the mackeral are here (well not here exactly)

[mark]

just got back from a week up the west coast, talking to a couple of lads that run a potting boat out out of tobermory (trying to cadge a bit of cheap shellfish as you do) and spied in their bait bin a few mackeral. they pulled them in early last week just off the cairns of coll. caught feathering for coalies/pollack as pot bait. Earliest they reckon they have seen them, so lets hope its repeated down here.

don\'t know if this ties in but noticed masses of small sand eels on the beach while we were mooching about, so fingers crossed

 

[willywetegg]

Nice one Mark, bet you had a great time up there again mate.

Jim.

 

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Sounds like a canny place Mark..isn\'t there a distillery up there

 

[alan]

Think they catch them all year round off the South coast,weather permitting

 

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

oops sorry ,I sound like an alcoholic lol I love fishing too

 

[mark]

there\'s a cracking distillery in tobermory, pay for the tour and get carried out the other end! I was amazed last year when we did the tour, there was a muckle great tanker parked along side, filling up - with whisky! Ok only the raw distilled stuff on its way somewhere to be blended into cheapy plonk but, a 40\' tanker, with what do they hold?? 10, 20, 30 thousand gallons of scotch on board!

they charge a tenner for the tour but ply you with the stuff continually as you go around, the stuff thats fresh out the still is probably more to Ell\'s tastes than mine, being somewhere between surgical spirit and bitumen, but the 15 year old stuff straight from the cask at 74% alcohol by volume (I didn\'t realise they have to water it down when they bottle it it) has a certain warming effect!

Not much doing on the fishing front though, gazillions of undersized pollack/coalies, but good fun for the kids. Found lots of rays dead on the beaches though??? Don\'t know why, but there you go

will post a catch report somewhere