I received some information from a couple of fellow species hunting anglers at the end of August about two potential targets that they suspected/knew had been caught/observed down in the southwest of Scotland. The first one I thought was a little far-fetched. Juvenile brill from the shore? Amazing if true, but it was a friend of a friend type account of the fish caught and there were no photos to back it up. The second piece of info was that bass anglers down there were repeatedly having their lures hit by garfish. I have a friend who has hooked and landed garfish down there so that I could believe.
So, a plan was quickly formulated, and my mate Ryan and I drove down there for a full day fishing at two different venues. At the first spot, a beautiful sandy beach on the western side of the Rhins of Galloway, we fished the incoming tide with beachcasters using three hook flappers baited with mackerel strips and ragworm. It was a great session. In fact, I've never caught so many turbot in such a short space of time! We caught plenty of flounder too. Dozens in fact! We must have had over fifty flatfish between us! Some of the turbot were relatively dark in colouration, so I could see why someone could possibly mistake them for brill, but as I suspected, none of the fish we caught were.
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| Quite dark turbot with markings to match the sand they were living over. |
Packing up the gear but staying in the Rhins of Galloway, we headed to the second venue over their eastern shore. The plan was to fish it over high tide, but it quickly became obvious that the wind had coloured up the sea and there was lots of weed suspended in the water too. Not ideal for targetting garfish. Thanks to some more information Ryan received from a fellow angler via WhatsApp, a backup plan was quickly hatched, and we drove north up to the old military pier and breakers yard at Cairnryan. When we arrived and climbed through the fences, there were two other people fishing on it already. When I asked if they had caught anything, I was told all they'd managed to catch was a single garfish. Just what I wanted to hear! Getting into position, I set up a float rig and baited up my three hooks with long, thin slivers of mackerel belly. Ryan set about catching some wrasse straight down the side, using what was left of our ragworm.
While Ryan landed some nice ballan wrasse and corkwing wrasse, I patiently watched my float as it drifted from right to left, taking up any slack line as it formed. It took a while for my float to go under, and when it did, I wound it in to discover it was a solitary cannibalistic mackerel on one of the hooks. It was quickly dispatched so that some fresh belly slivers could be put on my small Aberdeen hooks before my rig was cast out again. The next drift had just about ended when the float slowly went under again. I paused to allow the culprit to get the hook before winding down, feeling the weight of a fish. When a garfish came into sight as the rig came back in towards the side of the pier, my heart was racing. It was a nervous moment as I swung the fish up onto the platform, but I need not have worried as it was well hooked.
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| My first Scottish garfish. |
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| What a bizarre mouth with hundreds of small fine teeth. |
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| A well deserved trophy shot. I'd definitely caught my 100th species from Scottish venues now, right? |
Well, technically no. Here's why. Saltwater species aren't the issue. I've caught at least 66 of those (67 if I have indeed caught a Corbin's sandeel.).
| Saltwater species. | |
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The issue lies with freshwater species. Technically, some of the freshwater fish I've counted as separate species are not.
Common carp, koi carp and mirror carp are all the same species.
Ide, blue orfe and golden orfe are all the same species.
Rainbow trout, blue trout and golden trout are all the same species.
Tench and golden tench are both the same species.
F1 carp and tiger trout are not species at all, they are hybrids.
| Freshwater species. | |
| Variations counted individually and hybrids included. |
Variations counted together and hybrids excluded. |
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| Total = 101. | Total = 92. |
So I've caught at least one hundred different kinds of fish from Scottish venues. If I want to be able to say I've truly caught one hundred species of fish from Scottish venues, I need to catch at least another nine true species, which is going to be incredibly tough. It's just as well that I like a species hunting challenge! So, what's next? I shall keep species hunting around Scotland of course! I'll be doing a few posts on potential target species soon...
Tight lines, Scott.
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