Loch Goil, some mackerel and the kipper

Leaving the seals to sleep of their fish suppers, assuming they had found some fish earlier, I started to make my way to Carrick Castle. I had caught a few mackerel there last year so was keen to try my luck again this year. I slowly motored along trolling as I went but neither lure nor fish finder gave any indication of fish life.



I past the MOD buoy and noted the depth, it was built on a mound as it was only 12ft deep at this point although it went to fifty feet quite quickly. Im still not sure what it’s purpose is but I think it acts like a set of traffic lights ? Certainly I have seen a bright light in the silver tube change from red to white to green and back again.



I was now trolling quite happily off the little village of Carrick, the sea was flat calm and the sun had some heat to it.



At the end of the village lies Carrick Castle. I little while back I noticed a couple of apartments for sale in the sandstone building beside the castle. I could quite easily retire to somewhere like that and the flats were in my price range. Perhaps one day soon ?



Approaching Loch Goil marker buoy No 2, I cut the engine and changed from trolling lure to a set of mackerel flies. I thought that if I was to get any fish today, it would be here. The buoy is near the junction of Loch Goil and Loch Long. The boat stopped with hardly any drift as there was no wind. I dropped the flies overboard and waited as the four ounce lead weight took them to the bottom.



That’s when the fish finder started doing something fishy. It looked like a bush slowly moving just above the bottom of the loch. It was 95ft to the bottom. I felt the weight bounce along as I jigged the flies gentle up and down. Next moment.. holy mackerel..I got a bite :-D



Winding in I found I had caught two fish. The bottom one was a mackerel but the top one looked more like a silver kipper ?



It was in fact a herring. I had hit a shoal of fish that were on the bottom of the loch. That’s why trolling a lure along the surface was hopeless, the fish are still down deep. The fish finder kept showing the shoal swim around a bit and I caught a few more. However once I had a half dozen for the pot, I stopped fishing. I only take what I can eat and a few extra for the freezer.