Ewen ET Thompson fishing the Minch |
With flat lovely calm crispy days over the Christmas period making the sea like a Mill Pond, a fishing trip onboard the SYSAC 2 out into The Minch was organised by Ewen ‘ET’ Thompson to make use of this unseasonably calm weather.
So on Saturday the 27th of December on a lovely frosty morning the SYSAC 2 set sail from Stornoway harbour out into The Minch bound for two Wrecks that lay close by each other exactly half way across to mainland Scotland. A journey of over 2 hours on this lovely calm day was a joy, and it was hoped that if the fishing would be half as good as the outward journey, then we would have a cracker of a day.
Finding the wrecks on the sounder, the crew of anglers soon had rods over the side and dropping down into the depths in hope of some good sized fish inhabiting the Wrecks. With the sounder showing good marks of fish all over the structures lying on the sea bed, hopes were mixed.... was it large numbers of good sized fish, or was it just small fish?
The first drift nothing came aboard, but during the second one Steve Phipps got a bite, and was hooked into a fish, not knowing what to expect to be caught here, there was an air of anticipation as Steve wound the fish up, but faces turned glum as it turned out to be a Spurdog. Next to hook a fish was Gillies Mackenzie with another Spurdog, followed by Ross Hall with yet another Spurdog. The fish marking over the wrecks turned out to be large shoals of small Whiting, as CJ Buchanan ripped into quite a few of them on both the Pirk and smaller hooks.... it is safe to assumes numbers of Spurdogs were hunting among the vast numbers of small Whiting.
A few more drifts, and hoping the fishing would improve as the tide turned the fishing was still poor, as the only other fish caught were another Spurdog for Gillies Mackenzie and Ross Hall, and more small Whiting for CJ Buchanan.
Skipper Ewan ‘ET’ Thompson was feeling the pressure as he resorted to reading the ‘Angie Mopp Book of Excuses’ which must be hidden in the wheelhouse somewhere, as he started quoting as to why the fishing was so poor, quoting some of Angie’s excuses that sound like they come from a Science Fiction book! With nothing much coming aboard it was decided to have a quick drift on a mark half way back to Stornoway, and then call it a day. Nothing came aboard at this mark...
Heading back to Stornoway, any fishing boats passing by us would have thought we had a terrific fishing as a large number of Kittiwakes followed us in hoping for some scraps of fish. Despite no fish though, it was a joy to be at sea, the journey back especially where we were treated to both a acrobatic display by a large pod of Dolphins as they joyfully leaped out of the sea, and a pretty spectacular winter sunset over Lochs that made the sky over the hills red and the sea a multitude of colours.
Photographs from the Day
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