This is my first post on here but wanted to share my trip to shetland, the trip started on Sunday 1st sept with the long drive to Aberdeen via Bathgate to pick up my mate John, then a 14hr trip on the ferry and we arrived in lerwick ready to get to our accomodation then get out fishing. The trip had been planned for months and we had planned to spend three days shore fishing and two days boat fishing but on researching info on the shore fishing up there it was saying it was poor, I couldn't believe that a place that produced monster cod,ling,coalies and turbot would not produce from the shore. After setting up in what is called the "Decca" and grabbing something to eat we were already to get out with the shore gear, a quick stop off at the local tackle shop for advice and we set off for lunnaness as I had read that it produced a few fish. The mark was called grutwick which we found on the os map, parked by the fence and walked about a half a mile over fields, the place looked amazing with a good rock platform kelp bed in front and what looked deep water. First cast with mackera chunk on a simple rig and on hitting the water I stood spooling the reel as the depth seemed endless and must have been 50ft, spinning rods where set up and on using a small spinner we were catching small coal fish and pollock of about 1/2 pound every single cast with one or 2 about a pound but no bigger ones. The main rod had been out about ten minutes when I started getting a promising bite especially with the depth of water, and after a lengthy time bringing in I had my first ever ling from the shore, weighing in at 2 3/4 pound. Unfortunately apart from many more small fish to the spinner and plenty of good size mackeral we caught nothing else with bait. The shore fishing over the whole week was terrible and beaches that screamed fish and looked in touched by rod and line produced nothing, people say it is partly to do with the huge number of seals and the fact that there is so much feed out at sea that bigger fish don't come close. Luckily we had got ourselves a day booked on the Oberon out of cullivoe which heads up to fish the rich fishing grounds of muckle flugga, and rich fishing it was. My best fish apart from abroad had been 9lb but on my first drop I had a 14lb ling then beat my pb again with a 16lb cod on the next drop, the fishing was amazing with loads of cod around 10lb my mate John got one 21lb and another lad had a 29lb cod. We then moved to the turbot grounds and all the lads but me were catching one at a time ranging between 8-19lb my mate John with a 16lb one, I had never caught any size turbot up to this point and had told the skipper the goal of my trip was to catch quality not quantity as we weren't bringing fish home. The skipper said I had one last drift to catch one before we moved back to cod grounds, so it was now or never as I sent my reversed mackeral flapper down and as the boat drifts you gear drags the bottom around 100ft behind to hug the sand bank, as I started to get a couple of plucks the key secret we were told is not to strike as turbot have soft mouths and wait for the rod to bend over then lift into the fish. As I lifted into it I knew it was a good fish as the 50lb class rod I was using doubled over and the tld 20 I bought off "mad as a fish" had line taken from it, it took probably 15mins to bring the fish up as the skipper instructed me to take my time as many fish are lost from putting to much pressure on the fish. As the fish came up it could be seen from 20ft down through the clear water and we all could see it was a huge fish, the fish was gaffed and weighed by skipper kenny graham at 26lb and he told me that had been the Scottish record only a year ago before a 29lb fish was landed at end of sept 2012. My recommendation to anyone planning to go to shetland is make sure you get a day at least on the oberan as even though the place has some stunning views and areas that look like they would produce fish they don't seem to do so, we tried the main land, yell and unst reaching the furthest northern point of Great Britain, we were told of stories of good cod from the beaches in winter maybe this is when there is little food out at sea, but the place was cold and wet enough in sept and they have some hard winters up there. I have set up photo bucket but all attempts to put photos on seem to fail so I only seem to be able to put one on, and as I don't really want anyone saying I'm telling porkies if anyone can help send a pm.
Shetland adventure
- Thread starter treetop
- Start date
big phil 123
Well-known member
Great report mate that's one big flatty lol
B
broon shoe
Guest
Top report m8 sounds like a nice place
Thunderpants
Well-known member
Awesome!
david.northeast
Well-known member
Great report mate excellent fishing. Well done
barnacle bill
Well-known member
looks like you had a cracking 3 days lads with some belter fish and a great report. well done.
davidhayley1945
Well-known member
some cracking fish for you paul,a belter turbet. davy.
great stuff great trip great report,its a shame the shore is as poor as it is.
theres some geat fresh water sport if your a fluff chucker though
i have heard some bad stuff about oberon,so thought lets hear it from the orses mouth
spoke to kenny,:exclam::exclam: all fears allayed seems a canny guy:exclam::exclam:
muckle flugga is the place to be for fish
theres some geat fresh water sport if your a fluff chucker though
i have heard some bad stuff about oberon,so thought lets hear it from the orses mouth
spoke to kenny,:exclam::exclam: all fears allayed seems a canny guy:exclam::exclam:
muckle flugga is the place to be for fish
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Aye ling king kenny is a sound bloke and will put you on the fish, think its fully booked for next year as so many people are finding out about how great it is but you have to hope the weather is kind otherwise you could get there and find the conditions are no good especially when the best fishing is only around 500 yds off muckle flugga lighthouse
