Wobbler72
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2020
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- Location
- West Midlands
- Favourite Fishing
- Boat
Shetland! Where do I start. I love the place. Remote, rugged, beautiful. Brutal too.
Four of us go every year: me, my son Mark, my ex-workmate and good friend John; and John’s father-in-law and good friend Col. The four musketeers (four piss-heads more like!).
After much planning and preparation our journey starts at 6am on a Sunday morning In late June. We load the 9 seater minibus with our gear, together with an optimistic amount of cool-boxes (or so we thought). And off we go, up the M6 from the West Midlands to Aberdeen. All being well, it’s a 7 hour journey, plus breakfast stops and “comfort breaks”. We share the drive between us; two hours each, no more.
We arrive in Aberdeen in good time for the Northlink ferry. A big up to Northlink btw. Our trip in 2020 was postponed due to covid. They refunded us within 2 days. For our trip this year they also rang up to refund us the VAT on our pre-booked meals, also due to covid. we’d never have known we were due it.
We set sail at 5pm. We have a beer. Then another. Then a three course meal (go for the Haddock and chips, it’s excellent
). Then wine. Then rum. Then bed!
At 6am the next morning the Tannoy crackles into life to tell us that breakfast will be served at 6.30. We meet up for bacon and egg butties and coffee. We dock at 7am In Lerwick on Main island. Shortly after, we disembark and head to the local Tesco. We sort out some scram for lunch and drive North to Toft to catch the short ferry to Ulsta on the island of Yell. From there, we drive around the Voes to Cullivoe, taking in the fabulous scenery and bird life. We arrive at the dock to meet our skipper for the week, John Keggie on Albacore, 28 hours after we set off.
John had contacted us before we set off to confirm everything (including the weather) was on. He told me that, in addition to the ubiquitous Cod, the Haddock were also showing. We wasted no time in loading our gear onto the boat and set sail in the calmest conditions we’d had in 3 years at Shetland. John wasted no time in putting us on the Haddock. Now here’s a thing. Me and Mark had never caught one before and I’d read that baited white feathers work well for them. I can now tell you from experience that, whilst they might well do, they also attract cod. Big Cod. And even the 6/0 3 hook cod feathers from Veals are no match for a couple of 20-30lb Cod, never mind a 20-30lb Coalfish. The rigs were tangled at best, but more often destroyed. Keggie put us right. Try a 4-5inch Sandeel imitation lure, baited with a strip of Squid. So we did. And in amongst the Cod, up came the Haddock. Belters too!
Me, John and Col had a few Cod in the 15-20lb range, whilst Mark had two dogfish (which earned him a good ripping from us. His next fished turned the tables however as he hauled up an 11lb Haddock. Even the skipper was impressed.
It was some fish. We all switched to squid baits and ditched the lures altogether. Whilst none of us could quite match Mark’s 11lber, I had a 10 and John had a 9lber; a pb for him
At the end of the first day we had a box of Haddock and two boxes of Cod between us. When we got back to shore, we got them on ice immediately and headed to our digs for the week for a shower, a three course meal, more beer, cider, wine and rum and a bloody good kip!
Tuesday was more of the same, although the stamp of Haddock didn’t quite match the first day.
On the 3rd day, the skipper took us to another mark. No Haddock this time, just big Cod (25-30lbers) interspersed with the occasional big Ling and Coalie (Jeez do these big Coalies go well btw - surely the best pound for pound big fighting regular fish in UK waters). We spent the afternoon drifting the banks for a Turbot. No Turbot or Halibut this time, but lots of beautifully conditioned 15lb Cod; prime eating size imho.
Having had great weather for the first three days, Thursday was miserable. Strong winds driving the rain made conditions aboard pretty uncomfortable. We still managed to get out and catch. This time we picked up plenty of Launce, which we used as livebait for Pollack to 12lb.
All too soon it was over. We cleaned the fish and the boat for one last time and headed to port For more food and drink and a good sleep (despite the sun not setting til nearly midnight).
Friday we drive to the dock for the last time, to divvy up and pack the fish fillets (we pay a local guy to do the filleting for us whilst we’re afloat). Despite all the cool boxes we’ve taken (I take a 90l Icey-tek just for me), it wasn’t enough. We needed a further 4 poly-boxes to pack and transport our prime Cod, Haddock, Pollack, Coalfish and Ling fillets home.
We leave at lunchtime and re-trace our steps back to the West Midlands. Our last job is to portion up the fillets …… and share some of it with our family, friends and neighbours.
Shetland is a hardcore fishing trip (in the sense that there isn’t a lot of time to do anything else, conditions afloat can be challenging at times and it gets pretty tiring hauling up big fish and heavy leads from 300ft down), but I wouldn’t miss it for the World. We’re already booked for next year!
tight lines
Kev
Four of us go every year: me, my son Mark, my ex-workmate and good friend John; and John’s father-in-law and good friend Col. The four musketeers (four piss-heads more like!).
After much planning and preparation our journey starts at 6am on a Sunday morning In late June. We load the 9 seater minibus with our gear, together with an optimistic amount of cool-boxes (or so we thought). And off we go, up the M6 from the West Midlands to Aberdeen. All being well, it’s a 7 hour journey, plus breakfast stops and “comfort breaks”. We share the drive between us; two hours each, no more.
We arrive in Aberdeen in good time for the Northlink ferry. A big up to Northlink btw. Our trip in 2020 was postponed due to covid. They refunded us within 2 days. For our trip this year they also rang up to refund us the VAT on our pre-booked meals, also due to covid. we’d never have known we were due it.
We set sail at 5pm. We have a beer. Then another. Then a three course meal (go for the Haddock and chips, it’s excellent
). Then wine. Then rum. Then bed!At 6am the next morning the Tannoy crackles into life to tell us that breakfast will be served at 6.30. We meet up for bacon and egg butties and coffee. We dock at 7am In Lerwick on Main island. Shortly after, we disembark and head to the local Tesco. We sort out some scram for lunch and drive North to Toft to catch the short ferry to Ulsta on the island of Yell. From there, we drive around the Voes to Cullivoe, taking in the fabulous scenery and bird life. We arrive at the dock to meet our skipper for the week, John Keggie on Albacore, 28 hours after we set off.
John had contacted us before we set off to confirm everything (including the weather) was on. He told me that, in addition to the ubiquitous Cod, the Haddock were also showing. We wasted no time in loading our gear onto the boat and set sail in the calmest conditions we’d had in 3 years at Shetland. John wasted no time in putting us on the Haddock. Now here’s a thing. Me and Mark had never caught one before and I’d read that baited white feathers work well for them. I can now tell you from experience that, whilst they might well do, they also attract cod. Big Cod. And even the 6/0 3 hook cod feathers from Veals are no match for a couple of 20-30lb Cod, never mind a 20-30lb Coalfish. The rigs were tangled at best, but more often destroyed. Keggie put us right. Try a 4-5inch Sandeel imitation lure, baited with a strip of Squid. So we did. And in amongst the Cod, up came the Haddock. Belters too!
Me, John and Col had a few Cod in the 15-20lb range, whilst Mark had two dogfish (which earned him a good ripping from us
. His next fished turned the tables however as he hauled up an 11lb Haddock. Even the skipper was impressed.It was some fish. We all switched to squid baits and ditched the lures altogether. Whilst none of us could quite match Mark’s 11lber, I had a 10 and John had a 9lber; a pb for him
At the end of the first day we had a box of Haddock and two boxes of Cod between us. When we got back to shore, we got them on ice immediately and headed to our digs for the week for a shower, a three course meal, more beer, cider, wine and rum and a bloody good kip!
Tuesday was more of the same, although the stamp of Haddock didn’t quite match the first day.
On the 3rd day, the skipper took us to another mark. No Haddock this time, just big Cod (25-30lbers) interspersed with the occasional big Ling and Coalie (Jeez do these big Coalies go well btw - surely the best pound for pound big fighting regular fish in UK waters). We spent the afternoon drifting the banks for a Turbot. No Turbot or Halibut this time, but lots of beautifully conditioned 15lb Cod; prime eating size imho.
Having had great weather for the first three days, Thursday was miserable. Strong winds driving the rain made conditions aboard pretty uncomfortable. We still managed to get out and catch. This time we picked up plenty of Launce, which we used as livebait for Pollack to 12lb.
All too soon it was over. We cleaned the fish and the boat for one last time and headed to port For more food and drink and a good sleep (despite the sun not setting til nearly midnight).
Friday we drive to the dock for the last time, to divvy up and pack the fish fillets (we pay a local guy to do the filleting for us whilst we’re afloat). Despite all the cool boxes we’ve taken (I take a 90l Icey-tek just for me), it wasn’t enough. We needed a further 4 poly-boxes to pack and transport our prime Cod, Haddock, Pollack, Coalfish and Ling fillets home.
We leave at lunchtime and re-trace our steps back to the West Midlands. Our last job is to portion up the fillets …… and share some of it with our family, friends and neighbours.
Shetland is a hardcore fishing trip (in the sense that there isn’t a lot of time to do anything else, conditions afloat can be challenging at times and it gets pretty tiring hauling up big fish and heavy leads from 300ft down), but I wouldn’t miss it for the World. We’re already booked for next year!
tight lines
Kev
