Ultra light fun.

Saturday and it was an absolutely lovely day and Lillian had the day off work so we headed to the beautiful Yellowcraig beach in East Lothian to enjoy the weather and relax. When we arrived I opened the boot of the car to get our lunch and a blanket to sit on and was shocked to find my ultra light gear in there too!

We headed down to the beach and over to the rocks with pleasant views of the small island of Fidra opposite us I spotted some nice deep rockpools and dropped a 1" Gulp! Fish Fry in red on a 1.8g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead . 

Fidra island, reputedly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island".

Deep rockpools with weed around the edges and rocks in the bottom provide cover for sea scorpions.

Every hole can contain fish. This one did!

As soon as it had entered the water a sea scorpion shot out and grabbed it. This would set the scene for the next 30 minutes and I caught a few more all of the long spined variety.

Gulp! Fish Fry. Yum yum.

Greedy little fish are quite aggressive.

Quite unusual colouration on this one. All one tone with just a few spots.

Then I started to fish around a small bay exploring the edges and working the lure around boulders and weedy patches.

Lots of places for fish to hide here.

As I dropped the lure down onto a light coloured rock a strange looking fish came out of some weed and paused at the lure. My first though was that it was a pipefish or a fifteen spined stickleback. Excited I gave the lure a little twitch and it had a bite or two but it had a tiny mouth and as I tried to hook it I only succeeded in pulling the lure away from it and sending it back into the weed. I managed to coax it out a few more times, getting a better look at it in the process and identifying it as a fifteen spined stickleback, but the end result was the same. Eventually it vanished into the weed for good. Very frustrating and I was kicking myself for not having any smaller hooks with me.

I caught one more long spined sea scorpion and then we sat on the rocks and has some lunch before walking along the beach and then back to the car. Next we drove a bit further East for a quick stop at North Berwick harbour so I could see if there were any flounders around. Small pink Isome was the lure of choice and as the water was crystal clear it was quickly evident that there was plenty of flatfish on the bottom as they chased the lure as I jerked it along the sandy bottom.

Bites were coming thick and fast but frustratingly I had no hook ups. Decided to have a break and try straight down the side of the wall. Switched to a section of Gulp! Sandworm in red and dropped it down, then began jigging it a few inches out from the weed. As I worked it along the wall a big sea scorpion charged out and attacked it but missed. He headed back into the weed and despite my efforts I couldn't tempt him out again. After a while with no further interest I went back to the flatties. Couple of casts later I felt a few little taps and hooked the culprit. To my surprise it was a tiny plaice. 

Spots not so obvious on such a lightly coloured fish but bony nodules on its head tell me it's a plaice.

I had another quick jig down the side as we left the harbour and located a little blenny hotspot that held a few. Fighting over my lure, I managed to hook three of them in quick succession but dropped all three when I was lifting them up the wall.

Great little session and the #24 hooks to nylon are now in my hPa Sooper Trooper along with some split shot to improve my chances of hooking surprise species with small mouths like sand gobies and fifteen spined sticklebacks!

Tight lines, Scott.