Banff

[Gummage]

On Sunday I’m going up to stay near Huntley with a Wiltshire friend who has a property up there. He has a little used (but overhauled) boat there. I think it’s a Warrior or similar. 
I went once before but his trailer bearings were shot and we couldn’t get to the ocean.

Fingers crossed, this time we will launch at Banff.

 

I hope to report on our achievements here.

Charlie suggested how we might make use of the topography to find Cod and Haddock . Turbot are caught from the shore there.

My pal has been disappointed with his trips so far.

 

His son did well last year , using the stick the pin in the donkey technique. (No mark recorded)

Has anyone any experience of this area ? All tips and encouragement gratefully received.

[Mal Thomas]

No experience there, the sea bed looks interesting. You might need a lot of line on your reels😏

If flapper skate are in the area John Locker has done some detailed videos on you tube, smaller species will fall to Jigs and Lures even heavy feathers. Good luck and I hope the weather gods are with you. 

[Gummage]

I was due to travel up with my mate and his party early on Sunday morning . 
On Saturday ,one hiatus after another landed in my lap to such an extent that I had to let them go on ahead whilst I did some sorting out.

On the up side at least I had Robs one year old pup to help me call my cattle out of my neighbours Barley.

The advanced party went on ahead and drew the boat out of its bothy on Tuesday morning and guess what?

Yep, the wheels fell off.🤧🤭🤭🤭.

 

Fourteen years ago  I went up and the same thing happened and we never did get to sea, but this time we had Amazon overnight delivery and new bearings were dispatched for midday Wednesday.

By then  things had settled at home and with only Thursday looking half decent weather wise , I decided to train it to Bristol and catch a flight to Inverness etc

 

Such stress! Finally made Huntley by supper time😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

 

The boat is actually a beautiful Orkney 590 cw a mariner 60.

we got her in to Banff marina, which is in the historic well sheltered fishing harbour. We were made welcome by the friendly harbour master. Incidentally this berth will cost about £1000 for the season.

services: slipway, floating pontoon, access security , fresh water hose and I think I saw electric hookups.

 

Shes right at the very back of this photo

 

Soon at sea, and first stop and fist stop chosen as it appeared to Be a wide dish shaped gravel plain.

 

We had no bait but felt sure to catch some . Coloured feathers and white feathers were used.

 

Ten minutes in . Our host kicked off with a double; haddock and a dab!👍👏.

 

This was all right and soon more haddock followed.

We could have stayed but I wanted to try a very promising looking spot a couple of miles further out before the deteriorating weather might drive us back.

That bank looks so fishy!

 

we caught haddock at the top of it and below it . In fact despite my planning we seemed to catch a fish and a few doubles every ten or so minutes wherever we were.

 

It looked like wind and rain were closing in so we retreated to the earlier mark.

The others carried on as before, but I changed tack an rigged a Tubot rig baited with a haddock flank.

It hit the bottom and within 4 seconds, bang. Up came 

A ling.

It didnt carry on like that but another later fell to my mates baited feathers.

 

The weather threatened

 We moved closer in shore where apart from a couple of mackerel , the action stopped.

Early evening and our skipper, knowing there was a supper on the stove, drew stumps. A great intro to the Moray firth;

About 24 Haddock

4 Mackerel

2 ling

1 Dab
CO2 credentials….Dont ask

 

[Gummage]

 

Happy hunters

[great white]

Well done Martin

 

Hope the weather settles and you can get more fishing in.

 

The area looks very promising on the charts, good luck

[Gummage]

1 hour ago, great white said:

Well done Martin

 

Hope the weather settles and you can get more fishing in.

 

The area looks very promising on the charts, good luck

I rode home on Sunday while you were all at the Bream.

It blew on Friday and Saturday so whilst found things to do it wasn’t boat fishing. Paul had bought a week permit for the Devron and managed to meet a couple of par and two brown trout.  I enjoyed an afternoon watching on among the foreign flora and fauna.

The “serviced “ engines had been looked at by a farmhand. Not quite a service and we checked out a place where they could be fettled by a professional.

 

I failed to master his Raymarine dragonfly sounder.

If anyone uses one successfully I’d love to have a chat.

We couldn’t find bottom with it.

The 20 yr old sat nav wouldn’t load beyond the legal derrogation page. 
 

We returned to the boat to try to resolve these issues….on going.