Our two oldest grandsons Wayne and Lewis are spending a few weeks holiday with us here in our static caravan on the Mull of Galloway,Scotland. During their last two holidays the boys have had fishing trips out on my mates boat. This year Tom hoped to get them onto bigger things - tope and smoothounds.
We launched at Sandhead beach and steamed off into Luce Bay looking to catch a boxful of mackerel for tope bait. Tom was to be fishing coach on this one and I was to be the cameraman.
Our first drift produced no fish so we moved to a different mark. This time the boys were getting amongst the mackerel with a few full houses between them.
Tom had said that the tope fishing had been a bit slow of late so we decided to try and put the boys onto smoothounds first. Tom rigged up two light rods with a running rig and peeler crab for bait (THE top bait for smoothounds). First into a fish was Wayne with a dogfish.
Next up Wayne struck into a fish which produced a very spirited fight.
Wayne and his first smoothound.
Next up it was Lewis to hook into his first smoothound. He could not believe how strongly they fought
After getting 4 smoothounds each the boys decided to stop for a food break so I took the opportunity to have a go myself. First drop and "grandad" got a smoothound.
When we initially anchored up we had attached a rubby dubby bag of mashed up mackerel to the anchor chain hoping to attract tope towards the boat. We now put down whole mackerel baits hoping to get the boys into their first tope.
We gave it an hour or so but the tope were not playing ball. Oh well,there is always next time. On the way back in we drifted briefly to get some fresh mackerel for a BBQ back at the caravan. The boys had had a great time and I have to say a big thank you to my mate Tom for taking them out. I think this picture tells a story.
Fresh mackerel on the BBQ,a nice way to finish off a great fishing trip.
John
We launched at Sandhead beach and steamed off into Luce Bay looking to catch a boxful of mackerel for tope bait. Tom was to be fishing coach on this one and I was to be the cameraman.
Our first drift produced no fish so we moved to a different mark. This time the boys were getting amongst the mackerel with a few full houses between them.
Tom had said that the tope fishing had been a bit slow of late so we decided to try and put the boys onto smoothounds first. Tom rigged up two light rods with a running rig and peeler crab for bait (THE top bait for smoothounds). First into a fish was Wayne with a dogfish.
Next up Wayne struck into a fish which produced a very spirited fight.
Wayne and his first smoothound.
Next up it was Lewis to hook into his first smoothound. He could not believe how strongly they fought
After getting 4 smoothounds each the boys decided to stop for a food break so I took the opportunity to have a go myself. First drop and "grandad" got a smoothound.
When we initially anchored up we had attached a rubby dubby bag of mashed up mackerel to the anchor chain hoping to attract tope towards the boat. We now put down whole mackerel baits hoping to get the boys into their first tope.
We gave it an hour or so but the tope were not playing ball. Oh well,there is always next time. On the way back in we drifted briefly to get some fresh mackerel for a BBQ back at the caravan. The boys had had a great time and I have to say a big thank you to my mate Tom for taking them out. I think this picture tells a story.
Fresh mackerel on the BBQ,a nice way to finish off a great fishing trip.
John
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