Whale of a time in the sound of Mull
- Ad Wyness
- Jul 22
- 2 min read
A rare day off with zero wind forecast meant one thing- get the boat out!
I picked up Tor late morning, and an hour later we were on the water just south of Oban. The plan was to do a bit of exploring and get Tor his PB pollack.
We were set up with heavy spinning gear, >80 g rods and 5000 size reels with 40lb braid and 30lb leaders. No messing around today.
As soon as we left the launch and went round the corner, we were greeted by a family of harbour porpoises right next to the boat. I killed the engine, and they stuck about for 5 minutes checking us out before they moved away, it was beautiful to see them in crystal clear water swimming underneath us.
We left them to it, and went to our first stop, a very shallow reef that is an extension of a long skeer of rocks that I had fished from shore before. From shore I had hooked several big fish, but due to the very shallow nature, I had lost a fair few of them. Fortunately the plan to hit the spot from the boat hit the spot, and Tor was straight into a couple of pollack, both beating his PB using one of Neil's Perfect A'Lures.
We headed further round into the sound to hit some reefs that were apparent on Navionics. After another few on jigs, I decided to have a go with the fly, and got a great runaround by a 4lb fish on a chartreuse streamer.
On the way to the next spot there was a feeding frenzy with 30 gannets diving a couple hundred yards from us, and we were suddenly surrounded by guillemots, razorbills, black guillemots, shags, terns and suddenly a family of Minke whales! Unfortunately we messed up all the video of the whales, so you'l just have to imagine it..
Despite what the photos make it look like, the fishing was tough, with only the odd fish every 15 minutes or so, rather than the expected feeding frenzy when finding the right spot. It was a very bright day, so I will put it down to this. This was confirmed by the sun dipping down behind the mountains on our way back, and we decided to hit one more spot... and it suddenly kicked off with fish after fish slamming out lures just under the boat after following the lure up from 12 metres.
Overall a cracking day out with Tor, and it will be certainly be repeated soon!
Comments