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The participants on this sortie were Julian and his children Hannah and Kieran. It was their annual holiday on our caravan park (Clashwhannon) and it was up to "Uncle Snatcher" to try and put them onto some fish. As an able second in command I had Stewart,also from our caravan park.
The mark I chose for us was one that I had never blanked at before and more importantly it was not a difficult mark to get to. Bearing in mind that possible showers were forecast and the Mull of Galloway rocks become lethal when wet.I did not want to take them anywhere that involved rock climbing.
We arrived at the rock mark two hours before high water and selected our fishing platforms. Stewart was to assist Julian and I was about 20 yds to their right with Hannah and Kieran. I rigged them up with sliding floats and a cocktail of limpet and lugworm for bait with wrasse being our main target.
As the kids only fish on their holidays they initially needed a bit coaching with their casting but after a few minutes they were managing ok by themselves. Also at this mark long casts are not necessary as the wrasse are quite often right under your feet.
This was Julian and Stewarts fishing mark
This was our fishing mark
Stewart caught the first fish,a decent wrasse,which after a good fight was unhooked and carefully returned.
Next in it was Stewart again with another decent wrasse. After this he had yet another wrasse followed by a small pollack. He was certainly the man of the moment.
As Hannah was reeling in and about to lift her bait out of the water a small wrasse had a go at her bait on the surface. The cheeky blighter !!! I told her to drop her bait straight down in front of her,hoping to tice that fish again. As luck would have it a much larger fish took the bait and what a great scrap it gave on my light spinning rod. I think Hannah looks rather pleased with herself in this picture. I carefully put the fish back for her and it swam away fine.
High water came and went with no more fish so I decided to rig up one of the rods with a sidewinder lure and try for pollack. As Hannah and Kieran could not cast long distance I elected to do the casting and hand the rod back to them for the retrieve. We alternated the retrieve between Hannah and Kieran
After about 15 minutes of this a pollack eventually took the lure and gave Kieran a spirited fight. A result,that was "Snatchers team" with fish.
Just Julian to catch now then !!! He had actually lost a few fish off during this session and on virtually the last cast of the day managed to hook and safely bring in a small pollack.
Not the greatest of fishing sessions but everyone had caught fish and the craic was good. Do "Snatchers team" look happy or what.
Although I had not fished myself I got a real kick out of seeing everyone catch fish. Also Hannah and Kieran learnt the important lesson of catch and release. On getting back to Clashwhannon Caravan Park Julian presented me with a bottle of red wine for being coach for the day. I just love a happy ending don't you.
John
The mark I chose for us was one that I had never blanked at before and more importantly it was not a difficult mark to get to. Bearing in mind that possible showers were forecast and the Mull of Galloway rocks become lethal when wet.I did not want to take them anywhere that involved rock climbing.
We arrived at the rock mark two hours before high water and selected our fishing platforms. Stewart was to assist Julian and I was about 20 yds to their right with Hannah and Kieran. I rigged them up with sliding floats and a cocktail of limpet and lugworm for bait with wrasse being our main target.
As the kids only fish on their holidays they initially needed a bit coaching with their casting but after a few minutes they were managing ok by themselves. Also at this mark long casts are not necessary as the wrasse are quite often right under your feet.
This was Julian and Stewarts fishing mark
This was our fishing mark
Stewart caught the first fish,a decent wrasse,which after a good fight was unhooked and carefully returned.
Next in it was Stewart again with another decent wrasse. After this he had yet another wrasse followed by a small pollack. He was certainly the man of the moment.
As Hannah was reeling in and about to lift her bait out of the water a small wrasse had a go at her bait on the surface. The cheeky blighter !!! I told her to drop her bait straight down in front of her,hoping to tice that fish again. As luck would have it a much larger fish took the bait and what a great scrap it gave on my light spinning rod. I think Hannah looks rather pleased with herself in this picture. I carefully put the fish back for her and it swam away fine.
High water came and went with no more fish so I decided to rig up one of the rods with a sidewinder lure and try for pollack. As Hannah and Kieran could not cast long distance I elected to do the casting and hand the rod back to them for the retrieve. We alternated the retrieve between Hannah and Kieran
After about 15 minutes of this a pollack eventually took the lure and gave Kieran a spirited fight. A result,that was "Snatchers team" with fish.
Just Julian to catch now then !!! He had actually lost a few fish off during this session and on virtually the last cast of the day managed to hook and safely bring in a small pollack.
Not the greatest of fishing sessions but everyone had caught fish and the craic was good. Do "Snatchers team" look happy or what.
Although I had not fished myself I got a real kick out of seeing everyone catch fish. Also Hannah and Kieran learnt the important lesson of catch and release. On getting back to Clashwhannon Caravan Park Julian presented me with a bottle of red wine for being coach for the day. I just love a happy ending don't you.
John
must go along with what you say about not having to fish to enjoy oneself
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