Colourful captures.

I drove through to the west coast last Wednesday for a day's fishing, targetting mainly colourful mini species. My workmate Callum joined me, and we headed to a spot in Oban that I know has produced Connemarra clingfish in the past. Truth be told it was one of these strange looking little fish that I was hoping to catch.

This small species "clings" to rocks using its fused pelvic fin that acts as a suction cup.

My approach was fairly simple, drop tiny chunks of raw prawn down into nooks and crannies where I thought a clingfish might hide. The mark in question usually produces lots of goldsinny wrasse, poor cod and leopard spotted goby as well as the odd rock cook wrasse. It was one of these small mouthed colourful fish that I happened to catch first.

I love catching rock cook wrasse. Just look at the beautiful violet markings on them.

Callum's experience of fishing in saltwater is relatively limited but it didn't take him long to start pulling out lots of little fish from the crystal clear, relatively shallow water we were fishing in. Between us we caught the main three residents but I also managed a small female cuckoo wrasse and a small ballan wrasse as well. The bulk of my fish were leopard spotted gobies though. They like hiding in cracks too.

We must have had about fifty of these! It's easily the best mark I know of to visit if you want to catch a leopard spotted goby.

Callum concentrates on his rod tip. He didn't have to concentrate too hard however as the bites were frequent. Most of the species he caught were his first too.

Before we knew it the time had come to return to the car as the parking ticket was about to expire. We had a couple of casts each on the way back, over some rocky ground, and Callum caught his first ever corkwing wrasse, completing a wrasse grand slam between the two of us in the process. Lochaline logging pier is the only other place I know where this feat is a reasonable possibility.

A male corkwing, yet another colourful fish.

After some lunch we headed up to Loch Etive to fish from Kelly's Pier. Here we hoped to catch a few grey gurnards on light tackle, fishing raw prawn on a one hook paternoster at range and we eventually did, yet another new species for Callum. We only managed three between us though, so I decided to switch to my micro fishing setup and tried to catch a few gobies from around the legs of the pier using tiny flecks of raw prawn on tanago hooks. After catching a three spined stickleback I fiddled around with my float rig until I got the depth correct and found a pocket of two spotted goby. After catching a few small ones myself I handed the rod over to Callum so that he could have a go. Before too long the tiny chianti float went under and he pulled out this monster.

Possibly the biggest two spotted goby I have ever seen!

After switching back to targetting grey gurnard for a while, but with no further interest in our baits, we decided to pack up and make the three-hour drive home. It had been a great day trip and whilst I didn't get my intended colourful little target we had caught plenty of other just as colourful fish. It was nice to see Callum enjoy trying some of my slightly unorthodox fishing styles and catch quite a few species for the first time in the process.

Tight lines, Scott.