Species hunting road trip: Northbound pit stop.

Driving back up to Scotland, I had some pinkies left to use up and decided to make another fishing “pit stop”. Whilst out on Flamer IV, Jack had told me about fishery when I mentioned I’d like to catch some pumpkinseed. The fishery he told me about is located in Berkshire, so it did require a bit of a detour, but I left Cornwall early enough to allow a three hour session there and still be back in Edinburgh at a reasonable time. Upon arrival, I spoke to the owner, got a small amount of tackle out of the car and picked a peg that was out of the wind. 

Amazingly, these pinkies had been in the boot of my car for a week and were still going strong!

Setting up an ultralight rod and a reel loaded with 2lb mainline and an insert waggler and a #20 hook at the business end, I was fishing in the margins in no time. It didn’t take too long before a few pinkies being fed into the swim attracted some roach. 

The first species to show interest in my fluoro pinkies. 

After catching about a dozen small roach and some small perch, a shoal of pumpkinseed arrived and after that I caught quite a few of the pretty little member of the sunfish family. Mission accomplished!

Pumpkinseed are so cool! I always think they’re like a freshwater wrasse!

After a while, my float went under and slowly slid away from me. Lifting into the fish, I immediately knew it was something bigger. After about ten minutes of putting the drag on my Legalis LT 2000 reel through its paces and pushing my 1.5lb hooklength to its limit, a nice common carp was on the surface and drawn over my net. 

It was bound to happen when I was fishing with such light tackle!

As you'd expect, all the commotion the carp had made had spooked the smaller fish from my swim, and I didn’t catch anything for a while. It was almost time to hit the road again when my float registered the return of some fish and after a couple more pumpkinseed I got a pleasant surprise when I hooked something slightly larger and a goldfish came to the surface. 

A nice bonus and the last fish of the trip. 

So, my adventure was over, at least the fishing anyway, and it had been both very enjoyable and productive too. I’d added seventeen species to my 2023 tally. In the order I caught them, and with new species in bold, here’s what they were …

1. Greater sandeel/Launce
   
2. Tub gurnard
3. Tompot blenny
4. Black seabream
5. Butterfly blenny
6. Starry smoothhound
7. Baillon’s wrasse
8. Gilthead seabream
9. Common goby
10. Shore clingfish/Cornish sucker
    
11. Lesser weever
12. Giant goby
13. Montagu’s blenny*
14. Atlantic horse mackerel/Scad
15. Blackspot seabream/Red seabream*
16. Pumpkinseed
17. Goldfish

*the first time I've caught this species in the UK.

I've already decided I want to head back down to the south coast next year. There are a few species I've never caught before that I'd like to target down there. I might see if some of my mates want to join me next time. It would be good to share out the driving!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting road trip: Wet, windy and worth it!

The weather for the last two days of my time in Cornwall was pretty terrible. Wet and windy with the Met Office issuing weather warnings. Adam, who had hoped to join me again, decided against making the journey and another friend who I’d hoped to catch up with as well also cancelled their planned trip to Cornwall, so I ended up braving the elements on my own. Determined to add a few more species to my 2023 tally, I checked the forecast for different areas and came up with a plan, so I could try and avoid the worst of the weather, fishing mainly sheltered marks. On the morning of my penultimate day in Cornwall, I headed up to the north coast, where I parked the car and walked for an hour or so along the SW Coastal Path before dropping down to hunt for a Montagu’s blenny in some exposed rockpools. It was windy and overcast, but the scenery was still quite breathtaking. 

Golden sandy beaches,..

…and rugged cliffs,..

…led me to lots of exposed rockpools.

I spent some time fishing in different rockpools and caught a few small fish, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. After a while, it started raining and the rocks I was clambering over became a bit slippery, so I thought it was best if I cut my losses and headed back to the car. 

As well as a few common blenny and rock goby, I caught this tiny long spined sea scorpion before I got a bit wet and left the rocks, which were becoming pretty treacherous. 

In the afternoon, I headed to the Fal estuary to target Couch’s seabream, a species I’ve caught abroad but never in the UK. Things were slow to start with, but as the tide began to slacken off as high water approached, I began to catch quite a few black seabream. Unfortunately, that was all I caught. A young angler fishing next to me did catch a single Couch's seabream though, so that was a promising sign. I decided to return the following day for a second attempt. In the evening it rained heavily so I relaxed back at my accomodation.

Not the seabream I was after. 

The following morning the heavy rain continued, but as soon as it stopped I drove to Penzance to pick up some fresh ragworm. I then headed along to Marazion to try yet again to locate and catch a Montagu’s blenny in the rockpools there. For some reason, the rockpools were very sparsely populated, so I tried blindly dropping my split shot rig into likely looking spots. I got quite a shock when, after a fairly unproductive spell, a giant goby charged out of a crack and swallowed my tiny bait. It’s been a while since I’ve caught one, and I’d forgotten that they sometimes hide in shallow rockpools in holes that you’d never expect to find a fish of their size in!

A surprise giant goby with the impressive St Michael’s Mount off in the distance. 

I fished on for a while, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. It was time to WhatsApp a friend. Richie of The Big Lerf Podcast was the chosen friend, and he gave me a spot to try that he assured me was “stacked” with Montagu’s blenny! I jumped in the car again and headed straight there. Upon arrival, I found some large, fairly weedless rockpools, and set about locating my target species. It didn’t take me long to spot a few of them in amongst some common blenny. 

"Stacked" rockpools.

As well as several common blenny there were a few blenny with darker colouration and the telltale lappet of the Montagu’s blenny. Surprisingly they weren’t particularly interested in a pinkie maggot, so I dropped in a tiny piece of ragworm on my tanago hook. The result was instantaneous! I caught two in quick succession, took a few photos and popped them back before returning to the car. 

Montagu’s blenny is easy to spot if you know what you’re looking for. 

Finally! My first UK Montagu’s blenny! 

After a short drive, I arrived at the Fal estuary and had another session targeting Couch's seabream. The wind was howling down the estuary though, which made fishing quite unpleasant. The fishing went pretty much the same as the day before. As high tide approached, shoals of small black seabream arrived, and I was soon well into double figures of them. My ragworm baits being assaulted as soon as my rig hit the bottom. After three hours, I admitted defeat on the quest for a Couch's seabeam and drove all the way back to Penzance for an after dark session at the end of the Harbour's South Pier there.

Penzance South Pier after dark.

I was hoping to catch two species there. Firstly, Atlantic horse mackerel, and secondly a seabream that a few other anglers have caught recently, whose identity was a matter of some debate. They were either axillary seabream or blackspot seabream. Pictures I had seen were inconclusive though. As the name suggests, the blackspot seabream had a conspicuous black spot, found at the start of their lateral line, but the fish I'd seen lacked this or at best it was extremely faint. Luckily it didn't take me long at all to catch both my targets. Adam had given me some pointers about where to cast, his info proved to be invaluable and my small ragworm section irresistible. After catching a few small pouting closer in, I caught a small scad casting further out.

No identity issues with this one.

I then caught two of the mystery seabream in quick succession. I took lots of photos of their fins and their teeth and after catching a second scad I was happy enough and called it a night. Back at my accommodation, I did a bit of research on FishBase and using the soft ray fin count of the fish's anal fin, I positively identified it as a blackspot seabream. Axillary have 9-10 anal fin soft rays. Blackspot seabream have 11-12 anal soft fin rays. I counted 12 on both   CV the fish I caught.

A blackspot seabream. Also known as the red seabream (although this example isn't particularly red)! You can just about make out the black spot feature in the specimen above. The first four or five scales above and below the beginning of the lateral line are ever so slightly darker than those above and below the rest of the lateral line.

So Couch's seabream aside, I think I'd made the most of fishing in the poor conditions and had pretty much caught all the species I'd set out to, adding another four to my 2023 tally in the process. The Montagu's blenny and blackspot seabream were also UK firsts for me. My time in Cornwall had come to an end, and the following day I had a very long drive back up the road to Edinburgh to make. The weather forecast wasn't looking great, but I had a little plan to hopefully stop off somewhere on the way home and perhaps add another unusual freshwater species to my tally.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the final part.

Species hunting road trip: Cornwall calling.

After three nights in Dorset it was time to head west to Cornwall. Before leaving Weymouth I popped down to the Weymouth Angling Centre to pick up some fresh ragworm and then headed around to the marina nearby to try and catch a gilthead seabream, a thin lipped mullet and a common goby. The first target on my list was quickly caught. A whole small ragworm fished on the bottom on a running ledger saw me land two juveniles almost straight away. 

A nice little gilthead seabream. Another species added to my 2023 tally. 

There were plenty of thin lipped mullet swimming around so I rigged up a small spinner, removed the treble hook, replaced it with a small hook and baited it with a tail section of ragworm. Casting one of these around and slowly retrieving it usually attracts the mullet who then nip away at the worm section, but for some reason they just weren’t interested at all, and after an hour or so I gave up and headed to another spot nearby to try and catch a common goby. A split shot rig dropped down the wall with a tango hook baited with a pinkie produced two fish in two casts. The first was a tiny bass, the second my intended target. 

A little short of the minimum landing size!

Pinkie proving yet again to be a fantastic bait for saltwater mini species, including this common goby. 

Fairly happy with the start to the day, I visited Portland Marina for one last attempt at finding a black faced blenny. Upon arrival, I was confronted with several “No Fishing” signs, it was pretty windy, and taking a walk along the rocks I didn’t spot my target, so I decided just to head back to the car and continue my journey west. 

Spoilsports!

My next stop was Wembury in Devon, famous for its large rockpools. I have fished there before, many years ago, and was told recently that on a big sprig tide it was a good spot to try and catch Montagu’s blenny and also perhaps shore clingfish. I arrived about an hour before low water, carefully made my way all the way down the exposed rocks and began my search. 

Wembury, a rockpooling angler’s Mecca. 

Tanago hook baited with a tiny pinkie was my weapon of choice. 

Due to the wind and overcast sky I found it difficult to see any fish in some of the rockpools, so I speculatively dropped my rig in gaps in the submerged rocks and in front of cracks in the walls of the rockpools. This was fairly productive, and I was soon catching plenty of common blenny and the odd rock goby. Then I got a bite in a dark gap between three flat rocks and hooked the culprit. Lifting the small fish up and swinging it to hand, I could not believe my eyes when I realized it was a small shore clingfish!

A small shore clingfish, my second new species of the trip! It's also known as the Cornish sucker. The one I caught was very dark in colour, but you can just make out two dark spots on its head behind its eyes, a key distinguishing feature of the species.

I was over the moon with this capture, as I really didn't expect to catch one. I continued to fish for a while, exploring as many of the rockpools and likely looking fish holding spots as I could, but all I caught were more common blenny, rock goby and long spined sea scorpion. After a while, I decided to head back up to the car and hit the road again. My next stop was the small coastal village of Charlestown on the south coast of Cornwall. It was raining when I arrived, but a group of local anglers had braved the weather and were fishing together at the end of the outer breakwater. 

A few locals were out, suitably dressed for fishing in the rain.  

My target species at the mouth of Charlestown Harbour was a lesser weever. Small sections of ragworm were presented off the bottom and bites came every cast almost. After catching a couple of sand smelt, I caught a couple of lesser weever which were treated with great respect to avoid a potentially very painful sting.

Sand smelt. A few of these fried in flour make for a tasty meal. 

Lesser weever are venomous, so I carefully unhooked them using my forceps. They have a nasty reputation, but I actually think they're quite a pretty little fish. 

Having caught what I came for, I jumped in the car again and headed to Fowey to try and catch a topknot. They are a nocturnal feeder, so as I waited for darkness I fished over some rocky ground and caught a few small wrasse. 

Corkwing on a rainy day. 

The spot I intended to fish required a bit of dodgy climbing and as it got darker the rain got heavier, so I decided against fishing there. It had been a long day, I felt quite tired, and I didn't want to risk a fall in the dark in wet conditions whilst on my own. I was very happy with how my fishing had gone and didn't want to ruin it by having an accident! Another four species had been added to my 2023 tally and of course I was delighted to catch my first ever shore clingfish! Checking the forecast for the next two days when I arrived at my accommodation, it didn’t look very nice. I sent Adam a message to let him know. With weather warnings in place, my plans for the next two days in Cornwall were looking like they could be severely disrupted, and our plan to meet up again was also possibly in jeopardy. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.

Species hunting road trip: Swanage Pier.

On day four of my road trip I headed along to Swanage Pier to try and catch a Baillon's wrasse and also perhaps, if I got incredibly lucky, a black faced blenny. I got there before the pier opened, had some breakfast, and had a quick walk around. It wasn't a particularly nice day weather wise, but I was hopeful that the sun would arrive later on, along with lure fishing devotee and fellow species geek Adam Kirby, who was driving down to fish with me.

Swanage Pier on an overcast morning.

Things got off to a fairly predictable start. Fishing small pieces of ragworm on Swanage Pier is always going to produce a lot of corkwing wrasse, and by the time the clouds had lifted, and the sun was beaming down, I'd caught dozens of them, as well as the odd tompot blenny. Eventually I caught what I came for, a Baillon’s wrasse. 

Corkwing wrasse are the most common species under Swanage Pier. In my experience, anyway!

Tompot blenny are also present in good numbers. I find they seem to feed for short spells. You'll catch a few in quick succession, then you won't catch them for a while.

Not so common but still usually present are the pretty Baillon’s wrasse. This one was my first of 2023!

Straight away, I changed my rig slightly to see if I could get extremely lucky and catch a black faced blenny. Taking off my size #10 hook, I tied on a tanago hook and baited it with the smallest pinkie I could find in my tub. This produced bites immediately, but the culprits were tiny black bream, and lots of them! Sporadically I'd catch a rock goby too or a small corkwing wrasse!

There was clearly a large shoal of voracious juvenile black seabream under the pier. 

One of the rock goby I caught. This one with a prominent "custard" tip to its first dorsal fin.

Early in the afternoon Adam arrived, and after we had a quick catch up chat he set about catching a Baillon’s wrasse of his own. After trying a variety of artificial baits and lures, and catching a lot of other fish, he was over the moon when he eventually caught one on an Aquawave Ami, a tiny stretchy soft plastic lure that resembles a shrimp. 

Adam’s lure caught Baillon’s wrasse was taken on an Aquawave Ami fished on a simple split shot rig.

We carried on fishing away and talked about meeting up again later in the week further along the coast in Cornwall. When the pier closed at 17:00 we went for a walk around to the point at the end of the bay. As we went, I scanned the submerged rocks around a few small stone piers for small black and bright yellow fish, but didn't see any of them. Adam spent some time fishing creature lures on a Texas rig over the shallow rocky ground and caught a few ballan wrasse. I messed about in some rockpools, still hoping to locate a black faced blenny, but all I tempted with my pinkie on a tanago hook were some tiny corkwing wrasse and common blenny. Shortly after that, we decided to call time on another great day's fishing in Swanage. I always enjoy meeting up with Adam, fishing with him and talking about fishing. I was looking forward to meeting up with him again soon and told him I'd let him know what my plans were once I got to Cornwall and had formulated them so that he could hopefully meet up with me again!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Species hunting aboard Flamer IV.

The morning after driving down south I was up early and drove down to Weymouth Marina, parked the car and started organizing my tackle. After meeting up with Jack Perks, the underwater photographer who had organized the boat trip and asked me to take part, as well as some of the other six anglers who Jack had also invited along, I popped around to the Weymouth Angling Centre to get some ragworm. Once back at the boat, we all loaded our gear onboard. We left the pontoon at 07:00, and it didn’t take us long to get to the breakwaters of Portland Harbour, where we'd spend a few hours to begin with.

One of Portland Harbour’s massive breakwaters covered in old military positions. We fished a few different spots around them to start with. 

By the time we'd drifted over a couple of different marks, a few pout and pollock had been caught, as well as all six species of wrasse found in UK waters. Between the eight of us we'd caught Baillon’s, ballan, corkwing, cuckoo, goldsinny and rock cook wrasse! I also managed to catch my first tompot blenny and black seabream of the year. 

Not the blenny I was most looking forward to possibly catching, but very welcome nonetheless!

A few small black seabream interrupted the steady stream of wrasse. I’d really love to catch one of these in Scottish waters. Maybe something I'll attempt next year!

Whilst drifting over the third mark a few black goby were coming up and then the first butterfly blenny of the trip was caught. Quite fitting perhaps that it was caught by Jack, as the trip was after all his idea! I’ll be honest and admit I was pretty jealous, but at the same time I was happy for him, and it was also cool to see one in the flesh. That being said, whilst I was glad someone had caught one, as it confirmed their presence, that didn’t necessarily mean I would catch one too! So, with a sense of renewed optimism, I focused on my fishing, trying to feel any bites as my small piece of ragworm slowly trundled along the bottom. About an hour or so after Jack caught his butterfly blenny, a second one appeared from the depths and was hastily brought onboard the boat. Caught by yours truly! I was absolutely delighted to say the least! My first new UK saltwater species in a while, and a very cool one into the bargain. Blenny do occasionally bite you when being handled, and I've been chomped more than a few times over the years, but even I was slightly surprised by how super aggressive the butterfly blenny was, continually biting my fingers as I tried to take some photos of the small funky fish.

My first ever butterfly blenny! The rather vicious little swine attacked my fingers repeatedly!

I popped it into a bucket of fresh seawater to calm down...

...before lifting it out again for a trophy shot!

We carried on drifting over the butterfly blenny mark for a little bit longer so that the other anglers could continue trying to catch one, and before too long a third was indeed caught. After a while though we decided to turn our attention to targeting red band fish and skipper Colin soon had us in position on a new mark and gave the OK for us to drop our rigs down. Straight away, two of the guys caught one each. These were followed by a couple more shortly afterwards. I didn’t catch one myself but as I’d caught one before I wasn’t too disappointed. I caught my first red band fish almost ten years ago! After a while, no more had been caught, so we then decided to anchor up at a different spot further offshore. 

Colin took us to a spot that produces a lot of rays and other shark species, so some of the guys who had brought heavier tackle aboard dropped bigger baits to try for those. I decided to continue fishing with my Rock Rover and small baits, and this produced a few black seabream. One of the other anglers caught a striped red mullet, a few dogfish were boated and then Jack caught a small tope. After a while, my rod got pulled down by something a little bit bigger that turned out to be a small starry smoothhound! Great fun on my Rock Rover I must say, but more importantly, another addition to this year's species hunt tally.

Happy days. A bonus starry smoothhound on ultra light tackle!

As the tide strength increased, holding the bottom became problematic for those of us fishing with lighter tackle, so we decided to head back to the butterfly blenny mark to have another go for them. The drifts were a lot faster though, and this made staying in contact with the bottom and detecting bites difficult. I let out line as we drifted to try and keep my bait stationary for short periods, to allow any small fish more of an opportunity to grab my bait. This method worked quite well and after catching a few black goby I caught my second, and what would turn out to be the last, butterfly blenny of the day!

We finished up the day drifting over muddy banks targeting red band fish again, and just as had happened the first time we drifted over them, a few red band fish were caught almost straight away. The action slowed up after that, so some of the guys ditched their sabiki rigs and tried fishing lures for bass. They didn't catch any spiky silver fish but were rewarded instead with some other species including a nice tub gurnard on a Fiiish Black Minnow and a red band fish on a Major Craft Jigpara metal.

Ben Bassett's jig caught red band fish. What an awesome capture!

It was soon time to head back in and a great day out had come to an end. Between the eight of us we'd managed to catch twenty one species. A pretty good effort all things considered. Some of the guys had very little experience fishing in saltwater and others had fished exclusively with artificial baits and lures all day as well.

Jack Perks (Far Right) and his motley crew of species hunters.

I really enjoyed the day's fishing, and obviously catching the two butterfly blenny was a real highlight for me. In fact, it'll definitely be one of the highlights of my species hunting escapades this year! It was also great to meet Jack in person for the first time, we've been exchanging emails and WhatsApp messages about fish for years! It was a pleasure to meet and fish with everybody else too and see everyone onboard catching a wide variety of fish. If the opportunity to do a similar trip comes up again in the future, I'd sign up for it in a heart beat! I might even organize one myself next year!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Southbound pit stop.

Last Wednesday morning after saying goodbye to Nick and Ryan, I jumped in my car and began the long drive from Stranraer to Weymouth. About half way, I stopped at a tackle shop to buy some pinkies and then headed to nearby Kingsdown Flash. There I stretched my legs and quickly ticked off a species, that to my knowledge, is only found in that particular venue in the entire UK. 

A great venue for a short pit stop. 

My now tried and tested method of a tiny chunk of a pinkie on a tanago hook, fished under a Chianti pole float worked a treat, and I was soon catching some small roach, perch and my target species, the bitterling.

A small species, this was the largest bitterling I caught of about a dozen.

Mission accomplished! After relaxing for thirty minutes and chatting to some locals, I quickly packed up what minimal tackle I had used, got back in the car and continued my journey south. Arriving at my accommodation fairly early in the evening, I opted to relax, organise my tackle and tie up a few rigs for the species hunt on Flamer IV early the following morning. I was really excited by the prospect of potentially catching my first ever butterfly blenny!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Mull of Galloway.

Earlier in the summer, I arranged a couple of days out on Tuesday and Wednesday last week aboard Mull of Galloway charter boat "On Yer Marks" for myself and my mates, Nick and Ryan. A few weeks after this was booked however, I was offered a place on a boat out of Weymouth to target something quite unusual. Butterfly blenny! This trip was taking place the following day on the Thursday so I had a difficult decision to make as the dates caused problems travel wise. In the end, the opportunity to catch a butterfly blenny proved too tempting for me to turn down, so I broke the news to Nick and Ryan that I'd be driving south whilst they were out fishing on the second day. 

Going all the way down to Weymouth is a long way to go for just one day out on a boat, so I decided to use up the last of my holidays at work and extend my stay afterwards. This would allow me to try and catch a few species down there that I'd not yet caught this year, and also hopefully perhaps even some new ones as well. So, a two day trip to the southwest of Scotland had become an eight day long road trip to the southwest coast of the UK!

Last Monday night the three of us drove down to Stranraer, where our accommodation was booked. The next morning we drove down to East Tarbet where the boat was being launched. The conditions weren't great, it was pretty windy and a bit of a swell was running, so after catching some mackerel to use as bait, skipper Matt headed down around the Mull of Galloway to some sheltered water where we spent a large portion of the day float fishing for pollock. We all caught lots of them, but Nick seemed to consistently pull out the bigger specimens.

One of Nick’s pollock.

In the afternoon, we briefly visited a second mark, where we fished for launce over a sandbank using sabiki. There were shoals of mackerel in the area however, and as a result we only managed to catch two launce, but I got one of them, and it was my first of the year, so I was happy enough.

Look at the size of that mouth!

After a bit more pollock fishing in the afternoon, the wind had dropped off a bit, so we headed back around to the Luce Bay side of the peninsula where we spent some time live baiting joey mackerel for bass. We made several drifts over fairly shallow ground, letting out lots of line in the hope a passing bass would devour one of our baits as they swam along, but sadly this approach didn't produce any results. Before calling it a day and heading back in, we did a few final drifts fairly close to shore over a mark that Matt assured us would, and did, produce a few small tub gurnard.

The second addition to my 2023 species hunt tally.

The first day's fishing over, it was touch and go whether the second day's fishing would go ahead due to the forecast, but in the evening I got a text from the skipper saying that Nick and Ryan were to head to Port Logan for a 09:00 launch. I wouldn't be joining them as I had a long drive to make south. In the morning we parted company and I wished them luck targeting tope, bull huss and conger eel. They wished me luck targeting butterfly blenny! Not something you hear very often!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Sole searching.

My mate Gordon recently “caught” a small sole whilst wading with a push net in Port Logan Bay. The photo he sent me wasn't clear enough to get a positive identification, although I suspect it was either a sand sole or a solenette. I headed down there earlier this week to see if there were any more around. I knew that the likelihood of catching one was minuscule, but I certainly wasn’t going to get lucky sitting in the house, so off I went. The tide was out in the morning when I got there, and it was a lovely day. There were a few people out strolling along the water’s edge at the beach’s southern end, so I headed up towards the Port Logan Fish Pond end and quickly set up my ultra light rod. 

A nice quiet area to fish.

A small ragworm on a simple running ledger rig was fished using my trusty Rock Rover.

Casting my rig out amongst the small breaking waves it didn’t take too long for a fish to home in on my small ragworm as I gave it the occasional twitch and a small turbot was quickly wound in, popped back into the surf and shot off out of sight along the sandy bottom. It was followed a little while later by a flounder and a second turbot. 

Small but...

...perfectly formed.

Not the flatfish I was hoping to entice, but at least I had caught something, after those three fish however the bites dried up completely. Being a stubborn sod, and having travelled all the way down there, I persisted for a few more hours, probably a lot longer than I should have. Eventually, I decided to head off, but rather than drive straight home I decided to make a slight detour to visit Greenock on my way back. I was hoping I’d get lucky there and catch my first tompot blenny of the year but rather predictably I instead caught dozens of small wrasse. I also caught a few sand smelt and some pollock that grabbed my piece of ragworm as it fell down through the water. 

I’ve caught quite a few Scottish sand smelt this year. Perhaps they are becoming more common up here?

The majority of the wrasse I caught were goldsinny wrasse. They’ve got a nasty little set of teeth on them and usually show them off for the camera!

So a fairly good day's fishing, despite not catching the two species I was after! Anyway, I’m back down the Mull of Galloway next week and might try fishing Port Logan again to do more sole searching. I think I’ll try after dark if I do, and I might also fish three hook flapper rigs on two rods as well to try and increase my chances!

Tight lines, Scott.