Scratching around.

I’ve had a few short sessions over the last week, trying to catch larger sandeel species and my first topknot. The inlet area of Torness Power Station was the first venue and after collecting some bait in the shape of a handful of dog whelks, I tied on a small metal to try and tempt any large sandeel species that might have been present. A few years ago, I caught a sandeel there that I suspect may have been a Corbin’s sandeel. I took photos of it at the time, but really I should have kept it, so I could have carried out a thorough inspection to confirm its identity as either a Corbin’s sandeel or a greater sandeel. 

Matching the hatch in fly fishing terms. Large sandeel species eat small sandeel species. 

After an hour or so, I hadn't caught any sandeel, instead catching quite a few reasonably sized coalfish that were good fun on my ultra light setup. 

These plump coalfish put up a spirited fight. 

After a while the incoming tide forced me from the concrete platform where I was fishing, so I scrambled back up the sea defence boulders where I spent some time dropping pink isome down into the gaps between them. I was hoping to catch a topknot, but after trying several deep holes, all I’d caught were a couple of long spined sea scorpion. I then switched my attention to fishing over a rocky area at the edge of a large kelp bed. Baiting up small hooks with the flesh from the dog whelks was quite productive, with several mini species falling for their strong scent. 

This leopard spotted goby was first to munch a chunk of shellfish. Looks like popcorn but tastes a bit fishy. 

This blenny also took a liking to the small bait. 

As did this long spined sea scorpion. 

A few days later, I decided to visit the end of Granton Breakwater at low tide, to fish in the rocky bottom between the end of the breakwater and the rotten remains of the old wooden pier that used to be there. Fishing small pieces of ragworm I was expecting to maybe catch a few wrasse, but instead all I caught were some tiny poor cod, and I had to go down to tiny hooks to discover what was tapping away. 

There were lots of these, my first poor cod of the year, but sadly nothing else. 

The following day I headed to Newhaven Harbour to use up a small amount of maggots that I had left in my fridge that had started to turn. The juvenile whiting were loving them, hitting them as soon as my rig settled at the bottom of the wall I was fishing down.

Maggot proving once again to be a very effective bait for saltwater targets.

After a while, a piper turned up and began playing his pipes for the passengers arriving from a cruise ship that was moored out in the Forth. It was quite cool catching a few fish as he played his instrument behind me!

What's more Scottish than a red-headed, red-faced young man playing the bagpipes!

The juvenile whiting were numerous and equally ravenous, but eventually a viviparous blenny managed to get my wriggling little baits in its mouth first and was quickly hoisted up.

I've caught a few of these lately, but on maggot was a first for me.

All good fun, and my expectation of catching anything new during these types of sessions is minimal, but you never know. I just got back from a two-day trip down to Dumfries & Galloway with my mate Ryan, and on Saturday I'm heading back down there again with my mate Nick. Ryan and I had a good time, although the fishing was challenging at times. We caught a few fish, but we didn't get the one species that we went for. I have no expectation of encountering anything unusual on Saturday evening, having already ticked off a Dover sole, but I'm looking forward to hopefully another action packed session. I might spend some time trying to catch a starry smoothound during the session, fingers crossed one can get to a peeler crab bait before the hordes of thornback ray do.

Tight lines, Scott.