Fishing on the Tweed with David Solano
I DID a lot of experimenting over the weekend starting with a Friday night Jack session.
I’d noticed the weather changing all day, it started out pretty fresh in the morning but by lunch time it had warmed up somewhat and when I got home from work it was windy but still warm.
I don’t fish at night very often but I know that’s when the best Jacks are caught, it’s just so hard to cast or see where your casts are going. In the day I can adjust them in mid-air but at night – particularly on a moonless night – you can’t see a thing, it all has to be done with feel.
So rather than throw lures at moored boats and hitting them, thereby damaging paint work, and getting lures stuck on various ropes, I started practising along the rock wall between the Ivory and the trawlers.
I managed to lose one on the balcony of the restaurant but apart from that I was hitting the spot, though I didn’t get a fish I did get a casting blind confidence boost, so much so that I threw a few around the moored boats, scored a couple of good bites but no fish, still an amazing experience, no other boats around apart from the moored ones.
Interesting yak fishing at night takes on so many variables, one is going under bridges and not being able to see peoples fishing lines, I’ve been lucky a couple of times, most of my gear’s pretty expensive and it wouldn’t take much to lift one of my rods out of its holder and who knows where it might end up.
The one time it did happen I quickly cut the guy’s line, needless to say he wasn’t very happy.
So what I do now is check the bridges for the silhouettes of fellow fishos, that way I can pass under the part of the bridge that no one’s fishing.
Also I noticed a lot of parties in the parks along the river bank and I’ve found it best to avoid groups on the drink even to the point of turning my lights out and crossing to the other side of the river – the reason is that once while peddling close to the shore with fellow yakker Craig, a half brick went flying by our heads just missing us, again drinkers on the shoreline. Why the brick? I’ve no idea. Luckily for them I talked Craig out of going over for a chat, there were about eight of them but I don’t think that would have mattered, you see Craig’s boxing nickname is ‘pit bull’.
I got home around midnight and proceeded to get my rods ready for the morning’s surface fish, whiting being the target and my recent purchase of a “nordic stage” rod and a “stella 1000” reel make it the perfect weapon for this type of fishing.
With this combo you can really work the lure as it was designed, lots of sharp action and the rod’s so light it makes it a ball when you catch one. I got into them on the weekend, I lost count after eight, but I know those eight were all over 35cm all on surface, what a fish.
