Lovely day but no golden grey.

I popped down to the outflow area of Torness Power Station with my mate Nick yesterday for a spot of float fishing for the mullet that its artificially warm water attracts. It was a lovely day with clear blue skies and an offshore wind was flattening the sea nicely. 

A lovely day for a spot of float fishing.

I was hoping to catch my first golden grey mullet of 2014 to take my species from saltwater tally to ninety nine. Nick wasn't being so fussy. He's caught them abroad but hasn't caught a mullet in the UK and was just keen to get one regardless of its variety. We arrived about midway into the flooding tide and lots of small mullet appeared as soon as we began ground baiting in a small bay. A good sign and Nick's float wasn't in the water long when it suddenly went under. A cheeky blenny had come up from the bottom to take his bread flake and was quickly landed much to our amusement. As with my last visit there was no sign of any larger mullet however and before we knew it we were forced off of the rocks we were fishing from so we moved back to the boulders that make up the sea defences to the right of the outflow and started the ground baiting process over again. Whilst we waited on the tide flooding a little more and some mullet to arrive I kicked a limpet from the rocks, cut off a sliver and put it on my hook, lowering it down between the rocks into the water below. It didn't take too long for me to catch a blenny.

This little limpet lover opens my account for the day.

As the tide flooded we kept adding ground bait but for some reason even the juvenile mullet failed to show up. We persevered though and as the tide turned and began to ebb a few small mullet finally arrived.

Nick patiently watches for signs of activity registering on his bolo float.

After a while I was starting to think it just wasn't going to happen when my float suddenly shot under. My rod was soon bent nicely into a feisty fish, Nick grabbed the net and after a minute or two of the fish thrashing near the surface the first mullet of the session was safely in it. Was it my golden grey though?

The feint golden marking on its gill plate had me excited briefly until I examined the fish properly and discovered it was in fact a thick lipped grey mullet.

I was hopeful that this might signal the start of some more activity but unfortunately it did not and by the time we ran out of ground bait and bread for our hooks it ended up being the only mullet of a fairly  quiet session. That's mullet fishing for you though. Conditions tomorrow look good for another go though so I'll be back with another nice fresh loaf and a bucket of ground bait to try again. 

Tight lines, Scott.