Recipe for success.

At the start of the month I was invited down into the Scottish Borders to fish Alemoor Reservoir by my Polish mate Tomasz, a passionate predator angler who has a membership for the venue. Recently, whilst looking at what species I could target in the second half of the year that would be additions to my 2023 species hunting challenge, I realised that I hadn’t caught a pike for many years, and when I told Tomasz about this embarrassing fact he was keen to help me remedy the situation. We arrived early in the morning and would be joined later in the day by two of Tomasz’s friends, Zibi and Lex, who were bringing a small inflatable boat and a float tube with them.

Tomasz and I spent the morning and early afternoon fishing from the bank and whilst conditions seemed good, things were pretty slow. Eventually I hooked a pike but lost it when the angry fish went airborne and threw the lure as I drew it closer to the edge through some marginal weed. After a few more hours, Tomasz had caught a couple of small pike, and we’d both caught a few small perch as well. In the afternoon I had a take from a large pike, but when I lifted into it the fish dropped the lure straight away. Knowing that a large pike was in the vicinity, Tomasz started fishing a pig shad jnr lure. After a while it was taken by a fish that initially he thought was a pike but to his surprise his lure had been swallowed whole by a rather greedy perch of 46cm, weighing almost 3lb.

A cracking, and very greedy perch!

By the time Zibi and Lex arrived, we hadn’t enjoyed any more action, and I was looking forward to exploring more of the venue from afloat. Tomasz, Zibi and I headed down the reservoir in the SIB and Lex popped his flippers on and headed out in the float tube. The three of us did some trolling as we headed down the reservoir and then fished a few different bays up one side of it. Tomasz caught a perch on a Rapala Skitter Pop Elite which he was over the moon about, and Zibi caught a small jack on a Salmo Slider. I'll be honest, by that point I didn't think I was going to get a pike but I kept trying regardless!

By about 20:00 I still hadn’t caught a pike despite over ten hours of trying. The lads were camping overnight, but I had work the next day and had to drive back to Edinburgh, so we decided to head back to our starting point so I could head off. Tomasz gave me a Salmo Executor to try, and we slowly headed back, trolling as we went. About half way there we were chatting away, not really paying attention, when my rod was suddenly pulled round. “Fish!” I shouted, completely taken by surprise. It felt like a good one, so I loosened my drag a little and took my time playing it. The last thing I wanted was to bring it in too quickly only for it to go crazy at the side of the boat and throw the lure. After five minutes of steady pressure, a few short runs and some underwater thrashing about, a lovely pike was netted by Tomasz and was quickly unhooked, measured, photographed and returned to fight another day. 

My first pike for several years was certainly worth the wait! At 101 cm this pike was probably a high double, but we didn’t weigh it. Certainly the biggest pike I’ve ever caught.

I’d have settled for a pike of any size at the beginning of the day, but was very happy to catch such a nice fish. I think Tomasz was even happier though. Or maybe he was just relieved? I know what it’s like when you’re trying to put other anglers onto fish and whilst he was clearly happy, I think he was also relieved that I’d caught a pike, which was my only goal for the day. The pressure “guiding” brings is sometimes matched by the "relief" that follows when the target species is caught. Anyway, if Tomasz were to take up guiding, I'd certainly recommend his services!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species Hunting adventures on São Miguel: Part 2.

On day four of our trip Lee and Ross arrived. Lillian and I picked them up from the airport early in the evening and we headed back to the apartment. After they unpacked we all had a meal together and caught up a bit. Our friendship is one of those we just pick up where we left off and it really didn't feel like we hadn't seen each other for over two years! The lads were keen to do some fishing, so we headed out for a couple of hours after dark. We drove along the south coast to the harbour in Vila Franca do Campo, the most productive spot I'd fished so far. Surprisingly, the session was pretty slow, but we all persevered and caught a few small white seabream and some bastard grunt. Lee did hook into something big that stayed deep and started stripping line before heading under a large fishing boat and snapping him off. We could only guess what it was. I also caught a small fish that I initially thought was an Atlantic horse mackerel. It looked a little different though so I kept it so I could examine it further back at the apartment.

A bit of googling when we got back helped me confirm I'd caught my first blue jack mackerel. My forth new species of the trip. We'd see them for sale in the fishmongers the next morning, locally they are called Chicharros.

Apparently they're called bastard grunt from the Dutch word "bastaard" which means "hybrid". At one point biologists incorrectly believed they were not a species in their own right but a mixture of two others.

We headed back to Vila Franca do Campo harbour the next day so that Ross could catch a black faced blenny. I gave him a tanago hook to use and it didn't take him long to catch several, including some females. It was quite a productive session, although I'd caught most of the species already earlier in the trip. 

After a while we went for a drive around the western end of the island. Stopping off at a small pier in Mosteiros, where we caught endless wrasse from the fairly shallow rocky ground around it. This soon became a bit repetitive, so we jumped in the car again and drove east along the north coast to check out Rabo de Peixe harbour. After a quick walk around we decided to fish from a concrete plarform on the right hand side of its entrance. The water here was pretty deep but all we caught was endless wrasse again and the odd Guinean puffer. 

Keen to catch something else I suggested we head back to Ponta Delgada, to fish the slipway behind the fish restaurant. It turned out to be a good decision. Freelining bread and chunks of raw prawn produced plenty of thick lipped mullet, a few salema, the odd specimen rockpool blenny and you can probably guess what else, wrasse! The average size of the fish was a bit bigger though, some of them even bent our rods a little.

Unlike my failed attempts in Crete last year, I actually managed to land a few salema. They're  quite an attractive fish with those bright yellow stripes along their flanks. They're also supposed to be hallucinogenic if eaten. Never tried one myself to confirm this.

Lee and Ross both caught this specimen male blue wrasse within ten minutes of each other. We realised it was the same fish they'd both caught when we looked at their photos later on and noticed the slightly damaged top edge of its tail fin.

That evening after dinner Lee, Ross and I headed down to Praia das Milicias to ledger sardines for stingray with our heavy gear. While we waited for the sun to set I spent half an hour fishing in the surf with my trusty HTO Rock Rover and a piece of Angleworm on a drop shot rig. I only caught three lesser weever, but was happy enough as it was yet another species added to my tally. By the end of the session it also meant I was the only one of us who didn't blank on the beach that night as we had no joy catching anything on the heavy gear at all sadly.

Some fish can adapt their colouration to match their environment so they blend in. Black volcanic sand means a dark fish is harder for a predator to spot. Not sure what fish eats weever mind you as they live under the sand most of the time and are armed with several poisonous spines!

The following day, after popping into town and sorting out freshwater fishing licenses, we drove west to Sete Cidades. It's a small village located in the heart of the crater of an old volcano that also contains several bodies of water. After a nice walk around the side of the main lake we decided to fish from the bridge that crosses it. There were a few carp swimming around but we turned our attention instead to catching some perch on soft plastics. The resident pike had other ideas however and Lee caught two nice ones on his ultra light gear. Ross and I did catch a few small perch and I also caught a roach on a small piece of freelined bread.

Lagoa Verde and Lagoa Azul make up the largest body of water separated by a stone bridge.

The three amigos fishing away.

One of Lee's pike. Great sport on his ultra light rod and almost got under the bridge.

I was quite chuffed to catch this roach. My first one on freelined bread.

The following morning myself, Lee and Ross got up early and drove up to Porto Formoso harbour where I had booked us a four hour boat fishing trip with North Shore Sea Tours. We started off trolling for pelagic species but had no joy with those so we switched to fishing with jigs on the drift. Pretty quickly I caught a nice blacktailed comber close to the bottom. We also caught a few chub mackerel, blue jack mackerel and bonito higher up in the water column. It wasn't that rough, but despite taking some travel sickness pills in the morning just in case, my sea legs failed me, so I was quite glad when we headed back to dry land again. On the way back to port we spotted an angler fishing from a rock mark that looked pretty good so I marked the location on my phone.

The biggest blacktail comber I've ever caught.

Back at the apartment the lads had an afternoon nap and Lillian and I went down to the coast for a walk along Praia das Milicias, then carried on further along to Praia de São Roque. This spot looked like a potentially good stingray mark. The rocks to the right of it had deeper water in front of them and any large fish hooked could be landed over on the beach. When we got back I told Lee and Ross about the spot and later that evening we dropped the lads off there. Lillian and I went away and had dinner together and then met up with them again afterwards. Just after we arrived Lee caught a small stingray, which was the only one caught of the session.

Lee's stingray turned out to be the only one of the trip.

The following day in the afternoon we headed to the north coast again. This time we headed to Maia where we parked the car. Following the clifftop coastal path west, we then found steps leading down to the rocks where I'd marked the fishing spot the previous day. It turned out to be a great little session and the area was lovely too.

The view westward from the clifftop path was stunning.

The paths were lined with beautiful flowers.

Fenced paths and steps leading down to the sea made accessing the rocks down below very straight forward.

In no time at all the three of us were freelining chunks of raw prawn with a bit of split shot on the line to counter the wind and swell. 

It proved very effective and we had a lot of fun catching several of these hard fighting white seabream.

Ross caught the biggest one of the session.

Heading back to the car we decided to try our luck in freshwater again and drove south from Maia to Lagoa de São Brás, where we would try to catch some largemouth bass. The fishing was tough but eventually we caught a few small specimens.

Eyes bigger than its stomach.

In the evening we headed out locally and fished inside Ponta Delgada's huge harbour. Spotted rockling were the target species but we had no joy catching one. Instead we all managed to catch at least one greater forkbeard each, a new species for all of us and my fifth of the trip.

The greater forkbeard has elongated pelvic fins and a single barbule on its chin. It is the cousin of the tadpole fish, which is also known as the lesser forkbeard.

The next day we headed north yet again to the rocky shoreline to the east of Rabo de Peixe harbour where we spent an hour or so hunting in rockpools for spotted rockling. A few small crabs were found and used for bait on a split shot rig that was lowered into dark holes and in front of potential hiding places. A few dozen rockpool blennies later, we decided that trying to catch rockling during the day was a futile exercise and headed back to the south coast to fish the harbour in Villa Franca de Campo again. We tried a different area but the fishing was incredibly slow. I did catch my sixth new species of the trip though so that was a unexpected bonus.

A small red seabream. Also known as the blackspot seabream due to the small dark mark at the start of its lateral line.

The following day was our last together. Lillian and I were leaving a day before Lee and Ross and had to be at the airport in the afternoon. As we didn't have long before heading off we spent an hour or two fishing in the morning. Fishing in between the fishing boats in the working part of Ponta Delgada's harbour, the fishing was pretty poor sadly, but one species in particular was actively feeding. It was one I hadn't caught yet so I added one last species to my tally, taking my total to thirty one, before it started to rain and we headed back to the apartment.

We caught dozens of black gobies. My last fish of the trip was one.

Soon afterwards Lee and Ross dropped us off at the airport and we said our goodbyes. Lillian and I flew to Lisbon where we stayed for four nights before returning home to Edinburgh. Given the amount of fishing I was allowed to do on São Miguel I thought it might be a good idea if I didn't push my luck on that front whilst we were in the Portuguese capital, so there will be no species hunting adventures in Lisbon catch report to follow.

Anyway, despite the fishing being hit and miss, I was happy with my tally for the ten days and about catching a few new species too. Here's what I caught with new species in bold.

1. Atlantic Chub Mackerel
2. Axillary Seabream
3. Ballan Wrasse
4. Bastard Grunt
5. Black Faced Blenny
6. Black Goby
7. Blacktail Comber
8. Blacktail Rainbow Wrasse*
9. Blue Jack Mackerel
10. Blue Wrasse
11. Bogue
12. Common Two Banded Seabream
13. Damselfish
14. Derbio
15. Emerald Wrasse
    
16. Greater Forkbeard
17. Guinean Puffer
18. Largemouth Bass
19. Lesser Weever
20. Montagu’s Blenny
21. Ornate Wrasse
22. Parrotfish
23. Perch
24. Red Seabream/Blackspot Seabream
25. Roach
26. Rock Goby
27. Rockpool Blenny
28. Salema
29. Striped Red Mullet
30. Thick Lipped Mullet
31. White Seabream

*Unknowingly I'd already caught this species on previous trips to Madeira so not truly a new one.

Lillian and I really enjoyed São Miguel and we'd like to return to the Azores again, perhaps to explore some of the other islands there. I think a visit late in the summer might be better in terms of the weather and the fishing might be better then too, with some pelagic species coming in shore that time of year. It was great to catch up with and also to catch a few fish with Lee and Ross again. It always is, and on that subject, we all agreed that two years without a fishing holiday together was way too long, and we will be fishing abroad together at some point in 2023 hopefully. We haven't decided where yet but all agreed we need to do something special next time. I can't wait!

Tight lines, Scott.

And Bully's special prize!

I've been out spending time on small rivers and streams of late trying to catch my first bullhead. I've not managed to catch one but I think I spotted one which is slightly encouraging. My sessions have been quite enjoyable and have produced some nice bonus fish. I visited Lochore Meadows Country Park in Fife with my new workmate Brett before a bullhead session on a nearby river. We had fun targeting perch on assorted soft plastics using ultra light tackle and caught a few of them as well as a few tiny pike. I also got lucky and caught a rainbow trout which was a bit of an ugly brute so I didn't bother to photograph it.

One of my perch.  Caught on a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad, one of my all time favourite drop shot lures. Not that perch are very fussy mind.

These tiny little pike would follow our lures and attack them right at our feet. One that Brett put back attacked his rod tip which was lying in the water. Very funny. 

In the afternoon Brett had a driving lesson so after we parted company I visited a nearby river. Another workmate of mine Robert has caught bullheads from it this year and had kindly shown me a couple of the spots where he caught them. I've had a few sessions on it since and there is one particularly nice pool that has produced some really nice bonus fish on float fished maggot trotted down the swim. On the way to this pool I've also seen a few large red dragonflies which was pretty cool. 

Dragonflies are strange yet beautiful insects. 

As well as some pristine roach and small perch I've caught some nice brown trout from the small river.

I was quite surprised to catch this bigger brownie from such a small river. A rather lovely reward for my efforts. 

I've also had a couple of sessions on the Water of Leith ledgering small pieces of worm which again produced some nice bonus brown trout and also a very plump little minnow. I've also had the privilege of seeing the electric blue streak of kingfishers as they fly up and down the Water of Leith during both trips which is always a real treat.

A nice Water of Leith brown trout.

I thought I had caught a bullhead when I hooked this little bloater.

Given that bullheads are gobies I'm pretty sure that if I put a chunk of worm anywhere near one it wouldn't be hard to catch. Having had another quick read of my copy of the excellent "The Little Book of Little Fishes" I note that bullheads breed in springtime so I suspect that I may be better off waiting until next year to try and catch one when they might be more active before spawning. However, I've enjoyed my bullheadless bullhead trips of late with lots of nice bonus catches and colourful insects and birds to keep me interested in targeting them so I might have a few more attempts and maybe I'll try after dark a few times.

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting adventures around Nessebar : Part 2.

After breakfast on the fourth day of our holiday we took a bus to Ravda, the next town down the coast, so we could take a leisurely stroll along the coast back to Nessebar. It was only a few miles away but walking on sand slows your pace and with the sun beating down we were in no rush so we made a few stops to hide in the shade and enjoy cold drinks. I had my fishing gear with me as well and took the opportunity to try and catch some fish at a few rocky breakwaters we passed, having a few casts at each while Lillian chilled out and read a book. The water was fairly shallow everywhere I tried though and casting out onto the fairly clean sand resulted in little action. Fishing closer in near the rocks predictably saw the usual suspects being caught, mainly five spotted and ocellated wrasse, but including a few grey wrasse as well, a welcome addition to my species tally.

The five spots on the dorsal fin that give this species its name aren't always that apparent but on this one they were. 

Usually the last two are much more well defined.

This ocellated wrasse had a particularly vivid colouration on its gill plate markings.

The grey wrasse has a very dark blue, almost black spot on the bottom of its tail root although again in some specimens it is more defined than others.

Lazily plodding along soon we arrived at an old rusty wreck and had a couple more cold drinks and a light and tasty shopska salad in a nearby beach side restaurant.

Beautiful Nessebar.

Carrying on as we almost reached the scaffolding pole pier a few clouds began to appear for the first time and before long the sky had turned almost completely grey. It actually looked like it might rain rather heavily at any moment. The forecast had said scattered thunder storms so no more fishing was done and we upped the pace a bit and headed back to the hotel although it never did actually rain. After dinner in the evening I popped out at night and fished around the inner most part of the main harbour. This saw me catching some bighead gobies on a small Z-Man paddletail rigged weedless on a cheburashka lead. Working it slowly close to the bottom saw me catch lots of rather big angry gobies.

Aptly named and you can't half feel when one bites. They have very strong jaws indeed which have quite a few little sharp teeth in them too.

On the way back to the hotel I bought Lillian a box of chocolates. Not because I'm a generous boyfriend though but because I wanted to use the clear plastic lid as a little makeshift observation tank the following day.

In the morning I got up early and headed back to the main harbour to try and catch some of the little blennies I had seen a couple of days previously but had been unable to catch. Picking a few small mussels off of the harbour wall and putting tiny chunks onto #26 hooks I was soon putting my little aquarium to great use and had caught another new species of blenny.

Another new blenny species in my little observation tank.

Pretty orange facial markings and fins but which species of blenny I was photographing was a mystery.

Rather excited I headed back to wake Lillian up to tell her the news and try and find out which blenny species I had caught. Rather ironically when I consulted my Fish of Britain and Europe pocket guide and did some Googling it turned out that my mystery blenny was actually a mystery blenny (parablennius incognitus).

That afternoon we then headed back over to the old town for another relaxing ramble around, this time looking for a few potential presents to take home for family and friends. In between browsing all manner of souvenirs we had a look at some of the old religious buildings dotted around the island.

Nessebar has several dozen of these very old churches on it.

Not really my thing but I can appreciate the beauty in their architecture.

After getting back to the hotel Lillian was feeling a bit worn out by all the souvenir hunting and wanted a nap so I headed to the north port again with my little plastic tank to get some more photos of tentacled blennies. They were most obliging again although catching the males proved more tricky. Reading up on them later I discovered that males live with a group of females.

A female tentacled blenny.

The females have a different structure to their tentacles.

A male tentacled blenny. These are larger than the females.

The male's tentacles are much more impressive.

Before heading back I also fished Angleworm on a drop shot rig and caught a few more round gobies and ocellated wrasse. I also tried some paddletails mounted on a weedless hook on a cheburashka lead which the bigmouth gobies quickly destroyed although I'm guessing that's what they were as they all avoided the hook.

Another round goby. Their black spot makes them very easy to identify.

Before and after. Whatever it was made light work of my paddletails.

On the second last day of our holiday Lillian and I went on a coach trip. This took us to the Balkan Mountains where we visited the small villiage of Zheravna, an architectural reserve of national importance.

Some of the village's old wooden houses are hundreds of years old.

Quaint little cobbled streets.

The village is still inhabited though but the villager's houses blend in quite well and don't spoil the feel of the place.

After a pleasant lunch in the village we boarded the coach and set off again. Our next stop on our tour was Blue Mountain which we would ascend on a chair lift. The chairs had probably seen better days and some in the group stayed at the bottom but Lillian and I took our chances.

Going up. Blue mountain looks a bit grey to me though?

The Balkan Mountains.

On our way back down to the bottom.

Don't look down, just point your camera.

All feet soon back on solid ground we were soon on the road again. On the way back the coach stopped one last time at a winery and we all enjoyed some lovely award winning wines before yet another couple of hours on the coach before being returned to our hotel. It had been a long day and whilst the stops had been good we had spent more time on the warm bus travelling to them and were both very tired as a result. We had planned on going down to a bar to relax with a few beers and watching the Champion's League Final but both of us feel asleep.

On the final day of the holiday I got up early to try and get the last three species I required to reach my goal of fifteen. I decided to fish from the rocks at the back of the main harbour breakwater. Fishing in the main harbour past the innermost part is not allowed and I was perhaps being a bit mischievous but security saw me walking through the harbour and fishing from the rocks several times and didn't say anything so I guess it was OK. The water was much deeper there but at close range the wrasse and gobies were once again the dominant species. Casting out further onto clean ground however did see me catch something else, over a dozen greater weever, which were a bit of a nightmare unhooking so after the first two I debarbed my hook to make it easier.

This five spotted wrasse had a bit of a chubby face.

It also had well defined forth and fifth spots on its dorsal fin.

A dark spot at the leading edge of the dorsal fin is another distinguishing feature of the grey wrasse. Like the one on the tail root it can be feint on some of them however.

Some of the markings on larger grey wrasse are almost floral in appearance, resembling lichen. They can also have blue markings under the eye too although in this one they are very subtle.

Greater weever are pretty fish. I love the electric blue markings on them. Handle them with extreme care but preferably don't touch them at all, shaking them off of the hook with forceps instead. The black dorsal fin and the spines at the top of their gill plates are venomous.

I fished away making my way right along to the end of the breakwater where the large boulders gave way to concrete blocks. Carefully I climbed over them only to find someone else was already fishing there.

I wasn't the only one fishing. I did wonder what exactly he was hoping to catch. Monster gobies probably!

Soon it was time to head back but on the way I popped into the tackle shop to ask about freshwater fishing and the owner kindly showed me on Google Maps a few places to try for perch, pike and zander. Later that morning after one final visit to the old town to buy presents and returning them to our hotel I grabbed my gear and Lillian and I had a slow walk along to Sunny Beach so I could fish the spots I had been shown. First stop was the River Hadjiyska that flows out into the Black Sea on Sunny Beach.  It was almost completely full of reeds and thick weed though and we struggled to find an open spot I could fish. Ambling along a path that followed the river inland we eventually located a bit of water I could try but no sooner had I cast out than something caught my eye slithering through the water to my left.

Snake! "The name's Plisken."

Deciding it probably wasn't wise to be fishing in a snake infested area we headed back towards Sunny Beach and crossing a bridge I spotted a narrow section of the river's edge that I could cast a lure up. On my first retrieve a small pike shot out from the reeds and attacked my lure. As they sometimes do though, it missed completely. It was a persistent fish though and four or five failed lunges later it managed to hit my lure properly and after being played out was carefully hoisted up.

The river was full of reeds so I was forced to fish in the margins. Not a bad thing really. Some anglers neglect them which I've learnt can be a big mistake where pike are concerned.

Pike aren't too smart. This jack had about six goes before finally hitting my lure and getting hooked. 

With one species left to catch we headed up to the lake I had been shown. I suspected there were probably perch in it so started dropshotting small lures around the reeds. This didn't attract any bites so I changed to a smaller hook and switched to a piece of Angleworm. Exploring a few different areas soon saw me getting a few taps almost right under my feet and finally I hooked a fish.

Fish on. I was expecting a small perch but got a colourful surprise instead.

Species number fifteen was a pumpkinseed. They are a lovely looking and most obliging little fish. Once I had caught a few more Lillian decreed that fishing was over for the trip which I thought was fair enough.

Packing up my gear for the last time we walked back to our hotel. On the way we passed this rather impressive memorial.

A reminder that sadly we'd be flying home soon. 

Our flight back the following day was an early one and we were being picked up from the hotel just after 04:00 so in the evening we packed our cases and then went out for another lovely yet incredibly cheap meal washed down with a final few Bulgarian beers and a couple of cocktails.

Another holiday coming to an end and another beer being enjoyed.

Another great holiday over I had probably done a little more fishing than I had originally intended but Lillian is very understanding. That's a bit of an understatement really as I do get away with murder on the fishing front although I think letting her eat the contents that come in my makeshift observation tanks goes some way to appeasing her and is perhaps the only reason she puts up with me.

Here's a summary of everything I caught, new species are in bold.

1. Bighead Goby x 19
2. Black Goby x 15
3. Five Spotted Wrasse x 23
4. Greater Weever x 14
5. Grey Wrasse x 24
6. Knout Goby x 1
7. Mystery Blenny x 7
8. Ocellated Wrasse x 47
9. Peacock Blenny x 2
10. Pike x 1
11. Pumpkinseed x 5
12. Red Mullet x 4
13. Round Goby x 39
14. Rusty Blenny x 18
15. Tentacled Blenny x 20

I had a lot of fun fishing with light game tackle all week and catching lots of mini species but unless gobies, small wrasse and blennies are your thing I'd perhaps be slightly reluctant to recommend the Black Sea resorts of Bulgaria as a fishing destination. Nessebar is a beautiful place however and for a cheap holiday in the sun I think it's hard to beat. I dare say I may return in the future.

Tight lines, Scott.