BOAT ANGLER
Intrepid charter Skipper Scott Belbin takes to the road with his family to travel from Essex to Shetland in search of fish in the cold waters of the UK’s northern most fishing location
As you may have gathered by now, I am not afraid of a busman’s holiday! I am an obsessive angler and I am also lucky enough that my wife not only understands this but often joins me too. So, to be honest, every holiday we have ever taken has involved angling. Most centre around a certain location or species of fish that I fancy catching. This has taken us to some fantastic places; often wild and scenic places that we get to enjoy from a perspective most non anglers would never experience.
There are few places wilder and more scenic than the Shetland Isles. Perched at the northern most point of the UK they bear the full brunt of storms bowling in from the Atlantic. This has resulted in a very rugged and windswept landscape with, historically, very little recreational sea angling.
We first visited Shetland back in 2019 for what turned out to be a flying visit. We weren’t really sure what to expect or how much we would see on our trip. We had a couple of days of fishing and they were fantastic. We saw some huge ling, cod and coalfish as well as some cracking plaice and dabs. We only had one spare day to look around which evidentially wasn’t even enough time to look around one island properly. We therefore decided we would have to head back again and maybe explore some of the fishing further too. We eventually managed to get back in 2022 for a longer stay. It is a long trip from Essex to Shetland whichever way you do it. We broke it down a bit by making the journey part of the holiday. We did our usual trick of coming in from our day at sea at home, jumping in the truck and heading off on a Sunday night.
This was a little harder with nine-month-old Stanley in tow, but we still made good time and spent the night in a hotel near Gretna Green.
The next morning we had an early start and headed for Aberdeen where the ferry departs. We made it there in great time and were greeted by a gloriously sunny Aberdeen beach complete with bottle nose dolphins playing in the surf. We had a relaxing afternoon, Stanley played and we caught some flounders, before boarding the ferry to Lerwick.
A few people have mentioned to me that the cost of the ferry has put them off a trip to Shetland. To be honest, I think it is very good value. It is an overnight crossing of 12 hours and after taking the cost of accommodation, food and drink out of it I think it is good value for money.
The overnight ferry meant we arrived in good time to spend the
