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.