Logbooks From Previous Years:
2000,
2001,
2002,
2004,
2005
(unfortunately, the 2003 Logbook was eaten by a passing Carcharodon
Megalodon ~ webmaster)
Paul
'Golden Balls' Maris does it again!
Only those that were up in Loch Aline can
fully appreciate the weather conditions that we endured for practically
the full five weeks. We had many days of high freezing winds, driving
snow and with the wind chill factor; we must have been fishing in zero
temperatures for most of the trip.
It was extremely hard for Spike and I to stay motivated after the
constant paggerings ('paggerings'? eh? ~ webmaster) that left us both
knackered physically and emotionally.
Considering those conditions I think we did extremely well to produce
the number of Skate we did.
Many anglers were disappointed as the
fishing didn’t live up to the expectations of previous years. The mid
two weeks, we seem to have a wind-against-tide scenario, which is hopeless
for fishing and resulted in many trips being half days.
Anyway, enough of the moaning! The running joke throughout the 5 weeks
was; it will all change once the Essex boys get here and of course it
did! The result was 10 fish in the last two days and a brilliant fish
of 219 for Paul Golden Balls Maris, and a
202 for Dave Hawkeswood.
Paul, who had an amazing catch last year including one of 214, had been
at the end of a bit of ribbing because he hadn’t caught anything for two
days when he had a 164, followed closely by the second biggest skate I
had ever seen, on literally the last drop of the trip.
He has said for the last three years it just can’t get any better but it
always seems to. Well done mate, your title lives on.
Sid Smith from the same group on Go West
also did very well and had 5 skate in the three days. (Particularly when
you consider Sid has turned 70!)
During the worst of the weather Skate virgins Marty and Dave Wright
sat for nearly 2 days without a single bite. At four o’clock on the
second day, I gave them the option of trying a different mark, for a
couple of hours, which would give us a wind with tide opportunity for the
first time in the 2 days. I wouldn’t have blamed them if they wanted to
go in as the heavy hail and snow squalls had been bombarding us all day
but they persevered and Dave was rewarded with this 194.
One of the most memorable fish fell to Mick from Stanley Co. Durham.
He joined Billy Dart’s party having never fished in his life before. Imagine his terror when he was suddenly harnessed up and told to start
putting pressure on the fish. His technique left something to be desired,
but his face was a picture after landing a skate of 190 pounds.
Party organiser Dave Olney also did very well with a fish of
many pounds caught in a force seven just
400 yards from the harbour entrance.
The same mark produced a 199 for
Sooty from Colin Hall’s party the next day aboard Go West.
We ended up with 54 Skate, 29 down on last year, which considering the
limited time we spent on our favourite marks is pretty good going.
Fishing apart, the social scene was as good as ever with the
highlight being entertained by Keith and Bim,
jamming on their guitars. We had a cracking night without leaving the
house.
Thanks for all those who travelled up there. Let’s just prey for
better weather next year.
The Annual Skate Hunt - Skate Log Chart Open's In New Window
HERE...
MAY 2006
May got off to a typical start for all parties.
The season starts
off with plenty of Pollack to 5 pounds and the average size increases by
a pound a week until the end of May when we start hitting a few doubles.
The regulars from Coatbridge had the best day so far with well over 150
Pollack with dozens of fish in the 5-7 lb bracket and the biggest
weighing 9lb 10 oz. They also caught approximately 20 Ballan Wrasse to
2.5 pounds. The live baited launce has definitely picked out the better
fish this month and fortunately they have proved easy to catch on most
days.
We had our first big hit on the Mackerel and Herring on the 14th and the
general fishing which had been slow due to the cold water temperatures
picked up dramatically with some decent Haddock, Codling and flatties
starting to show.
The Period from the 14th to the 26th May produced plenty of good Pollack
and the Mackerel arrived in large numbers.
On May 26th we targeted the Tope for the first time this season and had
a fantastic few days fishing in the shallow waters. These were caught in
just 25 ft. of water and they really do go. The best two days produced
14 fish for regulars Phil Lowe’s party from the borders and 15 Tope for
Roger Marshall’s Carisle party. Dave Wright from Newcastle was chuffed
to land a few Tope after seeing his mate Marty claim all the glory on
previous trips. Dave also caught our first ever Garfish!
Whether this is due to global warming I am not so sure, as the water
temperature is still 1.5 degrees colder than it should be.
On June 3rd I took regular Billy dart’s party from Stanley, Co. Durham
out to the scares and had
our best day’s Toping so far with 19 fish to 43 pounds.
June 5th saw our first double figure Pollack of the season for regular
Paul from Trevor Armitage’s party aboard Onyer Marks Too and
regular Norman from Cedric’s Hexham party also had a double aboard
Onyer Marks, on his fly rod amongst 60 or 70 Pollack scaling between
5-11 lb and many smaller ones.
On
the 6th and 7th June I had Salmon guide Alan Everington down with guest
anglers to try and capture more “Pollack on the fly” IGFA records. We
managed 2 World records making 6 in all, with fish to 7.5 pound. Angling
journalist Phil Williams, photographing the event, also managed to catch
a Scottish record Ballan Wrasse of 5lb 10 oz. on a Mackerel strip of all
things.
Everything seemed set for the Tope to go into ballistic mode with
expected catches of 20 plus a day, when the Tope all but disappeared.
Essex boy’s Paul Maris and Syd Smith, with Spike on Go West, had
days with 9 and 5 fish but we have been struggling since then averaging
just a few a day. I can only put this down to the water temperature due
to the constant cold winds from January to June. The thousands of
Whiting which are the Tope’s staple diet haven’t shown and I can only
assume the big run of expected Tope will arrive with the Whiting. The
weather broke in mid June and we ended fishing inshore and lost 4 day’s
during the week of the 19th June.
JULY 2006
What a change in the weather we had during the end of June. We went from
Southerly gales to mirror calm sweltering days which combined with high
pressure is not normally good for the Pollack. The smaller fish went off
the feed but most days saw a succession of 70-80 Pollack from 5-8 pounds
falling to the live sand eel with the odd double showing.
Dep from Billy Dart’s regular party from Hexham had a great day with
Pollack to 10.2 pounds on July 1st
We
had tope most days but not in the numbers our regulars have come to
expect. The regular Coatbridge lads had 8 fish to 43 pounds on July 2nd.
The biggest Tope so far this season fell to Russ from Mick Jewitt’s
party
with a 69 pounder on the July 5th.
One of the surprises this year has been the amount of Huss that are
about on most the Tope marks.
Mally on Onyer Marks Too had 14 one day with Trevor Armitage and
son John, and 5 or 6 a day have become the norm during a toping trip.
Another bonus is the rays which seem to be on the increase as we are
getting an odd one most days on the Tope marks.
I had an interesting day on July 6th when I took out two lads for
“Pollack on the fly” The third lad broke his p/b of six pounds with his
first three fish. But the amazing thing was, the fly totally out fished
live sand eel and any other method known to man. They had 60-70 Pollack
to 7 lb 10oz and smashed a rod trying to land a better one. The other
boats struggled to find decent fish that day, although one of Tommy
Hughes party from St. Helens had a 9.5 pounder aboard Go West.
We lost the weekend of July 8th and 9th with strong southerlies but
managed to get onto a sheltered fishing mark on the 11th. All boats had
Tope but the I was astounded to have 9 Spotted Rays on board on a day
that also produced a few Bream. I haven’t seen a Spotted Ray in 7 or 8
years, these were all small fish but shows stocks
can recover if they are left alone.
AUGUST 2006
I have decided that at this particular time, with Tope long liners
working the area, I am not going to give any detail out on Tope catches,
but have included a few pictures of fish caught. The biggest fish so far
this season is 69 pounds and we have had 5 tope over 60 pounds, with the
best yet to come. The Pollack fishing has been as good as ever with many
days with over 150 Pollack. The biggest so far this season is 12.5
pounds, and we have had a fair scattering of doubles. The most pleasing
thing about this season is the continuing increase on the Rays. I had 11
one day comprised of 6 Thornbacks and 5 Spotted Rays. Another day
produces 9 Spotted Rays. All holds good for the future providing the
commercials don’t start up again. The biggest surprise, and probably the
fish that has given me the greatest pleasure, is a Spurdog, caught by
Ken Brown. This is the first I have seen one for nearly 10 years in
these waters.
August cont
The Tope moved round to Port Logan
slightly earlier than normal and this resulted in 20 females over 45
pounds in a three week period - which also included a number of males
between 40 and 50 pounds that usually pull your string
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2006
September saw a solid month of toping with
fish most days. As usual this is a time for the big females and Spike on
Go West had a great month with 7 tope in the 50-70 pound range.
Dave Wright chartered Onyer Marks himself
on the 2nd of September and was rewarded with three double figure
Pollack; the best of the day which ran to 12.6oz, plus I also had a 12
and 11 pounders.
The following day Cedric’s party from
Hexham had 11 tope and 4 Huss all specimens. Cliff Waites' had his PB
with a 72 pound tope. On the third I managed to get offshore for just
1.5 hours and managed to bag 5 tope for Keith Ashwood’s regular party
from Cotebridge, including one for skate virgin Davie.
Andy McKay’s party started the day as tope
virgins on the 15th and finished with 10 tope including a hard fighting
42 pound male. I
Young Alan Harrison did what most
youngsters seem to make a habit of, by catching the biggest Pollack of
the day.
I managed to get my wife Christine out for
a day and she caught the best of the 7 tope caught that day with this
fine 45 pound male.
October the 16th produced our
biggest inshore Pollack for 3 years, with a fish of 15lb 6 oz. for
borders' angler Mick from regular Phil Lowes party. Phil also helped
himself to an 11lb 10 Pollack. It was certainly a time for some
consistent Pollacking with doubles being caught most days.
2006 Summary
The 2006 season has to be rated as a good
one for Onyer Marks sea fishing charters, perhaps the most pleasing was
many of the big fish fell to our regulars, like Graham Boardman who had
a Tope PB of 70 pounds after fishing with me for over 18 years, and
Cliff Twaites who also had a PB with a 72 pound Tope after 8 years
fishing with me. The Coatbridge Lads seemed to get it right this year
with some great days fishing, after a disappointing year the previous
year when all their trips were accompanied by gale force winds and
driving rain.
The Pollacking was as good as ever,
justifying our insistence that all inshore Pollack go back. The majority
of the Pollacking trips produced 100-200 Pollack per four man boat. The
Tope were slightly later than normal probably due to the cold spring but
more then made up for it when they finally arrived. The Bull Huss
certainly seem to be on the increase with most Toping trips producing
three or four specimen fish as a bycatch. Mally on Onyer Marks Too has
found a few little niches that will produce a dozen Huss as well as the
odd bream. He also had a surprise Bass on Tope gear 4 miles off, and
Spike on Go West also had one for Dave Nightingale whilst Pollacking.
Maybe we will find an offshore mark for them yet! It was great to see
the continued small recovery of the Rays, both Spotted and Thornbacks.
We had a few days which produced more rays in one day than we had caught
in a whole year just a few years ago.
Thanks for all those that fished with us
during 2006 and for your bookings for the 2007 season. Let’s hope we
have a good summer. ~ Ian Burrett.
