The first rule of Fish Club is...

...you are allowed to talk about Fish Club.

Earlier this month whilst standing fishing on my own one evening in an icy cold wind, wishing I had some company, I decided I should start up a little fishing group. I asked a few friends if they would be interested in meeting up once or twice a month for a group fishing session, they all said they would and Fish Club was born.

Our first get together was on Sunday and despite a couple of people having to pull out in the days before and only three of us being able to make it, we headed down the coast to Dunbar to have some light game fun with flounders. The persistant wind that has been blowing for what feels like an eternity and is a royal pain in the rear was also in attendance but we soldiered on.

Col and Guy try there best to control light game rigs in a strong wind. Quite a hard task. 

Eventually Col and I managed a couple of tiny plaice and then I caught a flounder. I also had a fairly big flounder follow my lure up from the bottom and strike at it just under the surface which was great to watch but sadly it didn't connect with my hook.

One of Col's plaice. A 7g cheburashka lead used to good effect to get his lure down and keep it there.

The one that didn't get away.

Another light game angler came around from the harbour mouth and I had a quick chat with him before he left and told him about Fish Club. Hopefully he'll get in touch and join us for future sessions. Remember, you are allowed to talk about Fish Club. As the tide flooded we headed around to the old harbour once there was sufficient water in it and also to seek shelter from the wind. Fishing at its entrance I hooked a flounder but it thrashed on the surface and escaped. This brings me nicely to another rule of Fish Club, namely that if your line goes slack or the fish spits your lure out, the fight is usually over. Trying a few different places I eventually found a little hot spot and caught a few more flounders.

The biggest of four flounders all caught from the same area.

This one had no problem gobbling down a large white isome. My #10 hook was placed half way down it.

Things went quiet again so we moved around a little further and I managed to catch a couple more. Guy then hooked a flounder and had it on briefly but it managed to take advantage of the rules, spat his lure out and shot off back to the bottom. I then had a go at "shellfish falls" to see if there were any huge blennies lurking at the bottom of it but there weren't any there. Things went fairly quiet for a while so we headed down to St Abbs Harbour to try for some coalfish. The shoals that were present when I visited last week weren't around however but I managed a small pollock and a small coalfish before trying inside the harbour.

Col and Guy persist with fishing off of the back of the harbour wall in search of coalfish.

After a bit the lads climbed back down and we all fished the inside of the harbour. Bites were few and far between and we all missed some before I caught a small cod. I had just put mine back when Col caught one too.

Looked like something had taken a small bite out of this cod's tail.

There seems to be a few of these around in St Abbs Harbour at the moment.

Working our way back around I caught another couple of small cod and Col caught a couple of flounders before we headed back up the road. It was nice to fish with Col again, meet and fish with Guy for the first time and have a bit of a chat and a laugh whilst fishing. The fishing wasn't great with Guy having a frustrating day and ending up fishless. Luckily for Guy though there's nothing in the Fish Club rules about having to catch fish so he's welcome to attend again. I'm looking forward to the next outing already and hopefully our group will grow. The venue is still to be decided but it will probably be taking place on Sunday the 14th of June. Interested in joining us? Get in touch.

Tight lines, Scott.