The sweet smelt of success.

I drove up to Dundee yesterday to have another session fishing the Tay Estuary in the hope that I would get lucky and catch a smelt. I decided to fish a bit further up the river than my last visit, mainly so I could fish out of the boot of my car and quickly pack up and head to a second spot should the first not prove productive. In contrast to my last session things were very slow, perhaps because the water was a bit more coloured, and it took quite a while before I got any bites. I missed the first few but on my third cast my rod tip nodded a couple of times and I wound in to find a double shot of a small flounder and a smelt on my rig. Needless to say both were quickly swung up the wall.

Only my second ever European smelt, known in Scotland as a sparling. My fifty ninth species from Scottish saltwater this year.

To say I was over the moon would be a massive understatement and I felt like jumping around shouting like an idiot, but didn't want to startle a nearby dog walker. After putting the fish back I took a moment to compose myself before rebaiting and casting out again. I carried on fishing but after a while with no more interest shown in my small cocktail baits, having caught my target, with rain beginning to fall and more dark clouds heading towards me, I decided to end the session prematurely, quickly packed up and headed back down the road. Only one more species stands between me and a tally of sixty saltwater species from Scottish waters. A conger eel seems the most likely species to see me achieve this but a three bearded rockling, black mouthed dogfish or fifteen spined stickleback are also possible targets over the next few weeks that might also get me there. I can't see myself being in this position again so will be going all out to get the final species. 

Tight lines, Scott.