Dunstanburgh Ledges 27th July 2016

Dunstanburgh is one of my go-to marks for summer fishing.  It is a beautifully scenic area that provides a lot of sport on the light gear when conditions are right.

I was due to be heading to Skegness again this weekend but following a change of plans I decided since the conditions and tides looked good to head to Dunstanburgh instead.

We headed over to Craster for around 0630.  There was forecast to be flat seas and a mild breeze which was ideal for this mark.

 We began the 1.5 mile walk up to the castle and when we arrived were surprised to find that the weather forecasters had got it wrong again....

There was a stiff wind blowing around the cliffs and the sea was far from flat.  We set up and got to work nonetheless opting to fish down on the ledges as opposed to on the cliffs where we usually fish.
We tried floats first off but the sea was just too choppy to make it worthwhile so we switched to feathers.
Neither saw any action so I switched us both to just a small rag bait that we fished on the bottom.

Once HW arrived at about 0845 we started to see bites at last.  Within the space of a few casts my mate Shaff bagged a good wrasse of bout 2lb and then a decent coalie on rag to save the blank.

Considering the conditions I was pleased to have seen any fish.

We called it a morning at around 0915 and headed back to Craster and then drove home.

I was a little disappointed that the conditions were not as forecast.  There has been a lot of fish coming in from Dunstanburgh the past few weeks and had the sea not been as rough I expect we may have had a much better day.

St Marys Island 14/09/14

I headed out this afternoon for a "long shot" session at St Marys.  As I expected there was little in the way of fish but I did manage to mess around a bit with the cameras.  

It was not the best day for photos as it was bright but overcast.  I still managed a few decent shots that I was able to stitch into some decent panoramic shots.

I also captured a reasonable photsphere from this mark (see bottom of this post)

Views: St Marys Island from West Bay Skier by Alan Rodmell

St Mary's (Crisps Gulley) 06/09/14

I got out last night with Mark for 4 or so hours over low water.

There was not much sea forecast so I decided to see if we could pull any red codling out of the weeds around St Mary's Island.

When we arrived I made the last minute decision to head onto West Bay Skier and fish Crisps Gulley. The ground was as heavy as I remembered and I lost several sets of gear over the session.

As a consolation though I had some cracking bites on nearly all casts.  I managed a few decent Wrasse and a Short-spined Sea Scorpion for my troubles all of which were taking rag/lug baits.

Had I landed all the bites that I had I would have had maybe half a dozen more fish.  Considering how tough they were to hook I expect they were all likely Wrasse.  I was surprised not to see any codling that would normally be around at this time of year.

We fished until after dark and had the pleasure of a lovely moon-rise over the lighthouse.  Unfortunately all I had with me was my phone camera and could not capture any decent shots of the moon after the sun dropped.  Maybe next time.....

St Abbs Head 12th July 2014

There had been reports of some good fishing recently at St Abbs Head.
Conditions had been settled for a few days and there was some decent weather forecast for Saturday.  We decided to take a drive up and get a few hours fishing in while we had the chance.  We could only spare the time in the afternoon and so we arrived at a little after 1500 and headed down to our mark.

We chose a mark that we had seen anglers on in the past but could not figure out how they managed to climb down (That hooked point to the right in the pic above)  A few minutes explore revealed a relatively easy path down

The view from our first mark was spectacular.

There were 3 other anglers on the other side of this mark that were not having much luck.  They had landed a few mackerel between them on lures.
We spent the next few hours exploring the features of this mark.  We put baits on the bottom, fished lures and tried floats without any luck.  I had one good take on a silver minnow early on but the fish jumped the hook on the retrieve.

There was rain forecast for early evening.  I did not want to attempt a climb back up the cliff in the wet and so we made the decision to head back up a few hours before low water.

I found the climb up reasonably easy..... my angling buddy however didn't.....

Rather than waste the last of our bait we headed for our usual mark to the south with the intention of getting a few more hours fishing in before the drive home.

This mark had never provided huge numbers of fish for us.  It had so far however never failed to give me a decent Wrasse.  We fished the north side of this mark which saw us putting baits down a 40ft cliff into a gulley among rocks.  This area is always covered with sea birds and so you need to keep an eye on your line to avoid any collisions as they take off and land.

I attempted to get a Photosphere from this mark with my phone.  Apart from a few minor issues I was very pleased with how it came out (click to rotate the view or use the control dial)

Views: St Abbs by Alan Rodmell

My second cast was put up tight to a rocky/weedy outcrop and within seconds I had a fish on.  After a brief fight I had to lift this fish up the cliff face with my spinning rod (very glad I had 30lb main line) and I was very pleased to find myself with a beautiful Wrasse of maybe 2-2.5lb.

My next cast went in the same place and I lost a fish after a good bite.  The following cast got me a small red Short-spined Sea Scorpion...

Followed a few casts later by another briliantly coloured Wrasse of around 1lb.

This poor fellow was returned and as he was recovering from the ordeal on the surface a huge seal surfaced and dragged him under!

With time dragging on we headed back to the car at around 2000hrs.

Not a bad day considering the lack of fish.  We plan to head up here again in a few weeks and by that time hopefully the Pollock will be in properly and we can put all our lures to good use.

St Abbs 30th June 2013

After reading a few decent catch reports for the St Abbs area we decided to head up for a session.  We left early to ensure we got onto the marks we wanted.  We arrived up there at around 0645 after a 90 mile drive.

Conditions were great.  Warm, sunny (mostly) and with little wind.

St Abbs Lighthouse f2.7, 1/290s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

f2.7, 1/950s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

f2.7, 1/850s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

 We hiked to the south end of the headland and found a nice spot to set up.  I believe the mark in front of us may have been called The Crocodiles..... but all I know for sure was the gull colony on there never shut up for all of the 3 hrs we fished there.

Despite the distractions we managed a few fish from this first mark including a nice Wrasse for Mark.

Fishing was slow going so I made the most of the opportunity to get the camera out and snap away.

f10, 1/80s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

f10, 1/280s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

f6.1, 1/125s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

f2.2, 1.250S, ISO50 Samsung Galaxy S4

f3.5, 1/110s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

f3.5, 1/640s, ISO125 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

 f2.7, 1/70s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

 After a few hours we made a move back towards the lighthouse and set up on our usual mark.  For anyone who is thinking of visiting here make damn sure your fit.....

f2.7, 1/450s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

f2.7, 1/320s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

f2.5, 1/400s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

f2.2, 1/1400s, ISO50 Samsung Galaxy S4

An hours fishing on here resulted in a small Coalie for Mark and on my very last cast......having missed the bite the first time....a cracking 2lb Wrasse to end the session.

f2.2, 1/350s, ISO50 Samsung Galaxy S4

St Abbs is an awesome place to visit and to fish.  It is however treacherous if you are not careful.  Most of the marks you can actually fish require a steep descent or even a climb to get to.  Some of the marks are even too crazy for me to attempt to get to.  After all no matter how much I love fishing its never worth risking your life for.

f2.7, 1/320s, ISO40 Samsung Galaxy SII

North of St Abbs: 15 shot Pano Stitch  f2.5, 1/400s, ISO100 Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR

Access to St Abbs Head is via a track just before you turn to go down into St Abbs itself.  The drive up the track has some great scenery.  You can park just by the Lighthouse and walk along the headland from there.
As I mentioned you need to be in decent shape as most marks require a combination of hiking, climbing and rock-hopping.  Travel light and make sure you wear decent shoes.