Today's been another one of those
days.. The weathers not so great, but fine and more usual for these
parts. We decided to head into Gairloch to get some fishing supplies,
before heading to a great location to see how it would go – things
ended up going very well as you will find out..
The shop we went to is one of those
that has just about everything you might need for the outdoor life,
and much more besides – I love this about the Scottish highlands;
you come across all kinds of curiosities in the most unusual places.
This 'Farm and Garden' shop had everything from rubber boots, to
lanterns, to bird feeders, to gas and midge nets. We headed to the
fishing tackle section.
Sarah's been coming fishing on the west
coast for thirty years so advised me what might be the best equipment
to get if I was going to catch fish to eat. Perusing the various rods
and other tackle on offer here, I picked out a Water Spin rod rated
30 – 60 grams 2.7 metres in length, so not huge and still
relatively light. I also bought some quick release swivel fasteners,
and four silver lures, two of the wedge type at 28 grams, and two of
the fish shape, at 40 grams. Sarah picked out a longer heavier rod as
she had recently broken the tip of her previous one on the rocks, and
some of the same spinners as she'd recommended to me.
After getting some food and other
supplies it was time to head back to the camp and get ready to go
fishing..
We arrived at the spot about 9pm. It
was quite a still night but starting to get a little chilly on the
headland, but we'd come to a location where the loch met the open
sea, and where the rocks went straight into very deep water – a
perfect location to catch some sizeable sea fish. The first thing to
do was climb down onto the rocks nearest to the water. This was not
exactly for the faint of heart, as it involved scrambling down some
rocks beside a deep gully, with cavernous water sounds coming from
deep within..
Once down on the rocks, however, we
prepared our rods and spinners and immediately got to casting out
into the deep dark water beyond, wondering what might be lurking
beneath the black undulating surface. Immediately on the first cast I
hooked a fish and reeled it in, a Coalfish about 6 or 7” long, I
unhooked him and launched him back into the water.. Second cast, and
I again felt one on the line – this time twice the size and another
Coley. We decided not to keep him as it was obvious that the night
was going to be a good one! So this one too was returned to the night
sea.
Over the course of the evening we must
have brought in about 15 or 16 fish, mostly Coley and Pollock of
various sizes which was an amazing first expedition out for me on
Scotlands west coast waters. Suddenly I felt a much bigger strain on
the line, and the rod bent over sharply, forming a U shape in the
night air.. I began to reel in, only to have it go slack again 5
seconds later, then it went tight again, and then the rod almost bent
over under the strain, but almost right in front of me. The fish must
be going down and under the rocks.
Sarah said, thats what they will do..
If you hook a big Pollock it will run towards you and dive down,
making it much harder to bring it to land successfully. I decided to
let out slack on the line and wait and see. The slack soon
disappeared and went tight again, and the line was rubbing
dangerously against the rocks and barnacles.. Again I let out quite a
few feet of slack line – again it soon went taught again. At this
point I decided to slowly try and retrieve the line..
After quite a bit of tense reeling in a
huge fish finally broke the surface and with the rod bent over I
managed to bring him onto the rocks on which we were standing, with
the water splashing close to our feet. It was a monster Pollock with
huge ominous eyes, and it'd been a mixture of good judgement, sound
advice, and luck that had helped bring him in. This one was going to
be tomorrow evenings dinner, and probably the next days too! After
administering the last rites, the fish was left in the rock pool
while we fished on until it became dark and knew it was time to make
the scramble back up the gully, head torches lighting the way, and
fishing gear stashed away in our backpacks.. Quite an experience to
start the northern adventures..
Ernest Hemingway
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