Three new Scottish species in one day!

I’m off to Norway at the end of August with two of my mates, Nick and Ryan. We met up yesterday down at the outflow area of Torness Power Station to catch up, discuss our upcoming Scandinavian adventure and hopefully catch some mullet on freelined bread flake. Despite there being lots of mullet around it proved to be incredibly frustrating trying to catch them. Even more so than usual! After a couple of hours, a few had been hooked, but most hadn’t stayed hooked for very long, and the few that had, threw the hook at the net. Nick got a dog earlier this year, so he had to head off to take it out for a walk. Ryan and I carried on fishing and eventually a small mullet took his bread, was well hooked, and I netted it for him after a short fight. 

Ryan was over the moon to catch his first Scottish thick lipped mullet.

We fished on for a bit longer, but eventually I admitted defeat, and the two of us headed around to the inlet area to fish for a few more hours. There we fished small pieces of ragworm, black lug and prawns to see what mini species we could catch. The bites came sporadically, but when they did come, we were steadily racking up a few different species.

I’ve caught a few goldsinny wrasse down at Torness Power Station now. They seem to be fairly localised in only a few specific spots.

I’ve caught way more than my fair share of butterfish lately, and added another to my tally, this being number eight!

We both also caught a few leopard spotted goby.

After a short quiet period, Ryan hooked a fish, and as he wound it up I looked down from our elevated position to see what it was? As it reached the surface, I could see that it was a Yarrell’s blenny. I knew this was a species that Ryan really wanted to catch, so I told him to lift it up from the water and over the fence in front of us quickly, without actually telling him what it was. Luckily, the fish was well hooked and made it up onto the platform. Ryan was ecstatic when he saw what he’d caught!

Ryan was thrilled to catch his first Yarrell's blenny.

Ever since he witnessed me catch one last year, Yarrell's blenny has been top of his mini species wish list!

Before we left, we decided to clamber down the defence boulders to have a few casts with metal jigs to see if there were any mackerel around. This turned out to be a waste of time. 

I search the deep inlet channel with a 10g metal jig. 

There may have been no mackerel around, but Ryan did catch a greater sandeel just before we left. This was his third new species of the day, but didn’t seem to excite him quite the same way as the first two had. He didn’t even bother taking a photo of it, instead just quickly unhooking it and throwing it back. All in all an enjoyable session, and it was great to see someone else getting a new species adrenaline rush a couple of times! 

Tight lines, Scott.