NW Highlands meet?

[Simon Everett]

Sept 24th - Oct 1st for me. Then I can carry on to Islay afterwards. But I wouldn't be arriving until perhaps the Weds of that week. It will give me a coule of days with you lot.

 

That's probably as much as you could stand

[Starvinmarvin]

Spanner, watch out for Simon's Soap Trick. I couldn't sleep the first night in Tywyn.

[spanner]

You might have noticed I have been quiet for the last 2 weeks, been away on me hols on the west coast. Took the yak but only managed 3 trips as the weather was cr@p the second week.

 

Each time I just launched from the beach infront of the house, here it is at 4:30am ......

 

 

 

 

I fished 1.4miles out in the middle of the loch where there is a big 'hill', my house is one of the dots.....

 

 

All I caught was mackerel so I went exploring some of my shore marks to check out the ground with the fishfinder.

 

 

Next day I trolled close in, in 10-20ft over rock and kelp, but all I caught was a solitary 2lb pollack. Drifting a sandy bay I caught more mackerel on legered lug ... but I guess they were attracted by the spoon on the trace. Then I headed out to one of the islands .....

 

 

The wind was getting up so I didn't linger. It was a hard paddle back upwind, 2hrs to cover 3miles, although I had a contigency plan as a quick paddle across the wind would put be back ashore at Cove.

 

Last day I was back over the mound, caught nowt, and explored the east of the loch for shore marks.

 

I paddled between 6 and 8miles each day with no problems so I'm pretty chuffed with the performance of the Prowler13, although it was hard work into the squally headwind. A sleeker yak would have been a lot better I'm sure, but then I bought it for fishing not paddling in heavy seas !

 

One problem was the fishfinder giving up once it got beyond about 180ft, the signal just disappeared into noise. I don't know if it was a damp connection, poor tranducer mounting, or due to the fact that I cut the tranducer cable when rigging it I know you are not supposed to but the plug would not pass through the gland I had and I wanted to make as small a hole as possible, so I did. I took care soldering it back together and wrapped new shielding, so it should be fine (I used to work with electronics so I am capable with a soldering iron).

 

There are some bubbles in my epoxy, more obvious the closer I look, so maybe thats my problem, but I'm beginning to doubt...... anyway, the bottom is featurelss at that depth so I don't need it anyway, right

 

 

As for September, the 3rd to 17th is available as well now, so that opens up things a little if anybody else can make it?

 

Simon, I guess the 24th is still your preferred week?

[Starvinmarvin]

Hi Spanner, great report with beautiful photo's as usual I'd like to pinch some if OK.

 

The RAM mounts look great, nice to see a different layout.

 

Thought that the finder should be good for several hundred feet according to the technical gumph, what did you have the maximum depth set to?

 

SM

[spanner]

Feel free to use the pics however you like, I've got bigger versions if you'd prefer.

 

The fishfinder was set to auto, but playing with the settings didn't help at all, you could see from the raw echo returns that it was a tiny signal. The 83KHz was totally gone when it had been fine the day before, so I want to beleive it was just a damp connection. I guess I'll find out when I'm out next

 

I'll try and get some close ups of the RAM mounts and post them up so you can see it better. Each side has two mounts, a bar mount up front and a base mount just above my ankle. It means I can have both rods on the same side if I want. The 2 arms are different lengths, 1 std and 1 long, so I can keep 1 rod higher than the other so they don't get in each others way.

 

One thing I have found is just how heavy the holders and arms are, and the load they put on the mounting bolts when the rod is in place. Its quite significant and I am glad I put backing plates behind the mounts when I installed them otherwise there is a chance they could rip out Thanks to to yakkity for that tip

[Hungry Fisherman]

location does look amaazing i hope to get my gear together for then as it looks like an excellent meet learn a few tips etc but the distance is alot i dunno if my mondeo will make it that far in one trip

[Murph]

Looks fabulous Spanner - house and Loch. Alas I am too far away. When I get back to Northumberland I would love to learn a bit have a go kayaking and fishing in that area.

 

Murph

[Simon Everett]

Yep week of 24th still favourite with me - but i can possibly "fit in" with others.

[Starvinmarvin]

Cheers Spanner, hope you work out the problem with the finder, might be worth giving Gill a call at Humminbird UK, she might be able to help, if you need a number I'll dig it out from home.

 

It would be great to see those RAM mounts up a bit closer, maybe a shot of the whole forward setup, including the RAM's, GPS and Finder, no need for the rods to be in place. Obviously I'd like to pinch that as well.

 

The shots above will be fine, I resize and compress before posting on AnglersAfloat.

 

Sadly I won't be able to join you guys, it's just that bit to far, and I'm right out of brownie points.

 

SM

[Martin Hurst]

Stunning photos mate(fishing is secondry when in those surroundings!). Wish i had the expertise to join you lot and of course the time off work!! Maybe next year after a few more trips!