The 2008 Season (aka Scotland's Shortest Summer Yet)

Our boats: 'Onyer Marks', 'Onyer Marks Too', 'Go West' and 'Riptide'.

The 2008 season got off to a great start....

It now looks as if the arrival of the Tope in early May instead of June has now become the norm The timing is obviously affected by the arrival of the Mackerel which are also showing a month earlier, perhaps this is the first sign that global warming is having an effect. Because of easterly winds we fished off Port Logan on May 3rd and 4th. Regular Cotebridge anglers Guy Stewart and crew caught 16 species over the weekend.

The biggest surprise was catching a few Rays from Port Logan which has to be the first for probably 10 years. Now the Rays are protected to some degree, by way of a 25% by catch limit, we can hopefully continue to see an improvement in stocks. The first chance we had to fish for Tope was May 10th Craig Watt's party set the first bar for the season with 10 Tope and a few Rays on May 10th and Dave Wilson caught 11 Tope and 8 Rays the day after on 'Go West'.

After that weekend the wind returned to north easterlies so sadly we weren't able to get back to the Tope for nearly a fortnight. The fishing during that time was conducted of Port Logan which continued to produce large numbers of Pollack and yet more Rays. John Rome from Carlisle was well pleased with his 12.5 lb Pollack caught on the 25th of May aboard 'Riptide'. Salmon guide Alan Everington and his 2 man crew have been responsible for our increasing interest in salt water fly fishing; On the 24th and 25th of May they caught well over 100 Pollack to 6.5 pounds on the fly aboard 'Go West'. Regular readers of this site will recall Alan bettered four IGFA 'Pollack on the fly' world records in one hectic afternoon in 2007.


The end of May and beginning of June saw some great weather and even better fishing. Little did we know at that time, that this calm settled few days was going to be the summer. It was all downhill after that! 'Onyer Marks' had a four day stint when I released 137 Tope. First on the bonaza was regular pair Jimmy Storey and John Watt from Carisle. They shared 29 Tope between them on the 29th March. The 30th of March produced 32 fish for Tony Armstrong's party and not to be out done Phil Lowes 3 man party helped themselves to 62 Tope over the weekend 31st May and 1st of June. Other noticeable catches during that spell was 21 Tope for Norman Southam's (Norrie) party aboard 'Go West' and another 21 for Andy Pellow's party on 'Onyer Marks Too' on the 31st May.

Andy Parry's party aboard 'Onyer Marks Too' and Dave Dillon's group on 'Go West' shared a haul of 40 Tope on the 1st of June. The weather broke down after that but Chris Higgins managed 10 Tope on the 2nd of June before we had to fish inshore for nearly a fortnight. Plenty of Huss and a few Rays and a few Smoothounds were also caught during that period. It was the 22nd June before the weather let us proceed to our favourite marks and regular Trevor Armitage shared 22 Tope including a few well over 40 pounds with his son John aboard 'Go West'. They had Smoothound and Rays amongst the other 20 species they caught that week.

A new bunch of anglers arrived from Essex for a four days stint apart from the usual Tope, Huss and Pollack Derek Harris's party caught and returned two huge specimen fish with a 4.5 pound Tub Gurnard and a 6lb Ballan Wrasse. Both fish were the biggest I have seen. Dave Wright from the North East will be a familiar name for his outstanding catches over the last few years. To continue this sequence Dave caught a 70 lb Tope on the June 28th


July proved a difficult period weather wise and resulted in many days fishing inshore which us very frustrating when you know there are good numbers of Tope offshore but are unable to fish for them. We have a mark a few miles offshore which we are sometimes able to reach in bad weather. Spike on 'Go West' caught 6 Bass over 7 pounds in a five day period. The baits were intended for Tope and Huss which were also very obliging. I usually fish a different spot to Spike and it has become a joke amongst the boys that I can't catch Bass. I tried a new mark with Dave Wright on the 16th August after hearing reports of commercially caught Turbot. The Turbot didn't show but we did have 9 Tope and, surprisingly, 2 large female Spurdog.

Another enjoyable for me was taking out regulars Johnathon, wife Jane and kids Charlie and Harry on the 19th August. The family started fishing with us 5 or 6 years ago and the kids now aged10 and 13 could hardly see over the gunnels. It gave me great pleasure to see the kids taking their fair share of the 14 Tope and 12 Huss landed that day. The lads from the World Sea Fishing Forum arrived on their annual 2 day pilgrimage on August 25th and 26th and brought their normal 'iffy' weather with them. Once again we had restricted inshore fishing but we still managed to catch 27 species, Matty on 'Onyer Marks Too' did particularly well on the first day with 19 species. We managed to get offshore for a few hours on the second morning. All boats had a few Tope until the weather caused us to run for cover. There is no doubt local boy Kevin Hamilton caught our fish of the year aboard 'Go West' with his 13.5 pound Bass which Spike and the lads spent 15 minutes reviving.

A few days later, a pal, Mark Abey and his brother-in-law, fished with me and shared 13 Tope to 60 pounds and 6 Huss. My luck on the Bass finally changed on the 2nd of September when 'Onyer Marks' caught four Bass to 8.5 pounds,9 Tope and a few Huss for Welsh angler Bruce Seaton and friend. Did I enjoy that day? Typically, I never got back to that mark during the rest of the season! I had an unusual, albeit enjoyable, trip on September the 8th. Leonard Best had fond memories of catching Plaice when he was a boy 70 years previous. He wanted to have another go before his health stopped him. He and his wife had over 20 flatties between them, the majority being decent sized plaice. They aren't big fish but there's something special about seeing those red spots arrive at the surface. Leonard also enjoyed catching Pollack on the fly a few days later.

Golden Balls Essex boy Paul Maris and Dave 'Whiskers' fished with me on 22nd and 23rd September. Many of Paul's previous catches are down in the 'Onyer Marks' Hall of Fame but his remit for this trip was a Tope over 50 pounds. We released a fair few fish but missed Tope run after Tope and could easily have ended up with a dozen fish over the two days but Golden Balls did manage a 50 plus male which took a floated live bait mackerel. Auld Eddie from Edinburgh just 83 years young caught one of the five Tope caught on October 28th.

2008 summary

What a year with the weather. If the weather we had in 2008 was due to global warming then you can stuff it! It seemed that winter started sometime in August. Seriously though, 2008 saw some great fish and particularly Kevin Hamilton's 13.5 Bass. The Bass numbers continue to increase and although not in great numbers yet the signs are looking promising. Bull Huss and Ray numbers are also on the increase and can make a poor Toping day into a good fishing day. Particularly pleasing is the size of the Huss with many anglers seeing quite a few specimens.

It wasn't a great year for the Bream but the increasing number of Smoothound is interesting. We don't fish for them often enough but I do intend to make them a target for 2009. Apart from Kevin's Bass the surprise of the year had to be the Spurdog. From Luce Bay being famous for Spurdog; their numbers reduced to zero for over ten years. In 2008 we collectively released about 10 Spurs, the majority being fish in their teens so just maybe, the protection of the species is starting to work. Fingers crossed. It wasn't a great year for the bigger Pollack as the continuous winds kept the water stirred up most of the year but it's pleasing that the numbers are continuing to be steady. Thanks for all those that fished with us during 2008 and for your bookings for the 2009 season. Let's hope we have a good summer. ~ Ian Burrett.

For detail about the 2008 Annual Skate Hunt, click here.