Gillies

A big congrats to both Davey and Paula Gillies

Well done Andrew .... Im guessing you have big hands Gillies

LOL at Snatcher Gillies

Spasor ... have offered, and it was turned down ... I was heart broken (not) Gillies

I'd say .... judging by the oversized empty heads ... it could be said its Ohio for a couple of days at the beginning of November 2004. lol Gillies

Im out at sea this Friday and Saturday .... I'm not brave enough to go to her house and ask for a pair to test out the theory! Gillies

Thanks for finding that Newt .... now know what it looks like Gillies

I am curious to see it myself, so will try and get hold of photo ... the fish is in his freezer just now. Gillies

Im hearing one of my mates found a "Deal Fish" dead on the shore .... about 2 foot in length. Got it ID'd from some fisheries place. Anyone ever seen one in UK waters? Gillies [ 20. July 2005, 10:51 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

People are sick of seen me posting pictures of my dog (Carlo) on here over the years .... More here: http://www.gilliesmackenzie.com/photograph...n.aspx?ID=carlo Gillies

Daffy ... Tom ... I wonder if the ISP names them after cartoon characters .... Daffy Duck, Tom & Jerry ... Gillies

There was a dead dear pretty near the Y-front I seen, whether there is any link to each other is anyones guess We do get a lot of hill walkers from south of the border (lol) Gillies

Nice Spurdog and nice photo ........ bet it gave a good account of itself, been a wee while since I've seen one. Gillies

Had a Co-op bag when spinning for sea trout with light gear a couple of months ago, what a struggle getting it in! Also have landed a condom (spinning), big stone (on the drift), and a frying pan (on the drift for rays). Gillies

I once found a pair of orange an blue Y-Fronts at the side of a very remote loch way way way out in the middle of nowhere (over 2 hours into the hills). Gillies

Good looking boat for fishing ... and looks like a great nights fishing, with a good number of Cod ... they seem to be very plentiful up there (as usual)! Was that The Hump you were fishing? Gillies

Just as a thought, before opening up maybe boot in Safe Mode and see if it still does it, also from the Safe Mode menu select to boot to DOS so no windows apps running .... just to make doubley sure its a hardware fault and not a virus or windows fault. Gillies [ 18. July 2005, 08:01 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

As Leon says ... you see your finger marks as the fish swims away. I guess the only good thing about it is that the fish is going back into the eco-system, and hopefully will be gobbelled up by a bigger fish that that you later catch Gillies

Been interesting reading this thread and hearing debate about various areas of fishing in Scotland, I dont know how I would generalise the fishing scene we have up here in the Westen Isles of Scotland, but I'll give it a go. Been made up of rugged islands with diverse coast lines and various sea beds both inshore and offshore, in my opinion we are sometimes spoilt for choice on where to fish, and what to fish for. That said from boat we generally fish the same marks which produce a wide range of species in number, and from the shore go fishing around new marks to see whats about or stick to same ones which we know we have a chance of a fish or two from. We have areas where we can catch a good number of Codling, and Haddock ... it kind of bores me personaly dropping down to the bottom, waiting for rattle rattle rattle at the end of the rod and then winding up .... I prefer not knowing exactly what is on the other end and the surprise when you see the shape and colours of it coming up from the depths. A couple of weeks ago we had 20 different species on the boat in the one day, which was great to see. Last week we had a group of guys up here all week from Fife, they had chartered our club boat for 5 days - they come up every year ... each time enjoy the fishing they have, whether it is good or bad at the time. One of them explained that they could fish nearby Arbroath or somewhere like that for a week, and catch countless Codling with the odd other species among the catches ... that kind of thing would get boring though ... the reason why they come up here is that they just don't know what they are going to wind up next (I could relate to what they were saying). When up this time two of them smashed two of our club records for the Tub Gurnard and Brill, and had 22 species for the week. On the big fish front, there are lots of areas of water for Common Skate, but no one seems to be interested in fishing for them ... though I am desperate to have a go for one, from both boat and the well know shore mark of Breasclete Pier which has produced a number of them from the shore. Also there are inshore areas commercial boats have reported catching a number of Portbeagle sharks in the winter, though I don't know of anyone who has fished for them .... getting the weather in the winter is another factor I think. The shore fishing scene up here is superb, but not to many people take advantage of it - and a few whom do keep much of it pretty secretive ... much of it is only been explored just now as one or two people get more adventurous and fish marks properly. One guy had 6 Turbot in a couple of hours of the shore the other week, along with a number of Rays and the expected LSDs. I also heard a few weeks ago of a Blonde Ray from the shore ... which would possibly of been a new Scottish record! We do get Bass up here, but not in good numbers or sizes and I have never caught one ... one shore mark is well known for producing them in Spring time on a windy day with a good surf running. Also surprisingly there are numbers of Mullet around, they get caught up in the illegal Salmon nets ... pretty large ones too, but I've only heard of 2-3 caught on the rod. One shore mark (the pier we are leaving from for the Western Isles Open Boat Championship for anyone coming up at the end of the month) was producing Thornback Rays up to around 20 lbs last year ... bad idea catching them when one of the commercials were landing, they soon zig zagged nets all the way out of the bay and have virtually wiped the place out (having 17 boxes the first day they netted it). Lots of shore marks produce Dabs as expected, as well as flounders - funnily enough from the boat this year we have had more Megrim caught in our club matches than we have had Dabs (I do know one AN regular that is desperate to catch a Megrim when he is up the week after next week ... I had 2 on Friday )... now thats a first ...more Megrim than Dabs, also the Plaice have made a tremendous come back to a number of marks over the years. A lot of visitors to Lewis know the place for the Haddock fishing from the boat, it is generally really good - some marks on a good day its like catching Mackerel (though this year is slower than normal so far), but the Haddies this year are generally bigger than the previous years. Red and Grey Gurnards are around here galore ...with one or two Tub Gurnards been caught more and more also over the past few years. This year small Grey and Red Gurnards are been a bit of a pest over soft ground. Its been a long time since I have seen a Tope been landed from our regular marks, but there are a few of them been caught from one or two marks when its fished, and I dare say if you were to target them ... you would hook into them. Also there is a shore mark that I know that produces Tope, but the anglers whom fish it seem to keep it under their hat and not talk about it much. Just 13 or so years ago we would be getting totally overwhelmed with Spurdog all day long, you would wind up 3 at the same time with a pack of around 20 following them up from the depths ... you just could not get through them. I have not seen a single Spurdog in 1-2 years now though !!!!!! Commercially overfished. There is a number of species suffered badly from the commercials, species that come to my mind quickly are flat fish such as Turbot and Rays. I've never seen a Smoothhound or a Bull Huss up here, just don't seem to be any around - though have seen Huss caught by the commercials. The likes of Pollack, Coalfish, Ballan Wrasse, Cuckoo Wrasse are always around the hard ground marks, and can be readily picked up from both shore and boat marks. Some great inshore and offshore Pollack fishing can be had, and is particularly fun on light spinning gear. On the subject of commercial boats, I won't knock the local commercial boats at all, I have a lot of friends in the industry and they are just making a living in a tough industry, and have seen many of them now leaving the industry all together or go bust .... however massive French and Spaniard trawlers with electronics in the wheel house to rival NASA that can be seen close inshore trawling away, that's a different story. When I look at old sea charts that skippers of commercial boats have noted the types of fish from these areas that can be caught, the vast majority of these areas in recent years have now become deserts with very little fish left ... it is encouraging at least to see one or two marks working a wee bit better now, but still not a patch on what they used to be. Winter shore fishing can be pretty good, for those wanting to brave the Hebridean winter conditions, to briefly comment on it .... ummmm there is as expected good Pollack fishing of the rocks, one or two marks produce Cod up to around 30 lb, and from some soft ground marks have good fishing for Rays and Plaice to be had. From April to October/November I'm out at sea almost every Saturday with our club boat (unless weather says otherwise), be it a club competition, helping out a junior competition, or just a nice relaxing day out seen what I can catch. I don't do to many fishing reports here or post fishing photos just to avoid the backlash and hassle of comments from certain sections afterwards. Anyway, just thought since this is a post about general fishing in Scotland ... I'd throw in my two pence work about the scene up here in the Western Isles of Scotland with a pretty brief overview through my eyes and mention a few species. Gillies

The Skippers of the commercials up here in Lewis are reporting catching more this year than in recent years, so hopefully they are on the increase. We had one small (very flukey) rod caught one last year on our club boat. Gillies

Thourghly enjoyed watching that - well done! Gillies

Here are 2-3 short ones I put online. Quality is terrible to keep download time lower. http://www.stornowaysac.co.uk/seaangling/g...lery/video.aspx Gillies

That was soooo funny Gillies

If I was one of the many workers made redundant lately from the BBC, I would be pretty P'd off at the bonuses a number of execs got. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/t...dio/4675073.stm Gillies

Seen this fellow on the wall, and have no idea what it is ... does anyone have any ideas? seen a few of them around this year. and does it sting? It's a tough looking brute !!! Gillies