Species hunting road trip: Wet, windy and worth it!

The weather for the last two days of my time in Cornwall was pretty terrible. Wet and windy with the Met Office issuing weather warnings. Adam, who had hoped to join me again, decided against making the journey and another friend who I’d hoped to catch up with as well also cancelled their planned trip to Cornwall, so I ended up braving the elements on my own. Determined to add a few more species to my 2023 tally, I checked the forecast for different areas and came up with a plan, so I could try and avoid the worst of the weather, fishing mainly sheltered marks. On the morning of my penultimate day in Cornwall, I headed up to the north coast, where I parked the car and walked for an hour or so along the SW Coastal Path before dropping down to hunt for a Montagu’s blenny in some exposed rockpools. It was windy and overcast, but the scenery was still quite breathtaking. 

Golden sandy beaches,..

…and rugged cliffs,..

…led me to lots of exposed rockpools.

I spent some time fishing in different rockpools and caught a few small fish, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. After a while, it started raining and the rocks I was clambering over became a bit slippery, so I thought it was best if I cut my losses and headed back to the car. 

As well as a few common blenny and rock goby, I caught this tiny long spined sea scorpion before I got a bit wet and left the rocks, which were becoming pretty treacherous. 

In the afternoon, I headed to the Fal estuary to target Couch’s seabream, a species I’ve caught abroad but never in the UK. Things were slow to start with, but as the tide began to slacken off as high water approached, I began to catch quite a few black seabream. Unfortunately, that was all I caught. A young angler fishing next to me did catch a single Couch's seabream though, so that was a promising sign. I decided to return the following day for a second attempt. In the evening it rained heavily so I relaxed back at my accomodation.

Not the seabream I was after. 

The following morning the heavy rain continued, but as soon as it stopped I drove to Penzance to pick up some fresh ragworm. I then headed along to Marazion to try yet again to locate and catch a Montagu’s blenny in the rockpools there. For some reason, the rockpools were very sparsely populated, so I tried blindly dropping my split shot rig into likely looking spots. I got quite a shock when, after a fairly unproductive spell, a giant goby charged out of a crack and swallowed my tiny bait. It’s been a while since I’ve caught one, and I’d forgotten that they sometimes hide in shallow rockpools in holes that you’d never expect to find a fish of their size in!

A surprise giant goby with the impressive St Michael’s Mount off in the distance. 

I fished on for a while, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. It was time to WhatsApp a friend. Richie of The Big Lerf Podcast was the chosen friend, and he gave me a spot to try that he assured me was “stacked” with Montagu’s blenny! I jumped in the car again and headed straight there. Upon arrival, I found some large, fairly weedless rockpools, and set about locating my target species. It didn’t take me long to spot a few of them in amongst some common blenny. 

"Stacked" rockpools.

As well as several common blenny there were a few blenny with darker colouration and the telltale lappet of the Montagu’s blenny. Surprisingly they weren’t particularly interested in a pinkie maggot, so I dropped in a tiny piece of ragworm on my tanago hook. The result was instantaneous! I caught two in quick succession, took a few photos and popped them back before returning to the car. 

Montagu’s blenny is easy to spot if you know what you’re looking for. 

Finally! My first UK Montagu’s blenny! 

After a short drive, I arrived at the Fal estuary and had another session targeting Couch's seabream. The wind was howling down the estuary though, which made fishing quite unpleasant. The fishing went pretty much the same as the day before. As high tide approached, shoals of small black seabream arrived, and I was soon well into double figures of them. My ragworm baits being assaulted as soon as my rig hit the bottom. After three hours, I admitted defeat on the quest for a Couch's seabeam and drove all the way back to Penzance for an after dark session at the end of the Harbour's South Pier there.

Penzance South Pier after dark.

I was hoping to catch two species there. Firstly, Atlantic horse mackerel, and secondly a seabream that a few other anglers have caught recently, whose identity was a matter of some debate. They were either axillary seabream or blackspot seabream. Pictures I had seen were inconclusive though. As the name suggests, the blackspot seabream had a conspicuous black spot, found at the start of their lateral line, but the fish I'd seen lacked this or at best it was extremely faint. Luckily it didn't take me long at all to catch both my targets. Adam had given me some pointers about where to cast, his info proved to be invaluable and my small ragworm section irresistible. After catching a few small pouting closer in, I caught a small scad casting further out.

No identity issues with this one.

I then caught two of the mystery seabream in quick succession. I took lots of photos of their fins and their teeth and after catching a second scad I was happy enough and called it a night. Back at my accommodation, I did a bit of research on FishBase and using the soft ray fin count of the fish's anal fin, I positively identified it as a blackspot seabream. Axillary have 9-10 anal fin soft rays. Blackspot seabream have 11-12 anal soft fin rays. I counted 12 on both   CV the fish I caught.

A blackspot seabream. Also known as the red seabream (although this example isn't particularly red)! You can just about make out the black spot feature in the specimen above. The first four or five scales above and below the beginning of the lateral line are ever so slightly darker than those above and below the rest of the lateral line.

So Couch's seabream aside, I think I'd made the most of fishing in the poor conditions and had pretty much caught all the species I'd set out to, adding another four to my 2023 tally in the process. The Montagu's blenny and blackspot seabream were also UK firsts for me. My time in Cornwall had come to an end, and the following day I had a very long drive back up the road to Edinburgh to make. The weather forecast wasn't looking great, but I had a little plan to hopefully stop off somewhere on the way home and perhaps add another unusual freshwater species to my tally.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the final part.