Finger freezing finesse fishing fun.

I popped down to St Abbs Harbour earlier this week to target two species, coalfish and flounder. The sun was making a valiant effort to poke through the clouds, but an icy easterly wind made the session a pretty cold one. The tide was out when I arrived, so I fished into the channel at the mouth of the harbour to begin with.

The inner harbour was almost empty.

I had my trusted HTO Rock Rover in the car but decided to go with a bit of finesse, opting to hopefully give a setup I bought for targeting horse mackerel a bit of action. I'm not really a tackle tart but my Major Craft Crostage Light Game 6ft9 0.6-10g Aji rod paired with my Daiwa Legalis LT 2000 loaded up with 2lb fluorocarbon is a very nice combo for fishing on the drop with tiny metals and jighead mounted soft plastics.  I decided to fish the latter and looking through my small box an old favourite that I've not used for a while caught my eye, Marykyu Power Isome in pink. Rigging it up on an 0.9g Ecogear Shirasu Fine jighead, I flicked it out and let it sink slowly towards the bottom. It didn't get all the way down when suddenly my line tightened up. A fish had fallen for my blueberry flavoured trap. It put a good bend in my ultra light rod, was taking some line and was obviously a reasonable size, so I didn't bully the fish too much for fear of being broken off. When a coalfish eventually came to the surface, I had to hand line it up the harbour wall as I didn't have a net with me. I'll never learn!

Great fun on my ultralight setup.

I carried on fishing patiently, repeatedly letting my piece of isome fall down then twitching it back up through the water column. After a while I caught a second coalfish about the same size, so there were obviously a few of them around. My hands had gone pretty numb by that point though, so I decided to go target flounder in a more sheltered area. The water was pretty clear and after a while I hadn't seen any flounders following my isome as I slowly worked it across the bottom. My hands didn't seem to want to thaw out, so I called it a day and headed home, happy to have edged another species closer to my 2023 target of two hundred!

Tight lines, Scott.

I'll be back!

Well, I said earlier in the year I'd be back down to the outflow of Torness Power Station, and earlier this month I did return with my mate Ryan. Having caught some golden grey mullet during one of my previous visits, I still had a few other species to tick off for this year's species hunting challenge that can be caught there. Corkwing wrasse was not one of them, but I caught four from the sea defence boulders next to the outflow, which was quite unusual.  I also spotted a leopard spotted goby, but it was being pretty skittish, and I could not tempt it. The corkwing wrasse were followed by a few common blenny.

An unexpected bonus. This the largest and most colourful.

To be expected. Ryan and I caught lots of them whilst we waited on the tide to come in.

Once the tide came in a bit, we turned our attention to targeting mullet using bread on float and freelining tactics. I was hoping to catch a thick lipped mullet and Ryan and I both hooked one each, only for both of them to throw the hook right at the net. Next to take my bread flake was a golden grey mullet, and then we both caught a bass each. Ryan's bass, which was his first, took his bread from under a float, whilst mine took a whole ragworm freelined.

Ryan was over the moon to catch his first ever bass!

I was just happy to add another species to my 2023 tally.

We carried on fishing and both of us hooked and lost a few more mullet in what turned out to be a frustrating day's fishing. Seven hooked and only one landed, I think. For me, landing half of the mullet I hook is about average, so our luck had deserted us somewhat. To further frustrate us we saw so many mullet swimming in the outflow, perhaps the most I've ever seen there, so really we should probably have hooked more than seven. Anyway, we eventually ran out of bread, so we headed home, popping briefly into Dunbar harbour on the way. It was very quiet there, I caught the only fish, a small cod.

I would have preferred to catch a flounder, but there will be plenty of opportunity to catch one of those later in the year.

The following day, I returned again on my own. The Easterly wind that has been blowing the day before, had doubled in strength and I thought the accompanying increased swell might make things tricky, but the sun was out and I went anyway. I was glad I did as it turned into a productive day. With little expectation, I enjoyed a relaxing session, flicking bread flake out into the current all day and waiting for bites. They were harder to spot with the increased surface movement, but there were a few fish around again and after hooking and losing two golden grey mullet, I landed the third.

Not the mullet I was after, and they were stripping all the bread off my hook.

After a while, I hooked a thick lipped mullet, but it threw the hook after thrashing about in the current for thirty seconds or so. A short while later, I hooked another bigger fish that was too big to be a golden grey mullet, but when it started swimming directly towards me, I knew it wasn't a thick lipped mullet either.

This bread munching bass didn't want to show off its spiky dorsal fin.

Here it is.

A couple of hours passed, and I was down to my last slice of bread, when my rod tip was aggressively pulled round. This time I knew it was a thick lipped mullet. After a few minutes, I managed to play it out and drew it along the surface into my waiting net. It was a decent size and was great fun on my trusty HTO Rock Rover.

Probably the biggest thick lipped mullet I've caught at the outflow.

Probably the thickest top lip I've ever seen on a thick lipped mullet!

Mission accomplished! My bread ran out shortly afterward, so I packed up and left, popping into Dunbar Harbour on the way home again to see if I could tempt a flounder using the last of my ragworm. The water was crystal clear and very flat too and despite slowly twitching my bait along the bottom at a few different spots, I didn't catch anything. I had a stroll around before I left and did find one interesting fish. 

Small fish are bycatch in the local prawn boat's nets, and rather than waste them, they leave them so that fisherman using lobster pots can use them inside their traps for bait. In amongst a fish box of pin whiting, small dab and flounder, a long thin flat fish caught my eye, so I picked it out to have a closer look at it. It was a long rough dab, also known as the American plaice.

Dunbar is a very busy working harbour.

This is a partially decomposed juvenile long rough dab. I wonder how far offshore the prawn boats go? Maybe I could get out to their fishing grounds?

So an enjoyable and productive couple of sessions with a few more species ticked off in this year's species hunt. In the past I probably wouldn't even have bothered going down to Torness Power Station when easterly winds were blowing right up its outflow, but I might have to rethink that in future as there were plenty of fish around. I don't think the fishing elsewhere on the East Coast is quite there yet, the water temperatures need to rise a few more degrees first. I did also see what I suspect were shoals of sand smelt too whilst Ryan and I were there, so I'll be back down to Torness Power Station yet again soon no doubt!

Tight lines, Scott.

Let's just go anyway.

Before I went off on my recent Asian adventure, I booked a night in Glencoe Youth Hostel, so I could have a two day fishing trip to the area with my mate Ryan shortly after I got back to the UK. When I got back and checked the forecast however, it was dreadful for the two days. I could have cancelled the booking at the hostel, but we decided just to go and brave the weather.

Lots of nice scenery on the way there.

We drove up there fairly early and began fishing on an old pier on Loch Linnhe at close range into rocky, weedy ground. Small sections of ragworm and strips of squid were the baits of choice. I was hoping to repeat last year's Connemarra clingfish capture and was fishing straight down the side to begin with. It was windy, a few light showers passed by and things were very slow, but we were getting the odd little sharp rattling bite. After switching to very small hooks, I caught a rock cook wrasse and Ryan also got off the mark with a goldsinny wrasse shortly afterwards.

My first rock cook wrasse of the year.

Ryan swears by beads. He's always buying them in work. I've been known to use them occasionally, but not usually for mini species.

It went quiet again for a while when a seal appeared right in front of us, but after a while Ryan caught a couple of pollock. The wind then got stronger, so we headed off to try a different spot that I thought would offer us more shelter. 

One of Ryan's pollock.

The second spot, whilst certainly more comfortable, didn't produce anything at all, so after about an hour we moved to a third. Only one fish was caught there, so we headed back to the car and drove south to fish in Loch Creran from a pontoon near some moored yachts.

Mark number three produced my first long spined sea scorpion of the year.

The fishing at the pontoon was dreadful as well, with neither of us catching anything. The rain had started again at this point, and truth be told we were both a bit fed up, so we decided to get some food and alcoholic beverages and head to the hostel to check in, warm ourselves up and chill out for the remainder of the evening.

On the second day, we headed to a mark in Oban, but there were no fish there whatsoever. It's a mark that's normally like an aquarium, so given it was devoid of life, we didn't hang about. Pretty frustrated, we cut our losses and head home but decided to visit Kelly's Pier on Loch Etive, where we were rewarded with a bit of a soaking. At least whilst there, I managed to catch a couple of species in the shape of some three spined sticklebacks and two spotted goby. Tanago hooks proving to be deadly for targeting micro species yet again.

Another species ticked off for my 2023 species hunt.

A great photo showing the electric blue scales on a two spotted goby

So the trip had probably panned out exactly the way I had expected it too. Poorly! Maybe just over a dozen fish between us in less than favourable conditions. All in all, not a total disaster though, as I'd still managed to add four species to my 2023 tally. That's what happens when you book a trip away at this time of year, too far in advance. Sometimes, Scottish weather throws a spanner in the works. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting adventures in South Korea: Jeju Island.

After a short flight, we arrived in Jeju Airport and decided to take our chances with the hire car we had booked. Handing over my documents, the staff did seem to take a good look at my international driving permit but decided we were good to proceed with the rental. Result! 

Our funky little hire car.

We didn’t get to our hotel until fairly late in the evening, and it was raining when we arrived. After a trip to the local supermarket for some food and to stock up on prawns and squid for bait, we relaxed in our room and enjoyed a soak in its large whirlpool bath.

It was still raining in the morning, so we decided to visit Moomin Land, a museum dedicated to the Moomin characters and the universe they live in created by Finnish author Tove Jansson. Lillian loves Moomins, so there’s no way we weren’t visiting Moomin Land! On the way there, we made a slight detour to check out a river not too far from the hotel. After catching the bonus jungle perch and snakehead gudgeon in the small stream on Okinawa, I wanted to see if fishing it was an option.

We did see carp in this stretch of river, but access was not great, and besides I wasn’t overly fussed about catching one.

Moomin Land! Lillian was very excited.

Lillian loved the full size Moomin house!

I'm not sure what species of fish are featured in this picture.

I must confess, I was quite impressed by Moomin Land. I remember the cartoons from when I was a child, but I’m not really a fan. The museum was very well done however, and it was interesting to learn about the author's background and her creations. It was still raining when we left Moomin Land, so we decided to drive east and headed to Aqua Planet Jeju, South Korea's largest aquarium.

I thought the coolest fish in Aqua Planet was this yellow leaf scorpionfish.

The mackerel were in too!

Afterwards, we headed back west along the south coast of the island and visited Wimihang Port so that I could wet a line. I fished on the inside of the outer breakwater. The first few spots didn't produce anything which was ominous, but by wandering along the rocks I eventually found a section that had deeper water in front of it that produced a few red naped wrasse to small prawn and squid baits. As light began to fade, some pearl spot chromis appeared and lots of spotnape cardinalfish came up out of the rocks as well, no doubt attracted by the scent from my bait. By switching to smaller hooks and freelining tiny baits on a two hook rig to get enough weight to cast, I caught a few of both. I'd caught all three species before in Japan.

One of the juvenile red naped wrasse I caught.

Spotnape cardinalfish, as their name suggests, have two spots up behind their head.

Pearl spot chromis have quite small mouths, so small hooks are required.

The following day, we decided to fish from the outside of the inner breakwater of Hwasunhang Port, which was very close to our hotel. The bottom was clean and sandy, and I was hoping to catch a bartail flathead, but was unsure if they were around in March. After trying some paddletail lures for a while with no results, I dragged baits along the bottom. Things were quite slow close to the shore, but walking out further away from it, the water was deeper, and eventually I started getting some small bites and catching a few of the culprits. They were all the same and whilst I recognised them as belonging to the dragonet family, I'd have to do some research later on to identify them as whitespotted dragonet. They were my first new species on Jeju.

Patiently, I wait for a bite with great views of Sanbangsan.

I knew these were dragonets, but initially I didn't know which species.

I caught mainly females, but this slightly more colourful one with orange markings is a male.

Before we left, I had a few casts from the beach, and I also went onto a rock ledge to the right of it to try my luck there. Neither spot produced any fish however, so we jumped in the car and headed east along the south coast again.

I had a flick around the rocks from a ledge.

Our next stop was the Daepo Jusangjeolli Cliff to see some interesting rock formations. They are similar in appearance to the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland. Formed when lava ran into the Sea of Jungmun when Hallasan Mountain erupted. I also fancied fishing nearby if possible but we couldn't figure out how to get down to the sea.

We could see the basalt columns, but not how to get down to them.

I wasn't worried as I had a backup plan. We drove to the tiny harbour of Wolpyeong Port and I had a couple of hours fishing from the rocks to the right of its entrance. It was a great little spot and I had lots of fun catching dozens of wrasse on squid tentacles. I caught four different species that I was already familiar with having caught them all before in Japan.

On the rocks catching plenty of fish.

I caught a few Bleeker’s wrasse.

I also caught a few of these funky looking Ohagurobera, it has no English name nor does it have a Korean name.

This would be the only star bambooleaf wrasse I caught on Jeju. Notice the solid line under the eye doesn't reach the pectoral fin. They can look similar to the red naped wrasse.

Red naped wrasse seemed to be the much more dominant species in the area. Notice the solid line under the eye does extend back to the pectoral fin.

On our last full day on Jeju we headed to Saeseom Island. It is reached via a footbridge and the rocks on the south coast of the small island drop off into very deep water. I tried fishing with metal jigs here but had no joy, so switched to fishing bait close to the bottom. This produced dozens of wrasse and a few marbled rockfish too.

At this point I should probably explain the lotus flower headband I'm wearing in the next few photos. When my workmate Ryan, a big Karate Kid fan, found out I was visiting Okinawa he was quite jealous. It's the birthplace of the character Mr Miyagi, and I'd promised him I'd get some Karate Kid style photos whilst there and had forgotten to get them, so I took the opportunity to don suitable headwear during my session on Saeseom Island and get the photos there instead.

Crane style. Very effective. Cast out bait. Wind in fish.

A small ohagurobera. I like the red colouration of this one.

These marbled rockfish fight real dirty, trying to get into snags at every opportunity.

After a couple of hours, we crossed back over the footbridge and went for a walk around the nearby harbour. Having seen a few cruising about in the various harbours we'd visited, I wanted to try and catch a mullet so we headed right up to the top where the Yeonoecheon Stream ran into it. On the way we passed a fleet of squid boats.

The squid boats were fitted out with rows of huge lightbulbs, these bright lights are used to attract the squid up from the depths after dark.

When we arrived at the top end and found a corner that we could fish, the amount of flathead mullet that were congregated there was incredible. There were literally hundreds of them! Could I get them interested in a bit of bread though? Not in the slightest. I asked Lillian to quickly search the internet on her phone to find out what they ate and when she told me the bulk of their diet was mosquito larvae, I knew I had virtually no chance of catching them on bread. Fortunately a solitary grass puffer arrived and started eagerly hoovering up all the small pieces of bread. He was much easier to tempt and a piece of prawn flicked out in his vicinity was quickly hoovered up too.

This greedy little grass puffer did a party trick whilst being unhooked.

One that I've seen too many times.

I'd given up hope of catching a flathead mullet but Lillian then spotted some gobies relaxing on rocks in a shallow area and I quickly tied on a smaller hook to catch one. I caught a few of them and recognised them straight away, another species I'd caught in Japan before.

A dusky tripletooth goby. It has yellow bands at the base of its pectoral fins and...

...males have these elongated rays on their first dorsal fin.

We then drove north to get some food, and before returning to the south coast we briefly had a walk around Hyeopjae Port and I fished for thirty minutes but did not catch anything at all. Whilst there Lillian noticed the handle cap was missing from my reel so we visited a tackle shop in Jeju City where I bought a reel stand and a small box of ragworm.

In the evening, I popped down to Hwasunhang Port and had an hour or so fishing after dark. The wind had switched direction though and it was very cold. The action was slow and I only caught two Doederlien's cardinalfish. Yet again, a species I'd caught before whilst in Japan.

Unlike some of its cousins, which tend to be smaller, Doederlien’s cardinalfish can grow relatively large.

The last day of our trip had arrived and the wind had dropped right off, so after we packed up, checked out of our hotel and loaded our cases into the hire car, I was able to fish on the inside of Hwasunhang Port's outer breakwater. I tried fishing on the bottom and at closer range over the rocks using float tactics. The area was teaming with ravenous pearl spot chromis however, and as soon as I cast my bait in, they were swarming all over it and stripping my hook bare. Eventually, I caught a nice marbled rockfish out in deeper water that managed to get into the rocks a couple of times. Giving it slack line saw it swimming out into open water again though. With persistance I caught a few red naped wrasse and Bleeker's wrasse as well as a couple of Doederlien's cardinalfish that obviously didn't realise they were supposed to be nocturnal!

I love catching marbled rockfish. They are such dirty fighters!

A few Doederlien’s cardinalfish came out of their hiding places to see why the pearl spot chromis were in a feeding frenzy.

Before we left, we fished from a flat platform and walking over to the end we looked down the side to discover there was a shocking amount of rubbish discarded there. Glad to say that this wasn't indicative of most of the fishing spots we had visited but regardless it's not great to see this anywhere in the world.

There’s no excuse for this disgusting behaviour.

We then drove up to the north coast and had lunch. With a couple of hours to kill before we had to return the hire car, we visited a small pier nearby. There were lots of anglers fishing on its small breakwater, but we found a spot on the inside next to some steps and I had one last go at adding species to my trip tally.

Clearly a popular spot with local anglers.

I started off fishing down the side in the rocks and caught lots of Bleeker's wrasse, red naped wrasse and ohagurobera on small ragworm sections. After a while, I switched to fishing out onto a sandy area which produced a whitespotted dragonet virtually every cast, until I managed to catch a single goby which I knew straight away was a species I'd never caught before.

Battling through endless whitespotted dragonet, a Campbell’s goby eventually got to my bait first. This would be my last new species of the trip.

Sitting on the edge of the breakwater we spotted a sea slug on the rocks, slowly crawling along. I scooped it out with my net for a closer look. A totally bizarre creature indeed, and I thought crustaceans were weird!

I believe this is called a sea hare. Pretty gross!

Time was ticking away and the end of our trip had almost arrived. I caught a hairchin goby and an ohagurobera before it was time to return the hire car and go to the airport to begin our long journey home.

My second hairchin goby of the trip. I wish I'd got a photo of the barbules on its chin. I need to get a small acrylic tank really.

The final fish of the trip was this funky ohagurobera.

Travelling home is always tinged with sadness but sitting in Jeju Airport waiting to catch the first of three flights to get home, there was a huge LED art installation hanging from the ceiling that brought a smile to our faces.

We both agreed that we'd had a whale of a time!

We'd thoroughly enjoyed another epic Asian adventure, our third trip there. Lillian and I both love that part of the world and will be back there exploring more of it in the future for sure. We've already talked about visiting Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Exploring more of Japan is also on the cards as we both love visiting there. It won't be long at all before I'm going back to Asia though. I'll be visiting in June when I go to Singapore for a week's fishing with two of my mates and I'm really looking forward to that!

The fishing on this trip had been mixed to say the least. The fishing around Seoul and Busan was very dissapointing, but Okinawa and Jeju made up for that. I caught forty six species including thirty five new ones which to be fair was in the ball park of my expectations before we went, so I was happy enough.

Here's what I caught over the three weeks, with new species in bold.

1. Bleeker’s Wrasse
2. Black Damsel
3. Blackbelly Triggerfish
4. Blackstripe Cardinalfish
5. Blue Barred Parrotfish
6. Bluefin Trevally
7. Brackish Damsel
8. Campbell’s Goby
9. Common Ponyfish
10. Cook’s Cardinalfish
11. Crested Grunter
12. Crimsontip Longfin
13. Cylindrical Sandperch
14. Doederlein’s Cardinalfish
15. Dusky Tripletooth Goby
16. Freshwater Demoiselle
17. Grass Puffer
18. Grey Demoiselle
19. Hairchin Goby
20. Jungle Perch
21. Korean Rockfish
22. Korean Rockfish
23. Manybar Goatfish
24. Marbled Rockfish
25. Nagasaki Damsel
26. Ohagurobera
27. Pacific Gregory
28. Pearl Spot Chromis
29. Pink-Speckled Shrimpgoby
30. Red Naped Wrasse
31. Sapphire Devil
32. Scissortail Sergeant
33. Snakehead Gudgeon
34. Southern Orange-Lined Cardinalfish
35. Spangled Emperor
36. Spotnape Cardinalfish
37. Star Bambooleaf Wrasse
38. Sunrise
39. Threadfin Butterflyfish
40. Two Spot Demoiselle
41. Vagabond Butterflyfish
42. Whitebanded Triggerfish
43. Whitespotted Devil
44. Whitespotted Dragonet
45. Whitetail Damsel
46. Yogorehebiginpo

Still, my best catch by far isn't a fish. Lillian and I have been together for almost twenty three years and in that time she's been incredibly supportive of some of my passions, including of course, my fishing obsession! I'm very lucky to have such a wonderful partner. She's also not too shabby with a net and will be at my side when we return to Crete together in September.

Tight lines, Scott.