Thirty eight.

I turned thirty eight last Thursday. I didn't get a chance to do any fishing but the following day looking at the evening's forecast I spotted an opportunity to have another go for the mullet at what can be Scotland's least pleasurable mark to visit, Torness Power Station outflow area. I picked up my mate Nick at 19:00 and off we went to fish the last few hours of the flood into dusk. There weren't many other anglers fishing when we arrived and with no boats or netters around either we didn't have to watch undersized fish being targeted and taken illegally on the same disgusting scale we had to during our last visit. Things were slow to begin with but small groups of mullet did start turning up to munch on our groundbait before heading off again. The odd fish nosed our bread flake hook baits but not in a really positive way. Once the tide had flooded enough to cover our favourite spot sufficiently we moved over to the rocks next to it and it didn't take long at all for the mullet to "switch on".  This saw us hooking nine and landing six in fairly short period. The three we lost were down to us both tightening up our drag too much to bully hooked fish away from the gaps in the rocks we were standing on. As ever the fight the mullet put up was quite something else and it was a real pleasure catching them. 

Even fairly small thick lipped grey mullet have incredible stamina requiring a patient approach to playing them out.

Each fish I caught got progressively smaller. This had me hopeful that I'd get a golden grey mullet too but all the fish caught were the thick lipped variety. When it was too dark to see our float tips anymore we called it a night but I dare say the fish were still active. It was nice to get my thirty eighth Scottish saltwater species as a belated thirty eighth birthday present. Fishing for mullet is both frustrating and exhilarating and both Nick and I love it. I guess my love-hate relationship with Torness Power Station outflow will have to continue until I capture a golden grey mullet to add to this year's tally. Nick and I really need to find some alternative venues to target thick lipped grey mullet though as we both love targeting them and if I'm to stop frequenting the outflow permanently we'll have to get our fix elsewhere. 

Tight lines, Scott.