Firth of Forth and the Burntisland Mackerel

I slowly made my way east along the coastline past Craigdimas Rocks. There are quite a few rocky outcrops in the Forth which I had to kept a watchful eye open for. A few boats have come to grief in the past because high tide covers and hides them. They are marked with poles but even they look as though they have taken a few blows from passing boats.

The seals congregate around the rocks and at low water make a lot of noise as they haul and bounce themselves onto the rocks to rest, waiting high tide before taking to the sea again.

Aberdour village looks very attractive from the sea and looks like it has a great beach.

It also has a little sheltered harbour for yachts and small boats.

There are the ruins of a larger jetty on the point between Aberdour and Silversands Bay where I had launched the boat from.

I decider to try a spot of trolling for mackerel, despite the words of wisdom from the "local" who I chatted to on the beach before launching. She said it had been a poor year for the mackerel and few had been caught in the area. I headed eastwards past Silversands Bay towards Burntisland.

That is when my fishing rod started to bend in a frantic frenzy. I had hit a shoal of mackerel. Not only that..but they were the biggest mackerel I have caught in many a year. Around twice the size of their smaller west coast cousins. Withing five minutes I had half a dozen in the bucket.

Cheered on by the local contractors working on the wall of Burntisland harbour warehouse. I dont know if I was amusing them or they were amusing me, but they reminded me of the seals that also watched my every move. I thought of throwing them a fish but decided against it.

To be continued...