Lucky Dip II Portpatrick angling charters

02/06/2026

Lucky Dip II charter boat running from Girvan this week.

02/06/2026

Well we have lots of good stuff to feed back from our first few days up in the seaside town of Girvan.
We took Lucky Dip II up on the 30th May, Saturday evening after cancelling yet another day to the weather not letting us get onto the marks we know have been working for us.
June followed up in the evening in her car so we could stay local and fish on the Sunday. The weather, tides and sea state were just amazing with over 70 pollack, 15 coalie, pouting, poor cod, ling, cuckoo and Ballan wrasse the day was non stop. We were able to fish wrecks, reefs and of course the rough ground around the fabulous Ailsa Craig! Jane had something clean cut one of her baits(12" coalie) just missing the hook so some toothy things about already. Bonus for the day was the chance to see a pair of Basking sharks on two occasions while we moved about.
Day two was taking a team out to "Ailsa Craig" on an annual bird count survey to monitor the heath of the colonies of gannets, gulls, guillemots and puffins, things are looking good as we witnessed some feeding going well.
Day 3 was another run back out with some keen walkers and local families to visit the "Craig" , a 4 hour trip (ok a bit longer!!) gave them all a chance to see up close this amazing place, worked stones for the curling stones, and yet again all the birds and seals but alas no basking sharks today.
Tommorow and thursday we are already fully booked for the fishing with an exploring trip out to some banks ive fished before.
Friday we have a half day out to visit the "Craig" but friday afternoon is open for either a 3 hour round the "Craig" trip at £30 each or a 3hr landing trip at £40 each

Tight lines n blue skies
"Captain Steve"

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

Morning anglers n danglers, well the weather has been really hit n miss the last few weeks again as has the fishing on our local marks. With fish thin on the ground as seems usual this early in the season we have been pushing up to banks and wrecks we know have been working well.
Will let the pictures do the talking but number wise we are averaging 100 pollack 3 to 6lb, coalie, pout, pour cod and some smaller ling. BUT as always these marks throw up some surprising specimens once in a while to like the 25lb ( weighed ashore) Ling from yesterday (27/5/26)
Well worth the extra miles to put my anglers on the better fishing grounds!

Skipper Steve

12/05/2026

Loads going on despite this horrible run of windy weather. We have over the years always looked at making life easier for our guests and anglers and one way we think is to reduce the travel time for anglers. We are this year running a series of week long sessions from the harbour up at Girvan with the opportunity to fish different areas and species. Our first week will be from the 31st May till Friday 5th.
The Sunday trip has spaces available for pollack, wrasse and anchor fishing around one or two of the wrecks and maybe even Ailsa Craig.
Tuesday the 2nd we have a trip out to Ailsa Craig with the intention for our guests to land on and walk around some of the walks and up to the castle.
Round the Island trips will be available through the summer with hopefully a scheduled time table being posted ashore, trips over to the other local islands like Arran and Holy Isle can be booked on a whole boat basis.
PM for details, call or text on 07841 114489
Hopefully we get a good summer to explore the area more.

We will still be operating out of our home base of Portpatrick with our current boat "Lucky Dip II" covering both ports for now.

Tight lines and Blue Skies.
Skipper Steve

25/04/2026

Well i would like to say that the season up Craobh Haven went well and has just ended as i head round the Mull of Kintyre, but at the end of march we had an issue with the engine stopped us then. After testing it was agreed that the most likely cause was the head gasket so we chose to cancel the remaining months bookings.
With quotes for the job coming in at several thousands plus parts it was time for me to get my hands dirty again.

2 days of mucky oily work saw the engine stripped and repaired with initial results looking good i filled up with fuel this morning for the big test.
Im well happy with the work and the engine is a lot cleaner running and is performing really well

Gonna do our first trip on wednesday 29th and planning on heading to a wreck and bank that always fished well for us.
10 slots, first come first on, £65 each with tackle hire available if required.
Then May 2nd we have 6 slots still up for grabs. £65 each.

Thats all for now folks but look forward to seeing you all soon.
Tight lines and Blue skies.
"The Skipper"

15/01/2026

A very short video of one of the lads into his very first fish a 171lb skate. 35mph winds from a big squal with horizontal rain and hail stones. He did amazing with some great coaching from the cabin door

15/01/2026

Well what a start to the 2026 season on the skate from the wonderful Craobh Haven, The weather for this weekend was not exactly what i was hoping for with us loosing the Sunday and Monday to hi winds, Tuesday looked better ISH!!! With the lads on board we left and headed out to the marks and some lumpy seas, anchor down and waited for a while, bang over went the first rod and after 10 mins the rig failed, my rig too so an unhappy skipper!!! shortly we had another run and our first of 2026 was done and on the boat, measured and released. The weather deteriorated further with some heavy squalls coming thro and at one point we had horizontal hail stones while trying to fight another skate. We fished on into the dark until the last fish was landed in some far from perfect weather, hauled anchor and was back in the marina for 20:00hrs. Happy but tired anglers and of course me too lol. Plenty of spaces still for getting out on the big girls and the chance for the other species too, like the L*D on a 12/0 circle hook!!!

09/01/2026

Well thats another passage done and out of the way for me and Lucky Dip II. 96nm covered in a little over 8hrs. Stopped the boat a couple of times for making a brew and again at one of my usual marks so we were pretty much bang on my eta for arriving into Craobh Haven and a warm welcome from the staff there. It doesn't feel like 8 months since we last left but there has been some amazing things happening up there. The pontoons are looking great and undergoing improvements , and the temporary building used for a cafe have been removed with the great news that the pub on site is now under new ownership and being reopened early this year. Lucky Dip II never flinched on the journey up, im proud of this old girl as we work her as hard as we can but with care she treats us well. Im back up saturday with all the gear and bait needed for our first 3 days and hopefully this works out well. Plenty of solo slots will be getting made public soon so if you want to get in for the chance for early season skate or one of the other species we get at the same time fire me a PM or text/whatsapp on 07841114489 and i will get a list going.
Tightlines and blue skies

08/01/2026

Lucky Dip II left Portpatrick this morning at 06:40 heading up to Craobh Haven for the next 3.5 months on the Skate fishing.