Logbooks From Previous Years: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006
(unfortunately, the 2003 Logbook was eaten by a passing Carcharodon Megalodon ~ webmaster)

Videos - The 2007 Season. Rating: Suitable For Family Viewing.

Luce Bay Tope Fishing

Tope Float Demonstration

Skate Haul

Tope Catch

May

What a fantastic start we made to the 2007 On May the 6th I had cancelled three boats but the regular Cotebridge lads wouldn’t take no for an answer. In a blustery day I was persuaded to go and try the early season tope mark, against my better judgement but the results show I know diddley squat!

Determined to wet a line, they were rewarded with what I can only describe as a great catch for so early in the season. In fact, three weeks earlier than I had ever caught tope before. We ended the trip with 9 tope, Huss, Rays and a smoothound. To see what the lads thought of their day look at http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67255&highlight=tope
The mackerel were very early but everything else seemed as normal. The Pollacking, as always in May, was busy with plenty of fish to 5 pounds but nothing bigger. We had tope on the calm days but not as many as expected. The rays and Huss kept appearing on virtually every toping trip. Long may it continue?

June

The weather restricted us round the beginning of June with a few tope inshore but the season finally got in to full swing when the Essex Boys arrived on June 4th That day was spent hiding inshore but we did manage 14 rays amongst a fair smattering of the smaller species like flatties, gurnards etc.

On June 5th Spike and I headed out to our summer toping grounds for the first time. The Essex boys had two on each boat and was joined by Phil Williams a Boat fishing Monthly journalist. The four anglers ended up the day with 51 tope to 55 pounds including a few caught on the float; a form of fishing I am experimenting with at the moment with surprisingly good results. The following day although not as frantic produced 28 tope for the four lads. I caught the first double figure Pollack of the season came on the 14th.

The next week saw some good weather but it soon became apparent the tope were entering their mating cycle three weeks early as many of the fish were heavily scarred and very lethargic. We averaged 11 tope per boat per day during this week. Graham Boardman fished with me on the 10th and 11th. We had struggled inshore for two days but the second day saw a dropping forecast. I headed 10 miles offshore late afternoon for just a two hour window and the tope went ballistic with 11 tope in an hour.
During the rest of the month we struggled to get back to our summer marks because of the atrocious weather The water was always dirty and the fishing suffered accordingly. The Pollacking went well providing we could get to our launce marks. It was only the livebaits that seem to produce the better fish. Trevor Armitage and son fished with Mally on the 18th – 22nd on Onyer Marks Too for five days and had 22 species. The undoubted highlight was a 11.5 pound Bass for Trevor, which picked up a tope bait four miles from shore.
Mark Chamberlain’s 12 strong party from Hull booked three boats for the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of June. Every one of the party had at least two tope so went home very happy.The same weekend Dave Nicholson caught another contender for our fish of the year on our new boat Riptide skippered by Andy with a 23lb Bull Huss which smashed the British record by a pound and the Scottish record by three pounds.
The fish was of course returned alive. Well done to Dave and Andy.
The weather deteriorated during the rest of June and fishing was restricted to inshore Pollacking
and a few inshore tope, Huss and rays.

July

Mally on Onyer Marks Too found a new mark off Port Logan which produced 13 Huss two days running for new party, Mackam anglers, Ken McBride’s party. They loved the pollacking with fish to 9.5 pounds and are already sorting out dates for next year.

Through family ill health and being stowed out with the conservation stuff ie helping set up a new organisation in Scotland, the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network, I am afraid I neglected my website updates and of course the longer you leave things the harder it gets to remember the details. So am not going to try and recall all the events other than to say the weather all over the country spoiled the fishing and here was no exception but the season does hold certain highs and lows and a few exceptionable fish, including two fish that would have broken the British record had they not been returned

Not huge fish but two that will be remembered by the young 'uns

Bradleys Pollack

Sarah’s Pollack

 

I had the pleasure of taking out fellow conservation conspirator Denis Kelly for a couple of hours; we stopped long enough for Den to get his first proper fish

Denis’s 37 pound tope

The small revival on the Thornback and Spotted rays continued, although their numbers are still desperately low, I had one day with 14 rays and another with 12, they are still small fish but hopefully if they are left alone their revival will continue.

Millser’s Spotted Ray (left)

At one stage we had a 6 week period where it never dropped below a North Westerly force 6.

During that period, we had to fish the same tope mark for 6 weeks and some weeks it produce some marvellous fish and plenty of them and other days we struggled. Unfortunately it was a bit of pot luck but for those it produced for; there will be some special memories.

In fact one week saw 6 fish over 60 pounds. It was good to see some of the regulars getting the fish with Johnathon Oates on Onyer Marks Too and Doug Hutchinson on Go West catching fish around the 70 pound mark.


The Bull Huss fishing was definitely one of the highlights of the year with a number of high teens Huss caught on most toping days.

In fact one day I had to move because they were becoming a pest by reducing our chance of catching tope. I can’t remember the exact number but it was certainly in excess of 20 double figure Huss


We took the lads from the World Sea Fishing (WSF) forums out on all four boats for two days.

The weather was again poor so we turned the event into an inshore species hunt. Although the fishing was equally poor we managed 22 species in the two days and many had never fished these waters before so where very pleased with all the new species they encountered.

Paul Foster with tope

Paul Foster with Huss

Shaun Cumming's Tope

Shaun Cumming's Bream



Adrian Riach’s Gurnard

Steve’s Bass
 

Well known Scottish Angler Norrie brought his own boat down and anchored up a reasonable distance from me. When he got on the radio and said “I’ve got a Bream” and “then another”, then a double hit I thought he was taking the Michael, but sure enough he had anchored over a small patch of rough ground and “Norrie’s hole” consistently produced Bream all summer. No Doubt Norrie also provided the biggest smile of the year when he caught his first ever tope on Onyer Marks after many attempts in his own boat

Norrie's 42 Pounder Tope

Although the one on Snatcher's face almost matches it when he caught an eleven pound Pollack on Onyer Marks Too

Andy on Riptide in his first season took to the job like a duck to water and produced some superb fish including the Sea Angler/Shimano Catch and Release Fish of the Year with a Bull Huss of 23 pounds. Andy also had another Onyer Marks fish of the year contender with this marvellous 16 pound Bass which picked up a tope bait during a toping trip.

Andy’s Huss

Andy’s 16 pound Bass

The back end of the season saw week after week of restricted fishing and we only fished Port Logan more than half dozen times in the whole Summer. The Pollacking was as consistent as ever with fish to near double figures on most days. Another contender for smile of the year came from John Stephnson (Snatcher of the lure making fame) when he had this 11.5 pound Pollack on Onyer Marks Too.

Insert Snatcher 11.5 pound Pollack

On one such occasion however the Hexham boys continued with there remarkable habit of picking up big fish. Norman Tweddle caught our biggest ever inshore Pollack of 17 pounds 4 oz a good few years ago and has done it again with the biggest Tope I have ever seen.

Norman Tweddle's Tope

It was a rough old day so an the exact weight will never be known but it was certainly well over 80 pounds.

So 2007 will be remembered for the great start Andy made on “Riptide” with 2 very special fish in the Bass and the Huss, the small revival on the Thornback and Spotted rays and the biggest tope I have ever seen.

End of an Era

It is with great regret I have to report that Mally is leaving Onyer Marks Sea fishing charters after 15 years at the helm of Onyer Marks Too, due to recurring back problems. To say, he will be sorely missed is an understatement. I always went to Mally for a second opinion on rough days and his dry sense of humour will be missed by his regulars. Many a day you could hear his anglers laughing their heads off, as Mally recalled another tale of doom and gloom. Having the gift (He called it divine inspiration) to find that special fish for his customers on those difficult days is something I will always remember Mally for and particularly on the Pollack. You can’t teach it and sadly much of that knowledge will go with Mally.

Mally

The Annual Skate Hunt, 2007.

 

Last year all I could do was moan about the weather but this year the weather really favoured us, with very few restricted days fishing. It seemed there were less fish (or feeding fish) around this year, with many of the visiting private boats blanking day after day, so I think we did very well to catch a total of 88 fish, which is just 5 short of our record.

One mark in the Firth of Lorne produced the majority of the fish including 3x 200’s and 8x 190’s.There were only three parties on the whole trip where every member didn’t catch at least one skate, so most parties went home exceedingly happy; none more so than Guy Stewart who was chuffed with his PB of 196 on his first day only to better it with a 202 two days later.

His party from Coatbridge had 16 fish which equals their best. Davey popped his cherry and Guy’s brother, Gordon broke his PB and equalled it next day with fish of 188. The figures were helped by 6 in a day with Spike.

Cliff from Hexham took the biggest fish from Spelvey with a 209 and literally at the same time virgin Norman Tweddle took probably the best fish of the trip, with a 139 Male that had to be chased as it refused to come anywhere near the boat.

Both these fished destroyed a reel and had to be brought up on the same spare rod and reel. It was a mad hour that I will remember for ever!

Although Trevor Armitage party from South Shields had an average trip, numbers wise, two of the party John and Chris had a 200 and Trevor had a 191.Skate virgins Drew and Malcolm had a great trip with 7 fish in two days on their first ever skate trip.

Colin Hall’s party from Carisle had their best ever trip with 8 of the 9 fish being over 150 and a PB of 193 for
Sooty. They had the biggest daily weight tally with 6 fish weighting a total of 950 pounds

Ruben’s parties despair soon turned to elation with 5 good fish after a difficult first day

I was chuffed Chris Bowman’s party from Cumbria finally had a good trip after three years of poor weather and poor fishing. The weather wasn’t particularly nice. All four caught but three of the party had a 190 plus
and on the second day we lost two fish straight after one another, that I am convinced were 200 plusses.

Acky had a fish on for 1 hour 40 mins that threw the hook literally 6 foot under the boat. Talk about being gutted. Chris had a fish on for well over the hour and I could tell by the compression on the rod it was potentially the biggest fish of the trip unfortunately the line parted mid water. We also lost another two fish on the same day to a slipped hooked after 20 minutes and one was caught in a net or rope which chafed threw the main line. What a day it might have been. But I guess that’s fishing. We ended up the day with just 2 from 6 hooked fish

For once the headlines aren’t about the Essex boys as they had their first bad trip after 5 years. It had to happen sometime.

Christine came up to collect me and I managed to get her out fishing and she helped herself to fish of 145 and 155 and I had to solo a 170ish fish. That’s two fish I have landed in 2 years, I need to be careful because it might become a habit.

Just out of interest we are able to put a size on the monster fish Keith Ashwood caught in Loch Sunnart 5 years ago, which was well off the charts. We knew it was huge at the time, but were unable to get an estimate of the fish which was 78 x 87 inches.
Glasgow Museum have updated the charts and computer forecasted the data for bigger fish. This puts Keith’s fish at 238 pounds, 11 pounds heavier than the current British record. No wonder Keith ended up feeling beaten up. A belated well done mate.

Thanks to all those that made the journey and sorry to those who never had the luck this year.
Perhaps Skate 2008 will be a different story.

See you all soon for the “proper” fishing  ~ Ian