Something to look forward to.

I had a short session on Sunday evening with my mate Ryan, scratching about at Newhaven Harbour. Rockling were the target species again, but for the majority of the night the resident whiting had other ideas. They were straight onto our black lug baits as soon as they hit the bottom, sometimes before they got there!

We caught plenty of small whiting, but it wasn't exactly exciting.

There was very little wind, but it was quite cold, and it rained lightly constantly, making things a little unpleasant. Casting our rigs in towards slightly rougher ground, I caught something that I knew wasn't a whiting as I wound it in. It turned out to be a beaten up long spined sea scorpion that was a little bit tatty around the edges and had a damaged tail.

A bit of an old warrior. Life is tough sometimes.

Over low tide, things went very quiet, and we didn't get many bites until it began to flood. Not long before we called it a night, Ryan struck into a decent bite and pulled in a rockling. Having caught a shore rockling during our last after dark session down in the Scottish Borders, he was hoping it was a five bearded rockling, but was disappointed when he lifted it up over the railings and realised it was a shore rockling.

Ryan's shore rockling was a nice deep reddish brown colour.

After catching a few more whiting, it was getting quite late, so we decided to call it a night after having a few "last casts". Rockling are probably my favourite target species in winter, but I've got to be honest, I'm not really a massive fan of venturing out at this time of year. Most of the time the conditions are, at best, pretty miserable, and at worst, downright rotten. Strong easterly winds the remainder of this week, mean I probably won't get out targeting rockling. Perfect winter cod conditions, but fishing for them just isn’t my thing! Luckily, I'll be getting a break from the cold Scottish winter next month when Ryan and I head down to Tenerife with our mate Nick. Should hopefully be a bit warmer down there, and whiting definitely won't be a problem! Not sure that I'll catch any rockling either mind you,although there is a spotted rockling found there so you never know!

Tight lines, Scott.

Starting again from scratch.

Another year has begun, and for us species hunters, it's time to reset our annual species tallies. Last year, I caught one hundred and ninety one different species of fish, including forty three new ones. Not too shabby, all things considered! On Saturday evening, I headed back down to Cove Harbour with my mate Ryan to spend a few hours in the freezing cold targeting rockling. A bit of a swell was still running following the latest storm, which made fishing with light tackle fairly testing, but before too long I had pulled out my first fish of 2026.

The five bearded rockling was also my last species of 2025.

As the night progressed, we caught a few coalfish and the odd small cod on our small black lug baits. Despite the conditions, the fishing was enjoyable, and in between bites we chatted away. We mainly talked about our recent trip to Japan and all the things we were missing about it. We also discussed some potential destinations for trips this coming year.     

There were plenty of these reasonably sized coalfish around...

...as well as some small cod.

Towards the end of the session, we both caught a shore rockling each. These are easily distinguished from their five bearded cousin as they possess two fewer "beards". They also grow a bit bigger too.

The shore rockling has three beards. So does the three bearded rockling, but in my opinion the two species look nothing alike due to their very different colourations!

Before we knew it, the time had come to head back up the path to the car and drive back up the A1 to Edinburgh. It had been another enjoyable winter session and I think Ryan and I will be out again for more of the same over the next few weeks, although we may fish more locally.

Tight lines, Scott.

I needed perking up.

Last month I was still suffering from post Japan trip depression, and I hadn’t been fishing for a while. Between Christmas and Hogmanay, I headed down to East Lothian to meet up with wildlife cameraman, author and fellow fishing fanatic Jack Perks. We only had a few hours together and Jack was keen to catch a flounder and a shore rockling, so we started the session off at Belhaven Bay. Crossing the Bridge to Nowhere, we were soon at the water’s edge, fishing into the breaking waves at close range. The conditions looked pretty good, but the timing of the session meant we were fishing the last couple of hours of the ebb on a neap tide, a combination I’ve found in the past to be hard going. The flood on a spring tide is usually a much better time in my opinion. We gave it a go anyway, and it was nice to catch up with Jack. As I suspected, we struggled to find any fish that were biting, although eventually I did catch a solitary small flounder. We stuck it out for a few hours, but when light started to fade, we decided to head to Cove Harbour and turn our attention to fishing for shore rockling. The fishing there was much better, and it didn’t take us too long to catch a few rockling, dropping small sections of black lug down the walls at the mouth of the harbour. 

My first five bearded rockling of 2025 and also the last species I caught in the calendar year. Not the one we were after, but I was happy enough catching them. I have a bit of a soft spot for rockling!

After catching about half a dozen five bearded rockling between the two of us, and also a few juvenile codling and some coalfish, Jack switched to a piece of prawn on his hook and subsequently lost a bigger rockling on the surface that he was sure was our target species. Shortly afterwards, he landed a smaller rockling, that on inspection turned out to be the first shore rockling of the night. Mission accomplished! It started raining shortly afterwards, so we called it a night and made the walk back up to our cars. It was nice to get out fishing with Jack again and hopefully we can do it again this year at some point. A UK wels catfish is on my to do list this year and there’s a fishery down south near Jack that we might visit, or we might meet up on the south coast. The second half of our session was also a reminder of how much I really enjoy catching rockling, and will be out again soon hopefully to catch some more. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Tokyo.

The following morning, we caught our last shinkansen of the trip and headed back to Tokyo, where we'd spend the last couple of days before flying home. On the way there, we passed the magnificent Mount Fuji. Taking dozens of photos as we sped by, I managed to capture one or two that did not have a blurred object in the foreground. No mean feat when you're travelling at such incredible speed!

Ryan said he’d love to climb Mount Fuji one day. I'm not sure if it's something I'm as keen to do. Better to admire the mountain from a distance!

For the last part of our trip we were staying in the “lively” Kabukicho area, near Shinjuku, so when we arrived in Tokyo we caught a train to Shinjuku Station, the busiest station in the world. Navigating around it can be challenging, even for locals, but eventually we found our way to the exit we wanted and made our way to our accommodation. Dropping our luggage off at our apartment, we weren’t allowed to actually check in for a few more hours, so we went for a big bowl of ramen, and then spent a couple of hours exploring some shops around Shinjuku.

I had spicy tonkotsu ramen with extra charred pork. It was so good!

Heading back to the apartment, we checked in and had an afternoon nap. It turns out that combining a massive bowl of ramen with shopping can be quite tiring! In the evening, we walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, where we lay on some artificial turf in front of it and watched the impressive TOKYO Night & Light show being projected onto the front of the building. Afterwards, we went up to the free observation deck at the top of the building to enjoy some nighttime views of the megacity.

There were several different light shows, including this Pac-Man themed one. I remember playing the game on my Atari 2600 back in the early eighties!

Tokyo after dark.

Next, we headed off to enjoy some sushi and washed it down with a few beers in preparation for a late night karaoke session. The sushi was excellent, but it was a dish that was suggested to us by Xin Yun that took me by surprise.

Chawanmushi is a savoury egg custard dish. This one was topped with salmon roe and an egg yolk. It was so rich and creamy!

Ryan, Lillian and I ended up drinking way too much and murdering various songs until the early hours of the morning. Xin Yun was much more sensible with her alcohol consumption and was a much better singer.

The next morning, Lillian and I felt a little bit rough and had a lie in. Ryan and Xin Yun got up early and headed out to visit the teamLab Planets digital museum. When Lillian and I did finally get up and left the apartment, we visited a rooftop garden and then the huge Don Quijote in Shinjuku where we did some shopping. Afterwards, we jumped on a train and headed to the Ichigaya Fishing Centre to see if I could add a species or two to my tally for the trip.

Located right next to Ichigaya Station, the centre offers fun fishing for carp as well as a few other species.

All tackle is provided, although it is pretty basic and designed to easily land fish rather than catch them in the first place. The lines are heavy, the hooks are big, and the pellets provided were breaking up very easily, making getting one on the hook very tricky. I started off targeting goldfish in an indoor pond. Luckily, there were a couple of kernels of corn in my pot of pellets, so I used a small piece of one on the point of my hook to successfully catch a few.

Catching goldfish in the centre's indoor pond was a little trickier than I thought it would be.

Next, I spend a short time targeting whitespotted char in one of the centre's outdoor ponds. The rod supplied for this was a bit heavier and a small bobber was attached to the line. Feeding in some pellets, I quickly noticed that the fish were much more comfortable taking them as they fell through the water. Carefully putting a pellet on my hook and lowering it slowly down through the water, trying to match the sink rate of the free offerings, did the trick, and a fish charged up and snatched it almost straight away. All fish had to be retained, so I gave mine to a local angler who hadn’t caught one.

The whitespotted char was a nice looking fish. Would this be my final fish and new species of the trip?

After treating ourselves to a late lunch in Mos Burger, Lillian and I jumped on the train and headed back to the apartment. Still feeling a little bit rough, we had a nap. In the evening, feeling refreshed, the four of us visited an offal hotpot restaurant nearby. As if eating various organs wasn't adventurous enough, Ryan ordered some pig's ears and feet as a starter. I tried both, but much preferred the tasty hotpot!

The next day, Ryan and Xin Yun went to do some last minute shopping for gifts to take home. Lillian and I headed north by train, so I could try fishing in the Kanda River, but the section we explored turned out to be more of a concrete drainage ditch and there was no sign of any fish in it. In the afternoon, after making our way to Yoyogi Park and walking through it, we met up with Ryan and Xin Yun again at Meiji Jingu Shrine, and then we headed to nearby Takeshita Street.

The beautiful wooden Ichino Torii Gate at Meiji Jingu Shrine stands twelve meters tall!

Over a hundred consecrated sake barrels near the entrance to Meiji Jingu Shrine make for an interesting and colourful photo opportunity.

Takeshita Street had some cool shops, but it was absolutely rammed!

Moving along in the dense crowd, we had a look in a few shops before stumbling across a capybara café. We were surprised to find out that a booking wasn’t required, so we decided to go in. Capybara are Xin Yun’s favourite animal, so she was very excited to get up close to them.

Capybara are the largest rodent in the world. It was pretty cool to see one up close and be able to feed and pet one.

Just a little further along Takeshita Street we arrived at an otter café. Otters are one of my favourite animals, so we decided to visit that as well. The capybara experience had been was very peaceful, and relaxing. The otter experience, was by comparison, pretty chaotic! About twenty otters in a room with about a dozen people and a staff member giving them treats was absolute carnage. They were clambering all over everyone to get their snacks!

Even cuter than the capybara in my opinion, they looked very innocent, but went slightly crazy when they were about to be given a few treats.

As it started to get dark, we left the crowded Takeshita Street and slowly made our way south to visit Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Not satisfied with petting a capybara and having otters climbing all over her, Lillian wanted to see a famous dog as well.

Being the busiest crossing in the world, Shibuya Crossing is visited by millions of tourists, which helps make it the busiest crossing in the world!

This statue is Hachiko, a famously loyal Japanese Akita dog who, after his owner's death, continued to wait for him at Shibuya Station every day for nearly ten years until his own life ended. Basically, the Japanese Greyfriar's Bobby!

Before heading back to the apartment to pack our cases, we enjoyed some delicious sushi in Shibuya. Heading back to Kabukicho, we happened to be passing the famous Godzilla statue just as he was doing his hourly light and smoke show.

Godzilla on the rampage. Again!

So, the end of our trip had pretty much arrived, and early the next day we'd be leaving Japan again. We’d all had a great time, but the end of such a fantastic adventure is always tinged with a little bit of sadness. No more heated toilet seats. No more shinkansen. No more train station jingles. No more famichiki! Japan is an amazing place, and it's strange what you miss when you leave it.

Lillian and I enjoyed travelling with Ryan, he was great company and was open-minded about trying new things. We loved seeing his reactions as he experienced some of the weird and wonderful things that Japan has to offer for the very first time. It had also been lovely to meet Xin Yun as well. 

Early in the morning, we began our journeys home. Ryan, Lillian and I said goodbye to Xin Yun as the monorail reached Haneda Airport, as her flight back to Singapore was leaving from a different terminal to ours. Our fourteen-hour flight back to Heathrow was followed by an eight-hour drive back up the road to Edinburgh. I'm not sure that I would do that again, I really struggled doing the driving as I was so tired, but a few breaks to stretch my legs, and a few cans of highly caffeinated drinks kept me awake! Being back in cold, wet and miserable Scotland has been quite tough, but writing this series of posts has helped enormously with my post Japan trip depression! Lillian and I love visiting Japan, and I’m pretty sure we will return again in the future.

On the species hunting front, Ryan and I had been quite successful. The fishing in major cities on the mainland and on Okinawa was quite a contrast, with the majority of the one hundred and two species Ryan and I caught between us, coming during our five days on the tropical island.

Here's a list of the species I caught, with new ones in bold...

1. Anchor Tuskfish
2. Barhead Spinefoot
3. Batu Rainbow Wrasse
4. Bignose Unicornfish
5. Black and Gold Chromis
6. Black Damselfish
7. Black Seabream
8. Blackbelly Triggerfish
9. Blackspot Sergeant
10. Blackstripe Cardinalfish
11. Bluegill
12. Blunt Snout Gregory
13. Brown Dottyback
14. Brown-lined Puffer
15. Campbell’s Goby
16. Common Carp
17. Crested Grunter
18. Cupid Wrasse
19. Cylindrical Sandperch
20. Dark Chub
21. Dory Snapper
22. Dusky Farmerfish
23. Finepatterned Puffer
24. Fire-tail Dottyback
25. Five-lined Cardinalfish
26. Fork-tongued Goby
27. Goldfish
28. Grass Carp
29. Grass Puffer
30. Half-barred Cardinalfish
31. Halfmoon Triggerfish
32. Honey-head Damsel
33. Honeycomb Filefish
34. Honeycomb Grouper
35. Indo-Pacific Sergeant
36. Iridescent Cardinalfish
37. Japanese Horse Mackerel
38. Japanese Sardinella
39. Japanese Seabass
40. Japanese Whiting
41. Kupang Cardinalfish
42. Lemon Damsel
43. Manybar Goatfish
44. Marbled Rockfish
45. Monogrammed Monocle Bream
46. Multicolorfin Rainbowfish
47. Narrowstripe Cardinalfish
48. Nile Tilapia
49. Oblong Rockfish
50. Okinawa Sergeant
51. Orange-lined Triggerfish
52. Oriental Butterflyfish
53. Pacific Dusky Wrasse
54. Pastel Ringwrasse
55. Pennant Coralfish
56. Pinecone Soldierfish
57. Pink-belly Wrasse
58. Red Naped Wrasse
59. Red Seabream
60. Redbellied Yellowtail Fusilier
61. Redcoat
62. Sapphire Devil
63. Saw-jawed Monocle Bream
64. Scissortail Seargant
65. Scrawled Filefish
66. Sixbar Wrasse
67. Staghorn Damselfish
68. Streamlined Spinefoot
69. Striped Large-eye Bream
70. Striped Monocle Bream
71. Threadfin Butterflyfish
72. Threespot Wrasse
73. Thumbprint Emperor
74. Titan Triggerfish
75. Tomato Clownfish
76. Undescribed Damselfish
77. Vagabond Butterflyfish
78. Valentin’s Sharpnose Puffer
79. Variegated Lizardfish
80. Vermiculate Angelfish
81. Whitebanded Triggerfish
82. Whitespotted Char
83. Whitespotted Devil
84. Whitetail Damselfish
85. Yellowfin Surgeonfish
86. Yellowtail Emperor

Ryan also caught these species...

87. Barred Thicklip
88. Blackeye Thicklip
89. Cigar Wrasse
90. Common Ponyfish
91. Freshwater Demoiselle
92. Ochre-striped Cardinalfish
93. Red-Eyed Puffer
94. Reef Triggerfish
95. Samurai Squirrelfish
96. Shorthead Sabertooth Blenny
97. Stocky Hawkfish
98. Sunset Wrasse
99. Undescribed Damselfish
100. Whitesaddle Goatfish
101. Yellowtail Clownfish
102. Yellowtail Sergeant

All in all, the time we spent species hunting had been very productive, despite some challenging weather on Okinawa. Of the species I caught, forty-one of them were new to me, which was great.

I need to get out fishing back here, but Storm Bram is currently battering large parts of the UK with heavy rain and strong winds. I've not been fishing since I got back from Japan, hopefully the weather calms down soon, so that I can maybe get out after dark to try and catch some rockling! Being honest, once the winter kicks in properly, I don't think I'll be fishing that much locally. I think another foreign adventure might be on the cards before the arrival of spring!

Tight lines, Scott.

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to thank the species hunting community on Instagram for their advice on fishing various venues around Japan before the trip. It was very useful!

In particular, I'd like to thank fellow species hunter Daiki for his invaluable help. He offered advice on the best places to try for certain species, and also helped me to identify some of the fish I'd caught. Maybe, in the future, I'll be able to reciprocate if he ever comes to Scotland!

Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Himeji.

The day before we headed back to Tokyo, we caught the Shinkansen in the morning again. This time our destination was Himeji, where we would spend the day visiting its famous castle and some of the bodies of water in the surrounding area.

Himeji castle is Japan’s best preserved feudal castle. Despite the city being bombed during World War II, the castle escaped unscathed. Standing for over seven hundred years, it has also survived natural disasters.

Walking around the castle grounds, you eventually make it to the main keep and can make your way up to the top via several sets of very steep wooden stairs. The views of the castle's surroundings from the top were great, but it was the magnificent decorative Shachihoko, large creatures with the body of a fish and the head of a tiger, that caught my eye.

We'd spot more of these decorative Shachihoko around the city later in the day.

Heading back down the wooden staircases again, we eventually made it back outside and ended up in the large courtyard directly in front of the castle. Himeji Castle is very photogenic so we took a few more photos.

 Also known as the White Heron Castle, Himeji Castle is Japan's largest and most visited castle. 

Leaving the castle grounds, we spent some time wandering around the beautiful Koko-en Gardens. A potential fishing opportunity did present itself inside, but we decided not to take it. By this point it was early afternoon, so when we left the gardens and found a nearby restaurant where we treated ourselves to some unagi.

Koi carp would have been our ninety-ninth species of the trip, but we decided against fishing in the garden's pond!

Grilled eel with barbeque sauce over rice. Served with miso soup and two small side dishes. It was very tasty.

Sightseeing out of the way, it was time for a relaxing stroll along some of the bodies of water around the castle. Obviously, fishing in the moat directly in front of the castle was out of the question, but we did see some grass carp, bluegill and largemouth bass in there as we walked along beside it. We decided to go to some quieter areas to the north of the castle, where I thought we could quickly pull some bluegill out using a piece of line, a split shot and a small hook baited with a piece of pink power isome. After walking for about ten minutes, we found a suitable spot with nobody around. Quickly setting up our simple hand held rig, the bluegill present weren't shy. Dropping a small section of bright pink isome down the side, it quickly vanished, and tugging upwards on our line when it did, we rapidly caught a few before making a quick exit.

The bluegill is considered to be one of Japan's most invasive species. 

Heading away from the castle and its moat, we headed northeast towards a canal that I thought might also hold some fish. On the way, we walked through Shirotopia Memorial Park, where we passed an amazing tree. 

Just a random tree, but I thought it looked stunning!

Arriving at the canal, it wasn’t particularly deep, and the water was crystal clear. There was no sign of any fish initially, but then a small group of grass carp appeared from further along the canal to our right. Quickly rigging up a single rod and tying on a 15lb leader with a chinu hook at the business end, I tossed in a few pieces of bread to see how the fish would react. Every single piece was hovered up very quickly, so I put a piece on my hook and flicked it out. It didn’t take long for a grass carp to swim over and take it into its mouth, and I quickly set the hook. After a short scrap, species number one hundred of the trip was on the bank. 

Species number one hundred of the trip and new personal best grass carp for me into the bargain!

Ryan was keen to catch one too, but the commotion my grass carp had caused had spooked the other fish away from where we were and coloured up the water too, so we baited his hook and walked along the water’s edge. It didn’t take us too long to locate another group, and flicking his bait towards them, a few of them went straight for it and Ryan soon had one hooked. After a brief fight, Ryan had landed a grass carp of his own. 

Ryan's first ever grass carp! A nice fish on ultra light tackle, but pound for pound, they don’t fight that well.

The mouth of a grass carp is quite strange. They’re primarily herbivorous, but like most fish with specialised dietary habits, they are also opportunistic feeders too. 

After putting Ryan’s fish back, we started walking back towards Himeji Station. After spending some time in a clothing shop, and a short shinkansen ride later, we were back in Osaka again. In the evening went out for dinner to a shabu shabu restaurant.

Wagyu beef hotpot. A fantastic meal to end our time in Osaka. 

Heading back to our apartment, we had a bit of packing to do for our journey to Tokyo the following day. Taking the shinkansen again, at least we didn't have to worry about what we were packing into carry-on or checked luggage! The four of us had really enjoyed our time in Osaka and our day trips to Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima/Miyajima and Himeji. Ryan and I had squeezed in a few short sessions, added twelve species to our tally, and reached the milestone of one hundred species during our time in Japan. With lots more sightseeing planned for our last couple of days in Japan, I wasn't sure we'd get an opportunity to add any more, but should an opportunity present itself...

Tight lines, Scott.

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