Enjoyed a great day out on Loch Linnhe fishing the first day of an EFSA Scotland boat competition on Saturday 20th April.
Due to the fact that the venue involved a 4 hour drive south from Thurso Carl and myself travelled down on the Friday with an extended trip to Ballachulish to pick up quality bait from Scott at WHA Baits & Tackle. After the bait pick up we had an exploratory wander round the west side of the loch checking out shore marks before arriving at the reasonably priced Caledonia Hotel on the south side of Fort William. The forecast for the next day looked promising with clear skies to the north providing an Aurora display to the north as darkness descended.
Loch Linnhe aurora
The anglers assembled at the back of eight at the Corpach Marina on the Saturday. The marina provides easy access to the moored boats including our charter boat Jola IV skippered and owned by Angus Mann. The Jola IV is an immaculate 11 metre BW Seacat with all-round deck-space which provides tons of space for anglers and their gear.
The marina berth
The berth has an impressive backdrop with the majestic Ben Nevis looming over the nearby town of Fort William. With everyone onboard we headed out of Corpach for a short steam south down Loch Linnhe where Angus and crewman Lee dropped the anchor on the edge of a deep channel which runs down the centre of the loch.
Scott with the first fish
A variety of baits, mackerel, sandeel and squid in the main, were soon heading to the seabed 100 metres below the hull. The majority of the anglers fished similar two down rigs with luminous attractants. The almost constant sunshine during the day negated the need for UV torches.
Scott soon had the first thornback of the day on the measuring stick and together with lesser spotted dogfish the rays provided most of the action throughout a cracking day.
Ali with a ray just under 9lb
The average stamp of rays were around the 4-5lb with the dogfish ranging from barely 1lb to approaching 3lb.
The author with a Linnhe thornback
Although most of the anglers were trying to avoid them skipper Angus had warned us that common or flapper skate did tend to show around slack water. Kevin was the lucky (or unlucky) angler who proved the prediction right as he hooked and boated a perfectly condition skate around the middle of the day.
Kevin bends into his skate
Scott won the first day of this two day split competition with Kevin in second place. Due to a lack of boats the second part of the comp is being fished as I type this report and I will update on the final results later once the Sunday scores are known.
Kev with his skate
All in all we had a great day out under unseasonable blue April skies and t-shirt temperatures. There was a steady stream of fish coming over the gunwales all day keeping scorer Alister busy and Angus and Lee looked after us with netting and coffees.
Ben Nevis from the returning boat
