Mull of Galloway

[My Alibi]

My son, Oli and I had booked a couple of trips last week out of the Mull of Galloway with Ian Burrett of Onyermarks.

True to form, the first trip was weatherbound, but Ian kindly slotted us in later on in the week.

We had Tope to 36lb, Bull Huss in the mid teens, masses of Spurdog to 18lb, Pollack to 8lb, plus plenty of the usual Haddock, Codling, Whiting, Grey Gurnard, Dogfish, several types of Wrasse etc. I even had an Octopus grab a chunk of Mackerel.

Seals were a pain on one of the Pollack marks. I had 2 fish taken while on the retrieve, and my son lost a beauty from right alongside the boat, with lure attached. Bradley, Ian's son, nearly lost his fingers, it was that close.

It was all great fun, and Ian is very knowledgeable about the area and the target species. It's been 5 years since we were last out with Ian. We took our own boat there 2 years ago and although it can be satisfying to find your own marks, there is nothing to beat local knowledge. His website is Home | and the galleries are on his Facebook page.

[BestNest]

Looks a cracking few days a float ! Great pics.

Did you cast a lure from the shore or just boat ?


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[Charlton]

nice to see some reports coming from that way after such a lean spell

[My Alibi]

Looks a cracking few days a float ! Great pics.

Did you cast a lure from the shore or just boat ?


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We were up there all week. We rent a place at Stairhaven, which is at the top end of Luce Bay. It does have its own concrete slipway onto the beach, but this year we didn't bother trailing the boat up. The bay was stuffed full of herring and mackerel, and Oli was out most mornings and evenings trying his luck with lures for bass. He had a couple, but mostly schoolies.

A couple of days were unfishable due to the weather, but we did get out of the NW winds at a spot called Cairn, which is close to the town called Isle of Whithorn on the Isle of Whithorn. Down on the rocks we used both float and lures. The tides have been neaps, which is not great for Pollack, and sunny days which they don't like either. That said, we both had between 15-20 Pollack each upto 4lb on both lure and float. The float with ragworm also produced Ballans and Corkwing Wrasse upto 2lb. We had around 15 of those in total.

From the boat, we float fished live sandeel and mackerel strip to good effect, but found that lures produced better fish, plus you had a bit more control. The problem was simply the seals, otherwise we could have stayed longer on those marks. It could be possible to reach those marks on foot on the shore, but you'd need to trek several miles, and clamber down jagged rocks, and then only with a flat calm sea, and certainly never without a companion. Phone reception is patchy too, so from a safety angle best not attempted on foot.