Latest Fishing Reports: Highlands and Islands
-
24/07/2021
Fishing Report by Paul Timoney
on Seadog charters (Oban, Argyll & Bute)
24 Jul 2021 by Paul Timoney
Report on-board Seadog charters
We have had a few more great days out recently on the skate with days of 8-21 fish coming aboard. Female fish up to the 180s and a whopper of male today at 133lbs, the big males always make for an exciting scrap!
With regular anglers we ventured down to the Isle of Gigha for 3 days. We were very lucky with sunshine and calm seas except for one day with fog, it was pretty good to get out the sun for abit haha!
Here we tried a variety of general fishing, which included finding some proper shoals of mackerel, the first we have seen this year. We found pollock fishing with light spinning gear to be the most successful with lots of hard fighting pollock trying to make for cover. Great fun.
Over the 3 days we had mackerel, coalies, pollock, cod, dogfish, pout, whiting, Balian wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, spurdog (allegedly, John��) general fishing could have been better but it’s early yet, there will be a huge change in a month. It’s a shame some of our regular anglers couldn’t make it, and missed a great trip, for the guys that came out they defiantly caught there share ������. I’m sure there highlight was 21 skate between 3 guys and one is 73!!
There are still dates available during the week in august and weekends in September. We plan to be doing tope tips in 2 days blocks by the and of august also.
Cheers Paul and Graeme
View Boats Page
-
07/2021
Fishing Report by Kevin McKie
on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)
Jul 2021 by Kevin McKie
Report on-board Size Matters
Over the last few weeks the fishing from Pwllheli has been like fishing near the equator, extremely hot, bright sunshine and no wind making conditions very difficult for catching bait fish.
The wreck fishing has been excellent for numbers of fish but the average size has dropped, our best day seen 160+ Pollack, Cod, Coalfish and Ling with only a few into double figures most where 3lb to 5lb.
We did manage to go shark fishing the conditions where very poor, bright sunshine, no wind, lots of algae, very little drift and the surface water temperature was 23.3 degrees this is the hottest I have ever seen the sea temperature in the UK before.
The lads worked hard and managed to catch 13 Blues to 80lb+ and just the one Porgie for there efforts.
The Bream fishing has been good but the weed has been a massive problem at different stages of the tide on the reef making fishing very difficult.
As for the Tope fishing it’s been hit and miss this is due to the fresh mackerel situation, some days we get 20 to 50 mackerel other days only a hand full.
Sadly we are fully booked in Pwllheli for the rest of the year, we do have dates available for Skate fishing in Scotland.
NOVEMBER
Monday 1st £110 pp 2 places available
7am sailing.
Tuesday 2nd £110 pp 3 places available
7am sailing.
Tuesday 16th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Wednesday 17th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Thursday 18th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Friday 19th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Kevin Mckie
Size Matters (Pwllheli)
07999628511
#Shimano
#Gerrysofmorcambe
#Grundens
#mckiesfishingcharters
#SDHtravel
#Holymackerel
#Pwllheli
#Northwales View Boats Page
-
07/2021
Fishing Report by Kevin McKie
on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)
Jul 2021 by Kevin McKie
Report on-board Size Matters
With fishing holidays abroad being a thing of the past due to the NEW NORMAL of covid restrictions and horse plop being forced on the general public from our so called government.
So we decided to start to offer 10 day live aboard charters, the purpose of these live aboard charters is to showcase the fishing we have available around the British isles and to give our anglers the opportunity to experience being a boat pikey.
The plan on each trip is to fish for anything and everything while trying to stay one step ahead of the weather all the time.
When the weather is good we go the distance and when the weather is not so good we fish inshore if possible or take the day off go the pub and talk about catching moby dicks little brother.
Our first team of four anglers on the Size Matters boat pikey challenge was team SHADY PINES consisting of Rob, Brain, Tommy and Roy, these lads had a combined age of 528 but they had the stamina of 40 year olds.
We decided to use Milford Haven as our base because the weather forecast was looking good around that area for the first few days.
Day 1 ,
On the way down to Milford Haven we fished for bait but it was terrible we only caught about 35 Mackerel, every where we stopped the fishing was very poor.
Day 2,
We went sharking the lads managed 5 Porgies to 227lb and 7 Blues, none of the lads had caught Porgies before and really enjoyed the fight.
Day 3,
The lads wanted to try some reef fishing, it was very poor only managing 30+ Pollack, Cod, Mackerel, Whiting, Pout, Poor Cod and Launce.
Day 4,
Weather was terrible so we fished in the Haven for a few hours to try and catch Gilt Head Bream but the conditions where very hard and the lads only managed to catch Ballan Wrasse and Goby’s back in the Marina.
Day 5,6,7
We got the weather window we had been waiting for to head to Jurassic park to feed our pet Six Gills Sharks.
Lucky enough we managed to buy 50kg of Mackerel from a fish merchant this with the fish we caught reefing was just enough for our session.
We had to steam a very long way from Milford Haven thank god we have a 480 mile range in the fuel tanks.
Only 35 minutes after putting the anchor down we hooked into our first Six Gill Shark, the lads managed to catch 14 Six Gill Sharks in 21 hours with the biggest estimated at 450lb+.
The biggest we measured on the boat was 414lb and when it was in the water it looked 350lb+, the girth of these sharks is massive and that’s what gives them the weight.
It was good to catch a few small ones around 25lb - 35lb to show Jurassic park has a very healthy population of Six Gill Sharks.
The average size of the Six Gills is very good 450lb+, 440lb+, 414lb, 320lb, 300lb, 295lb, 280lb, 273lb, 250lb, 200lb, 190lb, 130lb, 35lb, 25lb,
The lads also caught Conger, Haddock, Megrim, Blue Whiting, Pout, Poor Cod, Gray Gurnard, Whiting and Ling in between fishing for Six Gills.
Day 8,
The lads wanted to start catching fish to take so we hit the wrecks on the way back to Pwllheli, we boated over 100 Pollack to 9lb and a few Coalfish to 4lb, it was a busy day for the lads.
Day 9, 10,
We used our home port of Pwllheli as our base because the lads wanted to sample the excellent inshore fishing on offer, they caught Lots of Bream, Tope, Huss, Bass, Turbot, Cod, Mackerel, Pollack, Weaver and Dogfish.
It had been over two years since we visited Jurassic Park, just after that trip a number of fishing tackle suppliers sent us some samples to use on the Six Gill Sharks but sadly due to covid restrictions we never managed to use the samples until this latest trip.
Peter at Leadertec give us 900lb wire, crimps, Bristo hooks 10/0 and 800lb big game ball bearing swivels.
Stuart at British Big Game Fishing give us 900lb wire hook lengths with 13/0 VMC hooks and his own style of circle hook for Thresher sharks that have worked for Porgies and Blues so far.
Mark at Cox & Rawl give us AFW wire in 600lb crimps, Meat hook extras size 20/0 and all sorts of other bits.
We caught Six Gill Sharks on all of these components so if you are looking to head out in search of a Six Gill Shark then get in contact with these guys and they can all supply you with everything you need, massive thanks to these guys for the samples.
As always we only use the best fishing rods and reels available from our sponsors Shimano UK, here is a list of tackle used on this trip and available on all charters free of charge.
Reels,
Talica 50 & 25 2 speeds,
Tiagra 30 2 speed,
Speedmaster 16 & 12 2 speeds,
Torium 20s & 16s,
Nasci C5000,
Exage 5000,
Rods,
Tyrnos 80lb class,
Speedmaster Dendou Maru 1000 & 4000,
Technium Slims 20/30,
Vengeance Bass 100g,
Please note all sharks boated where kept in excellent condition as you can see by the photos, shark welfare is paramount we use a specialist lifting sling supplied by Sea World in the USA to make sure the sharks are not under any stress while giving the anglers the photo they really want.
Thanks
Kevin Mckie
Size Matters (Pwllheli)
07999628511
#Shimano
#Gerrysofmorcambe
#Grundens
#mckiesfishingcharters
#SDHtravel
#Holymackerel
#Pwllheli
#Northwales View Boats Page
-
04/07/2021
Fishing Report by Paul Timoney
on Seadog charters (Oban, Argyll & Bute)
4 Jul 2021 by Paul Timoney
Report on-board Seadog charters
Been enjoying some good weather and good fishing the last few days. With skate trips of 13/11/10/16 fish a day, to 199lbs.
On Friday with only 3 guys on the boat I thought we would try a few new marks out. First off we found the mackerel for some fresh bait, then headed out to drift some ridges with not much luck. We’ve been finding fishing deeper this year seems to produce more fish, so moved onto another area and found the Spurs, every drop and up to 6/7lb. Next time we will have to get the anchor down and find the bigger ones!
The plan was skate next, but again a slight change from the norm. We set the anchor down in deep water over an old wreck, 20 mins later we had the first skate on! Next up was a conger that fought as good any of the smaller summer skate �� ended with 10 skate and one conger of 45lbs.
As usual for summer we are seeing lots of nice immature skate in the sound of jura. With some all new 30/50 class rods and braided line they provide great sport, and a bit less pain to the bigger fish we get in autumn to spring. Ofcourse we will see a few big girls come along too, some trips have seen them to just under 200lbs. View Boats Page
-
07/2021
Fishing Report by Kevin McKie
on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)
Jul 2021 by Kevin McKie
Report on-board Size Matters
We have been flat out with charters due to the very good weather conditions during the recent weeks.
Finally we got chance to go sharking for the first time this year, the conditions where very poor for sharking only drifting at 0.5 kts with wind against tide and no wind on both slack waters making it very hard to cover ground with our chum slick.
The lads did manage to catch two Porgies and four Blues, I explained to the lads we will only boat one shark per person per day if they want a photo on the deck.
Wrecking has been incredible in fact I have been saying to the lads this is what you call catching not fishing, 120 to 170 fish in 4 to 5 hours mostly Pollack to 11lb, Cod, Ling and Coalfish.
Most of the lads we have had onboard have all agreed once you fill your cool box with fillets we just head back in, if there is one thing I hate is fish being wasted.
Tope fishing has been hit and miss one day we have caught up to 25 Tope the next day just one or two, the Bream fishing has been excellent when the conditions have been just right up to 120+ per day to 2lb.
Again most of the lads are happy to put the bream under 1lb back and just keep a dozen or so bigger fish.
We where lucky enough to have had the famous Ridge Monkey Fishing Company from Liverpool out filming there new series of challenges around the UK, great bunch of lads and very professional with the film crew, there should be some epic footage of the lads fighting Tope and using a drone on the water line out the back of the boat to get a total different angle on fighting the fish.
Sadly we are fully booked till November in Scotland but don’t forget give Adam Jenkins a call on 07736 678506 his boat is called Western Flyer operating from Shell island, Adam is a good skipper and knows this area like the back of his hand, we have been working together to make sure we both keep our anglers on the fish.
Thanks
Kevin Mckie
Size Matters (Pwllheli)
07999628511
#Shimano
#Gerrysofmorcambe
#Grundens
#mckiesfishingcharters
#SDHtravel
#Holymackerel
#Pwllheli
#Northwales View Boats Page
-
13/06/2021
Fishing Report by Paul Timoney
on Seadog charters (Oban, Argyll & Bute)
13 Jun 2021 by Paul Timoney
Report on-board Seadog charters
Unfortunately the weather has been against us now, over the last week 4 days have been called off.
Glad to report that we did manage out Saturday and Sunday. Both days proving excellent on the skate fishing with some spurdogs and black mouth dogfish too. Saturday we managed 16 skate to the boat and Sunday the same! Both days seen fish to 160/150lbs but also alot of young juvenile fish. Some of the patterns and how clean the small ones look is amazing. Both days seen us circled by the minky whales again, this seems to be getting more common which is great to see.
Crews consisted of individual spaces and a couple of father and son groups, really good to see the next generation cracking into the skate like seasoned pros lol. Also a great chance to meet fellow charter skipper Barry Paskins, we look forward to seeing him develop skate fishing in the north east ������. View Boats Page
-
06/2021
Fishing Report by Kevin McKie
on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)
Jun 2021 by Kevin McKie
Report on-board Size Matters
The summer fishing from Pwllheli is really starting to kick in now with the arrival of lots of different species.
On the reefs the Black Bream have arrived in big numbers most fish are around 1lb but we have had a few nudging 2lb.
One group of regular Polish anglers from London give me a lesson in Bream fishing, as I seen one of the anglers get his rig out of his box I said to him, you would make a good Christmas tree decorator looking at that rig ha ha, he said just you wait and see, this is how we fish for them on the kings mere reef off Brighton.
Well I sure did get a lesson he was pulling them out, I said to him well done that sure showed me a thing or two, then I took his idea changed the rig slightly to how have fished in Guernsey for bream and it’s a killer, since using it we are catching a hell of a lot more bream and a much better stamp of fish.
The wreck fishing is excellent at the moment and you only need 2 to 3 hours on the wrecks to catch over 100+ Pollack most are 7lb to 8lb with the biggest going 11lb 8oz, we have also had Ling to 6lb, Coalfish to 5lb and just started catching Cod to 4lb 8oz.
Sadly the Tope fishing has dropped away this is due to the amount of fish on the reefs some days we are catching over 15 species per day and could easily get over 20 if we tried.
We have had a cancellation for next week if you would like to join us.
Tuesday 15th 4 places available 12 hour wrecking trip £105 pp or 10 hour Bream trip £85 pp 7am sailing, all depending on the weather.
If you can not make our available date give Adam Jenkins a call on 07736 678506 his boat is called Western Flyer operating from Shell island, Adam is a good skipper and knows this area like the back of his hand, we have been working together to make sure we both keep our anglers on the fish.
Thanks
Kevin Mckie
Size Matters (Pwllheli)
07999628511
#Shimano
#Gerrysofmorcambe
#Grundens
#mckiesfishingcharters
#SDHtravel
#Holymackerel
#Pwllheli
#Northwales View Boats Page
-
05/2021
Fishing Report by Paul Timoney
on Seadog charters (Oban, Argyll & Bute)
May 2021 by Paul Timoney
Report on-board Seadog charters
Another fantastic few trips:
Over 3 days we had 52 skate to 199lbs ������ also had spurdogs, black mouth dogfish and a back mouth dogfish egg on the deck! All safely retuned. 2 skate managed to avoid being measured but out of the 50 measured fish we recorded a total weight of skate caught at a whopping 5016lbs!!
Day 1:
After abit of a false start at a Mark where the tide was running too hard I agreed to make back the hour with the guys and we headed to another close by mark with less tide. Wasn’t long to we were into a great stamp of fish, with fish of 115, 150, 144, 190, 116, 171, 90, 177, 163, 196, 96, 187 and 199lbs. The guys worked well to battle the big flood tide towards the end of the day and really Kept the fish coming. 13 landed in total.
Day 2:
On Saturday with the perfect conditions, we decided that a move way south would be needed to see bigger numbers, and it didn’t Disappoint. With the skate fishing moving slowly we fished for some sour dogs and black mouth. The skate came on slowly and quickly non stop. At one part of the day we had all 5 rods hooked into fish, 2 rods landed and baited and sent to the bottom and within minutes it’s back to 5 fish hooked up! For a laugh we had some old steak in the boat so thought why not give it a go as bait�� sure enough it took 5 mins for it to be proven a good bait!! We ended the day with 19 fish landed, at 54, 79, 59, 43, 68, 45, 30, 41, 40, 182, 149, 73, 96, 89, 90, 193, 71, 63 and 54lbs!
Day 3:
Again perfect conditions, with minky whale all around the boat fishing was slow. With a move at half time proving to be a great choice with the fishing picking up instantly. Straight into a treble hook up and non stop action there after.
20 skate were landed with 2 fish evading measurement. Sizes were 126, 76, 152, 51, 144, 160, 74, 53, 103, 55, 41, 102, 84, 63, 54, 79, 28 and 85lbs.
If you would like to book a trip with us get in touch
Cheers Paul and Graeme View Boats Page
-
05/2021
Fishing Report by Kevin McKie
on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)
May 2021 by Kevin McKie
Report on-board Size Matters
The Tope fishing in Cardigan Bay has finally started to come in to its own, our best day so far has seen 49 Tope boated and returned, with most days seeing 15 to 30 Tope per day and this will only get better.
We have been extremely lucky to catch some cracking Tope to say the least, we have been using the shark measurements in inches,
girth x girth x length divided by 800 to calculate the weight of the big females to insure we don’t damage the heavily pregnant Tope.
Already we have been informed we should be weighing them in a cat fish sling like another skipper does on Anglesey.
So we decided to weigh and measure the first eight Tope we caught today and here is the results.
Measured weight, Actual weight,
Female 29lb 33lb,
Female 25.5lb 29lb,
Male 16.6lb 20lb,
Female 52.8lb 51lb,
Male 15.6lb 22lb,
Male 15.6lb. 26lb,
Female 16.2lb 19lb,
Female 27.5lb 34lb,
From now on we will leave it up to the anglers to decide if the want to weigh the fish in our Skate sling, use the shark measurement calculator or simply unhook it at the side of the boat.
The biggest Tope went to Luke Brennan from Preston it was his first ever Tope and measured out at 67lb 8oz it was an incredible fish a real tank.
Andy Finney from Essex caught a monster Tope that measured out at 63lb and was his first ever Tope.
Colin Higham from Preston has been fishing for over 40 years and he caught his biggest Tope it weighed 51lb.
We have also had a few young anglers fishing with us catching there first ever Tope, just listening to them chatting about how good a day they have had gives me jobs satisfaction and why I love what I do.
Big thanks to Holy Mackerel for sending us some oil that we have used in a recent Sea Angler Magazine article that will be out in the near future.
Sadly we are fully booked in Pwllheli for the rest of the year, we do have dates available for Skate fishing in Scotland.
NOVEMBER
Monday 1st £110 pp 2 places available
7am sailing.
Tuesday 2nd £110 pp 3 places available
7am sailing.
Monday 8th £110 pp 4 places available
7am sailing.
Tuesday 9th £110 pp 4 places available
7am sailing.
Tuesday 16th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Wednesday 17th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Thursday 18th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Friday 19th £110 pp 5 places available
7am sailing.
Friday 26th £110 pp 6 places available
7am sailing.
Kevin Mckie
Size Matters (Pwllheli)
07999628511
#Shimano
#Mckiesfishingcharters
#Gerrysofmorcambe
#Grundens
#mckiesfishingcharters
#SDHtravel
#Holymackerel
#Pwllheli
#Northwales View Boats Page
-
26/05/2021
Fishing Report by Paul Timoney
on Seadog charters (Oban, Argyll & Bute)
26 May 2021 by Paul Timoney
Report on-board Seadog charters
Our plans for 200lb plus skate on Monday didn’t work at planned, the weather had other ideas for us! With strong westerly winds we opted for a hiding behind an island which got us nothing but a blank! Can’t win them all, but just shows that the water is still too cold for any general fishing on the mid west coast.
Tuesday was to be a much better day weather wise, so we set off to our chosen mark with that 200lb fish in mind. Once we got settled in on the anchor and got the baits down it wasn’t long before the action started! We spent 6 hours of constant skate battles, one rod would go, fish on the deck and then the next rod! Even had to bring one fish up myself ��. I’m really pleased the day worked the way it did for keen angler and Friend Marc, he finely got his fish, 210Lbs! ���� All day we fished 2 rods, didn’t have to check one bait as the skate had the lot. Just incredible fishing. All in all 12 skate were landed totalling 1139lbs. I’ve no idea how Marc managed to bring up 11 of these fish in 6 hours ��
If you would like more info about our trips or to book please get in touch.
Cheers Paul and Graeme View Boats Page
