A cracking bite.

On Wednesday last week I spent a few hours down at Torness Power station with my mate Nick. It was a sunny day, and we fished at the outflow and also at the inlet area. The fishing was pretty dreadful and all we both caught were a few blenny from the rockpools at the outflow. One in particular was a bit annoyed at being caught and bit my finger repeatedly. I found its aggression very amusing!

Vicious little swine!

When he eventually let go, I popped him back in his rockpool to calm down and get back to whatever it was doing before I interrupted.

The humble common blenny is still one of my favourite mini species. They're so aggressive and have tons of character. The lack of other fish was very odd. Jellyfish have started to appear however, a sure sign that the water temperature is steadily increasing, and the summer will soon be here. It won't be too long before I can have some ultra light fun with mackerel when the shoals start showing up!

Tight lines, Scott.

SIBly the best?

On Tuesday last week, I headed west and met up with my mate and fellow species hunter Gordon for a day afloat in his SIB on the upper section of Loch Creran. He recently sent me a link to a diver’s photos of some interesting mini species that were taken in Loch Creran, so we thought we’d spend a day fishing tiny baits to see what might take them. 

Upper Loch Creran on a breezy, overcast day.

Our fishing platform for the day. You can also see the bladderwrack beds that make fishing from the shore with ultra light tackle very difficult. Getting your rig back through them is problematic.

Things were pretty slow to start with, mainly due to the fac that the SIB was drifting a little too fast along the northern shore of the loch, so we tied off on a large grey buoy at the eastern end of the loch to try there. We soon started getting some little taps, and I eventually caught one of the small culprits on a tiny piece of ragworm. It wasn't anything unusual sadly, but it was proof that our delicate rigs and tiny baits were working OK if nothing else.

The first fish of the day was a sand goby. 

After the sand goby was caught the bites dried up, so after a while we decided to untie the SIB from the buoy and to have a go drifting again, along the loch's southern shore this time. The water there was fairly deep relatively close to the shore and the drift was a little slower. By slowly letting out line as we drifted, we managed to leave our rigs in a stationary position and were soon catching lots of black goby.

We caught a few black goby.

After a couple of hours we'd caught a dozen black goby between us and nothing else. We were both feeling a little bit cold too by this point, so we decided to head back in and after packing up the SIB we headed off to get some hot food. Before heading home, we spend a couple of hours fishing at Kelly's Pier on Loch Etive. I was hoping to catch a painted goby for my 2023 species hunt and managed to do just that. I also caught a single black goby and a few rather rotund three spined stickleback.

A painted goby. My third goby species of the day.

A nice photo showing the black goby's elongated dorsal fin ray.

The sticklebacks were pretty chunky. What a bloater!

So, no unusual species were caught, but we did learn a little about fishing from the SIB in upper Loch Creran. If we do it again, we'll do so when the weather is nicer and there is little wind. We might also use an anchor to fish over the one area. The drifts along the southern shore did also give some ideas about potential shore fishing spots too. Perhaps fishing from the SIB isn't the best approach to take? All food for thought. So, a fairly productive day trip for formulating future trips there, and I also added a sand goby and painted goby to this year's species tally in the process!

Tight lines, Scott.

Effort and reward.

I headed off on a two day trip with two of my mates, Nick and Ryan, last Tuesday. We visited several marks on the west coast and attempted to catch as many species as we could. Greenock was the first stop, where we were joined by a forth angler, Gordon, who like myself is a keen species hunter. He'd sent me a photo of a lumpsucker that had been caught there last week, so it was definitely worth a visit.

We had the harbour breakwater in Greenock to ourselves. Despite a strong wind, the conditions were OK, and we all caught a few fish. 

I was hoping to catch a common dragonet and got one first cast!

I followed this up with lots of goldsinny wrasse,..

...a few juvenile pollock,.. 

...a single black goby,..

..and a solitary ballan wrasse. 

After a few hours, the four of us headed along to Gamble Steps in Gourock, a mark I'd heard of, but had never fished before. Gordon told me he had caught some tompot blenny there in the past, so I was hoping to get one myself.  The four of us fished away and things were slow to start with, but by dropping to smaller hooks we all began catching a few goldsinny wrasse. Ryan had a small cod before I caught a single black goby too. After a while, a large shoal of fish arrived, swimming just below the surface of the water. I cast my rig out and let it fall back towards me through them. This worked a treat and after a few taps I hooked one of them. They turned out to be sand smelt. 

 

Only my third ever sand smelt from a Scottish venue.

After another hour or so we were all pretty bored with catching goldsinny wrasse, so Nick, Ryan and I said goodbye to Gordon, and we drove down to Troon where we tried to catch rock goby. The bottom of the larger rockpools there were all covered in ripped up kelp however, and all we managed to catch was a few common blenny. Jumping back in the car, we headed further south still, to the picturesque Portpatrick harbour. There we spent a couple of hours fishing into darkness. Nick caught a flounder and I caught a pollock before we started targeting shore rockling at the harbour’s mouth. 

Perched on the rocks, I waited for a fish to show interest in my ragworm. It didn’t take long to get some, and it was the target species. Odd as it wasn't even dark!

A very small shore rockling, but I didn’t care, it was my first of the year. 

Nick and Ryan waited patiently for some more rockling to start feeding. Ryan ended up catching three before we headed to Stranraer, where we spent the night in a hotel.

The next day we got up early and headed down to Ardwell Bay Beach on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. Our targets there were flounder and turbot. It quickly became apparent that there was a lot of suspended weed in the water, but after moving to the northern end of the beach, we all caught what we were after on small strips of mackerel fished on three hook flapper rigs tied up with small hooks. 

Ardwell Bay Beach. It's a lovely spot.

I caught my first flounder of the year. 

Ryan was first to catch a small turbot,..

...but we eventually all caught at least one. 

For our afternoon session, we drove to Port Logan and headed up and along the high cliffs to the south of it. This was more of an exploratory session as none of us had fished there before. Compared to all the other marks we'd fished, where we literally jumped out of the car and started fishing, this was going to require a fair bit of climbing up, scrambling down, jumping over streams, as well as navigating gorse, barbed wire and electric fences!  There was no path along the clifftop which slowed our progress in places, but it was a pleasant afternoon, we took our time, enjoyed the views and after an hour or so we eventually found a place where the gradient was shallow enough that we could get down to fish. 

The cliffs were massive and most of the sea was inaccessible. 

A fall near the edge would no doubt have proved catastrophic. 

Eventually we found a spot where we could get down to the rocks with relative ease.

Unfortunately, for all the effort we put in getting along to this spot, it only produced one fish, a small pollock that Ryan caught almost straight away. There was a large pod of dolphins in the area, so that may have had something to do with the lack of fish. Despite fishing with bait rods and lures, none of us caught anything else after persisting for a few hours, so we packed up, climbed back up to the clifftop before making our way further south still along to Clanyard Bay. From there we cut inland and followed some B roads back to Port Logan.

The sandy shoreline of Clanyard Bay. 

So, a fairly productive trip, during which I’d added nine species to my 2023 tally. Nick, Ryan and I had a good laugh and caught lots of fish. The mark we found north of Clanyard Bay is definitely worth another visit. I had high expectations of the fishing there, but it wasn't to be. Funny how we caught way more fish at the easily accessible marks! I've caught grey gurnards, tub gurnards, plaice and short spined sea scorpions whilst boat fishing in the area in the past, so I know there are fish there to be caught. It was also great to catch up with Gordon again too, and we'll be fishing together again tomorrow. We’re going to try and target some unusual mini species in Scottish sea lochs from his SIB. I'm really looking forward to it!

Tight lines, Scott.

Mystery fish?

I was told recently by a workmate that there were strange fish swimming about in big shoals in the Water of Leith. He’d seen them a few times and assured me they were “Definitely not minnows! 100%!”. So, after work on Wednesday evening, I went down to the spot where he’d seen them and freelined small maggots on a size 18 hook. You’ll never guess what I caught! Dozens of minnow!

Mystery solved!

I also caught a three spined stickleback. 

I wasn’t really that surprised to be honest. I mean, what else could it have been? Anyway, it was a fun way to spend an hour, so I can’t complain about the lack of strange fish too much! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Making good progress.

I popped out last night for a couple of hours to try and catch a minnow and a bullhead from the Water of Leith. Lillian came along to keep me company, get some fresh air and ended up taking a few photos for me as I accidentally left my phone in the flat. The session got off to a good start. Ledgering small maggots on a size 18 hook tied to a 2lb hook length at the first spot in the hope of catching a minnow, my first cast instead produced a small brown trout.

A very welcome bonus capture.

Things were slow after that, with my rod tip only twitching a few times ever so slightly. Possibly small fish having a go, but I suspect it may have been debris heading downstream bumping into my line, as none of the knocks developed into repeated rod tip movement. Once it got dark, I got my head torch out and began scanning the bottom close in for bullheads. They hide under rocks during the day, but once the sun goes down they come out into the open and are easy to spot despite their relatively good camouflage. The light reflecting from their eyes giving their position away. In the Water of Leith, as I’ve discovered over the last few years, there are lots of them. I saw dozens in the one small section I searched.

Sitting motionless on the bottom, even the full beam of my head torch doesn't spook them!

Catching them is very simple. You just have to lower a maggot in front of their faces and they usually eagerly snaffle it in one go!

There were plenty of small bullhead around, but I selectively targeted the bigger ones.

This was the biggest one I caught.

They are pretty greedy, aggressive little fish when presented with a wriggling maggot.

Just before we left, I spotted a fish that looked a little different. Suspecting it was perhaps a stone loach, I set about catching it. The fish wasn't too interested in my bait, but after a bit of persistence it eventually ate it. It turned out to be a minnow.

Resting in the shallow water, this minnow exhibited colours and tubercles on its head associated with spawning.

So, an enjoyable little session, and I’d successfully caught the two species I was after during it. Species caught whilst I'm on holiday this year will no doubt make up the majority of my 2023 tally, but if I’m to reach my goal of two hundred I’ll have to keep adding UK ones fairly regularly too. I’ve caught twenty eight here so far and think seventy is probably where I should be aiming for in UK species, so a third of the way into 2023 I’m probably on target to achieve that.

Tight lines, Scott.

I'm saury.

I received a WhatsApp message from my mate Nick the other day. He'd found what he thought was a garfish, washed up and barely alive, on an East Lothian beach whilst he was out walking his dog. Interesting, I thought, but zooming in for a closer look at the fish, I realised it wasn't a garfish. It wasn't long enough, and the shape of its head and length and thickness of its beak were not right. It also had rows of pronounced finlets behind its dorsal and anal fins. So what was it then?

"That's not a garfish!" I replied, adding that I thought it might be a needlefish of some description.

Turns out I was correct. After a bit of discussion in work and some Googling, we established that the mystery fish was in fact an Atlantic saury, a member of the needlefish family. Most UK sea anglers will probably be familiar with the Pacific saury, it's sold here frozen as "bluey" and is used as a very oily fish bait. The Atlantic saury is likely much less well known. I'd never heard of it and learning about it was quite interesting. I discovered that it also goes by another name in the UK, the skipper. No doubt because, like the garfish, they can "skip" along the surface of the water to evade predators or move out of the path of approaching boats. With another quick Google search I discovered there is a UK record for this species, standing since 1994 when a specimen of 148 grams was caught from Chemical Beach in Seaham, County Durham.

What a cool find! I'm wondering if there are more around? I might have to do a bit of chumming and try float fishing tiny slivers of mackerel belly under a float on the east coast this summer. Nick's find was a reminder that you never know what species you might potentially catch around our coastline!

Tight lines, Scott.