Loch Etive.

The first trip west this year was scheduled and we set off at the break of dawn.

Jimmy, Neil and I were itching to hit a special mark where some very good fish had been landed recently. Loaded up with pristine bait we arrived and had lines wet by around 10 30am.

The fishing was slow unfortunately, with the first fish coming to me, a small Thornback ray of around 1.5lb. A few hours went by when Jimmy's ratchet was screaming as a large fish took his whole mackerel bait and headed for deeper water. He struck into the fish which put a large end in the rod as it used it's weight and power to take line from him... He eventually managed to gain the upper hand and piled the pressure on, turning the fish and bringing it within feet of the shore. As soon as it saw us/daylight it went ape s*** and within a flash had severed the line on the dreaded rock ledge.

We agreed it was almost certainly a double figure Spurdog due to the nature of the fight. We were all very, very gutted to have not even seen the creature.

I landed another slightly larger Thornback soon after this, and then darkness fell. The fishing was supposed to get better as the night came around but it was not to be. Jimmy hooked another larger fish but again, it snapped the line feet from the shore!!! ***&^%!!!£$"??? So frustrating...

I landed another thornback, and just before we packed up Jimmy had a small codling around a pound. Unfortunately Neil didn't land a single fish...

Please see more pics HERE!!

Well, it's job hunting, clothes and food shopping and consolidating notes time for me tomorrow...