Northern sole.

Dover sole is normally a species I’d associate with the estuary systems of southern England. At least that’s what I used to think. Last year I was told a few of them had been caught in the estuary systems of south west Scotland. Heading down there to try and catch one has obviously been on my to do list ever since, but last Friday evening was the first time I’d actually driven down there to give it a go. My mate Ryan was keen to head down there with me so after picking him up we drove down in the evening and fished the last three hours of the rising tide and the first hour of the ebb. I fished ragworm on a three hook flapper rig, trapping small weights on my snoods using float stops to pin them to the muddy bottom we were fishing over. Sole prefer a stationary bait presentation. Ryan wasn’t interested in catching sole, so he opted to fish two hook flapper and pulley rigs baited with crab and squid to target shark species. For the first hour of the session the current was ripping by in front of us and weed was a major problem, but both eventually began to ease off and this made fishing much more straight forward. Ironically, despite fishing smaller baits on much smaller hooks, I was first to catch a couple of thornback ray. 

I think it was the first time I’ve caught a ray on ragworm. Usually I prefer a frozen launce rapped in squid when targetting rays. 

As light faded, bites started coming fairly steadily and despite a few rather annoying midgies appearing as the wind dropped off, it turned into a very enjoyable session. 

The legs of an old pier next to us may have been rotten but the view certainly was not. 

Every time my rod tip registered some interest I was of course hopeful that it was an elongated brown flatfish greedily munching on my ragworm but every time it was a thornback ray. Meanwhile Ryan had caught a few thornback ray too, as well as some starry smoothhound and lesser spotted dogfish. Eventually, I caught a lesser spotted dogfish of my own, my first of the year. 

I don’t care what the haters say, when they’re not trying to rasp the skin from your arms, dogfish are awesome!

Ryan’s biggest starry smoothhound of the night. 

During the last hour I was tempted to switch out my rig and bait to try to catch a starry smoothhound myself, but I had ragworm left to use up and a new species to add my Scottish tally. As high tide approached the bites slowed right down and weed began to be problematic again. On my last cast my rod tip rattled and lifting into the culprit I knew it was too big to be a Dover sole. 

My last cast produced a nice thornback ray. 

I never grow tired of admiring their eyes. Stunning!

Despite failing to catch my intended target, it had been a good session. A new venue fished and I’m sure with a bit of persistence I’ll eventually get my first Scottish Dover sole. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I know that at least three have been “accidentally” caught at three separate south west Scottish estuary marks by anglers who were targeting other, larger species. I actually think there may be a few of them down there, it’s just that anglers aren’t specifically targeting them or using the required sole specific tactics.

Tight lines, Scott.