balcary flat rock virgin

pondlife

Well-known member
me and castaway took the first of hopefully a few away days this year. our plan "A" destination didnt come off so we headed off to balcary rock for a few hours. got me stuff together in the back yard for a 6 am getaway. tried to cover all eventualies, spare reels, spinning gear spare rod, loads of grip leads and a rod stand.
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decided to ditch the rod stand before i even left the house but by the end of the day i wish i had ditched alot more, cos if i ever go back it will be rucksack and travel as light as possible. having not fished this mark ever before i didnt realise what kind of hike it is to the mark and its a little precaroius in places walking up and down cliff sides.it was a lovely journey over. clear skies and frost everywhere. we arrived in fine form. i took the photos while castaway posed.
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after a pig of a journey to down the rock it was worth the effort to be greeted by a brill morning over looking the lakes.
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castaway posing for another action shot.
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me mate got into the first and best fish of the day, a canny doggy. i didnt manage to get a pic as he didnt want the fish to suffer anymore, personnaly i dont think he wanted to share the photo with owt else that might steal his thunder.
the going was slow and bites hard to come by. i managed to land my first shore caught doggie a couple of hours later for my only fish of the day.
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well, the wind picked up and made it difficult to fish so we left for the hard walk back to the car. we decided to spend the last hour round the corner in Ross bay which gave us a chance to tidy the gear up get our breaths back.
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all in all a canny day, smashing weather, good crack and a fish a piece to reminisce about over the next working week, but the moral of the outing is, dont take too much gear.
 
couple of little tales from Balcary,
went there with Dave hayley many years ago, after the walk there and back, he swore to give up smoking, he has never smoked since.
On another trip, and you know the walk across the fields, on our way back my mate Jim Douglas saw something in the grass, he picked it up, it was his wallet, can you imagine the chance of going back exactly the way you came.
Only went three times in the same year, didn't think the effort was worth it.
 
balcary flat rock

balcary flat rock

One of the best marks to get you a 30lb cod from the shore,but sadly no longer possible due to "you know what".
Yes a good walk but used to walk to the point first,then if over crowded onto the flat rock.
Had some great catches from both the point and the flatrock as will others anglers that fished this mark some years ago.
Very good pictures mate I see the" Robin rig wind farm" spouting a lot of wind generators now,got to be some 60odd going to be built in the next year right in the middle of the solway not to good when sailing from Maryport to Kippford at night in bad visibility over fast tides and drying sandbanks.
Only possible to cross at high water now and divert on a southerly course towards Ross isle then alter course east up to Kippford.
Its progress as they say but not for me.
 
Here's some more pics from balcary. This time pondlife is the poser. The Cumbrian coast complete with windfarm and the IOM are the other two.

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Great pictures! Had my best fish from flat rock back in 1985 31 1/4lb but sadly there is not the good fish to be had now. i have tried aug/sept where we used to get some great spurdog action along with some really big flatfish and also some good thornback ray.
 
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