Another successful raid on Cornwall, Dorset and Jersey.

When my trip to Shetland this month got moved forward a week it left me with six days off work and I was really struggling to find something to fill it with. Then it hit me, I could go fishing! Ok, I'll admit it, what I was going to do was never in question. Where to go was the real dilemma. With a few places I love to fish but haven't visited this year and catching new saltwater species in mind I weighed up where would probably give me the best chance do a bit of both and decided to visit the south coast of England again and began planning my itinerary. I then checked out the cost of a ferry crossing to Jersey as a foot passenger and was pleasantly surprised. A quick text to my mate Ross Johnson, who is over on Jersey for the summer, to see if he was free was sent, I had the start of a plan and after checking tides and asking a few other people if they fancied meeting up I was really looking forward to the trip.

I drove down to Bodmin in Cornwall last Friday. After arriving and dropping off my case at the B&B in the early afternoon I went up to the north coast to fish some rockpools in search of Montagu's blenny. The rocks were next to Treyarnon Bay, a spot that can get very busy with lots of surfers and families enjoying it when the weather is nice.

Treyarnon Bay from the rocks to the north.

The rockpools were certainly full of fish but my main problem were the plentiful common blennies. As soon as my ragworm chunk went in they would shoot out and fight over it making it difficult to catch anything else. When I finally did it was a small giant goby. This was soon followed by a specimen giant goby that was hiding under a fairly narrow gap under a large slab of slate in a very shallow rockpool.

It always amazes me the tight spaces these big brutes sometimes hide in.

I also caught a few long spined sea scorpions and a single rock goby casting across a very large rockpool and working my bait back across the bottom.

Another nice change from the endless common blennies. Not the fish I was after though!

After spending a few hours there I resigned myself to yet another failed attempt to locate and catch my target blenny and headed off to meet up with my mate Lee Goddard who was in Cornwall for a family holiday. It was the last day of his trip and he had been given permission to go fishing late in the evening so I picked him up at about 20:30. We drove down to Fowey and fished at the small ferry pier. Lee was fishing a whole red Isome on a Decoy Rocket jighead whilst I used a mini one up one down rig and baited my hooks with small pieces of ragworm and slivers of mackerel. Unfortunately the fishing was quite slow. As the tide rose we moved up onto the wall above the pier and finally started catching some fish. I caught a long spined sea scorpion, a rock goby, a tompot blenny and a small plaice. Lee caught a long spined sea scorpion too. I told him that there were a few specimen long spined sea scorpions at the mark and sure enough he soon caught one which he was quite pleased with.

Quite a handful.

Just before we left Lee had a cast in the area I had just been fishing. I was rebaiting when he called to say he had hooked a topknot but it was stuck in the weeds on the edge of the wall below us. I reached out, took hold of the line and applying gentle, even pressure managed to slowly pull the fish free. Already celebrating, Lee started to lift the fish up only for it to thrash, come off and make its escape. He was gutted to say the least. This was the second time he had hooked a topknot, a fish most anglers will never catch, only to see it throw the hooks and escape. I really felt for him and despite trying to tempt it again or maybe catch another one it was soon time to go and it was a bit of a disappointing way to end the session although after a brief period of stunned disbelief we did laugh about it. It's always good to catch up with Lee and I wish we could have fished together for longer. After dropping him off back at his accommodation I headed back to mine.

I got up fairly early on Saturday but the weather was not great. A pretty miserable day in fact being overcast and raining quite heavily. I decided to head to Mevagissey Breakwater as it's a very comfortable venue to fish and if the rain got really bad I could hide in the car which was parked close by. In addition I wanted to catch some dragonets and there are plenty of them to be found there on the sandy areas on the bottom. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly I was hoping to catch a male as they are very colourful fish indeed. Secondly I wanted to check that the species present were indeed common dragonets using a simple test I have recently discovered. Running a fingernail along the gill cover towards the three backward facing spines you will feel a forth facing forward just below the common dragonets skin. Reticulated dragonets lack this hidden forth spine. So I began fishing ragworm on a one up one down rig. On my first drop down I managed to catch one. I eagerly did the fingernail test and located the forth forward facing gill plate spine confirming that it was a common dragonet.

A small specimen typical of those normally caught at Mevagissey.

I was rather pleased by this and after popping the fish back it started raining quite heavily but I was quite happy to get the day off to a good start. At this point I received a text from local angler Luke Fox whom I had arranged to fish with to say he was on his way. I caught a lot more common dragonets and a lot of small corkwing and ballan wrasse before he arrived. The wet conditions meant I had a tricky time handling some of the fish and got caught by quite a few spines on the fish.

A much larger common dragonet. The elongated first dorsal fin makes me think this one is a male but has not yet reached full maturity and therefore has not changed colour.

A lovely little Cornish ballan wrasse.

I caught quite a lot of these colourful little corkwings.

When Luke arrived I told him about what I had been catching and he started fishing with some Isome and Ecogear straw tails. I carried on fishing my bait rig for a while before deciding to switch to lures for a bit too. We both caught a few more dragonets and wrasse between us and I had a chunky tompot blenny before we decided to head up the coast to a small harbour so we could try for tub gurnard and lesser weevers.

Soaked but I didn't really care. This rather chunky tompot blenny was a nice reward for my efforts.

After a short drive up the coast we soon arrived and headed to the end of the outer harbour wall. Fishing over clean ground my first cast resulted in a small fish being hooked and quickly landed. It wasn't a tub gurnard though. It was a lesser weever and was the first of many.

Nasty but nice. When you inspect them up close they are actually quite pretty little fish.

Luke had never caught one before and was well chuffed to get his first. Handling them carefully is a must and whilst Luke was avoiding the spines he almost grabbed his first one by the sides of its head. I quickly told him to stop and explained that as well as poisonous dorsal spines they also have poisonous spines on their gill plates. A nasty sting narrowly avoided, Luke used his mini grips to hold it for a photo.

I'm not a big fan of grips but better safe than sorry.

We kept on fishing and must have caught about twenty lesser weavers between us. A switch to a metal baited with a mackerel strip to try and tempt a tub gurnard only saw me catch a mackerel as I retrieved it to cast out again! Also by this point the wind had picked up quite a bit making things quite difficult so Luke suggested a change of mark and a short walk later we were soon fishing for perch in a small pond. This was good fun and we must have caught a few dozen small perch between us.

I have to get some of those firetiger Fiiish Black Minnows.

It wasn't long before Luke realised his time was up and he had to head off to go to a wedding reception in the evening. Really wish we could have spent longer fishing together as I really enjoy his relaxed approach to fishing. After he headed off and with an early start the following day I decided to pop back to nearby Fowey for a couple of hours to see if I could tempt a topknot. I had no luck with that though but managed to catch a few ballans and corkwings which gave me a good scrap on my ultra light rod.

Great fun on ultra light gear.

It started raining quite heavily and when a group of seagulls came, stole some of my bait when I wasn't looking and it became hard to focus on fishing because the cheeky buggers kept trying to get into my bag to get more, I called it a day, packed up and headed back to the B&B.

On Sunday I had another appointment with a fish I failed to catch when I fished Swanage Pier in July, the black faced blenny. With the pier opening at 7:00 I left Bodmin at about 4:30 and made the two and a half hour drive along to Dorset, stopping briefly at the Weymouth Angling Centre to pick up half a pound of ragworm on the way. After speaking to the pier master to get some inside information and pay for my £3.50 fishing permit, I was soon at the spot he'd described to me where the divers have seen the little triple finned fish I was after. Like my last visit the action was constant from the start and over the course of the next six hours I caught over 170 fish from the gap in the middle of the lower section at the end of the pier. Mainly wrasse, the majority of those being corkwing wrasse, but I caught lots of ballan wrasse and Baillon's wrasse too with quite a few tompot blennies and a couple of pouting as well breaking up the wrassefest.

A lovely orange ballan wrasse with light turquoise spots.

How cute. I think this is the smallest ballan I've ever caught!

I caught over a dozen Baillon's wrasse too.

As well as having pink lips and fin edges Baillon's wrasse also have quite nice blue, violet and orange facial markings.

I caught this small ballan with rather odd eyes twice. I named him Marilyn. The chances are he probably wasn't the only fish I caught on more than one occasion on the day but he stood out due to his appearance.

Tompot blennies are so cool!

Whilst thoroughly enjoying the frantic action I was still quite disappointed not to catch a black faced blenny. I decided to try fishing off the side of the pier to see if I could catch one there or perhaps something different. This chance resulted in a couple of common dragonets being caught and a lot more corkwing wrasse.

The sand just a few meters out from the pier obviously held a few common dragonets.

I caught an incredible ninety four corkwing wrasse from the pier!

When I ran out of ragworm at about 17:00 I decided to call it a day, headed back along the coast to Weymouth and checked into the B&B there where I'd be staying the night before getting the ferry to St Helier the following afternoon. After doing this I met up with local angler and member of The Lure Forum admin team Mike Hayes and we went fishing using lures on ultra light gear at a few different spots around Weymouth harbour. It was a very relaxed session and we had a lot of fun catching mainly pouting, and gobies with a few goldsinny wrasse and whiting also taking our Isome and Gulp! Sandworm.

The gobies we caught were almost all black gobies. I caught this single leopard spotted goby which was a nice surprise.

A nice little goldsinny wrasse in perfect condition.

An early season whiting.

Weymouth Harbour on a warm summer evening.

We had a chat about various angling related topics as we fished and walked between the various spots and it was a real pleasure fishing with Mike. By the time we finished and walked back to my B&B I was quite tired and very hungry after a very long day with little food. After I thanked Mike for meeting up with me and he headed home I treated myself to a large pepperoni pizza before heading off to bed.

Up at 8:30 on Monday morning I had a tasty full breakfast before checking out and leaving the car as close to the ferry terminal as I could without having to pay for parking. It was a lovely day, very sunny and hardly any wind and I decided to fish from the end of the pleasure pier for an hour or so before heading to the ferry terminal to check in. I walked down there via Weymouth Angling Centre to get some bait but they were out of ragworm so I got a small frozen pack of six raw prawns instead. The end of the pier was quite busy and the short session saw me catch a few corkwing wrasse, a few pouting, a couple of whiting and a single tompot blenny. Before I left I helped a young boy improve his chances by giving him a hook, retying his end gear for him and giving him some of my bait. He was soon catching fish and bragging to his brother about it which was quite funny. I left him my raw prawns and headed off to get the ferry over to Jersey. The crossing was only four hours and the good conditions meant it wasn't going to be unpleasant one.

I arrived in St Helier at 17:30 where I was picked up by fellow species hunting fanatic Ross Johnson who is currently staying over there. After a quick chat about our options we headed off to try for garfish. Once down on the rocks Ross made up some chervy using a closely guarded recipe and I started fishing a sliver of mackerel under a float. Ross meanwhile decided to fish a small metal close to the surface.

The fishy, oily chervy groundbait certainly did the trick and we soon spotted one or two garfish breaking the surface.

We soon managed to catch a few fish but they were mackerel and pollock and the beaked berserker could not be tempted. Ross then hooked a gull which put up quite a scrap before being landed and carefully unhooked and released.

Ross pulls a bird.

Before long the sun was setting so we headed back across the island again stopping at Big J's for a tasty burger on the way. We then headed to try for horse mackerel under some harbour lights but as suspected it was perhaps a little too early in the year for them to be so far inshore and all we caught were a few more mackerel and a couple of small pouting. Before we left we checked a few other spots and Ross located a small group of feeding mullet. Knowing that as soon as one was hooked the others would more than likely be spooked and disappear Ross generously allowed me to have a go at catching one by free lined some bread in the current. After a couple of missed takes I managed to hook one and after quite a scrap Ross did a great job of landing it without a net.

My first thick lipped mullet of the year. Good scrap on my ultra light gear. It would seem at night they are slightly easier to catch too so I'll be trying for them after dark again in the future.

On Tuesday morning we headed to harbour for our first boat trip of two. Whilst we waited on the rest of the anglers turning up we messed about down the harbour wall where we caught a few sand smelt and small pollock. Ross then spotted a fifteen spined stickleback and borrowed one of my #26 hooks to nylon to try and catch it. Amazingly it took a tiny piece of mackerel straight away!

A sand smelt. The second addition to my 2013 tally.

Ross was very pleased to get a new species! Just as well I had brought my tiny goby bashing hooks for him to catch it on!

I had a go too but despite seeing a couple they were quite small even for fifteen spined sticklebacks and they didn't seem that interested in my bait. The rest of the anglers soon arrived and we got aboard Anna 2 skippered by Tony Heart and were soon heading west to drift over some banks for turbot.

Blue skies and flat seas.

Strips of mackerel on long flowing traces were soon being worked along on the bottom to entice the big flatfish but the fishing was quite tough with a fair bit of tide running and only one turbot was boated with a second being hooked and subsequently lost close to the boat. We then headed to another mark and anchored up to target black bream using strips of squid on two up rigs. Again the fishing was quite slow and didn't start to pick up until tide eased off in the early afternoon. Ross was the first angler to catch a black bream and pretty soon a few more were being caught. Trotting my bait away from the boat after Ross suggested it may help locate the fish I soon started getting bites and finally hooked a black bream which I asked Ross to net for me just to be on the safe side!

A lovely looking fish and my first new species of the trip!

I then changed to a running ledger with a whole joey mackerel for bait to try for a conger eel, a bull huss or a tope. One of the other anglers then caught a horse mackerel close to the bottom on his bream rig so after asking permission I fished a second rod with a set of feathers on and a pound of lead to get it down quickly to the bottom through any mackerel shoals that may have been around further up in the water. It didn't take too long before I hooked a fish. Reeling up I was hoping it wasn't a mackerel and to my relief it wasn't.

My second new species of the trip. Again netted by Ross just to be on the safe side. It was followed by two more on the feathers.

No action on the big baits and by now the tide was really racing, making it very hard to hold bottom so we lifted the anchor and headed to an inshore mark. The tide wasn't as strong here but the fishing was still quite slow although the other anglers did manage to catch a few more black bream before we headed in. Quite a tough days fishing really but I was very pleased to catch two new species.

In the evening Ross and I went to try for garfish again. Sadly though all three spots we visited, even a fairly secluded one, were already being fished by other anglers feathering for mackerel and with the sun dipping we decided to head to the Victoria Pier area of the harbour for a fairly relaxed session in the hope something odd might turn up. When we arrived Ross made up some more chervy, this time using a different but equally closely guarded recipe. A rather stinky concoction was soon attracting lots of small pouting and some rather large sand smelt. We both then caught a small black bream each.

Small harbour pouting. The south coast equivalent of East Lothian harbour coalfish.

Once you go black...

After a while we decided to cast out a few bigger baits to try and tempt some common eels or perhaps a passing bass. It took a while to get any bites and my rod was the first to go but when I lifted it and struck there was nothing on. Ross then had the same thing happen and told me that his mate Dan had hooked a cuttlefish there recently which he'd failed to land. Sure enough the next time I got a bite rather than striking I just slowly reeled it in and it was indeed a cuttlefish holding on to the bait but it let go as it came up to the surface. We tried using a large squid jig Ross had but had no luck with that so we decided to call it a night and headed to Big J's again on way home for another very tasty burger.

The last day of my trip had arrived and we headed down to the harbour to go out fishing on Tony's boat again. Going down early I spent forty five minutes trying to locate and then pester some fifteen spined sticklebacks but despite finding a few small ones they seemed to be quite easily spooked and I didn't manage to tempt any of them before we set off. Off we went to the turbot mark again, making a quick stop on the way to catch some mackerel to use as bait. Again the fishing here was very slow. Only one fish was hooked but came off next to the boat as it came up. As it was quite apparent that a move was in order Tony wasted no time in taking us to the edge of a reef to fish for black bream again. I decided to tie up a rig with some Sakuma Chinu hooks and added a few pink and yellow beads to both snoods to hopefully give me an edge. This seemed to work a treat as I caught the first black bream of the day. Again I then swapped over to ledgering larger mackerel baits to try and tempt a conger eel, a bull huss or a tope. With two rods out this time and the tide dropping off I soon had a fish on one of them and it was one of my favourite species.

Lesser spotted dogfish. Some anglers hate them.

I love them and have been known to kiss them before release.

Whilst the other anglers carried on fishing for bream and were now catching a few I was happy to watch for bites from something bigger. One young angler in particular was having a great day and was showing most of the adults how to catch fish.

This young angler got the biggest black bream of the trip.

The next time I got a bite it was a tope picking up one of the baits and running with it before dropping it again. A second run shortly afterwards resulted in me hooking a tope but after being on for just a few minutes the hook pulled. I do have previous history of having bad luck with sharks and thought it was going to be one of those days! Pretty soon after though one of the rods started going again and I picked it up. No run this time but something was still there so wound down and struck. The fish was on and was putting up a bit of a fight but not much, I was hoping it was a bull huss as this would have been a new species for me but after watching the rod tip Ross knew what it was.

Ross called it correct and my first conger eel of the year was soon boated.

Time was now running out and I really wanted to get a tope. Watching the rods patiently in anticipation one of them started going, I quickly picked it up and a tope started running with the bait before stopping. When it started running again I wound down and struck. Shark on. With Tony and Ross offering advice and encouragement I took my time playing it and they soon expertly brought it on board. After taking a few measurements and tagging the shark I had my picture taken with it before it was carefully put back, swimming off strongly.

I'm talkin' about sharkin'!

With very little time left before we headed back in I decided not to fish anymore as catching the tope seemed like the perfect ending to a wonderful trip. As we returned to port the high speed ferry that would be taking me back to the mainland passed us.

Quite an impressive vessel.

Back at the harbour I thanked Tony for his services and then Ross dropped me off at the ferry terminal where I would begin my long journey home. It had been a superb trip and over the six days I had managed to catch twenty six species in total, adding six to my 2013 tally including three new ones. It was also great to fish with Lee, Luke, Mike and Ross again, visit some great places and the two trips fishing with skipper Tony aboard Anna 2 were great too. I don't have any more extended fishing trips planned at the moment but I still have some way to go if I'm to achieve my 2013 fishing targets and it's going to be very tough but I'm going to give it my best shot and who knows where that will take me. On more adventures no doubt!

Tight lines, Scott.

Two freshwater targets evade capture once again.

I've had a couple more attempts to catch ruffe and also crucian carp recently. Earlier this month I went to Balmaha on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond with my mate Jake. We split up and adopted two different approaches because we both wanted to catch different species. Jake was after big perch using lures and I was after the perch's little cousin the ruffe using maggots fished on a simple running ledger. I started in a small bay in the boat yard and Jake fished from one of the pontoons. Fishing was quite slow so we decided to move around to the opposite side of the bay. This didn't really improve things much and apart from some small perch, small roach and a single jack neither of us had caught what we were there for so after a while I decided to head along to the pier whilst Jake persevered in the bay.

Jake caught this jack on a Pink Candy Lake Fork Live Baby Shad fished on a drop shot rig.

When I got to the pier and dropped down my bait I got bites straight away and was soon catching lots of perch and roach. Whilst reeling one perch up a pike grabbed it and made good his escape with a free meal. I called Jake to tell him there were plenty of fish around and soon after he came along and joined me on the pier. Whilst I continued to catch plenty of fish Jake carried on fishing various lures and was having a frustrating time. This was made worse when a second much larger pike came up from the depths, attacked a roach I had hooked, missed and shot off back down to the bottom again, giving me quite a fright in the process. This prompted Jake to try and catch it and whilst he tried various different lures and retrieves without managing to tempt it I carried on catching perch and roach hoping that a ruffe might come along and take my bait instead but it didn't happen. Just before we left I caught a roach that was a bit bigger than the rest I'd had and it was in really lovely condition with bright orange eyes and fins.

I admire one of the nicest looking roaches I've ever caught.

So we headed home both quite frustrated, Jake by the lack of big perch and failing to tempt the big pike and me by the ruffe, supposedly the most common species in the loch, having eluded me once again. I shall just have to keep trying to catch the little buggers!

Today I headed up to Orchill Coarse Fishery to try for crucian again. I fished the snake pond and after making up some groundbait and tossing in a few balls in front of the reeds that line the opposite bank, I started fishing maggot over it using a float ledger setup. It wasn't too long before I started catching fish.

A lovely little mirror carp in nice condition was the first fish to take my bait. Maybe a ghost carp?

I had several small common carp too. Some of them looked like they could be ghost carp too.

I caught a few small perch, roach and bream too. This little "ghost perch" had rather odd large bug eyes!

A very dark and beautifully scaled mirror carp was the last fish of the session.

All in all I had a most enjoyable day and whilst I didn't get a crucian, which would have seen me beat last years species tally, the feisty little common and mirror carp were a lot of fun and it's a venue I'll be returning to in the future for sure.

Tight lines, Scott. 

Big or small, love them all.

I was supposed to go to the Shetland Islands to fish aboard Oberon earlier this year but my trip was cancelled due to severe weather. I still wanted to go and managed to book a trip in August and last weekend I set off. Driving up to Aberdeen and getting the overnight ferry on Friday I opted to pay for a sleeping pod for the twelve hour crossing. Having been out fishing the night before until the early hours of the morning trying to catch bass with my mate Martin I was quite tired so just spent the evening relaxing in my pod before trying to go to sleep. I have to say it was not that comfortable, left me wishing I had booked a bed in a cabin instead and resulted in a poor night's sleep. I arrived in Lerwick at 07:00 on Saturday morning before being picked up along with six other anglers by the skipper John Keggie's right hand man Kenny Graham. I opted to hire a rod and buy end tackle from the boat to save me having to transport it. I did however take my ultra light gear and some jigheads, drop shot weights, hooks and some components to make up mini rigs with so I could have a go for mini species in any harbours should the opportunity arise. Gear loaded in the minibus we made the drive up to Cullivoe which involved a short ferry crossing. We stopped off at our accommodation to drop off bags, went down to the boat and we were soon leaving port heading north.

Conditions looked great as we headed out.

The first day would be spent targeting large cod, fishing a mixture of large shads on french booms and heavy pirks with a gummi makk on the bottom instead of a treble hook. As we headed to the first mark we saw a pod of dolphins which was an amazing sight. With new species in mind I spoke to the skipper about what was possible and he told me there was an outside chance of torsk and hake turning up with a few of each being boated recently. Fishing baits might also turn up a few other species too so I had this in the back of my mind as well. To be honest though as soon as we started fishing lots of fish were soon being boated and with the average fish being into double figures the rods were bent double. It was very tiring work pumping and winding them up from the depths but most enjoyable too and I soon forgot about catching new species!

After a double shot of single figure coalfish I landed my first double figure specimen.

Next drop and this huge coalfish grabbed my orange 750g Deep Seeker and got hooked on the #12/0 gummi makk!

Plenty of big cod caught too. I had sixteen of them and most of them were double figure fish.

By the time early evening came we had filled the ships hold with fish and so we headed back to port gutting the fish on the way. This soon attracted a large flock of gulls following behind the boat fighting over everything that was thrown in.

Fast and furious feathered feeding frenzy.

Back at port we unloaded the catch and after filleting it all and storing it in iced boxes the rest of the lads retired to the accommodation to unwind and have their dinner. I had other plans however, when I told the skipper about them earlier in the day he informed me I would be too tired to fish upon our return and to be honest I was pretty knackered but I still managed a couple of hours drop shotting around the pier with my ultra light gear. Hoping that something unusual may turn up I caught a couple of long spined sea scorpions followed by a succession of poor cod. Working my way around the rocks opposite the boat I then caught a few small pollock. Most of them were very brightly coloured with a striking orange honeycomb.

Cullivoe Pier. Ultra light species hunting time!

First fish caught. A nice pink long spined sea scorpion.

Followed by this smaller orange one.

Poor cod a plenty as well.

Lovely looking little pollock.

As it got dark a few coalfish started feeding too and were soon taking my Isome when suddenly I heard a splash, turned to see what it was and was confronted by an otter poking its head out of the water. I tried to get my camera but whilst I was fumbling around it swam off out of sight. By this point the wind had dropped off almost completely and the midges were getting rather unbearable so I called it a night and headed up to the accommodation.

It was to be an early start on Sunday morning and we headed north again, this time to target big turbot drifting over huge gravel banks. The fishing would be considerably less frantic than the day before but the stamp of turbot being caught recently was impressive the skipper told us. Stopping briefly on the way, after passing a strange looking installation on the cliffs nearby, we quickly filled a box with mackerel to use as bait. 

An old derelict military listening post sits atop the cliffs on the northern coast.

Soon at the turbot mark we began the first drift. Traces consisting of about five feet of heavy mono with a large spoon and a muppet to act as attractors and a whole fillet of mackerel as bait on a rather large hook were attached to a boom and 2lb of lead to make sure we kept in contact with the sea floor. It wasn't long before the action started and the first turbot of the day was boated. A few big cod as well were taken and when I got my first bite and hooked the culprit I knew by the thumping that's what I had on and a pretty big one too. I took my time and eventually it came up from the depths and was brought aboard by Kenny.

What a monster cod!

During one drift we spotted a whale breaching the surface off in the distance but again I couldn't get a photo. Early afternoon we tried for haddock but could not get through the big cod which smashed our feathers and Hokkais. Time had flown by and before we knew it we had to head back to port as myself and two others were heading home that evening.

On the way back we passed Muckle Flugga, the rocks that house the most northerly lighthouse in the U.K.

Sad to leave, the three of us made the drive back to Lerwick where I got dropped off and I boarded my ferry back to the mainland. Rather tired I managed to sleep a bit better in my sleeping pod and when I woke up it was just about to arrive in Aberdeen at 07:00. Feeling quite refreshed I decided to pop into Stonehaven Harbour on my way home for a spot of ultra light fun.

It was low water when I arrived but the outer harbour still had a reasonable depth of water in it. I'd love to return when the harbour is full.

Drop shotting Isome soon had me catching lots of little codling and coalfish. Given the difference between them and the ones I'd caught up in the Shetland Islands it really brought a smile to my face. 

This tiny codling made me chuckle out loud. Quite a contrast to the ones I'd caught up in the Shetlands!

As was this little coalfish.

Then I got a nice surprise when I caught my first short spined sea scorpion of the year. It was so small that I almost just put it back without realising that it wasn't the long spined variety. I caught a second one a short while later that was just as small as the first so perhaps they have been breeding in the harbour. This was my sixtieth species of 2013 and means I have equalled last years tally already! Quite a nice way to finish the weekends fishing.

Tiny but my first new saltwater species for a while. It almost went back without being recognised.

So, I had great time. The fishing up in the Shetland Islands was quite incredible and John, Kenny and the other lads on the boat were great too. I'd love to go back to do it again and hopefully catch a few other species next time. Having equalled last years species tally my focus for the rest of the year will be on new species. I'm off to the south coast of England again this weekend for six days to fish in Cornwall and Dorset before hopping on the ferry and going over to Jersey to fish with my mate and fellow species hunter Ross Johnson for a few days. Hopefully I can pick up a few new species while I'm away.

Tight lines, Scott.

Blank-22.

I don't normally post reports when I blank, I don't really see the point. However I would say that whilst I don't like blanking most of the time I fish in nice places, it's a pleasure to do so and really at times catching fish is a bonus. To show that I do blank occasionally I did add a blank count to the blog this year on the left hand side below my catch record. Given the obscene amount of fishing I do the blanks I draw are relatively few and far between but I blanked last week and on this occasion I will make an exception and post about it mainly because I want to thank my mate Martin Allison for taking me out bassing down on the south west coast of Scotland last Thursday night.

Martin with an after dark bass. One he caught earlier this year. When I wasn't around.

After driving down and picking Martin up we arrived to find the conditions were, for a change, as forecast. It was pretty grim with a lot of cloud cover and fairly persistent rain, but we gave it a bash anyway. We tried a few areas along the shore and Martin's early confidence that despite the weather we would still catch a few fish, soon faded as it became apparent that there were few if any fish around. Despite the lack of action, throughout the night it became quite clear that Martin really has put a huge amount of time and effort into understanding how each area fishes and it was very generous of him to share some of his insights with me. We worked our way along the shore trying a few different tactics at different spots but all to no avail. Regardless it was good to fish with Martin again and catch up with him and it was also interesting to get an insight into lure fishing in the dark which is not something I do very often. To be honest I found the lack of visibility quite difficult. Not really being able to see what you are doing, exactly where you're casting to etc is quite disconcerting. I did start to get used to it after a while but it is clearly a skill that I'll have to practice if I want to fish in darkness again and improve my chances of catching. Wading over mixed ground too is another art form that proved quite tricky although I managed not to fall over during the session which was good, mostly due to the use of a wading stick that Martin lent me. So, after four fishless hours we walked back to the car and drove back to Martin's house in Ayrshire where I was staying the night.

That's the second time this year I have been out to target bass with another angler on their bass marks and we have both blanked. Perhaps I am a jinx! Maybe 2013 will be a bassless year for me?  Having equalled last years species tally already, my focus for the remainder of the year is new saltwater species and catching another five species of shark so I may not even try for bass again but who knows, one might turn up when I'm not even targeting them!

Whilst Martin dedicates most of his angling time these days to bass and sea trout on lures he was once the species hunting champion in his angling club with an impressive forty seven saltwater species from Scottish waters only and has in the past given me advice to aid my own species hunting antics. On Thursday he told me he fancies getting his bait gear out and I'm hoping that maybe we can go fishing again and do some species hunting together before the end of the year.

If you haven't already, check out Martin's blog, he's a great angler and a great bloke too.

Tight lines (or wet at least), Scott.

We'll meet again.

Last Wednesday night I met up with my new Ukrainian fishing friend Valentyn again up at Loch Lubnaig as he was staying at nearby Killin for the second stage of his Scottish holiday. It was a very nice evening and my mate Naz came along too. The session got off to a good start when Valentyn hooked and landed his first Scottish perch on his third cast.

I didn't take Valentyn long to catch a perch from the weedy area in front of us.

As we slowly worked our way along the shore I was next to land a fish after Valentyn pointed to a spot where he'd just had a bite and insisted I have a cast there.

Another lovely Lubnaig perch.

Naz meanwhile was obviously quite stunned by the scenery and was taking lots of photos including this one of me fishing.

Basking in the evening sun.

When we got closer to the point where Jake and I normally fish we spotted three guys camping next to the stream there who were also fishing. They were using float tactics and when I asked them if they'd had any luck they told me they hadn't caught anything. I found this quite hard to believe as they were fishing a spot that normally holds a few perch. I began fishing and on my second cast a perch took my Lake Fork Live Baby Shad and was soon landed.

Another nice fish.

This sparked some interest from the campers and I showed them the lure I was using. A few casts later I caught another perch. I thought we would all soon start catching more as the sun began to get lower in the sky but after this there was not much action until some time later when Valentyn caught a second perch after changing to a small hard lure. Naz meanwhile had tried a few different lures, was having no luck and was still pausing to take lots of pictures.

At one point the wind disappeared and the water was like a mirror. Note the grass hanging from the top of the picture!

The fish seemed to vanish along with the sun.

Darkness soon fell and with no fish biting for a while we headed back to our cars. Valentyn was heading further north to Inverness for the third stage of his Scottish holiday. He was planning to fish a few highland lochs and I'm looking forward to hearing about how he does. It was nice fishing with him again and I don't think it's the last time we'll fish together either. There's something else I'm pretty sure will happen again too. Naz will be back to get aLoch Lubnaig perch and next time I'll confiscate his camera!

Tight lines, Scott.