Applecross.

Driving up through the Highlands of Scotland is simply breathtaking, there is just miles and miles of awesome scenery strewn with rivers, mountain streams and lochs to make your mouth water. So much of it must be unfished or seldom fished by any anglers at all, for the life of me I couldn't get over how stunning it was, really it is an all-round lure anglers dream!

Scott did laugh as it seemed around every corner I was pointing out a tasty looking holding pool,  deep undercut meander on a river or deep water outcrop on the vast lochs, it's just stunning!

The mountains are something else too, while I am used to some quality landscape here in Snowdonia, the Highlands are just so wild and imposing and have a quality that just leaves you in awe, no photo could really do it justice, especially with my wee snapper. Nevertheless I had to take some!

The very last picture there is actually our mark in Applecross. Scott has fished here many times before and usually catches some nice Cod and Big Pollock, so that is what we hoped for.

We fished on top of the ledges high above the snaggy, shelving, kelp strewn bed. Mainly casting jigs and large soft plastics in the hope a large Pollock would take hold at any time, but boy were things slow! Not knowing the area I really wondered if the fish had buggered off for winter, yet couldn't reconcile that in my mind, nevertheless we ended up scaling down to catch the small Wrasse that were biting our Soft Plastics yet failing to hook up.

I have to say, I am glad we made that choice as the mark was stiff with Cuckoos and I caught my first ever male Cuckoo!

I did lose a decent Pollock, as did Scott, I caught a few small ones and Scott got one off a couple of pound or so. The Wrasse became the mainstay, though it felt strange fishing for those on my 9'6 Shore game!

A nice wee Ballan in the midst

I can't actually believe this, but I don't have a picture of any of Scotts fish from Applecross, I do have a picture of him fishing against the awesome backdrop though;

Once more we fished until just after sundown, I was keen to go tho the local pub I had heard so much about. On the way home we did have one close encounter with something big, a bloody great Highland Cow!

I got pretty close to this thing and whilst I was a tad concerned I might get barged over, he didn't seem bothered by me at all and just stared as he nonchalantly chewed on his supper!

Eventually we made it to the pub all scrubbed up and ready for some seafood tucker and local beverages.

The pub in Applecross is awesome, really friendly staff who make you feel very welcome with great service. The food is outstanding too and is complimented by a range of local ales and Highland Whiskeys, if you are up that way I can highly recommend it, I would say it was worth the trip just for that experience and banter alone.

What a great way to round of a beautiful day though, this road trip was really turning out well.

The next day we were heading to Skye to meet with Dimitrios; an angler I have been wanting to meet for some time and hopefully we would get into some bigger fish, still it was time for some shut eye before making our next leg of the journey!

Blog to follow, tight lines!