Gareth Richards updates us on his fishing trip in the Outer Hebrides - this week he’s fishing in the southern part of the Isle of Harris.
The Isle of Harris over the last few years has become famous for anglers targeting giant common skate from the shore. This would be my goal later in the week. First though, I decided to head south east towards the township of Rodel and fish along the rock ledges for some hard fighting pollock and wrasse.
This time of year at the end of summer through the autumn is when you have the chance of some very large fish as they have spent the summer feeding and are in tip top condition. The scenery looking out over the sound of Harris to the south on a nice sunny day really can’t be beaten.
Stopping anywhere along the road where it is safe to do so, you’ll find rock marks full of lovely bronze pollock and this is exactly what I did. I decided first to try fishing metal shore jigs into the deep water and this produced nice pollock. It’s a simple way to fish an 8-9ft rod with 4000-size reel and a descent 8-strand braided line like Diawa J-Braid or Sufix Pro 8, then a fluorocarbon leader.
Getting my fill of pollock I switched tactics to my LRF gear and some worms, this resulted in me catching cuckoo and goldsinny wrasse but the Ballans were not coming out to play. I decided to stay put for the night and set up my small tent and settled in for the evening.
The next morning I took the opportunity to have a look around the historic church at Rodel. It was built in the 16th century by the 8th Chief of the clan MacLeod and is definitely worth visiting. The rest of the day I spent driving north to meet up with some friends who live on the island and made plans to do some beach fishing and plan our assault on the giant skate.
If you missed part one and two, read Gareth's blog about fishing on the Isle of Barra, North and South Uist, and a host of other activities available on the islands.
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