Not more species hunting adventures on Crete?!: Part 1.

Yes, that's right! I’ve been to Crete again! At the end of last month, Lillian and I headed off there for a relaxing holiday. We’ve been to the Greek islands several times and love Crete in particular, this being our fifth holiday there! This time we decided to stay in Elounda and then Agia Gallini, both for four nights each. We didn’t arrive until very late in the evening, so after we got to our accommodation, we just went straight to bed. In the morning when we woke up the sun was shining, and I was keen to get my species hunting under way, so we went for a walk into town, stopping on some piers as we went. I had a brand new Nebula Rock Rover to break in, along with a new Daiwa Exceler reel, freshly loaded with some nicely colour coordinated grey Daiwa J-Braid Grand X8.

The nice view from our room balcony. 

Before long, I set about catching some fish. 

All shiny and new! Lovely. 

Fishing Angleworm on a drop shot rig, I soon caught a few black goby, rock goby, an annular seabream and a small painted comber. The black goby were all very light in colour, so I popped one in my photo tank just to check they were actually black goby.

The ability to examine fins is one of the great benefits of the tank. Identify confirmed! Just a black goby. Always worth checking!

No tank required to identify this small annular seabream, although it would probably have fit into it!

I was expecting to catch a few more painted comber, as in the past I’d caught lots of them there, but instead I began to catch a few yellow spotted puffer, one of many migrant species that have travelled from the Red Sea into the Eastern Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. Over the years, the number of these I catch when on Crete has been steadily increasing. They are super aggressive and don't seem to be in any way cautious, so they often get to lures and bait first before other fish get a chance. As a result, some of the native fish seem to be in decline. Ornate wrasse, Usually a common capture, were noticeably absent, and I didn’t catch any more painted comber either, another species that's normally present in big numbers. 

These yellow spotted puffers quickly became a real pain. They damage your line and can even just bite hooks off completely!

After a while, and following a quick visit to the local fishing tackle shop where I bought some small lures and some preserved shrimps in a small jar to try out, we headed back to the apartment complex, jumped in our hire car, and made the short drive north to Plaka. On the way there, we passed a roadside viewing point for Spinalonga, a small island and former leper colony out in the bay, and stopped briefly to take a photo or two. When we arrived in Plaka we had some lunch and afterwards I did a bit more fishing around its small harbour.

Having been over to Spinalonga by boat a couple of times in the past, we decided just to admire it off in the distance.

I started off fishing with tiny pieces of the preserved shrimp on tanago hooks to try and catch a damselfish. Their small mouths can make them tricky to catch, but I got one reasonably quickly, and a few other species were also caught whilst I tried.

A few bogue took my tiny pieces of prawn. Their scientific name is Boop boops, but it should be Poop poops if you ask me!

I also caught a couple of marbled rabbitfish. Covered in venomous spines, this is another well established invader from the Red Sea.

After a bit of persistence, I caught a damselfish.

The wind then suddenly changed direction causing a slight swell to kick up, so we moved over to fish from the rocks down the back of the harbour where it was fairly sheltered. At this point, I switched to the ever reliable Angleworm on a drop shot rig. The bottom was mainly rocky and produced a couple of combers, an Atlantic lizardfish, a few Mediterranean rainbow wrasse and lots of yellow spotted puffers. There were also a few sandy areas as well, and casting my rig onto these I caught a wide eyed flounder. 

This common comber was the first fish to munch my Angleworm. 

The beautifully patterned wide eyed flounder. I love catching these funky floral flatfish!

Before we called it a day, the wind switched back again, so we moved back to the inside of the harbour. Fishing down the harbour wall, I spotted a small group of reticulated filefish amongst the shoals of damselfish. Tying on a smaller hook and baiting it with a little piece of shrimp I eventually managed to get it close enough to one so that the damselfish didn't have a chance to strip off the bait and the weird looking fish took it straight away.

Yet another Lessepsian migrant. A lot less annoying than the puffer though! This fish was my 200th species of 2023 as well.

So, a fairly productive start to my holiday's species hunt, and I'd achieved my species hunting target for this year of catching two hundred species on day one of the trip. The amount of puffer I was catching and the slightly limited number of other species was a bit of a concern, but I was hopeful that some of the other venues I was planning to fish over the remainder of the trip might produce more native fish and hopefully some new ones as well!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Northbound pit stop.

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

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

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

The first species to show interest in my fluoro pinkies. 

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

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

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

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

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

A nice bonus and the last fish of the trip. 

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

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

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

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

Tight lines, Scott.

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

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

Golden sandy beaches,..

…and rugged cliffs,..

…led me to lots of exposed rockpools.

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

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

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

Not the seabream I was after. 

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

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

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

"Stacked" rockpools.

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

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

Finally! My first UK Montagu’s blenny! 

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

Penzance South Pier after dark.

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

No identity issues with this one.

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

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

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

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Cornwall calling.

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

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

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

A little short of the minimum landing size!

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

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

Spoilsports!

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

Wembury, a rockpooling angler’s Mecca. 

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

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

A small cornish sucker, my second new species of the trip! The one I caught was very dark in colour, but you can just make out two dark spots on its head behind its eyes, a key distinguishing feature of the species.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corkwing on a rainy day. 

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

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting road trip: Swanage Pier.

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

Swanage Pier on an overcast morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tight lines, Scott.

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