Five above zero.

Leaving Singapore at the end of November, where the average temperature was about 30°C, and stepping off the plane in Edinburgh on a dark and rather chilly evening into a temperature of 1°C, was not much fun. Winter in Scotland is pretty grim, even in the Central Belt. At least I had lots of photos to crop, watermark and upload into fourteen blog posts that I still had to write. Something to keep me busy for a couple of weeks when it was horrible outside.

About halfway through that process, I checked the weather forecast for the coming days, and seeing a short, fairly mild spell approaching, I arranged to meet up with my mate Ryan to catch up. We fished locally at Marine Esplanade, our main target for the evening was five bearded rocking, a species I’ve not caught this year. Ryan brought some frozen black lug, and we fished small sections of it, on small hooks, on the bottom. We got bites from the start of the session and both of us opened our account with pin whiting. 

There are lots of pin whiting around this part of the coastline.

I also caught a solitary poor cod. They seem to be increasingly common in the Forth Estuary.

After catching a few more whiting, my rod tip started nodding away again. Lifting it up and feeling the weight of a small fish, I wound it in to find the target species for the evening had snaffled my small smelly bait. 

My first five bearded rockling of the year! My 267th species of 2024!

The rockling reminded me slightly of the bigeye cusk I had caught in Singapore. A pleasant little flashback! Things slowed down after that, but as we chatted away, another bite registered on my rod tip and picking my rod up I felt another fish on. It felt like a second rockling, wriggling around as it came up through the murky water towards me, but it turned out to be a viviparous blenny.

A nice bonus fish!

Before we left, I caught a second five bearded rockling. I love it when a plan comes together! Speaking of plans coming together, Ryan will be coming to Japan with Lillian and I next November, and we’ll be planning our three-week itinerary over the next few months. It’s a trip I'm already really looking forward to!

Tight lines, Scott.