In at the deep end.

I headed down to St Abbs Head with my mate Stewart last Sun. It was his first time fishing so being a bit naughty I decided to throw him in the deep end with this choice of destination and after showing him where we'd be fishing from the top of the cliffs and making sure he was OK with it we scrambled down the steep path to a rock mark beneath the lighthouse.

Our destination down below on the right. St Abbs Head is not a place for the faint of heart. Great care is required accessing the marks there.

Once down we setup on a rock platform well above the water as there was a slight swell running. As well as the swell causing the odd wave to break on the rocks below us, which we had to keep an eye on to avoid the spray it produced from soaking us, the tide running past made holding bottom rather difficult, even with 8oz of lead. Eventually things settled down a bit over high water. A variety of baits on simple running ledgers were cast around in various directions but after a few hours with no bites and a few lost leads we decided to cut our losses and headed back up the cliff. I couldn't let Stewart blank on his first ever fishing trip so we headed along to St Abbs Harbour which soon saw us catch a couple dozen small coalfish.

Stewart's first ever fish.

Obviously the lack of action while we were fishing from the rocks up at St Abbs Head was quite disappointing but it was however good to test out my new close range rock fishing setup and I'm happy to report I think it's going to do the job quite well. We also used it to fish in the harbour and the small coalfish caught demonstrated that bite sensitivity is very good. This was one of my main concerns really as I plan to target some small species using it. More important though was the fact that Stewart quite enjoyed his first fishing trip so it may not be his last.

Tight lines, Scott.