I headed to the west coast for a few days of species hunting last week. I was joined by my mates Ryan and Ben, and we based ourselves in Oban. After checking in to our accommodation late on Monday afternoon, we hit the road again and headed south. For our first session, we fished into very deep water from a rock mark on the island of Seil. After scrambling around the rocks below some cliffs, we got comfortable in our chosen spot, set up our gear and waited patiently for bites. Fishing at close range into rough ground, one hook paternoster rigs were the order of the day, incorporating a rotten bottom link to our leads. Ryan was first off the mark with a small pollock just as the light began to fade. After dark, I started getting some interest in my fresh blow lug bait and caught some poor cod and a pouting. Changing to a small mackerel and squid cocktail then produced a lesser spotted dogfish.
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Ryan and I both caught a few poor cod and pouting.
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My lesser spotted dogfish.
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It was a reasonable start, but my main target for the evening was a three bearded rockling, a species I'd been trying to catch for years before visiting Ilfracombe in Devon back in 2017 where I finally caught one. I've subsequently been trying to catch one from a Scottish venue, so in fact, it was my main target species for the three day trip! If I failed to get one on the first night, the plan was to return to the mark the following evening. If I didn't get one on the second night, we'd return again on evening three. About two hours into our session however, my rod tip started nodding away and my long wait for a Scottish three bearded rockling was finally over! The pressure off, I could relax and enjoy my fishing for the rest of the trip.
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Got you! Finally! Another species added to my Scottish lifetime list.
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The last time I visited the mark with my mate Nick, he caught a tadpole fish and as I sat there holding my rod, I was thinking that it would be cool to catch one myself. The next bite I got was quite an aggressive one, my rod tip pulling down firmly. I was delighted when I wound in to discover my wish had been granted!
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Only my second ever tadpole fish. Such a weird looking fish. Note the thread like branched rays of its simple pelvic fin. I think the tadpole fish uses these to detect potential meals. The tadpole fish is also known as the lesser forkbeard due to these structures.
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By this point Ryan wasn't getting any more bites and Ben had missed a few bites but still hadn't caught anything. I offered to move to a new spot and let them try in the area I'd been catching all my fish from. It remained quiet for a while, but before we called it a night I felt some slow rhythmic pulls and lifted into a fish. It turned out to be a small conger eel.
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The perfect size to handle without too much trouble!
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It was about 23:00 when we packed up and began to make our way back to the car. We had not got far however when disaster struck. Ben stepped on a rock that he didn't realise was loose, and it suddenly moved. His ankle gave way underneath him and down he went. Luckily he fell onto a soft grassy area which probably prevented him from sustaining any further injuries. He was in a lot of pain though and told us he thought his ankle was broken as he'd heard a crack when he'd gone over on it. I thought we'd have to call the coastguard to come and rescue him, but after resting for a bit he managed to get up and somehow the three of us managed to slowly make it all the way back to the car. Returning to the youth hostel, we helped Ben get his boot off and his ankle was badly swollen. He applied an ice pack, and we all went to bed.
The next day we had a self drive boat booked on Loch Etive through TFC Boats. This meant Ben was able to have a seat and elevate his foot for most of the session. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was hardly any wind. The fishing was pretty tough going though. Loch Etive can be like that, I think over the years I've had more slow sessions than action packed ones. We tried various different spots and didn't really enjoy any great success. I did manage to tick off a few more species for my 2023 challenge however, so that was a definite positive.
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The first fish of the day was this spurdog. It would be the only spurdog. It took a launce section rapped in squid that I fished hard on the deck, I was hoping to tempt a thornback ray.
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Switching to small hooks saw us all catching a few small whiting...
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Ben and I both caught some small grey gurnard...
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...and I caught the only thornback ray of the session, fishing on the bottom with a small strip of mackerel wrapped in squid.
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Before we knew it, the time to head back to shore had arrived, after doing so we drove back to Oban to get some food and figure out what we'd do in the evening. We had intended to fish after dark again, but we were all pretty tired and had caught a bit too much sun as well, which didn't help. Ben understandably wanted to rest his ankle and get some ice on it again, so we had some food in the hostel and headed to bed early. I dare say I'd probably have been back out on the rocks again three bearded rockling hunting had I not caught one the previous night!
The following day we decided to drive south to Portavadie to try fishing Loch Fyne there. The drive down was quite pleasant, passing through some lovely scenery. It was the first time I'd visited the area and unfortunately the comfortable harbour spot I thought would be a perfect mark for us to fish from was off limits due to construction work, so we ended up fishing from the rocks a few hundred metres to the south of it.
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Some of the views were impressive, as the road there followed the coast and went up and down the hills.
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The spot we ended up on was reasonably comfortable, but sadly the fishing was very poor. We tried three hook flappers with smaller baits and also pulley rigs further out with larger offerings. Ben and Ryan didn't catch anything at all, with the local crabs making short work of all our baits. At least Ben was able to recline, putting his leg up.
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Ben got "comfortable" on a flat rock and elevated his ankle.
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I struggled as well and only managed two fish, a dab at the start and a lesser spotted dogfish on my final cast of the session. I'm not sure if I'd return to Portavadie again, especially given it's a three hour drive from Edinburgh. Maybe it would fish better in the summer or on a bigger tide. I might give it another go at some point in the future.
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My first dab of the year and my eleventh species of the trip.
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We left late in the afternoon and got back to Edinburgh by early evening. Ben went home and got freshened up and then went to the hospital to have his ankle checked over. He was seen pretty quickly and had an X-ray done. Turns out he was right, he had broken a bone in his ankle! Fair play to him for fishing through the pain!
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Ben fractured the very bottom of his fibula and is now sporting a "moon boot".
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Despite Ben's accident and the patchy fishing, we all had a good time and I added eleven species to my 2023 tally, so it was definitely worth heading over to the other side of the country. On a serious note, please be extremely careful if you are out fishing on rock marks! They can be dangerous places to fish! No fish is worth getting yourself badly hurt or worse. Not even a three bearded rockling! Ben had a lucky escape really, his fall could have resulted in a much more serious injury or even worse! Fortunately, his break doesn't require surgery and a few weeks wearing the "moon boot" should hopefully see him ready to hit the rocks again, being a little more careful no doubt.
Tight lines, Scott.
