MV Karen Photo GalleryNews - Tuesday 17 October 2006We had laid on a half day’s general fishing for the volunteer workers and their family members from the local Monday Club which provides facilities for adults with special needs; we left Scrabster with a party of nine anglers aboard at midday. Our first stop was over The Grounds aka The Rock, The Hump etc… Unfortunately we were bang on slack water on a very dead tide anyway, so it just wasn’t happening due to the lack of movement in the water – Time to move off. After a wee steam over to the south part of Briga Head, which is about a mile south west of Dunnet Head, we set up to target some Pollock, a slow drift up to Dunnet resulted in a few Pollock around the 6lb mark with some Codling at the 3-5lb mark along with the still ubiquitous Coalies and a pretty Cuckoo Wrasse.Interestingly, there were quite a large number of Codling under the half pound mark along with some very small Mackerel shoaling also, which wouldn’t have even made a decent Pike bait – The smallest being all of 9 centimetres. Now that the tide had picked up I decided to hit The Grounds again, fortunately the fishing had also picked up with the minimal change in tide bringing us better size Cod with the odd 6 pounder. To make up for the poor start at the beginning of the trip I decided to extend the trip for our guests which resulted in a nice 9lb Ling coming to the boat along with some more Cod for the party.  We worked hard at scratching out fish today which were quite patchy in places but I’m glad to say we got there in the end and everybody had good fishing. |
A great season with plenty of good Pollocking although a bit patchy for Cod at times. However the quality Ling have made up for it. |
 We have had many memorable trips out with our regular guests and also visiting journalists from both Total Sea Fishing & Boat Fishing Monthly (These articles will be reproduced on our website for you to enjoy soon). We have the BBC radio visiting this month to cover us on a trip out and were recently filmed for The Scottish Tourist Board so it has been a hectic but enjoyable season for us. My favourite memory is of Eddie fly fishing for Pollock in the Pentland Firth - Sheer class!  Also visiting us this summer were the World Sea Fishing crew and you can read up on their antics by clicking here!  Big Ling and Cod Moving InWith us reaching the tail end of the summer season we are now starting to see the double-figure fish move in to our waters en masse with at least one double coming to the boat on every trip and a fantastic five double-figure fish being caught during one session. Our best fish to date was a cracking 17 pounder which we hope to top before the year is out. Needless to say the mackerel are still running strong and there are a good smattering of flatties showing.  That just leaves us to see if the big Cod will move in for October-November so fingers crossed and a final memory from this summer, despite it being a tad breezy around the brass monkeys!  |
News - April/May 2006Thursday 11 May 2006 - 22:48:02Caithness Open Boat Championships 6th & 7th May People: 22 Duration: 2 days, 6 hours fishing each day Tide: Low tide around mid day, neeps. Weather: sunny, fresh south easterly wind 5-6 Bait: Various worm and shellfish, mackerel on first day second day lures only Rigs: Pirk and flyer, gilling, dirllers for bait rigs etc Results: 656 cod, 377 lyth, 54 others. Report: A good couple of days fishing despite a strong south easterly. Both boats fished around Dunnet Head with the Karen favouring the west side and the Hebridean Warrior fishing Brough Bay. Good average size of fish with the best cod, ling and lythe all around the 9lb mark. A dozen of so mackerel among the other species. All fish bar around a dozen returned. 1st Colin Mackay - £250 2nd Gus Mackenzie - £150 3rd Robbie Robertson - £100 Longest fish - George Bell 87cm Ling (Catch report by The Big Man) Just thought I'd add a few pix taken from the MV Karen as a good weekend was had by all? The overall winner - Colin Mackay:  The longest fish of the match - George Bell:  Stevie Souter with a nice Cod? :  A nice Pollock for Ray? :  The Hebridean Warrior dropping in for tea? :  |
News - March 2006 UpdateHaving used the winter months to do a full hull renovation, along with a complete re-wire job and various other routine works we were looking forward to getting back out to sea for some serious fishing. The M V Karen has renewed her code for chartering and is now coded under the MCA's MGN280 scheme.We were initially due to take a party out for 2 days shark fishing in early March but their trip was blocked by impassable roads due to the snow. Unperturbed, our party re-booked for 16 & 17 of March for their sharking session. Our party were well aware that it was at the tail end of the season which generally runs between late October to early March and that they would need added advantage of luck to connect with a shark that was not already nosing its way into other waters. Sadly lady luck was not on our side but the weather was relatively calm seas and gentle winds. Despite the absence of Porbeagles the boys were happy to get out and have some good Cod fishing.  The 18th of March couldn't have been better with the morning showing bright sunshine and a sea state like the proverbial mill pond with hungry fish to top it all off. Mingling amongst our crew for the day was Shaun Cummings who came up especially to do an article promoting the port of Scrabster for Total Sea Fishing magazine and all it?s untouched fishing marks from record breaking Porbeagles caught from the MV Karen to record breaking Halibut caught in the Pentland Firth. Needless to say we were only happy to oblige him in busting his personal best for an 8lb Pollock which is not bad but fairly average for the time of year here given that most of the UK coastline is struggling.  Equally it was nice to see the cod coming on also...  After giving our crew a warm lunch we decided to move of and put them over another mark and continue fishing for Cod.  Our youngest member of our fishing party was presented with a brand new boat rod for at the end of the session as he had happily spent the entire day fishing away.   March has continued to fish well with more trips out and good catches of Cod, Pollock and Ling.   We are fully looking forward to a busy April with our Tuesday and Thursday evening trips also starting. These can be booked through Susan's Tackle Shop on 01847 893415. This is particularly useful for individuals and small parties wanting to get out for a few hours fishing in the evening. For individuals and small parties wishing to fish from the M V Karen during the day, the following partially booked sailing dates available are: Saturday 8th April 2006 Monday 7th August 2006 Wednesday 9th August 2006 Friday 11th August 2006 Please also feel free to add your details to the website Customer Profile area to give us a better idea about your specific angling requirements. You can also view recent catches in our 2006 Photo Gallery. Tight lines. M V Karen |
News - December 2005Tuesday 03 January 2006 | |
 | Just a quick end of year report to cover our last two sessions in December 2005 aboard the MV Karen with the first two consecutive days being held on the 7th & 8th. Our anglers were fortunately blessed with calm seas and gorgeous sunshine given the time of year. The fishing on the first day was mixed with some of the party trying for Cod and Ling whilst the others fancied trying their luck for a Porbeagle ? We had two superb runs but sadly the sharks were only interested in mouthing their food. The second day was spent slowly drifting along the beautiful coastline with our party targeting bottom feeding fish for the day. Good fishing was had by all with plenty of Cod, Ling, Coalies, along with the occasional Dab and Wrasse. The best fish was a prime Cod to 13lb. |
| The next two days out fell on 10th & 11th with the weather picking up and the winds being distinctly fresher but our anglers had traveled up from Wigan and were determined to enjoy their weekend break. A group of brothers who fish regularly together and had brought along their younger nephew and his friend. Unperturbed by the weather, the two juniors on board managed to out-fish the more experienced anglers on both days running! Always the way, eh?. Callum managed his first ever Cod, a real beauty at 11lbs, needless to say he was chuffed to bits.
We also awarded Callum with a brand new rod for the best fish of the trip which will hopefully also keep his interest in fishing fully primed. |  |
So that just leaves everybody from MV Karen to wish all our visiting anglers a very happy and prosperous 2006 with plenty of good fishing ahead - Tight Lines  | |
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