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Cullykhan Bay, North East Scotland 29/08/2013
Here is Part Two of my Scotland trip. The fish aren't as big as Part One but hopefully you will still find it an interesting read and if not there are some nice photos to look at
Before I came on this trip I did the usual research online of marks in the area and came across a thread on WSF talking about Troup Head in which it was claimed that the Scottish record pollack had been caught around here 14lb 2oz. The exact mark was not given but one lad thought it was likely to be Cullykhan Bay which is on the eastern side of the head. Well that was enough for me to give it a try as we were staying very close by and it was a mark I had not fished before. It is a small bay bordered by rocks on both sides which are accessible over low tide but get cut off at high water.
I arrived about 11am armed with my usual light rod and bag of lures and made my way down the quagmire of a hillside to the bay and along the rocks at the left hand side. There were a lot of interesting gullies that looked worth a try for mini-species and wrasse but I kept going past them towards the point.
I set up at the furthest part I could get too, just short of the end of the point, the way further around being blocked by a shear face and deep water. There was a nice deep gulley between me and the cliffs which looked well worth a shot for wrasse so I had a go with a small hook, drilled bullet lead and isomes but had no success, just the usual small coleys which seem to be present in plague proportions around these parts.
So I turned my attentions to pollack and put on a 4" redgill and started casting into the bay. The water here is only about five feet or so deep at your feet then the bottom slopes away from you at 45 degrees into deep water further out. A good tactic therefore was to cast out past the slope and let my lure hit the bottom then retrieve it at a suitable speed that it would skim over the sloping bottom on its way back up to me. This seemed a good method as I lost no gear just snagged the kelp occasionally which I could easily pull out of with my 30lb braid. No action on the redgill so I switched to a 28g Zenith fishing the same method and started landing small colourful pollack and coleys.
Then I cast my lure out as far as I could and felt a knock on the drop which connected and after a short fight I landed my first mackerel of the trip. I cast out again to the same spot and instantly got another one only for it to swim around a lobster pot rope and snag me up. Just as I was deciding whether to let out some slack and wait or to snap off two locals turned up and came over for a chat. It turned out they were two retired lobster fishermen who nowadays just caught them for fun and they had a pot at the end of the gulley which as it turned out had a nice lobster in it when they lifted it. One of them was telling me that I need to go through the cave and fish in the next bay as "you never catch much off here". Lol. While talking to him I tied on another spinner and immediately landed another mackerel followed by a pollack of about a pound and a half. He had to admit that maybe you could catch fish off here after all. So they put their lobster in a bucket and headed off, not back along the cliffs but straight up the side of the cliff! Like two Scottish Spidermen! Amazing. No way I was doing that though. One of them gave me a final wave as he disappeared over the top and I pulled in yet another mackerel.
Anway I wasn't really here for the mackerel I was more interested in pollack and wrasse so I decided to give the next bay a shot and walked back along the rocks to the rather rude looking slit in the cliff that was the entrance to the cave that went through to the next bay....
After squeezing through the slit and a scramble over a load of slippery boulders I made it to the waters edge with a nice looking gulley deep straight down the side. I fished here for a short while trying both my wrasse and pollack tactics but only managed more teeny tiny coalies.
With only 45 minutes left before I had to leave I decided to go back around to where I was before for a bit more spinning and caught a few more tiddlers and the biggest coley of the day an uninspiring 27cm.
So that was it then. No wrasse. No record breaking pollack but some good fun and some fish for tea. I think if anywhere around here really could produce a record breaker it is not this bay. A far more likely spot is Powie Rock at Gardenstown where I was fishing in my previous catch report. I have lost some good fish off there both this trip and last year with at least a couple of doubles so in my opinion this is the most likely spot to get the big one. There is another more remote mark at the top of the head I have been told about which has produced fish to 8lb so this is an option too but it is at the bottom of a 300 foot cliff with a very steep descent and came with an "at your own risk" warning. Not my cup of tea but if any of you want to know how to get to it send me a PM. Anyway, after another scoot around on the net the only information I can find says that the Scottish record was caught at Furnace on the west coast so the WSF lads may be mistaken after all.
Here is Part Two of my Scotland trip. The fish aren't as big as Part One but hopefully you will still find it an interesting read and if not there are some nice photos to look at
Before I came on this trip I did the usual research online of marks in the area and came across a thread on WSF talking about Troup Head in which it was claimed that the Scottish record pollack had been caught around here 14lb 2oz. The exact mark was not given but one lad thought it was likely to be Cullykhan Bay which is on the eastern side of the head. Well that was enough for me to give it a try as we were staying very close by and it was a mark I had not fished before. It is a small bay bordered by rocks on both sides which are accessible over low tide but get cut off at high water.
I arrived about 11am armed with my usual light rod and bag of lures and made my way down the quagmire of a hillside to the bay and along the rocks at the left hand side. There were a lot of interesting gullies that looked worth a try for mini-species and wrasse but I kept going past them towards the point.
I set up at the furthest part I could get too, just short of the end of the point, the way further around being blocked by a shear face and deep water. There was a nice deep gulley between me and the cliffs which looked well worth a shot for wrasse so I had a go with a small hook, drilled bullet lead and isomes but had no success, just the usual small coleys which seem to be present in plague proportions around these parts.
So I turned my attentions to pollack and put on a 4" redgill and started casting into the bay. The water here is only about five feet or so deep at your feet then the bottom slopes away from you at 45 degrees into deep water further out. A good tactic therefore was to cast out past the slope and let my lure hit the bottom then retrieve it at a suitable speed that it would skim over the sloping bottom on its way back up to me. This seemed a good method as I lost no gear just snagged the kelp occasionally which I could easily pull out of with my 30lb braid. No action on the redgill so I switched to a 28g Zenith fishing the same method and started landing small colourful pollack and coleys.
Then I cast my lure out as far as I could and felt a knock on the drop which connected and after a short fight I landed my first mackerel of the trip. I cast out again to the same spot and instantly got another one only for it to swim around a lobster pot rope and snag me up. Just as I was deciding whether to let out some slack and wait or to snap off two locals turned up and came over for a chat. It turned out they were two retired lobster fishermen who nowadays just caught them for fun and they had a pot at the end of the gulley which as it turned out had a nice lobster in it when they lifted it. One of them was telling me that I need to go through the cave and fish in the next bay as "you never catch much off here". Lol. While talking to him I tied on another spinner and immediately landed another mackerel followed by a pollack of about a pound and a half. He had to admit that maybe you could catch fish off here after all.
So they put their lobster in a bucket and headed off, not back along the cliffs but straight up the side of the cliff! Like two Scottish Spidermen! Amazing. No way I was doing that though. One of them gave me a final wave as he disappeared over the top and I pulled in yet another mackerel.Anway I wasn't really here for the mackerel I was more interested in pollack and wrasse so I decided to give the next bay a shot and walked back along the rocks to the rather rude looking slit in the cliff that was the entrance to the cave that went through to the next bay....
After squeezing through the slit and a scramble over a load of slippery boulders I made it to the waters edge with a nice looking gulley deep straight down the side. I fished here for a short while trying both my wrasse and pollack tactics but only managed more teeny tiny coalies.
With only 45 minutes left before I had to leave I decided to go back around to where I was before for a bit more spinning and caught a few more tiddlers and the biggest coley of the day an uninspiring 27cm.
So that was it then. No wrasse. No record breaking pollack but some good fun and some fish for tea. I think if anywhere around here really could produce a record breaker it is not this bay. A far more likely spot is Powie Rock at Gardenstown where I was fishing in my previous catch report. I have lost some good fish off there both this trip and last year with at least a couple of doubles so in my opinion this is the most likely spot to get the big one. There is another more remote mark at the top of the head I have been told about which has produced fish to 8lb so this is an option too but it is at the bottom of a 300 foot cliff with a very steep descent and came with an "at your own risk" warning. Not my cup of tea but if any of you want to know how to get to it send me a PM. Anyway, after another scoot around on the net the only information I can find says that the Scottish record was caught at Furnace on the west coast so the WSF lads may be mistaken after all.
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