The circle is complete.

Popped out for a short late evening session with my mate and young fishing apprentice Stewart on Thursday. We headed down to Torness Power Station and fished from the platform around at the inlet area. Instead of taking turns to lift a rod when bites came as we had done at Loch Fyne last time we went fishing, we fished one rod each. Two three hook flappers with #1/0 circles baited up with mackerel and squid cocktails were cast out onto the fairly clean bottom and the waiting game began. It was quite a nice night and the sea defences to our right offered us protection from the slight easterly wind.

Torness Power Station. Famous for being Scotland's premier blenny mark.

The platform we were fishing from is also used by the RNLI who have a fast rescue boat moored nearby.

Whilst we waited for bites I prepared more bait and tossed the waste over the railings next to us. With high tide due at just after midnight I planned to drop a mackerel fillet down close in later on to see if there were any conger eels around.

Things were slow but after about an hour and a half Stewart's rod tip sprung to life and a small cod was soon landed. Shortly afterwards he picked up his rod and began reeling in to change his baits only to find a bit of extra weight on the end. A dogfish was the culprit so Stewart reluctantly got some more shark handling practice.

Stewart gets off the mark with a codling.

Not as common on the east coast but this seems to be changing.

My rod had barely moved all night and each time it did I lifted it to find nothing there. My baits didn't come back untouched though so I surmised that the local crabs were enjoying a few tasty free snacks. An hour before high water I switched to a running ledger and dropped my conger bait down the side on a #6/0 circle hook. Loosening my drag and putting the reel on the ratchet I waited for it to hopefully start clicking but it remained silent for the rest of the session. Stewart's rod saw no further action either and at about 00:30 we packed up and headed back up the road.

A fifth blank of the year for me but it didn't feel like one though. I was quite pleased that Stewart wanted to go fishing on a fairly cold night. I was not so impressed that he caught some fish and I didn't! He's learning quite quickly, hopefully soon he'll have his own gear and who knows, maybe he'll be able to outfish me without my assistance!

Tight lines, Scott.