The Skipper's Blog

July started with some rough weather and a couple of days were lost early in the month but it soon settled to tolerable conditions and we had some notable fish.

The lads from Silloth had a good outing with a total of 13 species. The heaviest fish sweepstake looked in the bag for the angler with the 11 lb huss but he was pipped by this 11.5 lb spurdog


On the 14th of July we, along with Willie Kennedy of Ayr SAC and SSACN on his boat Reel Deal, played host to some serving and ex-servicemen. The event was organised by the Not Forgotten Association and the Royal Marines SAC. The weather was not kind and there was a bit of ground baiting. That's probably what atracted this superb tope to the bait of organiser Andy Bridson of the Royal Marines.


The following week, this angler was dismayed to lose what would have been a nice codling of about 4 lb. According to him, "A big black shark came up and grabbed it." I was busy at the other side of the boat at the time and didn't see it but there are some very big tope around at present.


At the end of the month, Meltham and District SAC had a 4-day species hunt competition. This huss of 12 lb 12 oz by organiser David Bateman was the second biggest fish, but my only photo of Tony's 13 lb 5 oz huss is not very good.


They had a total of 20 species over the four days. The last species caught was tis beautiful little spotted ray (I think, but I'll be very pleased to be corrected if I've misidentified it.)

June finished very well. The lads from Heysham ended their 3 day trip on the last day of the month with a total of 16 species for the day and 18 species for the whole trip. That's not counting the octopus and the scallop that closed its shell on a hook. They had mackerel, herring, launce, scad, cod, haddock, whiting, coalie, pollack, dragonet, red, grey and tub gurnard, LSD, huss, cuckoo ray, dab and turbot.

We have been fishing the further, deeper marks for the second half of the month and it has paid off.

We have had a dozen or more spurdog, a species that has been very scarce on our patch for many years.

Closer inshore, around the headlands we've had quality pollack to 9 lb in weight. The water has been heavily coloured to the north Back Shore and it has not so far fished well. A couple of trips to the wreck of the Haileybury produced a good range of fish but nothing remarkable in size although a nearby angler from a small boat out of Dally Bay held up a good double figure ling as he passed.

Here's hoping for a good July but as I write this I'm looking out my window at heavy seas breaking over the North Pier and wondering how long before the weather settles down again.

At last we're catching good specimens of a good range of species.
The mackerel are here, about 5 weeks later than last year, and still in small, scattered shoals.
Best outing of the year so far was last Monday when a party from the sea angling section of Strathclyde Police Recreational Association fished a species hunt competition. Taking advantage of smallish tides and fair weather we fished all day over and around the Haileybury wreck in the northern North Channel.
Scoring under SFSA size rules we had 84 fish of 14 species on the card and half as many fish again of a couple more species that did not make the measure.
Best specimen of the day was Colin Hamilton's huss of 9lb 9oz.

2009 was a mixed season - the fishing was great but the weather kept us in too often.

We had an excellent range of species and some specimen bull huss, pollack and tope. Mackerel were very patchy throughout and we sometimes struggled to get enough for bait. Herring and launce were quite plentiful though.

Big tope were not plentiful but this splendid 64 pounder won Harris Campbell a prize or two.



We had many excellent "species hunts" throughout May, June & July.

Depending upon tide direction and time of day we fished the usual banks, reefs and headland tide runs ranging south as far as the Mull of Logan bank and the Logan wreck or north as far as the Haileybury wreck and then inshore to the Larbrax Reef as the tide strengthened.

We still have areas that need to be re-explored with modern tackle and techniques - particularly the deeper waters. We didn't manage it in 2009 - it has to go on the 2010 "to do" list. We also have some excellent flattie marks that will reward dedicated anglers but these are frequently ignored, the excellent pollack marks being too attractive to many anglers.

Throughout the summer  the weather had been quite mediocre but it really fell  away during August. Many of you who had  booked for August dates were disappointed , although  most were able to re-book later dates. Some of you who did get out in had to put up with some pretty rough conditions.

By mid-September the weather improved again and the fishing continued good right through to mid-October. On our last weekend we hit big shoals of herring on the Saturday and then on the Sunday had a total of 16 species, none of them herring!

Rhins Ranger has had a repaint and an overhaul during her winter on blocks at Portpatrick Harbour. She was lifted back into the water on the 12th April.

I've had a few exploratory outings, alone and with friends, checking out some of the marks.
We've had whiting, cod, haddock, ling, coalie, pollack, LSD and huss so far.
The mackerel should appear any day. Last year we had the first on the 23rd April and the year before on the 24th.

How about some new target species for 2010?





I found these two dried up specimens about 400 yards apart on a North Rhins beach after a sudden blow in late March. The lower fish is definitely a trigger fish (Ballistes capriscus) and I am almost certain that the upper fish is a John Dory (Zeus faber). The photos are from my mobile phone, hence the poor quality.
There are some very shallow reefs off this beach that I shall be visiting in suitable conditions this summer.

First booking of the season is this Sunday with the Dalbeattie SAC. They are all very good anglers and I'm looking forward to a great start