more fishing out with Ronnie Campbell in his boat “Lorna Dawn”, with a chance to pick up a few more species. We usually get to Oban pier very early, so as to pick a good place to park the campervan – and it gives us a chance to get organised without rushing, and even take a picture of Ronnie’s boat.



We have fished with Ronnie for many years, and in addition to his vast knowledge of the area and its fish, he brings an entertaining dry humour to the proceedings – great craic.

Promptly at 9am we are on our way to a good mackerel mark. Some days the mackerel come into the boat in a series of “full houses” but occasionally they are hard to come by, and we go to a coalie mark instead. That morning was one such, and coalie became another contribution to the species hunt. Certhia got the first one, so look for the photo in her report on this adventure.

I got a few coalies on the feathers, and then something better hit – a useful-sized pollack. I had already caught some pollack tiddlers at Lochaline, but this made a better photo !



With a mixture of mackerel and coalies for bait, and the pollack filleted for our dinner that night, we went off to the deeps to try for skate.

This time it was my bait that was snaffled first, by a lively skate that I prised off the bottom three times, only for it to crash-dive to the bottom again twice. The third time I was able to stop the crash-dive, and twenty minutes of “pump and wind” brought it up from well over 600 ft – one of the deepest marks we fish.



It proved to be a frisky male of 110 lb according to the magic chart relating wingspan and length to weight (issued by Glasgow Museum). An interesting feature of skate, is that like tench, the males always fight harder than the females. Anyway, fighter or not, no points for the team – Certhia has claimed them already.

With the skate points now history, I started to try for some of the other species present, using smaller hooks and smaller baits. Inevitably I started catching dogfish – lesser spotted dogfish, spur dog, and at last, the fish I was hoping for – the black-mouthed dogfish.



Just to show it really does have a black mouth – look at this.



I was using lighter gear (20 lb rod and line) for these doggies, but it was still hard work, because even 20 lb line requires a 1 lb lead to hold the bottom - which was a long way down. I was using a Penn 535 loaded with 20 lb mono, and precious little line was left on the spool by the time the lead reached bottom. Did I hear a suggestion of braid? With seven rods out in the deep swirling waters of the Firth of Lorne, and the possibility of a multiline braid tangle at depth - don’t even think about it! It is not unusual for the water several hundred feet down to be moving in a different direction to the surface water.

Certhia still had a biggish bait out, and she will tell you about the results soon.

Derby Dave was also still fishing for big ‘uns and came up with a surprise catch – a ling of about 12 lb which swallowed a whole large mackerel. It was a bit camera shy, and tried to hide its tail! We could have done with one of those for the points.



Late in the afternoon came the rain, and Certhia was glad of her big flotation jacket. I had left mine in the van, so just had a light jacket, and got wet!

At last it was time to pack up, and so back up the Firth of Lorne, cut through Kerrera Sound, and into the busy harbour at Oban.



A short drive along the coast road to our campsite, where a supper of grilled pollack, new potatoes and garden peas rounded off a most eventful day.

[fishypaul]

well done vagabond , it looks a lovely place

smashing pics too

[BaggieRich]

ANOTHER great report.. Cheers mate!

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Vagabond, looks another good session.