I was surprised to say the least!

[Paula]

We went for a couple of hours on our local pier (Scrabster), and between the 3 of us we caught about a dozen flatties, all of which went back apart from one which is going to be the brats breakfast tomorrow.
But
The surprise was Stuart catching a macky.......... I thought they had left ages ago! (needless to say that one is now in the fridge too) :P

[willywetegg]

Better get the spinning gear back out Paula.

Jim.

[blackvelvet]

Hello Paula, long time no here..aye! that is a bit of a surprise getting a macky this time of year..bet that one taste\'s lovely in the pan. :P :P yum yum.
BV

[Paula]

apparently some macky have been caught down devon way this week too, been speaking to a friend of a friend who is down that way somewhere fishing some comp by the sounds of it.

[alan]

Paula my Brother lives in Exmouth and he says the mackerel turn up early spring and stay until about November (not sure if thats shore or boat mind) he reckons if the winter storms were\'nt around you would catch them all year round,I\'ve also heard,might of been on here,that you can get peelers all year round in Devon as well.Remember a couple of years ago I phoned him on his mobile,it was thick with snow up here,N/E England,he was lying on the beach down there sunbathing,same country different world !

[mark]

just got back from a week in ardnamurchan. caught 2 mackeral from the rocks under the lighthouse on thursday night. Suprised as owt! First time I\'ve ever had one from the shore in october, let alone the fact its nearly november. Doubly suprsing considering the big westerly gales there\'s been up there of late

[alan]

You catch much else Mark ?

[mark]

err.....millions of pollack, ok, well not millions, but there must be millions of em there, must of had over 300 em in maybe 15hours fishing all told. not many worth shouting about, but great fun, will post a catch report! had a few other bits n pieces too

[Paula]

we have recently started deep spinning off holborn head and regularly bringing in pollack and coley over the 5lb mark. mind you the tide and sea conditions have to be right :P

[mark]

I\'ve found the bigger ones are deep down too. Its a bit of a tight rope though, leave the spinner to sink for too long and it\'s snagged and lost, not long enough and its not deep enough and the little uns take it. I tried a 10\" boom with a 2oz lead with a rotten bootom link, then a 5 foot or so trace with something jelly like on the end, aor a light weight spinner with some success. if the lead snags it gives way and you save your gear, was using a fairly light carp rod and small multiplier, got great distance casts with it as well

As it was dark by 6, I tried a small shad type thing, but shoved a glow stick in it. they really like shiny things them pollack. With the glow stick shining away I seldom actually got tot he bottom before it was hit.

there seems to be far more of em about than I\'ve ever seen. took the bairns out with a simple float, hook and lug worm, at one point it was a fish a minute, perfect for them, as soon as the bait sunk it was taken, ok rarely bigger than 6 or 7 inches but the bairns loved it, none of the usuall \"can I pull it in and see if I\'ve caught anything yet\" They actually managed to get the connection between float going under and fish taking bait

[blackvelvet]

you know what it is..I have never ever caught a pollock either from boat or shore. sad or what..reckon they give you a good bite.
BV

[Stuart]

Black Velvet, I think pound for pound they must be one of the best fighters around our shores, especially fun on light tackle.

I used our daughters uptide rod with a spinning reel to catch my biggest Pollack a good 6lb, and it was quite a shock when it wanted to run 2 hands where needed on the rod not 1 on the rod and 1 on the reel.

After just one session turned me into a rock fishing convert, just a shame that the conditions have to be absolutely right to be able to get to the best marks, but that I suppose makes them all the more special.

Stuart

[mark]

couldn\'t agree more, go as light as possible cos when they are there they are there in numbers. I\'ve all but given up the trad\' \'ground\' fishing up there. no gear to carry, just a fly waistcoats with a couple of specs cases filled with spinners and a few other odds n sods, a few flies, a light spinning rod and a light fly rod. use the spinning rod till I know the fish are there then switch to the light fly rod. my fave fly rod to use at the momnet is a wee 7 foot 5 weight brook rod. big fly rods are fine if you are lucky enough to live on the soouth coast with surf beaches full of bass where you need distance casts, but off the rocks 20 foot is often enough.

If you can find one, shakespeare used to make a rod called the excursion, 7 foot quality carbon, 5 pieces so fits in the smallest of bags and the but section splits in two at the reel seat so you can reverse the butt to make a fly rod or a spinning rod, brilliant action with the fly, throws a 15g spinner a canny distance and cost less than 30 quid