Coldingham Site Day Sun 25th May 2014

Usual thank you to Gareth at Coldingham for hosting our site day and for the tea/coffee and sandwiches at lunchtime.  Also for Appertiser for organizing the day.

Went in boat with Tinnie Pete, we had to go in one of the smaller blue boats, (note if you are going in the boats try to get one of the white ones much bigger), set off into the mist and we hit a couple of fish straight away, here we go, its going to be a good day.  The mist gradually lifted and there was fish showing all over the lake.  These fish were on something small and not easily fooled into taking.  We were fishing shipmans buzzers and by lunchtime Peter had 7 and I had 5, we both had dropped/missed a few.  After lunch there was less showing but Peter still managed another 4 to the boat, but all I could do was loose fish on the anchor rope and get smashed off and drop fish.  The day ended to quickly, we started to wrap up and we noticed Pete's rod had broken, possibly when trying to net a fish his seat must have nipped his spare rod, again possibly due the tight confines of the boat.

Total for the day for us 16 to the boat Peter 11, me 5.    Black and hares ear shipmans.     Possibly could have caught more pulling but it was a challenge to catch those fish that were rising.

Nice report Rob, cheers.  Shame about Petes rod. Was it his new one?
Darren

Really looking forward to the site day as I'd never fished Coldingham before, picked up Brad ( sleepyhead ) then to Brians' , and off up a sunny A1, until we got to roundabout near Mc D's and suddenly you could hardly see a thing for the fog, which lasted until lunchtime    When we arrived everyone was nearly ready so a few quick hellos and on to the water. I was sharing a boat with Brad as his partner couldn't make it, I wish we had hired a motor as the oars were useless, anyway off we went, Brad had seen fish moving in the wind lanes so we anchored, or tried to, as the anchors were hopeless as well, and was soon into some fish on a blue flash damsel, I was pulling a yellow blob on a slow sinker as it had been working well the day before, but not today, for me anyway ! As I sat recovering from all the rowing, Brad kept the fish coming, landing a lovely blue about 5lb, a beautiful brown and some good rainbows, all the fish were first class fighters, not that I had any personal experience of that up to now   Looking at the pile of flies I had tried with no success, I put a killer on and at last had a tremendous tug, nearly pulling me out the boat   but that was all it was, a tug, no hook up , and so we, sorry I, rowed back for some lunch with a blank ! After a bit craic and 2 bacon butties off we went again, a bit easier this time as Brad was rowing  I was fishing a floating line this time with a Bushy on the point, and we headed to the far end of the lough, casting towards the reeds/ lily pads I finally hooked into a lovely blue about 4 lbs which put up a great fight Blank off ! The sun was out now and Coldingham really is a lovely place when we saw what we'd missed in the morning fog. We did this drift a couple of times towards the reeds as a few fish were showing and I managed another nice rainbow on a foam beetle, and although the weather had improved slightly there was still a cool easterly wind, and the fishing wasn't easy with Brad only picking up 1 more, before all the rowing took it's toll on his back and I was back in the rowing seat   Well that was it for me, missed a few off the top, but no more fish, at least it wasn't a blank , which I thought was on the cards at lunch. Thanks to Gareth and Carmel, to Stew for organising the day, to Brian for the lift and Brad for his company on the boat during the day, and to all the other lads who were there, another good site day as usual. Definitely be going back, hopefully in better weather, and most definitely with a motor, so I don't have to do any rowing