Shetland revisited

[Gummage]

Endeavour3 is smouldering in the in the insurance claim department so Gummage and the “Angling Saxon “ have decided to visit the vikings again. A sequel to last Novembers raid.

Our hosts were twins Jamie and Callum. Both accomplished fabricators and marine engineers and we travelled with their father Andy who has had a lifetime of marine engineering diving explosives pier construction etc  .They all did aprenticeships at the Malakoff in Lerwick. Andy’s old schoolfriend Gordon had come shooting with us in November and within a hour of disembarking in Lerwick we were  aboard his waiting boat and out into the sound catching cod! Dazzling Mackey lures and 16 oz weight were used almost exclusively as we were fishing in 60 m of water. Haddock was the most prized score and mackerel were harder to avoid than catch.

 After a few hours we put into Lerwick. Gordon had bigger plans for us tomorrow .

 

Gordon was raised on Yell and had a few creels there that needed checking . We left Lerwick heading north on a fabulous cruise.

 

The company

 

 

The crew

 

 

The scene

 

 

The wildlife

 

The thrilling coast of Yell 

 

 

Relief

 

 

Good banter 

 Mustn’t forget The catch report . We drifted tackle hungry rocky bottom for ling using feathers and jellies.

A few Saithe (pollack ) came aboard . Ling eluded us.

[Gummage]

 

Onto check the creels.

 

As luck would have it  apart from running inter island ferry services and salmon farm support vessels he is also a hotelier and chef .

[Gummage]

To be continued…

[Gummage]

Gordon left the cruiser tied up in Burravoe(see the background in the last vid) and “borrowed” a van to race us to the ferry where we met its owner ,getting ashore , who was pleased to find his lift home was sorted. 

[Gummage]

There then ensued a few days bad weather, while you lot were sweltering last week, but hey, it’s Shetland!

Now last November we went out on an aluminium boat built by Callum . It ran out of fuel that time.  (Gummage is begining to wonder “Am l a Jonah”recent E3 events considered. ) 

Callum’s latest scheme is to make a small dredge and go after scallops

[Gummage]

As we waited for a weather break we heard how in his diving days whilst at the Malakoff his dad Andy had developed a 10 ftwide one for commercial use. He had taken a dive to watch it working and realised the “queen “ scallops weretrajecting themselves to human eye level and thus evading the net so a piece of net was added to the bridle to hold them down much improving the catch.

 

Also king scallops don’t flush easily and so there was much talk of how some agricultural spring tines might be encorporated to give the a poke . A trip was made to visit a man with an  old Jones baler but he thought it might still come in handy so we couldn’t nick the parts.

 

This got produced

[Gummage]

When a fine evening came along we headed north out of Lerwick .It was wind over tide and too snotty for comfort  but we headed to a loch ,known in Shetland as a Voe, to the west. See waymark 8 on the map.

was not quite as bad there.

Only 70 metres of rope were available. Was it enough ? was the dredge heavy enough? Would we find the appropriate sand? Or rocks!.? Could the 60 hp motor pull it? Would we be having scallops for supper?

  Who knows? It was going to be fun trying.(too much much fun for photojournalism I’m afraid)

Firtst run north south with the wind. We never reached the bottom. Just as well as we also drifted onto rocky ground(according to navionics).

whatif we try into wind ; more engine speed slower overgroundspeed better steering control. ?
 

Hurrah ! Result! Two star fish and five sea urchins, can i add them to the species list😙 please. Most importantly we were down there.

 

Another south north drift then .

A similar catch but whowee. it included two “queenies”.

 
I hoped Callum had a sharp knife.

surprise surprise , fuel was getting low so offback to base. The drift was with us and we jigged 9 mackies on th way home.

 

 

 

[Gummage]

We saw ourselves onto the mooring lines and disembarked by natural light. It was 12.10 BS T

[Gummage]

There was only to be one more fishable day on our 8 day visit but there is so much more to tell.

 

I am in no doubt that  twins Jamie and Callum can lay claim to direct Viking ancestry. As lads they   Went wildfowling. When they decided that they would prefer to go fishing , their  instinctive reaction was, “I’ll have to build a boat”

So this is Callum’s Mkll version.

originally a mono hull it proved

uncomfortable so he cleaved it down the middle blanked off each half and put a flat deck widening span in and now it’s a catamaran (sort of). 
His 60 hp 2 stroke will get it on the plane if it has no Englishmen on board(or Jonah’s).

I know where there is a scrap  90 Callum.(read it went with a bang).

Jamie wasn’t to be outdone ……

[Gummage]

this is his day job

But having seen what theNew Zealanders are using he dreamt this up.

 

V
Here’s one he made earlier

He seemed pleased with the way things were developing

 

T

 

 

[Gummage]

He was determined to finish the project last week so we could see her trialled.

 

 

V
 

[Gummage]

 

 

V
 

 

[Jim]

Great report.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Gummage]

When the fair weather came Jamie was still having fuel line problems which proved to be caused by very similar but incompatible fuel line plugs. I’ve encountered that on E3. While Sam helped him pin down and resolve that I was to go out north of Bressay with Callum to lift a pair of pots and try for some Herring.

As we backed away from the mooring lines the Jonah effect kicked in.

We hit bottom at 10.45 am 

 

 

We had no spare. So off it came and back to base

He groundback the snagged fins leaving a curved edge
 He ground a matching curve in scrap 

shaped it

TIG welded it

 

And ground it to shape

Repeat x3

 template made to the smallest

Grind back and buff up

 Prop back on at 12.40

 

[Gummage]

 

 

 

The creels were near waymark 1 on my map. Can’t give the exact location else you will all be going up there and lifting them.😉 In any case the only thing they had in them was a hole. Probably been visited by an otter. With a northerly wind the sea state was uncomfortable so we went south of Lerwick. It was calm in the lee.

Here Jamie’s new boat made its debut.

 

without the motor this aluminium hull only weighs 280 kg

 

 

 

60 hp makes it swift

 

 

[Gummage]

 

The catch report. Jamie’s boat zoomed off to the southern point on Bressay and quickly came back with a cod and a mackerel.

on Callum’s boat we drifted a flat sandy patch in the bay and got well into Haddock and mackerel. Cod came up too but were returned as haddock is much favoured there.

At he close of play I brought up a foul hooked plaice for good measure.

Better include a shot of our hosts

 The next time we saw flat water we were on our way home

 

looking north over the stern at 1.00am(midnight GMT)

[Jim]

Thanks.

Very enjoyable for us so must have been really great for you!

 

[Newboy]

I was up there from 9 to the 13th fishing out of Cullivoe.

Lots of cods and haddocks tho the really big one (35+) are now few and far between. 

Love Shetland, people are really friendly and lay back. Just have to watch out for the suicidal sheep which like to cross the road when you are driving along admiring the scenery.