jarrowviking
Well-known member
At this time of year anglers in the North East of England are beginning to plan for the coming winter's cod season, praying for rough seas and cold nights. My thoughts however are completely different and I in turn hope for long settled spells that will allow the rock angler a crack at the pollack, wrasse and codling that inhabit the deep waters off St Abbs and Eyemouth, now is certainly the time for that huge shore caught pollack or wrasse that I and many other anglers dream of.
I had originally planned to fish a mark at St Abbs that nine times out of ten produces the goods but on the short drive up in the car began to think about trying a place that I have not fished for a number of years, namely Fast Castle Head, a deepwater rock mark a couple of miles North of St Abbs village. I was younger, fitter and dafter back then and had only good memories of Fast Castle, what a wake up call I had when I finally reached the mark, a mile walk down God knows how many feet of steep hillside and cliff.
Around two thirds of the way down, the old castle ruins can be seen in the middle of the photograph.
Fast Castle is a fantastic looking fishing mark but it is gruelling to get to and from, with maybe too many seals in residence.
After a long and frankly pretty dangerous descent we arrived at the bottom only to be greeted by my nemesis, a seal, not a good start. Two hours of fishing endeavour later and with no fish in sight, we made the brave decision to up sticks, climb the hill from hell and go to my favourite mark at St Abbs. Hearts pounding, sweaty brows and legs filled with lead we finally made it back to the car in one piece and promptly vowed never to go there again.
I can't climb a flight of stairs today and will be wheelchair bound for the rest of my life I am sure, well maybe until the next fishing session anyway.
The day finally turned around on it's head shortly after arriving at St Abbs, within moments of my bait hitting the water I was into wrasse, managing around twenty between two and four pounds, including a good number over the 3lb specimen size for Scotland. Fifty pounds of Ballan wrasse in a couple of hours all returned to fight another day of course. I knew this place would not let us down.
A couple of pics:
My angling buddy concentrated on fishing for pollack, while I could not tear myself away from the wrassing which is highly addictive and great fun on light gear. A couple of small pollack showed for my pal and then out of the blue he was hit by a big pollack that took off like a steam train, diving time and again for the safety of the kelp, unfortunately just as I was about to net this nice fish of around seven pounds it slipped the hook and with one slap of it's tail was off to freedom and pollacky mischief.
The excitement wasn't to end there however as a huge shoal of mackeral and hard fighting coalies came into the rocky gully that we were fishing, chased by a couple of seals. Not one to miss out on a few free mackeral at this time of year I quickly filled a bag up with spinner caught fish, this extra weight I immediately regretted after a few tired steps back up another hill!
To finally put the finishing touch to a fantastic days fishing, low and behold a huge whale broke the surface a few hundred yards out, just as we were packing up!
What could have been a disaster turned into one of the best days shore fishing that I have ever had in the Borders.
Jarrow Viking
I had originally planned to fish a mark at St Abbs that nine times out of ten produces the goods but on the short drive up in the car began to think about trying a place that I have not fished for a number of years, namely Fast Castle Head, a deepwater rock mark a couple of miles North of St Abbs village. I was younger, fitter and dafter back then and had only good memories of Fast Castle, what a wake up call I had when I finally reached the mark, a mile walk down God knows how many feet of steep hillside and cliff.
Around two thirds of the way down, the old castle ruins can be seen in the middle of the photograph.
Fast Castle is a fantastic looking fishing mark but it is gruelling to get to and from, with maybe too many seals in residence.
After a long and frankly pretty dangerous descent we arrived at the bottom only to be greeted by my nemesis, a seal, not a good start. Two hours of fishing endeavour later and with no fish in sight, we made the brave decision to up sticks, climb the hill from hell and go to my favourite mark at St Abbs. Hearts pounding, sweaty brows and legs filled with lead we finally made it back to the car in one piece and promptly vowed never to go there again.
I can't climb a flight of stairs today and will be wheelchair bound for the rest of my life I am sure, well maybe until the next fishing session anyway.
The day finally turned around on it's head shortly after arriving at St Abbs, within moments of my bait hitting the water I was into wrasse, managing around twenty between two and four pounds, including a good number over the 3lb specimen size for Scotland. Fifty pounds of Ballan wrasse in a couple of hours all returned to fight another day of course. I knew this place would not let us down.
A couple of pics:
My angling buddy concentrated on fishing for pollack, while I could not tear myself away from the wrassing which is highly addictive and great fun on light gear. A couple of small pollack showed for my pal and then out of the blue he was hit by a big pollack that took off like a steam train, diving time and again for the safety of the kelp, unfortunately just as I was about to net this nice fish of around seven pounds it slipped the hook and with one slap of it's tail was off to freedom and pollacky mischief.
The excitement wasn't to end there however as a huge shoal of mackeral and hard fighting coalies came into the rocky gully that we were fishing, chased by a couple of seals. Not one to miss out on a few free mackeral at this time of year I quickly filled a bag up with spinner caught fish, this extra weight I immediately regretted after a few tired steps back up another hill!
To finally put the finishing touch to a fantastic days fishing, low and behold a huge whale broke the surface a few hundred yards out, just as we were packing up!
What could have been a disaster turned into one of the best days shore fishing that I have ever had in the Borders.
Jarrow Viking
