Driving up the A9 to Scrabster to catch the P&O ferry to Stromness in Orkney gave me plenty of time to think. I remember some big catches of common skate from Scapa Flow back in the 70's and 80's, and I knew that there were good ling to be had fishing off the Old Man of Hoy, but beyond that was pretty much unknown.

Way back in 1919 the captured German Fleet were anchored inside Scapa Flow after the Great War awaiting their fate. The officers decided to dress up in their best uniforms, open the seacocks and scuttle their ships. Checking the chart for Scapa you can see an almost straight line of wrecks where these ships went down. Most were salvaged, but eight remain. It figures that the wrecks must hold good fish, but the indications were that the local anglers don't fish the wrecks much at all.

The Welcome Home

WHAT TO DO?
With the wrecks just a short steam out, even though it was very early in the year, we decided to give it a go. The wrecks are popular with diving parties, and the divers were passing back information that there were big conger on the wrecks. Some divers saying certain fish were known as "big and aggressive" and were avoiding particular sections of some sunken ships. HHHmmmmm!!

It turned out that the two wrecks we particularly wanted to fish already had dive boats over them. We tried two more nearby including the wreck of the famous Vanguard, but caught zilch! Undoubtedly there are big cod pollack and coalfish here as the local rods have taken them, but I happened to be working up here too early, and it stands to reason the best of the wrecking will be from July through to Christmas. Scapa Flow offers shelter from the weather and you've a good chance of getting out if you want a bash at the wrecks.

PLAN B
We switched tactics to the rough ground heading for marks down towards the east side of Hoy and Burray Island. We had a quick drift on one patch taking just small ling, but the skippers Ron Wilson and Rowald Tait were not happy and decided to try one of their favourite marks right in under the cliffs.

Right under the cliffs was accurate too, as the bow of the boat started the drift just 6ft from the cliffs. The cliffs go vertical straight down in to about 50ft of water over rough rocky ground.

The local guys were fishing mainly baited Mustad Hokkeye's or pink or red muppets baited with a good strip of mackerel. They prefer this tackle set up as it obviously catches fish, but also helps to minimise tackle loss over the snags as you work the gear just above. We followed suit working on the "when in Rome" principal.

My lad has a habit of always getting the first fish, and this day was no different as he swung in a small ling about 4lbs. Trying to be patient and working the rod I had the time to take a proper look at the cliffs. Staring back at us were nesting fulmars and comical puffins, razorbills, also a few guillemots. They were that close you could see the whites of their eye's.

Someone cried out, "Fish on!" It was Rowald who had a fair bend in the rod and as decent fish bored back for the seabed. A lively scrap followed until the net was worked under a nice codling close to 5lbs. Then I broke my duck with a plump 3lb codling that ate the bottom Hokkeye.

This drift was productive, but still the guys were not happy and went on to another drift just a short distance away, but again working pretty tight in to the cliffs.

This drift was different, the current taking us tight to the rock to start, but then pulling us outwards in to deeper water at an angle. Ling in the 3 to 5lb class started to take the baits. Certainly plenty of ling here and the skippers were saying that they get fish to 12lbs under these cliffs, plus pollack to the same weight. But they too head for ground off The Old Man of Hoy for the better quality ling pushing in to the mid 20lb bracket and more.

Ron kept fairly quiet but I'd noticed he'd hit a fish that was putting up more resistance than previous ones. I stood by him looking for colour and watched as a better ling around 7lbs broke surface having snatched a red muppet baited with mackerel.

I wanted to see if the pollack were back in residence, so switched to a flying collar rig and black jellyworm with a red firetail. Second drop I was in. I couldn't figure this was a pollack though, as it fought with headshakes and surges, but no power dives. My suspicions were proved when another fat codling about 4lbs loomed up from the deep.

An Orcadian cod falling to a jelly worm

We only had maybe 4 hours fishing due to other commitments, but we'd had a box of fat codling to over 5lbs and ling to 7lbs. This was in May and it's obvious that fishing over this ground will be really on form through the main holiday months of July through September, and continue on past Christmas.

Certainly stocks of cod and ling are excellent here, and if you work at your fishing the cod will push up to the 20lb mark, especially around the wrecks and deeper rough ground marks.

OTHER SPECIES
Chatting to the skippers about their usual catches, they tell me they have excellent haddock fishing. The haddock are smaller than they were over a decade ago, but still in good numbers with plenty of fish in the 2 to 4lb bracket, plus bigger ones.

Out on the clean sand live thornbacks, plaice, big dabs, witch, and on cleanish ground near the cliffs megrim. They are rare, but small halibut are occasionally taken too. I was in Billy Jolly's fish shop near Kirkwall and saw a filleted halibut there that would have weighed over 6lbs taken from local waters.

I was surprised though, that they mentioned they never anchor on the rough ground for the conger. Most of the local anglers, pretty much like the rest of us, don't like losing lots of tackle, but it's necessary if you want to hook up the big fish. If I ever get back to Orkney, then I'm going to see if I can organise a anchoring session and see what's about on the big rods.

I think switching to a flowing trace and whole mackerel flapper bait would account for big ling pretty much anywhere. Talking to the skippers again it's not something practiced much up here due to the good stocks of average sized eating fish.

There's certainly great potential for either serious groups of anglers to spend a few days offshore around Orkney targeting the big fish, and definitely good steady fishing for average sized fish if you can only spare a day or two while up there on a family holiday.

THE BIG FISH
The common skate are still being caught. They reside in several areas and can run up to a genuine 200lbs. Anglers from the UK mainland used to come up and fish them, but few anglers come here to specifically target them anymore. That's a shame! Rowald would like to get anglers back up here fishing for "slabs" and start tagging them. Something to be encouraged.

Also aboard fishing with us was Orkney angler Richard Land who is working in the shellfish industry. He was recently asked to identify a shark that a farmer saw while watching his sheep. The fin was seen clearly close inshore in relatively shallow water. The local consensus eliminated a basking shark, as it was way to early in the year. From photos in books they elected a mako as the likely fin owner.

I asked Richard if the fin had a white blotch at the rear base of the dorsal, an easy way to identify a porgie, but they say not. My instinct is still that this was a porbeagle. There are salmon and sea trout running through these inlets and the time of year and the available food supply would make a porgie the most likely culprit. Without doubt there are big porbeagles here. They used to be caught on long lines, but thankfully no commercial vessels target them nowadays.

Ron with a nice Ling

I'd also take some pirks with you and bait with mackerel. It's not my favourite form of fishing by any means, but there's no doubting it's ability to take the big ling and cod when working wrecks.

The uptider will be an essential partner too. Use it with a flying collar rig and Redgills or Eddystones, or maybe those firetail jellyworms, which are so effective anywhere you happen to fish.

If you can persuade your skipper to anchor up and work big fish baits back in to the wrecks, then because it's unknown territory I'd go heavy and fish a 50lb class rod and reel. I've a genuine feeling that the congers on these wrecks are mind blowing and you don't want to be pussy footing about with 30lb gear if you get in to the fish of a lifetime.

The best rig for the conger, and for the common skate, will be a simple running ledger. Go for a big bore ledger bead with a link on to take the weight. Slide on a bead and tie on a large rolling swivel. Now add a 2ft length of 200lb mono and knot or crimp on a Mustad 3406 O'Shaugnessy size 10/0. After knotting the 200lb mono the hook trace needs to be no more than 15-inches long. Because the hook trace is heavy mono and relatively short it will not tangle on the drop. Having a short hook trace will not put a feeding conger off. On the contrary, it keeps you better informed and minimises the chances of the conger moving off back in to his hole when using a longer hook length.

Tie the lead weight on with a weak link of phone wire or line so that the lead can be snapped if it becomes snagged.

BAIT
Plenty of mackerel on feathers pretty much everywhere through from late June, and herring around some of the headlands. Ask the skipper to provide the bait for you and it'll be no problem.

They get good quantities of squid up here, and it's bound to be a good bait, especially for the conger and cod.

SKIPPER
Ron Wilson. Tel: 01856 761868

TACKLE SHOP
W. S. Sinclair, Fishing Tackle Specialists, 25-27 John Street, Stromness, Orkney Tel: 01856 850469

For more information visit the Sea Angling in Orkney web site.

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