From coast to coast.

On Wednesday, I headed west to East India Dock in Greenock with my mate Ryan for a spot of species hunting. The first target I was hoping to catch was the rock dwelling flatfish, the topknot, so I spent the morning trying to drop my running ledger rig down into likely holding areas where one might be lurking. After a few hours of catching small wrasse and a couple of long spined sea scorpion, the bites slowed right down, so we jumped back in the car and headed to Loch Goil to try fishing a new spot there. Rather annoyingly, this proved to be a complete waste of time. After three hours, we hadn’t caught any fish at all, never mind any species I’d never caught before! A cool looking ladybird landed on me at one point, which was the highlight of our time there!

I’d never seen an orange ladybird before, so this little beetle was a new species!

By this point it was early in the evening, and with a three hour drive back to Edinburgh to do, we had a decision to make, try one more spot, or head straight home with our tails between our legs. After a short discussion, we decided to break up the journey with one final throw of the dice. An hour later we arrived at Loch Long, climbed down onto a rock mark, quickly got setup and started fishing again. As I'd done at Loch Goil, I opted to fish three hook flapper rigs at distance, tied with tiny hooks on light line. Things were slow, but I eventually caught a black goby, followed shortly afterwards by a poor cod, my first of the year. Ryan then caught a nice male common dragonet. Things were quiet after that, and after losing a few rigs to the bottom in quick succession, we called an end to a frustrating day's fishing.

The poor cod, probably the least desirable member of the cod family for most anglers.

Ryan's dragonet didn't want to display its impressively tall first dorsal fin.

On Thursday, I decided to go out fishing again, but this time closer to home on the east coast. I popped down the A1 to St Abbs Harbour where my target again, was a topknot. A customer in work caught one there last year, so I knew it was a slim possibility. I collected a few prawns from some rockpools and set about dropping them down the walls of the harbour.

My bait for the session. I think they form a large part of the diet of the topknot.

My presentation of the live prawn. The luminous beads were more for my benefit, so I could see where the prawn was.

Fishing in tight down the first section of wall not much was happening, but slowly working my way along whilst raising and lowering the prawn up and down it, a fish eventually appeared from a cluster of seaweed and began attacking my lead weight! After realising it wasn’t edible or a threat, it quickly turned its attention to the prawn, making short work of it and getting itself hooked in the process.

Anger management classes and a trip to the optician may be required for this super aggressive blenny.

Moving around the harbour and patiently trying my luck on different sections of wall didn’t produce any more fish for a while, but my efforts were eventually rewarded when my first ballan wrasse of the year munched the prawn and tried to take off into the kelp bed out from the wall.

This nice looking ballan wrasse put a nice band in my Rock Rover rod.

At this point, my mate Nick popped down to say hello, and we caught up whilst I fished away. I’d been trying to catch a topknot for a few hours and spotting some tiny fish down the harbour wall that I suspected might be two spotted goby, I tied on a tanago hook and fished it under a tiny float. It didn’t take long to catch a few of the diminutive fish.

They turned out to be tiny coalfish. Not much bigger than my Japanese one yen coin!

After a while, Nick headed off and I left St Abbs too. I didn't go home though, instead visiting the sea defence boulders at the inlet area of Torness Power Station, again hoping to catch a topknot. Dropping live prawns down into the deeper holes between the huge boulders was my chosen tactic, and this produced a few fish. Not the one I was after sadly, all the same species, long spined sea scorpion.

Dropping live prawns down into gaps in the rocks and being patient.

Some people struggle to tell the difference between long and short spined sea scorpion. The long spined sea scorpion has a tiny barbule on the corner of its mouth. Its short spined cousin does not. It also has long spines!

After a while, and having slowly worked my way a fair way along the sea defence boulders, I decided to fish from the gantry up above the inlet. Dropping my rig down next to a kelp lined sloping concrete wall produced lots of coalfish and a solitary pollock. Fishing right in next to this structure but below the weed produced a solitary goldsinny wrasse. By this point I had been out fishing for almost twelve hours, was feeling quite tired and my prawns had been used up too, so I called it a day.

Vanilla. The coalfish has a straight lateral line.

Kinky. The pollock’s lateral line has two bends in it.

Normally a nibbler, this goldsinny wrasse eagerly munched a whole prawn no problem.

So, another couple of lengthy sessions visiting five different venues hadn’t produced any new Scottish species. I can't say I'm in any way surprised. I realise that catching anything new in Scotland has become a very difficult challenge indeed. Despite this reality, I'm looking forward to the next few months, I'm going to have a lot of free time soon and July to September should be the best months of the year for me to get out, try to catch something new and push my Scottish species tally a little closer towards my goal of one hundred!

Tight lines, Scott.

Power struggle.

The weather was pretty poor during the week, so I opted to stay fairly local and had a session down at the inlet of Torness Power Station. After netting a few small prawns to use as bait, I spent some time fishing them in various rockpools. Dropping them into potential hiding places, I soon caught a few long spined sea scorpions. I still find it amusing watching them suddenly appear to aggressively attack the bait, sometimes completely ignoring it and trying to eat the split shot instead! I then remembered I had a jar of Berkley Gulp! powerbait in my bag that I had been meaning to try out on saltwater mini species for a while.

Usually a favourite with rainbow trout fishery "bait" anglers, I was confident the rockpool inhabitants would love it too.

Putting a small ball of it on my hook, a blenny was first to pop out of a crack to attack it mercilessly, but its incessant nibbling just knocked it all from the hook in no time. This happened a couple of times, until a long spined sea scorpion appeared and greedily swallowed it whole.

Why peck repeatedly when you can greedily gobble in one go?!

After unhooking the fish I flipped it over only to see the bright orange lump of powerbait through the fish's throat membrane!

After switching back to fishing with prawns and exploring a few more rockpools, but without catching any more fish, I headed over to the inlet area's gantry to try fishing from it. Dropping live prawns down close to a submerged concrete wall, I was hoping to maybe catch something unusual, but I didn't get any interest sadly. After a while, I switched to using small pieces of prawn on tiny hooks. Things were slow, but eventually this approach produced a couple of goldsinny wrasse, and my first coalfish of the year.

Not exactly the exciting, rare species I was hoping for, but certain better than catching nothing.

My first coalfish of 2024. I doubt it’ll be my last!

After catching the coalfish, I fished on for a couple of fruitless hours before I decided to call it a day. I really hope the weather settles down soon. The endless wind coming from a variety of directions along with the wet conditions of late really are making fishing less productive I think. I’d say the fishing is at least a month behind where it is usually by this time of year.  On Wednesday, I'm hoping to spend a full day fishing with two of my mates, Nick and Ryan. The weather will no doubt dictate where we end up, but unless it changes, I think we’ll head to the west coast for a session on the Clyde estuary and perhaps also visit a new spot on either Loch Goil or Loch Long.

Tight lines, Scott.

Windy, with a chance of topknot and lumpsucker!

I continued my hunt for a new Scottish species this week, but the weather was pretty grim, so I didn't fancy my chances, but went out a couple of times anyway! On Monday evening, I spent an hour or so exploring some rockpools at the western end of Portobello Beach after work. The area didn’t seem to hold many fish, but eventually I caught a small fish from a small sandy patch on the bottom of a larger pool. 

This common goby would turn out to be the only fish of the session. It had some nice markings on it, probably due to breeding.

On Tuesday in work I was told that a lumpsucker and a topknot had been caught from the Clyde from a couple of spots I'm familair with around Greenock, so I headed there on Wednesday to see if I could get lucky and catch one myself. The weather forecast wasn't great and sadly when I arrived it was accurate. It was dry most of the day which was something, but it was very windy and that made things difficult. The water was also coloured up slightly and there was a fair amount of suspended weed. Fishing two rods with my hooks baited up with small pieces of ragworm, raw prawn and black lug, I caught plenty of fish but only two species. All I caught were goldsinny and corkwing wrasse and nothing else!

One of the dozens of goldsinny wrasse I caught.

Easily the most colourful corkwing wrasse of the session.

Despite not catching anything rare or unusual, it was still an enjoyable session and productive too. Having surveyed the area I was fishing at low tide once the rocks were exposed, I have a fair idea which spots to focus my efforts on when I next return. Hopefully I’ll get a a few sessions in before the mackerel arrive! I might try fishing small live prawns when I do. The topknot in particular might find those irresistible, if the multitudes of wrasse don't munch them first!

Tight lines, Scott.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

I popped down to Dunbar on Thursday and spend a few hours species hunting in the rockpools at the back of the old harbour, hoping to catch anything unusual that may have gotten trapped in them. There was no sign of anything in the open water, so I turned my attention to tempting fish out from under boulders and from inside cracks. I had a small amount of ragworm with me but also had some traditional freshwater baits too, and started off fishing a single maggot. This proved irresistable for several long spined sea scorpions. I also had a few small lob worm with me as well. Not a bait I'd ever tried in saltwater, but small sections also proved very effective.

The small piece of lobworm hanging out of this ones mouth looked a bit like a comedy tongue. It looked like it was licking its lips!

After a while I had exhausted all of my favourite rockpools and had caught over a dozen long spined sea scorpions. I then decided to head further down the shore to some rockpools I hadn't fished in before. They were fairly shallow but some had nice crevices at the edges, a good place for small ambush predators to lurk. Dropping a section of ragworm down in front of one such crack produced a rather large common blenny, my first of the year.

At just over 17cm it was a bit of a beast with a chunky head and large mouth.

It also had striking red eyes!

Working my way from rockpool to rockpool, the only fish that I spotted swimming out in the open was a large two spotted goby. I switched over to a tanago hook to try and catch it, but whilst doing so, it swam off and disappeared into some bladderwrack seaweed. Catching a few more long spined sea scorpion and common blenny, I then spotted a set of dark blue claws poking out from a hole.

A lobster, trying, but failing, to hide itself away.

Towards the end of the session, I caught a small reddish-brown coloured common blenny. In readiness for the rare mini species I had failec to catch, I had my photo tank with me, so took the opportunity to use it. 

This juvenile blenny fit in my tank nicely. 

I didn’t realise the common blenny had small structures around its nostrils. The tank is perfect for observing every minor detail on small fish. 

Shortly afterwards I decided to call it a day. On the way back home I visited a pond where I’ve been told that some koi carp have been introduced. I had a slow stroll all the way around it, but didnt spot any colourful, but unwanted pets. There were a few birds nesting however. 

A pair of swans and an ugly duckling. 

Two moorhens had decided to nest in the reeds right next to the path. 

So, two different sessions on consecutive days last week has failed to throw up anything unexpected. Like fishing in Loch Creran, I’m confident that if I spend enough time messing around in rockpools, I’ll eventually catch something unusual. I intend to fish in more rockpools over the coming months and will also be going out after dark later in the summer to see what’s in them as well. The weather forecast for my days off this week isn’t looking great so I’m not sure where I’ll end up fishing.  

Tight lines, Scott.

A case of mistaken identity?

On Wednesday I got up early and drove west to fish Upper Loch Creran. I was hoping to get out of the wind on is northern shore, but couldn't find an access point where I could park my car. I drove around to the southern side, parked my car in a lay-by, made the short climb down through the trees and got set up on a small rocky peninsula. Fishing tiny pieces of ragworm on #18 hooks, I was hoping to pick up something unusual that I've never caught before in Scotland. Things were pretty slow, and after a few hours, all I'd caught were a few black goby.

Not very exciting. They seem to be the prominent mini species in Upper Loch Creran.

After a short period, where even the black goby stopped biting, I wound in to put fresh bait on and felt a heavy weight. Please be a lumpsucker. Please be a lumpsucker. Please be a lumpsucker! It wasn't a lumpsucker sadly! It was a rather large, bright orange starfish.

Heaviest catch of the session.

After a while I caught a small dab, and then a double shot of a dab and a small dragonet. The dragonet looked a little bit peculiar though, and this got me a little bit excited. I quickly unhooked the dab, returned it, and began inspected the dragonet. It looked different to every other common dragonet I'd ever caught and had vivid ruby red saddles on its back. Had I caught my first Scottish reticulated dragonet? I've only ever caught one reticulated dragonet before, and that was many years ago at Mevagissey Breakwater in Cornwall.

Here's one I caught earlier! An actual reticulated dragonet. It did have saddles, but they were much less obvious as you can see in this photo.

The fish I had just caught was certainly small enough to be a reticulated dragonet. They don't reach the sizes that common dragonets do.

It had these ruby red saddles on its back. I'd never seen those on a common dragonet before.

I popped it into my tank for further inspection.

Colouration is sometimes not the best way to identify a fish to species level, so I began carefully checking some of its anatomical features. I began by lifting the little fish out of the tank again and checking for a fourth, forward facing spine on the back edge of the operculum. This is not visible to the naked eye, but is instead located by gentle running a fingernail back towards the three backwards facing spines. It was present, and this is a key distinguishing feature of the common dragonet. The reticulated dragonet lacks this fourth spine. I then placed the fish back into the tank and took a photo showing its second dorsal fin. Being a juvenile/female it lacked the obvious colourful patterns on it, so the next thing I checked was the number of rays it had.

I counted nine in total. *The final ray is branched from the same root and is counted as one.

Again, this is the number that a common dragonet is supposed to have. I then compared this to a photo I took of the reticulated dragonet I caught at Mivagissey.

The reticulated dragonet has ten rays in its second dorsal fin. *Again, the final ray is branched from the same root and is counted as one.

So in conclusion, I'd simply caught an oddly coloured common dragonet. Perhaps their colouration varies depending on the sea floor they live on? Usually, common dragonet are found over sandy areas and juvenile/female specimens have a "sandy" livery to match that. The area I was fishing was mixed ground, sloping down from the shore into much deeper water. Perhaps any common dragonet living in such a habitat had this different colouration?

Is this photograph of a "reticulated dragonet" actually a common dragonet that has decided to lead a slightly different lifestyle to most of its species? The internet is full of similar photos that are labelled as reticulated dragonet. Perhaps this is a case of mistaken identity that is now being perpetuated?

Anyway, potential dragonet identification issues aside, I hadn't caught a new Scottish species, which was pretty disappointing after my initial excitement! I carried on fishing for a few more hours, but things remained very slow and all I caught was a few more black goby. I'll be visiting Loch Creran again in the not too distant future. Hopefully I'll get lucky and catch something that's rarely caught, that will push me a little closer to my goal of one hundred species from Scottish venues!

Tight lines, Scott.