Most Wanted : Atlantic Halibut.

Recently I've been watching a few videos on fishing in northern Norway. It looks awesome and whilst massive cod and huge coalfish feature heavily it is an even larger fish that has captured my imagination, the Atlantic halibut.

The Atlantic halibut is the largest flatfish in the world a can reach over an incredible 700lbs in weight!

Whilst they normally swim gracefully close to the bottom, where they feed on other fish and crustaceans, they are also capable of very fast bursts of speed when hunting and have a large cavernous mouth that is full of small sharp teeth.

They have an impressive set of nashers.

It's easy to see why the species has a god like status amongst some Norwegians and seventeenth century poet Petter Dass romanticised about the much revered fish writing: "You loveliest halibut, you queen of the waters.".

Big cutbait shads and pirks worked slowly close to the bottom on the drift seems to be a good way of catching them. My mate Martin has been to Norway several times, enjoying great success targeting halibut using this approach and has put me in touch with someone who organises fishing trips over there.

A happy Martin with a nice big Atlantic halibut.

Atlantic wolfish, already on my "Most Wanted" list, along with torsk and Norway redfish are also possible targets too which also make arranging a trip appealing from a species hunting perspective.

The Norway redfish is normally only found in very deep water. It would be a nice bonus to catch a few. Martin tells me they taste great as well.

I already have next year's holidays all planned out so a trip to Norway will have to wait. Definitely a trip I'm keen to do though although I'll need to get a few more anglers to go as well. Anybody fancy it?

Tight lines, Scott.

The hunt continues...

Over the last two weeks I've been out a few times trying to add to my 2015 Scottish saltwater species tally of fifty eight. Fifteen spined sticklebacks are proving elusive but I suspect that the conditions are a major factor and having treated myself to new waders and a new headtorch I plan on doing some shallow night time wading in weedy areas if there is a period of settled weather. Two spotted gobies however seem to be around whatever the tide and weather throws at them. I'm spotting them all over the place at the moment and have caught a few whilst trying to tempt fifteen spined sticklebacks out of hiding using my micro fishing float rig.

Dunbar Harbour produced this specimen two spotted goby. 

I've also had a few sessions targeting conger eels and three bearded rocklings. The first was locally with my mate Nick at the back of Dunbar Harbour but unfortunately we both blanked. On Sunday I headed down to the Mull of Galloway to explore some new marks there. This first two were on the northern side and involved descending a fairly steep grassy bank before carefully climbing down the rocks at the bottom. A misty morning had left the ground damp which meant I had to take my time so as not to slip. Once down however both offered a comfortable grassy fishing platform, I quickly set up and the waiting game began. 

East Tarbet along to my left. 

Reel in free spool with the ratchet on. I waited for clicks. 

The sea floor was very rough so I fished a mackerel fillet on a #8/0 hook at the end of a 200lb mono hooklength on a running ledger incorporating a rotten bottom. Standard shore fishing conger tactics really. My battered old Ron Thompson Axellerator sat motionless for a while and winding in to change bait the rocks and kelp claimed some tackle before I finally got a bite and landed the rather greedy culprit. It never fails to amaze me how big a bait a dogfish will try and munch. 

I don't care what other anglers think about dogfish, I still like catching them. 

They are quite adorable really. 

Over the next few hours more end tackle was lost and two more ravenous little sharks were landed but sadly my ratchet gave no indication that a conger eel had taken my bait. As I wanted to head up to West Tarbet while it was still light to find a spot on the rocks to fish for three bearded rockling into darkness, I packed up just before 16:00, climbed back up and headed back across the cow filled field to the car. Soon on the southern side of the peninsula I found a comfortable spot just as light faded and got as comfortable as I could wedged into a ledge. Focusing on three bearded rockling I swapped my hooklength out for a much lighter one with a #1 hook and fished strips of mackerel straight down the side. It was not as snaggy as the afternoon's marks and I was soon catching a few more dogfish. Then I felt a slow pull and reeling my rig up felt a dead weight which turned out to be an octopus. I carefully unhooked and put it down next to me to photograph. Trying to pick it up again to put it back the octopus turned white, went fairly rigid and refused to let go of the rocks so I let it make its own way back to the water. Watching it slowly makes its way down the rocks, squeezing through narrow cracks on the way, was fascinating.

 A highly skilled contortionist.

It went quiet after that but sitting on the rocks holding my rod I suddenly realised I had some company. A few rather large sea slaters had emerged from their hiding places for an evening snack on small mackerel chunks that I had dropped whilst preparing my baits.

Most fish will readily take mackerel. So do sea slaters. 

With a long drive home to make it was soon time to head off. I hadn't caught either of my two targets but it was good to fish some new marks and I'll be back to try them again.

On Tuesday I returned to the area, popping into the tackle shop in Stranraer for a box of ragworm and some advice on my targets from the shop's owner Eric. After receiving both I headed to Port Logan and made my way south looking for a new mark to try for three bearded rockling. Once I found a jagged rocky skeer that I could safely access I set up my rod and started fishing. The sun had not yet set and trying a section of ragworm on my hook saw me hooking a fish almost straight away. Given it's November I was slightly surprised to reel in a chunky ballan wrasse. It was followed by a few more. I guess the warmest start to November since records  began has delayed their departure to deeper water. 

The first and largest of seven. 

As light faded the wrasse stopped feeding and I started catching a few small pollock. It wasn't until it was really dark that my bait got the opportunity to sit unmolested on the bottom long enough to attract a rockling but unfortunately when it did it wasn't the three bearded variety.

A small shore rockling. Not the species I was after. 

Almost as greedy as a dogfish. This little chap managed to cram a #2/0 hook into its mouth. 

Shortly afterwards I caught a second shore rockling and then it went very quiet for a couple of hours so I made my way back to the car and headed north to Portpatrick Harbour. Eric had suggested that fishing a certain area inside it from low water up might produce a conger eel. As the chances were that any eel that I came into contact with would be relatively small one I scaled down my hooklength to 135lb mono with a #6/0 hook and fished mackerel fillets. Lowering my bait down the side close to some submerged blocks I got comfortable and waited for the ratchet to click. Sadly over the next four and a half hours it remained silent.

Feeding the crabs with mackerel fillets.

I was almost out of bait when it started to rain just after 03:30 and I was struggling to stay awake too so I decided to end the session and made the long drive back to the capital stopping for a sleep on the way. The seven hours plus of driving to and from the area is a the only thing I dislike and I really wish I had a good conger mark a lot closer to home. I do think the area offers me the best chance of catching both a conger eel and a three bearded rockling though so I'll be making the drive again soon when the conditions are favourable.

Tight lines, Scott.

Missing the boat?

After Sunday's superb skate trip aboard "Reel Deal" with Willie and Gordon I headed out locally on Tuesday to try and add yet more, but much smaller species to this year's tally. I had two targets in mind and arranged to fish a few marks around East Lothian with my mate Mikey. First stop was Eyemouth Harbour where I was hoping to locate a fifteen spined stickleback. The water in the harbour was the clearest I've ever seen it but alas there was a distinct lack of fish. I had to resort to fishing in an isolated pool of water trapped amongst some boulders to open my account. The fish had spines but it wasn't a stickleback. 

This little brute charged out of a crack to wolf my piece of Angleworm.

Next on our little tour of East Lothian was Dunbar Harbour, again I did a spot of stickleback hunting whilst Mikey focused on flatfish. The tide was about half way in and whilst the bladderwrack on the walls was partially covered I couldn't see any of my target species to lower my rig in front of. There were dozens of two spotted gobies though so I amused myself trying to catch them using a micro fishing float rig. They were being quite fussy though and my tiny pieces of mackerel and squid had to be twitched by lifting the float ever so slightly to get them biting. 

Not quite small enough but the closest fish yet to fitting on my one yen coin.

After I caught a couple I joined Mikey pestering the flatfish and we caught a few small flounder and plaice. By early evening I still hadn't spotted any sticklebacks moving around in the weed and the flatfish were being less aggressive with their bites. With the sun getting fairly low in the sky it was time to head to our final mark, Ravenshuegh Beach. My target there was the lesser weever and the conditions once we walked down to it looked great, the sea being flat calm with small waves gently rolling in. I went with half a set of herring hooks, four small hooks with small blobs of fluorescent paint at the top of their shanks and baited two of them with tiny strips of mackerel and the other two with slithers of squid. Mikey meanwhile decided to fish Angleworm on a split shot rig. Twitching our rigs back towards us bites were few and far between to begin with as we wandered along the beach but once it got dark we finally got a few. When I  connected with one it was a small fish and reeling it in I had high hopes but it wasn't my target species and instead I beached a palm sized flat fish. Shining my head torch on it I did get a little surprise though when I discovered it was a plaice, quite an unusual capture for the area. 

The first plaice I've caught from East Lothian outwith the little corner that produces them in Dunbar Harbour.

After a while the few bites we were getting petered out again so we ended the session. I haven't seen a fifteen spined stickleback for a few weeks now and I'm wondering if I perhaps have missed the opportunity to catch one? I've also had about half a dozen attempts at catching a lesser weever on marks I know hold them. I don't think they are present in great numbers but I'm also not sure if they are resident all year round or only move inshore when the water temperature rises in the summer? I have a pair of waders on order that I plan to use in my efforts to catch both these species so I'll have a few more attempts but my thoughts are beginning to turn to switching my focus to conger eels and three bearded rocklings, two species that I can definitely expect to catch over the coming colder months. 

Tight lines, Scott.

The real deal.

My mate Martin recently put me in touch with his fellow Ayr Sea Angling Club member Willie who very generously invited me out for a day targeting skate aboard his boat "reel deal".On Sunday I set of at 5:00 to get myself down to Ardfern on the Sound of Jura where Willie and Gordon were waiting for me having fished down there the previous day. With no traffic on the road I made the journey in good time and we launched just after 8:30. It was a lovely day as we cruised south towards our first mark.

Conditions were perfect.

It didn't take us long at all to get to the first spot and we were soon tied up on a buoy that had been left in place by the lads the day before. Six large baits were soon prepared for the skate rods and were lowered down over four hundred feet to the sea floor. With the opportunity to also perhaps catch a black mouthed dogfish or a cuckoo ray I fished a second lighter rod, opting for a spreader boom at the business end. Plenty of luminous beads were placed on my snoods and two #2/0 Sakuma Manta hooks were baited with sandeel, a favourite bait of dogfish. The lads assured me that catching a black mouthed dogfish was simply a matter of playing the numbers game and ploughing through the lesser spotted dogfish. Sure enough I was soon catching a few of the much more abundant of the two sharks. While I plugged away there was no action on the skate rods and when the tide increased we did a bait change to find that our the end tackle was picking up lots of weed so we lifted the anchor and moved to a second mark.

Anchored up again more big baits were lowered to the bottom and we waited for signs of skate showing an interest in them but after a while with no movement on any of the rod tips we reeled them up. There was very little left of the baits as they had been ravaged by the small slater like crustaceans that are found in the area so more fresh ones were prepared and dropped down. Gordon then began fishing a lighter rod too and after a couple of lesser spotted dogfish he caught a black mouthed dogfish.

Gordon shows off his black mouthed dogfish. It was a very cool looking shark.

The inside of their mouths is indeed black.

Some species hunters get frustrated when a fellow angler fishing along side them catches a fish they are after. I prefer to see it as an encouraging sign that the target is present and can be caught so I kept fishing away. By that point I had used up all my sandeel so I switched to mackerel strips on my hooks and caught a few more lesser spotted dogfish and a couple of thornback rays. 

A nice change from the procession of lesser spotted dogfish. 

With not much happening on the skate rods I was now pretty focused on catching a black mouthed dogfish but I soon forgot about them when a bit of interest was eventually shown in one of the big baits. Gordon put a butt pad and harness on me, Willie handed me the rod and the battle commenced.

Skate fights can last over an hour and are physically demanding. As the fight had only just started I managed a smile for the camera.

Having played skate before I knew what to expect, including the banter from the lads. In amongst the "Why are you taking so long?" and "It must be a big dogfish!" patter they kindly gave me a few pointers on my stance and my pumping and winding technique. I found this a big help and after getting the fish off the bottom only for it to swim back down again a few times I eventually got it off the bottom and kept it off, slowly gaining line and getting into a nice rhythm. The fish, a large male, eventually appeared from the depths and was quickly brought on board by Willie and Gordon before quickly being measured, photographed and returned. 

Despite taking on board the advice given and improving my technique my muscles were still aching but it was well worth the effort.

I love watching them go back. A few strokes of their wings and they gracefully glide back towards the bottom.

I was a very happy angler and had added another saltwater species to my tally from Scotland this year. No rest for the wicked though and I wanted to add another by catching my first black mouthed dogfish. As a few clouds rolled overhead Willie joined Gordon and I fishing a lighter rod and after a few obligatory lesser spotted dogfish he caught what he suspected was a ray as he retrieved it but it turned out to be a small skate. 

At just over 6lb this was easily the smallest skate I've seen caught by quite a margin.

The tide then really started to pick up and as it got stronger it was harder to hold bottom and the dogfish bites dried up. One of the big baits was picked up by something and Willie had a fish on for a brief period but it dropped the bait. He suspected it might have been a conger just holding on. Soon it was time to wind up the skate baits and head back in. 

Another cracking view as the sun disappears behind some clouds as we headed back to dry land.

It had been a great day and I can't thank Willie enough for the opportunity to spend the day out on his boat. When it comes to anglers who know their stuff the boys from the Ayr Sea Angling Club are certainly the real deal, great guys too who have gone out of their way to help me catch fish on several occasions this year. Without their generosity, experience, knowledge and advice I don't think I'd have reached my target of fifty Scottish saltwater species this year, let alone be approaching sixty and I hope I get the opportunity to fish with them again in the not too distant future.

Tight lines, Scott.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

After last Tuesday's sucessful boat trip I was pretty tired but with conditions looking great the next day I decided to head back up to Scotstown Beach for another attempt at catching a turbot. My mate Ad joined me again, I met him in Aberdeen and off we went. Parking his car up near the Pirate's Graveyard I spotted a bookmark tucked into his driver's side sun visor just before we got out. It had a picture of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett on it and the quote I've used for this post's title. I thought it summed up the trip really and with conditions being a bit better down on the beach we found a few nice looking depressions in the sand to fish as the tide flooded over them and I had "failed better" in no time at all.

Definately a better fail than my last turbot session. Note my lucky fishing cap with Pirate's Graveyard symbols on it.

My 57th saltwater species from scottish venues this year.

Shortly afterwards Ad hooked a small turbot too but unfortunately it managed to thrash in the breaking surf a few metres in front of him, threw the hook and swam off. A few casts later he landed a nice flounder though after it made a little spirited run parallel to the beach.

Ad's first fish of the session was a nice plump flounder.

As the tide picked up so did the weed however which soon became a pain so we headed off to try and find a fifteen spined stickleback. We visited Boddam Harbour and then Port Erroll Harbour but with a slight swell running outside both the water inside was moving around too which I find seems to result in fewer fifteen spined sticklebacks being around. If they are present they seem to hide themselves away. I was by this point rather tired and Ad wanted to go and get his cod fishing gear ready for his evening session that night so we called it a day. After returning to Aberdeen I said goodbye to Ad but he suggested that on my way back to the capital Stonehaven Harbour might be worth a look, in particular its innermost area which would be full and probably well sheltered. I popped down and the weedy areas looked like a perfect habitat for my target but I didn't manage to locate any of them before jumping back in the car and heading home. I guess I'll just have to keep trying and perhaps eventually I'll fail a little better when it comes to catching fifteen spined sticklebacks too.

Tight lines, Scott.