WSF On Tour: Luce Bay

With the success of last years meet firmly in my thoughts, I nervously made my way down to this year’s venue of Luce Bay. Would everybody turn up? Would the weather be good? Had I packed my reels, all these things combined meant I was a bit fidgety coming down the road. I’d sent out a message on the forum and was hoping we’d all be meeting in the pub at Clashwhannon Caravan Park. It’s always nice to get together, meet each other and talk about the coming two days fishing. As we all gathered a call to Ian confirmed we’d be restricted to inshore fishing, which would mean we’d be species hunting on Thursday and toping on Friday. Ian also confirmed our launch site would be East Tarbert Bay just along from the Mull of Galloway. At least we would get out and get some fishing done and with luck many of us would add new species to our lists. We spent the rest of the evening telling our fishy tails and making friends over a few beers.

Thursday dawned clear with a fresh breeze and a calmish inshore sea. We all made it to East Tarbert on time after the previous evenings ‘socialising’ (don’t trust Shaun Cumming to navigate – Ed). We kitted up and split into groups of four to fill each of Ian’s boats. Our first stop was to get bait, primarily mackerel, but we also managed to find a few launce, which would later prove invaluable for sorting out the bigger Pollock. A short steam put us onto a mark Ian assured us would produce some Pollock and he was right. All four boats hit Pollock right off the bat nothing big but we had fish. I decided a live eel deep spun over the top of the kelp would be the way to go to try and tempt the larger Pollock. I think I managed 10 turns before my rod slammed over like I’d hooked a steam train, the drag screamed and my snood parted as the fish made it back to cover, to say I was gutted would be an understatement! I wasn’t the only one to have hooked and lost a decent Pollock, Baza lost a Pollock of around 8lbs on the surface too. In amongst all the Pollock, Pelamid picked up a lovely Bass around the 4lb mark, which is a good fish for the area. As the tide slackened the fish went off the feed and it was time to pull anchor and move along to our next mark at the end of the Mull of Galloway, we’d all caught plenty of Pollock and several other species thrown in.

As we approached the point we could all see the huge tide race hammering past, it was a raging torrent of white water that reaches 12 knots at its fastest. I can honestly say I hoped we weren’t going to try run through it in Ian’s 19ft Fastliner. Ian on the other hand had different ideas. “It’ll be a bit lumpy as we go round the point but inside the race its flat calm, other than a bit of swell.” Not wanting to appear wimps we all said ‘Yeah go for it…no problem’. We hurtled full throttle towards the rocks, 10 yards out the tide grabbed the boat and we slipped around the point through the swell and into calm waters just as Ian had said. To be honest it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be and we actually enjoyed the ride. Unfortunately the Pollock weren’t feeding, we’d only caught a few in the half hour we’d been there. Ian decided it would be a good move to head back around the point and anchor up in calmer waters to try for wrasse and conger.

Ian dropped the hook with the rubby dubby bag attached while we hastily changed traces. Millser and I dropped a couple of flappers down in the hope of luring an eel from its hole. We all set up our lighter rods for some species action. Millser would prove to be the species king of the trip, he picked up Corkwing, Ballan and Cuckoo wrasse along with a Tompot Blenny. The Ballan wrasse went to around 2lbs and the Cuckoo’s to over a 1lb so we were doing well for numbers, but nothing of any size. Unfortunately even with a few bait changes we couldn’t tempt a conger from its lair. Word amongst the other boats wasn’t much better at the marks they were fishing so we stuck it out for a few more hours adding gurnards, coalies and yet more wrasse to the species count.

The last move of the day saw us anchored up over sand in the Maryport area. Again Ian attached the dubby bag in the hope of attracting a tope and we had a couple of rods off the back rigged up just in case one should appear. We were all on the hunt for species again. We picked up the inevitable dogfish which would prove to be a pest with no bait too big as one picked up my massive mackerel flapper! Amongst the irritating dogs Mike picked up a nice Tub Gurnard of around 1.5lbs but little else was feeding. We were all pretty tiered and worn out by this time, Ian called lines up and we were only too happy to be heading back to shore.

Gathering in the bar of the ‘Clash’ we exchanged our stories of the day and all the boats had faired similarly, plenty of species but no tope or Huss. With a mammoth dinner served we whiled away the rest of the evening with a few more refreshments.

Friday dawned and the wind had swung more to the west, which meant we could reach the tope and Huss marks further up the bay. Jumping onto the boats we couldn’t wait to get going, we had a feeling this was going to be a good day! Joining us on his own boat ‘Alien One’ would be forum member Norrie as well as big_haddie with his boat ‘Hell Raiser’. Luce Bay was rapidly filling up with WSF members all in search of tope.

The buddy bag was filled with yesterdays mackerel and we settled at anchor, only this time we’d be using live baits to try and keep the dogs at bay long enough for a tope to find the bait. Then came the sound we’d be waiting for, my ratchet screamed as a fish picked up my bait and ran with it. Suddenly it stopped I could feel nothing, the fish had dropped the bait! Winding revealed why our lines were all tangled, the mackerel had slashes from a tope’s teeth all over it. I was gutted but at least they were in the area and feeding. Next up with a run was Shaun and he struck into the tope after a ratchet shattering run. Shaun was feeling very nervous, if he boated this tope it would be his first, getting back line when he could the spirited tope was brought along side the boat. Ian lifted her in and put a weight of 32lbs on her. Once the tag was carefully inserted and we took some shots for the photo album and a happy Shaun slid her gently back into the water.

Ten minutes later my ratchet was getting a hammering as another tope ran with my bait, no mistakes this time though and I set the hook. It then decided to take a detour through Mike’s line which unfortunately killed the fight and the fish was easily brought along side the boat. Ian again doing his stuff with the tag and Mike did the honours of photographing my first tope, estimated at 20lbs. I was delighted to have caught the fish I had travelled for six hours to get, but straight back down I went in the hope of a bigger one.

The only other tope caught that morning fell to Baza a lovely 40lb female that took him all around the boat and wrapped his line in the anchor rope, but after a hearty fight he too was a happy man.

While we were busy with the tope Norrie had radioed across that he was into some Black Bream, which are a rare occurrence in Scottish waters. At first we thought he was winding us up, but when he claimed double headers we couldn’t resist. With the GPS numbers of what has now been dubbed ‘Norrie’s Rock’ we were once again on the move. We were having difficulty finding hooks small enough though and I had to use a shrimp rig in order to get the right size or I was never going to get one. The mackerel were a real pest and I hooked a bigger lead on in order to get down quickly without hooking one. Suddenly after a few fishless minutes the shoal was with us and we all added bream to our species lists. Shaun picked up the largest one of around ¾’s of a lb. We were delighted to be catching these fish in our home waters, it’s not something many anglers can claim. We moved off Norries Rock to allow the other boats the chance to get one of these hard fighting fish and made our way over to one of Ian’s ray marks.

We spent the afternoon here with one of the other boats along side us. Adeys was lucky enough to hook up to a tope and we happily watched the scrap from our boat. At first we thought he’d missed it as there seemed to be little resistance, but sure enough up popped at fish and the skipper reached over for it. The tope, taking an instant displeasure to this, went hammering away almost ripping the rod from an unprepared Adeys. He held on and a lovely 20lb fish was eventually boated, tagged and released. Yet again Millser was catching all the species. He had 2 lovely spotted rays the biggest going to around 3lbs and a thornback of around 4lbs. Eventually even the doggies stopped feeding and another move was in order this time back towards home as it was getting into late afternoon.

Fed up with catching doggies I dropped a shrimp rig over the side at our new mark, it took a few attempts to get through the mackerel but I made it to the bottom. I had a rattling take, I instantly thought mackerel but to my surprise up came a lovely 2lb Tub Gurnard which is my biggest Gurnard to date. With that success it was time to head for home and I can honestly say we were a happy group of anglers.

We took a tally of the species caught which was 23 over the 2 days for all four boats – Mackerel – Launce – Scad – Ballan wrasse - Cuckoo wrasse - Corckwing wrasse - Tompot blenny - Grey gurnard - Red Gurnard -Tub Gurnard - Thornback ray - Spotted ray - Coalfish - Cod – Pollack - Whiting - Starry smoothhound - Tope – Bream – Dogfish – Bass – Pouting – Conger.

With the anglers gathering in the Clash it was prize giving time and I had some cracking prizes to give away.

Salt Sporting Braid rod from Mike Thrussell Jr & Sr went to Baza for his 40lb tope

On Yer Marks Pollock rod from Ian Burrett went to Jarrow Viking 5 ½ lb Pollock

Salt Luggage selection from Mike Thrussell Jr & Sr went to Pelamid 4lb Bass

On Yer Marks shirt from Ian Burrett & A large selection of lures from Norrie went to Millser for the most species.

I’d like to offer my thanks to Ian and his group skippers, The Clash and all those who attended, it is all of you that made it a great success.

Contact Ian

Mob: 01776 840346
Email:ianburrett@btinternet.com
Web:www.onyermarks.co.uk

Place to Stay –
Clashwhannon Caravan Park & Public House
Drummore
01776 840632