week up on Skye

[wrasseman]

so, my son from Darlington fancied a week on Skye, trying for spurdog, Pollack and possibly common Skate, travel was good on the way up, stopped off at West Highland angler for some bait, in case there were no macs about, can't recommend the guy highly enough, all the frozen baits you'd ever need and loads of advice. pitched tent Monday evening, went to have a look at armadale pier, there were a few fishing guys said they'd had a few double figure spurs that morning and load of mackeral about,back to tent and decided on armadale next morning, plenty of mackeral for bait, two casts gave us enough though they were a bit big, then set up a couple rods one with 12/0 meat hook on a whole 1lb mackeral for skate one with 6/0 pulley pennel Mac fillet for spurs. fairly quiet so son headed back to car for crab pot, and as he was 100 yds away had a good pull on the 12/0, had an audience on the pier of people waiting for the ferry, one person kindly went to get my son and our dropnet which I had left in the car, managed to get the spurdog to the surface and held it until the dropnet arrived. weighed in at 12lb.
son had a ray thornie around 6lb later on but was quiet after that though had good fun with the macs on light lure rods and metals and lending rods to family who'd come down to have a look, youngsters were thrilled catching mackeral and small Pollack. on the drive back had red deer on the road and a young fawn.
weds headed to a known Pollack mark with the lures we had small Pollack and coalies, son had one Pollack about 2&1/2lb, not the monsters we'd hoped for but a good scrap and decided to move on as swells were increasing ,saw a sea otter. decided on Niest point for Thursday another renowned Pollack mark. we both had a couple on lures upto 3lb, I decided to try feather for fresh Mac bait had one first cast then it was full strings of coalies, and one string with 4 coalies and a Pollack about2lb good sport on a 40-100g lure rod! Matt set a float rod up as the Pollack had stopped taking the lures. good move, 4 casts 4 fish upto 4&1/2 pounds I switched to float and had some arain started and as the basalt rocks were slippier than ice when wet decided to head back to camp and try the pier again for more spurs. loaded up, passed rods up to son and as I turned and started the climb back up,slipped, face planted and thought I'd sprained my arm, cut on forehead, eye like I'd been in the the ring with Tyson so 1&1/2hr trip back to hospital near camp, great staff, radiologist from Formby! anyway, they glued face back, arm broken at end of bone near elbow, so thats it for fishing for 6 weeks, good job son drives! headed home Friday to recouperate. Don't think we'll go to neist point next year if there's any chance of rain!Also definitely wear a life jacket next time, it is a dangerous mark for fishing!

[Steve Duffy]

Shame the fall ruined what was looking like a good week Mark.

[Local/Brian]

Mark impressive start some nice fish
Sorry to hear when reading on that the trip ended with a trip to A&E / all the best on a quick recovery Mark.

Cheers Brian.

[Milligan]

Great report but a sad ending to an otherwise good visit !

I have recently returned from two weeks on Skye, I baulked at fishing Armadale , fished there before , caught there , but draw the line at hordes of people tramping over my gear. If its quiet though there is a good chance of a Skate, but getting it in and to the bottom of the steel steps to unhook and release is really a two man job , my wife is not up to it really .

Your Neist Point adventure had an unhappy ending. Its a great place to fish , but you do need to be a mountain goat on some of the platforms there, especially in the wet . I would think the yomp back to the car was very uncomfortable . I have fished there myself, the Coalies can be a real nuisance when after a decent Pollack .

I hope the midges did not bother you too much , we always visit Skye earlier in the year before they are around .

This year we stayed right on the northern tip of Skye ,lovely scenery but it is two weeks from anywhere really .
Some of the marks are to die for but really need a walk which dwarfs the trek to Neist Point, but the returns could be worth it . I fished the mark that produced the potential record shore caught Skate for the lad from the Whitby Bass Club ( I blanked but it is a fantastic if a bit remote mark )
Anyway I have rambled on enough, really liked your report and hopefully after your next visit you will rerurn home intact.

Take care

David