Fascadale pinnacle - lower sound of sleat

[mark]

I think I have found the ultimate boat fishing heaven. went out with one of the locals to somewhere I have heard them talk about, but never had the chance to fish properly, had a little go last year, but his time spen most of the day on it.

about a mile off shore from the nort coats of the ardnamurchan peninsula. took a picture of the sounder screen, but wasn\'t on the digi so will have to wait till I get the pics back before I can scan it and post it,

bo fascadale is an under water pinnacle, 300 metres from end to end or so, the water at one side of this under water wall is 60 metres, at the other side 80 metres. the 60m side sslopes up at a bout 45 degrees to within 3metres of the surface, the 80 metre side is near vertical. the bottom of the 80 metre side is littered with wreck that didn\'t make it over the top!

it was basically a day when you decide waht you want to catch and fish the depth accordingly. there were 4 of us and the boat. the fishing basically goes: from surface downwards, pollack, coalies bass, cod, ling, conger, hake, tusk (kind ling\'ish) haddock, catfish, turbot, skate, brill and plaice on the bottom. gurnards, thornies and doggies throughout. the locals even claim halibut have been had from the bottom here.

basically drop your gear over the side and either wait till you hit bottom and pull it up to see what you\'ve got, or stop at different depths and jig it about a bit.

when the tide runs one way, they all shoal at one side, when the tide turns they all shoal at the other. the technique the locals use is to drop anchor on to of the reef and drift with the tide until the anchor bites and your suspended over one side or the other.

All I managed were pollack. coalies, ling, cod, and a couple of haddock. best fish for me 6lb ling & 5lb pollack.

saw hake, plaice, turbot, conger, doggies, loads of gurnards, 1 catfish, tusk and a small skate landed by the rest of the crew. best 4 hours I\'ve spent in a long time and not a mckeral in sight. roll on august, got me sights set on a halibut

 

[Les]

hi mark,

sounds like some mark to fish, is there anywhere to launch a small boat near by, did you fish the drift or anchor??

les

 

[mark]

2 options for launching (both free) at portuairk, which is about 1-2 miles from fascadale, you can drive straight onto hard sand from and ancient slipway and drop it in there, you can launch pretty much throughout the tide, just have to drive down to the water abit further: http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/?page=slipwayinfo.html&iconID=138

or around the headland at kilchoan are 2 modern slips, one is a \'normal\' sized one, http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/?page=slipwayinfo.html&iconID=142

one is the calmac ferry slip
http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/?page=slipwayinfo.html&iconID=25
but they don\'t mind as long as you don\'t clash with ferry landings, but i about 75 foot wide so nice and easy. from kilchoan, which is the mull side of the peninsula you\'ll have to round the headland to get out to the mark, which adds 3 or 4 miles to the journey, and there can be a very fast run with the tide.

we fished at anchor.

taking my boat up in august so will be able to get the gps co-ordinates

 

[Les]

excellent mark,

a few guys i know trail over to fish sunart but i never fancied it because all it seemed to be was spurs and skate and i can get those at oban, mind you the spurs some of them were getting were up to 17lb, but i had spurs that size years ago at luce bay so the extra 2 hours more drive than a trip to oban is a big put off, but to get a choice of species like that could make a trip worth while.

les

 

[mark]

if you don\'t mind a few extra miles at sea, you could launch further along the north shore of the peninsula at adrtoe or a bit further still glenuig. cuts out the worst 20 miles of the road to kilchoan, but puts you only 5 or 6 miles west of fascadale, so depending on how fast you go over water, you\'d probably get to the mark quicker - the road down the peninsula is a nightmare at the best of times. Dreading it so much I\'m planning on doing it at about 3am, when hopefullythere\'ll be nobody coming the other way

just found this which might be interesting:
http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/scotfed/scotdive/bofascad.html

whilst cruising throug a few dive sites I\'ve seen a few mentions of the \'risga pinnacles\' in loch sunart which sounds similar in size etc sogonna have a hunt around for more info on that, and will see if Ic an find it in august!

 

[catchalot]

Hiya,

the only problem with Bo Fascadale is it is also a magnet for Hemorrhoids (Divers... they always found in bunches near an A** hole ) and this makes it un fishable most weekends

 

[catchalot]

Mark.

I just found your reply to my post on Loch Sunart.. I\'ve not been on here for quite a while

If you want to sent me a Email I\'ll give you all the info I can.

Btw I\'m hoping to be out round Ardnamurchan point this weekend weather permitting.

 

[mark]

that\'d be great - of I can find your email address!

going back to ardnamurchan in a fortnight, taking the boat up, so will probably have a mooch about in loch sunart, or one or 2 of the wrecks in the sound (divers permitting)

heard mention of the \'risga pinnacles\' whilst I was up there as well, guess they\'d somewhere near the isle of risga in the loch???

for what its worth there were plenty of fish off the point last week!

 

[catchalot]

Hiya,

I forgot the addy
[email protected]

I was up at Lochaline for the week last weekend, just messing about, unfortunately the weather was against me getting out of the Sound

The Risga pinnacles are not as good, as they don\'t have the same tide flow over them. the still produce Ling & Pollack, the occasional Cod and the odd Halibut. The latter are fish farm escapee\'s and reach just short of 30lb.

 

[TC]

Davy,
Just e-mailed you.....ya avatars ready, m8

lol.....I see you\'ve just seen it..........lol

[Edited on 28/7/2004 by TC]

 

[catchalot]

Hiya,

cheers mate.. now I feel at home

 

[Les]

hi davy,

nice to see you back here m8,

i as reading about your week last week, has the skate fishing gone off just now??

i was thinking about coming over for a trip in the next couple of weeks but if it has gone off the boil, i\'ll save me pennies

les

 

[catchalot]

Hiya Les,

nah the skate are still there, I just didnt really do any fishing for them and when I did the lack of tide put paid to the session

There are still plenty of fish being caught in the Firth from the usual marks. Also the big Tope aint far away now

 

[catchalot]

Hiya,

Well it looks like the trip is on for tomorrow, we should be out there just after dawn so should have a few hours before the divers appear.. when they do I\'ve got another pinnacle further out to have a look at

So fingers crossed

 

[mark]

just been on the phone to my pals up there. when theres divers about, they fish another pinnacle south of fascadale - Elizabeth rock N56 47 235 W 6 05 925

much the same sort of thing as fascadale, 60 metres or more all around it, but nearly hitting the ssurface in the middle

they also mentioned something called the Oberon bank a few miles off of Arisaig, got the numbers for that if you want them,

 

[catchalot]

Hiya,

Well we went round to it on Saturday.. conditions seemed perfect with a flat calm sea. Unfortunately there was an intermittent swell of about 1m. Which when it hit the pinnacle changed to about 4m

I managed to get 1 drift tight against the wall and we had a few ling & Pollack to 6lb also a couple of Cuckoo wrasse. Despite my best efforts I couldn\'t get back close in to the wall due to the now rather large standing wave. I opted to try the west slope, but we only picked up small whiting, a pout and loads of mackerel right down into 200\'

We then headed North to a sand bank to try for flats, the result Ling and more mackerel. On the way back to the wall we had a couple of Minkie whales up on the surface feeding next to the boat.. that was good
The Wall was still unfishable so I moved over to Elisabeth rock where we did manage a couple of Pollack and more mackerel but nothing else.

It was a long day and a long sail round from Lochaline but as soon as I can, I\'m going to organise a weekend trip out there

The Sunday I fished my usual grounds at lochaline and had a shed load of doggies, 3 congers to 16lb, some spurs to 5lb and a single Common of 137lb.

 

[NickInTheNorth]

Well Davy, if you want accomodation I\'m sure I can sort something out.