Gillies

Great photo Steve ....... fantastic camera the 300D. What camera settings did you use? Gillies

If you want to kill a few minutes, take this online I.Q Test ... http://uk.tickle.com/test/iq.html You have to register to get your score at the end, but its straight forward enough ... just give a duff email address etc. My score was not as good as I hoped at 131, and rated me Visual Mathematician (or something like that). Gillies <small>[ 12. July 2005, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Gillies ]</small>

Sounds like a great mark to fish !!!!! Fingers crossed for a few more big fish form it Great fight of them. I am not to keen on under the Pier at Stornoway, is hard to hook them, and wee did dodgey. Its a mark at Holm Rocks I prefer to fish, only fishes well on an out going tide though... getting the scent of some mackerel over the kelp is the key to a good fishing there. Gillies

Used to do a lot of conger fishing from the shore, it is great fun ... fished two marks where you watched the congers take your bait ... was great. Well done on your 20 pounder !!!!!!!!!!!!! Gillies

Ive never caught one, but there were 2-3 caught up here in Lewis last year, 2 of them to a pirk. Gillies

Tiggs, think you could be right there ... birds getting so many Sandeels they cant take them all in one go. A lot of the Pollack we are getting are full up with Pipefish, have been for last 2-3 years. Davy has taken me 17 years of boat angling with my club to get a Turbot, the commercials wiped out all the decent fish from the known marks over the years ...... all it takes is a few sweeps from trawlers, or a load of gill nets ... and thats it. Good luck in your trip out for them! Gillies

We've got them up here in Lewis in good numbers as usual, they turned up earlier this year as did the Herring ... and the quantities of Herring are best I've seen in a number of years. Fished for Mackerel for bait on Saturday, and had no problems getting plenty of them ... was a pretty good days fishing in my eyes, as I had 3 new species for me ... Turbot, Cuckoo Ray, and Tub Gurnard. Mackerel were so plentiful, those who's reels were slower were getting caught up with them on the way down. Gillies

HaHa - thats why he turned his backside to me ... could not bare to look at my ugly mug Welcome back Billy, hope alls well. Gillies

They are all probably sinking the a few drams or two of Whisky ....... and Georgie Dubyah got the mad idea to go for a cycle and crashed. Gillies

Another Hover Fly shot .... I am not totally convinced they dont sting/bite ... this fellow looks brutal. Gillies

Nice photo - only mother could love them, but I think they look pretty cool. Laughed at the name you gave the image "Punks" Gillies

That is sooooooooo funny .......... taking it that they weren't to happy with the phone Question and Answer sessions is great !!!! Last one pretty funny. Gillies

Dont know much about moths but remmember been told before when seen one of them at a loch that it was a Leopard moth - looks like one to me. Nice photos of it. Gillies

I'll do a wee bit of Bragging about fishing up north (lol) , in our boat match yesterday (with 8 onboard) we had: Cod, Ling, Pollack, Coalfish, Mackerel, Herring, Sandeel, Plaice, Dab, Grey Gurnard, Red Gurnard, Tub Gurnard, Megrim, Haddock, Whiting, Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Spotted Ray, Cuckoo Ray, Poor Cod and Cuckoo Wrasse. this was all from one very small area. and not to go off topic of the thread, everyone on board was using braid, except for one angler ... whom didn't have anywhere near as good a fishing as others, and incidentally it was a match I really needed to do well in ... and did terrible ... a good excuse for all the Johnnie Walker I had when we got back to the club house. Im just posting this, as we seem to be getting more fish with not so many commercial boats around. Gillies [ 03. July 2005, 10:45 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Im just wondering if anyone around Scotland catches Spotted Rays regularly in their club matches, and do they on the most part make the 45cm across the wing minimum size? Due to a number of commercial boats been decommissioned, we have seen a massive increase in the amount of Rays we are catching from certain marks (both boat and shore) .... as the boats are not there to trawl it - We fished a mark yesterday, where we caught quite a few Spotted Rays ... but we didn't have one that was insize, yesterday I was catching them two at a time and there must of been around 30-40 caught on the boat ... none however made the 45 cm wingspan to be eligible for competition as they were all undersize ... it was the same story last year from this mark. It's not a large growing Ray like the Thornback or Blonde, so I would think that the minimum size should be slightly less ... say 35cm or so. A fish of around 5 lbs is at the 45cm mark ... the Scottish shore record is 5 lbs 12 oz ... the boat record is 8 lbs 3 oz. Strangely though, not one Thornback was caught and this area usually turns up lots and lots and lots of them. The Spotted Rays must of beat them up! Gillies

ok ok ... I mean this year Gillies

I concur with Diabolos. I would not dream of using mono on a boat anymore, especially when bait fishing (cant remember last time I did) .... though I do sometimes use mono in shallower water for working lures. A sor shore casting, I had less problems with it when I used it on a large fixed spool instead of a multiplier, though braid on a windy day the line going around the tip sometimes after I casted was a pest. Gillies [ 01. July 2005, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

I had to look at this 2-3 times before I got it .... am very slow today! Gillies

Manged 406 mph ... but think it was mistaken, other than that 270 mph. Gillies

Thanks Davy. I was unsure if they were hover flies or not, as I thought hover flies were the ones whom look like honey bees ... didnt know they came in various "looks" Thanks ... Gillies

Always see this flys around, but have no idea what they are? Fruit Fly? Hover Fly? and do they sting????? I didnt have the right lens on at the time, so the pictures are a wee bitty grainy. Gillies

Good to see the Glasgow Rangers team taking part in the prematch sing song .... wee Barry Ferguson in the glasses. Simply The Best played at Ibrox. Gillies

Think the new advert for 'Revels' sweets is great ... a Russian Roulette style game to see who gets the Coffee one. Its been over 12 years since I last ate any kinds of sweets such as Revels, Mars bar etc ... but do remember when eating a packet of Revels, it was a wee bit like Russian Roulette .. wondering if it was the Coffee one you were about get. Gillies

They are very big LSD's, be nice to see some photos of any others that are caught. Spurdogs, we rarely see now as they have been wiped out by commericals, 15 years ago when you hooked one, a dozen would follow the one(s) you have hooked up to the surface. They were deemed a pest when fishing for other species ... I think I seen one caught last year. Gillies

Sad to see he passed away, was great daily entertainment and seemed a really nice guy. That Ferret biting tv clip of him in the 80s is a classic !!! Gillies