The day after my Oban visit I was still thinking about sea trout, especially since there had been some overnight rain as I was sure this would encourage more sea trout to head up the Water of Leith. My wife had sensed me twitching and fretting at the window and she took pity on me granting me 45 minutes of child free time before tea. With shameless speed I bolted out the door LRF gear in hand and headed down to the river.
When I arrived at my chosen two pools the river was running higher and was carrying some colour, in short it looked great. I rigged up a pink Ecogear Grass Minnow size SS on a 1.4g #10 Shirasu Fine
jighead and began to work the pools. In what seems to be a familiar pattern the first pool yielded nothing. I stalked my way to the second pool and kneeling down began to cast and work the lure across the little river. Every couple of casts I would shuffle a couple of feet down stream to work the lure through the whole pool.
jighead and began to work the pools. In what seems to be a familiar pattern the first pool yielded nothing. I stalked my way to the second pool and kneeling down began to cast and work the lure across the little river. Every couple of casts I would shuffle a couple of feet down stream to work the lure through the whole pool.
I had got towards the tail end of the pool and was watching the lure making its way up the margins when a trout flew out of nowhere and attacked it! It hit it once and I struck, this caused the lure to jerk forward and settle on the bottom at which point the trout pounced and snatched the lure from the river bed. I struck and set the hooks and it instantly kited back into the current. It gave a classic trout fight, thrashing and cavorting on the surface before kiting back out into the current. Soon I had it in my net and as far as I can tell it's another Water of Leith sea trout.
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| Sea trout from the Water of Leith. |
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| Such a pretty fish! |
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| Even with the slight tail damage the fish was in excellent condition. |
This one appears to have been in the river some time as it's quite coloured and its lower tail fin was slightly damaged possibly from lying in the low water. Brilliant! I took a few snaps then released the fish, hopefully to get on with populating the water with its progeny. I headed back home thoroughly pleased with what 45 minutes in the right place at the right time can yield!
Tight lines, Schogsky.
Hi chaps, I am well inspired to have a go at the LRF mullarky. I live nly 300 mtrs from the sea in North Northumbs near Cullernose Point, so there must be something to catch! I am a casual angler, ( rarely these days) and was disillusioned by the masses banging out 5 ounce leads and catching nowt. I also get the hump with half wits who turn out in summer and leave tons of rubbish on our shore, and kill everything and leave that too.
ReplyDeleteAnyway graet blog chaps, can you post summat about how you actually work the lures? Do you sink and draw or just steady reel in or do you leave them static?
Oh and for Hutch I used to catch a good few Eelpout on the R Blyth estuary in Northumbs up to about 10" long and have had Ruffe too on the Norfolk broads fishing only inches out from the bank...
Cheers Stewart.
Hi Stewart
DeleteGlad you like the blog and I am really glad its inspired you to get out fishing again! There should be plenty to go at down your way and its such a fun form of fishing. Its very far removed from big leads and beachcasters and it allows you to fully appreciate fish that you catch.
As far as retrieves go all the above suggestions are used and quite a few more in between! The idea is to search the entire water column for the fish that lurk there. For instance coalies and pollock like a up down retrieve ( sink and draw), where as wrasse seem to like it dead sticked (static on the bottom) with little shakes.
Best idea is to play with the lures where you can see them working so you can get a good idea of what looks good when you impart an action via the rod.
I will try and do a post on simple retrieve techniques but in the meantime I always try and give a detailed account of the retrieves used when I catch certain species. If you check the "what we talk about" column look up a species that could be there then check the reports it should tell you what we were doing to catch them. Hope this helps and I hope you get a chance to enjoy some fun fishing!
Tight Lines
Jake
PS I also would recommend joining The Lure Forum as its a very informative and friendly place and very inspiring too!
Hi Stewart,
DeleteUltra light gear is great fun and is also a bit of an eyeopener in terms of how overgunned some other U.K. styles are. It's not just for small fish either and on the right mark can handle decent fish.
Thanks for the species tips. I have a few marks up here for both Eelpout and Ruffe but if they don't produce any I may well end up heading further afield!
Tight lines, Scott.