A silver thread in a ribbon of green.

Keen to catch a few more freshwater species, I popped out in the evening earlier this month to target a couple on the Water of Leith. The river which runs all the way through Edinburgh, used to be badly polluted, but these days it’s in much better condition. Such is the transformation, it’s been described as “a silver thread in a ribbon of green”. Most anglers who fish the river target brown trout, but more often than not, when I visit, it’s to target some of the venues smaller inhabitants. With exactly this in mind, I'd arranged to meet up with my mate Ryan to help him catch his first bullhead, but arriving early, I decided to see if I could catch a few minnow before it got dark. The water level was very low, and I didn't get many bites, but eventually I caught my target species from a deeper area at the water’s edge.

The humble minnow. Another species added to this year's tally.

As light faded, I headed downstream to meet up with Ryan at my favourite bullhead spot. Once it got dark, they began to appear from underneath rocks, their daytime hiding spots, and dropping a single maggot down in front of their faces, we were soon catching a few of them.

The bullhead is present in large numbers in the Water of Leith. 

Catching them isn't exactly difficult, so I usually try to hunt for larger specimens. Shining my headtorch around, searching for a monster, I spotted a small common eel poking its head out from underneath a boulder. Dropping my bait in its vicinity had the desired result, but the slippery fish quickly swam backwards into its hole. I didn't think I'd be able to successfully extract it, but to my surprise, a bit of gentle pressure did the trick.

The smallest common eel I've ever caught.

As the eel quickly destroyed my running ledger, tying it in knots, and we'd caught plenty of bullhead, we called an end to what had been a very productive evening after I unhooked the slippery rig wrecker and returning it to the river.

Tight lines, Scott.

A spot of maggot drowning.

I popped down to East Lothian earlier this month for a short session at the lifeboat station at Torness Power Station. It had been quite windy for a while and the sea was fairly coloured up as a result. I had almost a full pint of maggots left over from my stickleback hunting a few days earlier, so decided to fish with those. They’re a fantastic bait for targeting mini species, believe it or not! Three hours only produced a few nibbles, and apart from a few velvet swimmer crab, one fish was my only reward for being persistent. 

My first leopard spotted goby of the year. Caught on double maggot!

On the way back up the A1, I visited the Biel Water, to see if I could catch a minnow. The river was down to its bare bones. Hardly surprising, given how little we’ve had, but I was still shocked by how incredibly low the water level was and struggled to locate any of my preferred target. Slowly approaching a deep pool, I spotted a few small brown trout, so I got as low as I could and crept closer to the bank, hiding as best I could behind some long grass. There were three small trout moving around and also a single larger specimen, about twice the size of the others.  Flicking a single maggot upstream, the bigger fish immediately surged forwards and took it. After a short scrap, I landed my second spotty species of the day. 

A nice looking little brown trout, also my first of the year. 

All the commotion it made spooked the other trout in the pool and they quickly shot off upstream. I spent a little longer trying to locate some minnow, but didn’t manage to find any sadly. I still had plenty of maggots left though, and decided to visit the Water of Leith a couple of days later to try and catch some there as well as perhaps some bullhead.  

Tight lines, Scott.

Behind blue eyes.

Having stocked up on tanago hooks fairly recently, and also treated myself to a cheap and cheerful tanago rod, I visited the Water of Leith and Inverleith Pond last week to catch a few fish on it. I already own a six foot tanago rod, which I find is sometimes a little too long, especially when you want to target tiny fish in really close, so my new four foot rod was definitely a much-needed addition to my collection of fishing rods. Besides, at the bargain price of six pounds, I just couldn't resist!

There's just something about pink fishing tackle, right?

I usually dangle tiny chunks of maggot under a tiny Chianti pole float, but decided to give an actual tanago float a go. I bought some of them when I was in Japan a few years ago, and don't recall ever using them, which is borderline criminal, when I think about it. They're designed with minuscule fish in mind, tiny and brightly coloured, but sadly I didn't have a pink one that would have completed my look for the day.

Bright orange would have to do.

At both venues, it didn't take too long for the tanago float to register some interest, although rather than pulling the float under, the little spiky culprits just towed it sidewards. At the first sign of these lateral movements, I gently lifted my rod and caught a few three spined stickleback. In amongst them were some males in breeding colouration.

Eyes like little sapphires. Stunning.

A little bit of micro fishing on a sunny day. Good fun, and actually quite therapeutic. Stickleback are under appreciated if you ask me. They’re pretty cool little fish. Having given the tanago float a go, I think I prefer a Chianti pole float, they seem to give better bite indication in my opinion. I’m quite happy with my colourful little tanago rod, but I’d like to catch a few slightly bigger fish on it. Perhaps I’ll visit the Union Canal and target some of the roach in there.

Tight lines, Scott.

Species Hunting Adventures On Sardinia: Part 2.

For our third evening session fishing around Isola Rossa's marina, I turned my attention, initially, to fishing for small species straight down the inner wall of the breakwater. This produced a few damselfish and some small annular seabream. After a while, I caught a mystery blenny.

The mystery blenny is very similar to the ringneck blenny. Examining the cirri is the easiest way to tell them apart. Luckily, I had a new photo tank with me, which makes this task much easier!

As the sun was about to fade, I tied on a heavier leader and clipped on a small lipless sinking pencil lure. Lee was already targeting barracuda, so I joined him and did likewise near the end of the breakwater. The rocks there seemed like a perfect ambush point, and there were plenty of tiny baitfish around, so our hopes were high. Giving the lure a good jerk and then pausing briefly before winding up the slack line and repeating was my chosen approach, and much to my delight, it only took about half a dozen casts to tempt the target species. After a short scrap, a small barracuda was successfully landed.

This small European barracuda was great fun on my ultralight setup!

Seeing me get one, Lee was even more determined to catch one too, so he carried on trying. Having ticked it off, I decided to switch my attention back to fishing straight down the harbour walls again, hoping to catch some nocturnal species like cardinalfish or black scorpionfish. Once it got dark, I shone my headtorch over towards Lee to see his rod was bent over. He'd hooked a barracuda, on a Halco twisty of all things, so I went along to help him land it and take a photo for him.

Target acquired. Another nice fish for Lee.

Us both catching a barracuda felt well deserved given the difficult time we'd had over the first few days of the trip. Fairly pleased about how the session had gone, we headed back to the apartment. 

In the morning we drove up to Santa Teresa Gallura, where we fished around the headland where the Torre di Longonsaro is located. The views up and down the from around the tower of the coastline were spectacular.

The impressive Torre di Longonsardo lookout tower is over five hundred years old.

The beach to the west of the tower looked amazing, but we weren’t there to swim. 

Following the path around the headland, we tried fishing at a couple of spots. The ground was fairly shallow and very rocky, so it didn’t come as a great surprise when all we caught was a few wrasse. 

A nice example of a male Mediterrranean rainbow wrasse. 

After a while, we decided to try another spot and headed back to the car. On the way up from the rocks, we spotted a lizard sunbathing on a wall. Usually, they run off when you get too close, but this one happily posed for a few photos. 

This Tyrrhenian wall lizard wasn’t too bothered by me, or my iPhone. 

A short drive later, we arrived at a small pier in the middle of the town’s port. Again, it looked promising but for some reason there weren’t too many fish around.  Casting over towards a few rocks at the opposite side of the port, I did manage to catch a few small white seabream. 

Another species added to my tally. 

The following day, we returned to Castelsardo to have a wander around the town’s narrow streets and to climb the steep hill to explore the walled fortress at its top. 

The picturesque town of Castelsardo.

We had a casual stroll around its steep narrow streets. 

Before we left, we had a quick session fishing from some rocks to the east of the town. Tucked away in a bay out of the wind, it was fairly shallow rocky ground and didn’t look very promising. Yet again, the fishing was pretty slow and all we caught were a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse and a couple of small white seabream. 

Our effort certainly couldn’t be faulted. 

The following day, we decided to head to the north east coast again. We visited a few potential fishing spots, but the strong wind either made them unfishable or fishing simply wasn’t allowed. In short, beautiful scenery aside, the morning had been a bit of a waste of time. In the end, we ended up revisiting the black goby infested area in Olbia again!

At least we were out of the wind, but would we catch anything other than black goby?!

Almost as soon as we began fishing, Lee hooked into a nice fish that definitely wasn't a black goby. It shot off under a nearby yacht, but he managed to get it away from the mooring ropes, and a nice salema soon came into view. Sadly, we'd left the net in the boot of the car, and it threw the hook on the surface. We were hopeful there would be more of them around, but all we caught at that spot after that was black goby. Moving to an area with some rocks at the water’s edge, I tied on a tanago hook and targeted some small silver fish. They turned out to be big scale sand smelt. 

A lateral line scale count was used to positively identify this species. 

Switching to a split shot rig and dropping my bait into gaps in the rocks, I caught a few more black goby. After a while, I eventually caught something slightly different in the shape of a rock goby. 

A third goby species added to my tally!

Working my way along the rocks, I spotted what I was confident was a peacock blenny. The second I put my rig in its vicinity however, it swam off under a large flat rock. Despite my best efforts, I could not tempt it out again, so I moved slowly along the rocks, speculatively putting my bait into likely looking holding spots. Eventually, this paid off when I caught a rather large peacock blenny from down behind a large rock.

Probably the biggest peacock blenny I’ve ever caught. 

On the way back to Isola Rossa, we stopped briefly at a park up in the mountains. In the park, a small river has been dammed to create a series of ponds. As well as ducks, geese and terrapins, the largest pond also contains a few carp and lots of goldfish. No one else was around, so…

Hundreds of goldfish swimming around waiting to be fed was an opportunity too good to miss. 

A piece of line, a split shot and a hook baited with a piece of bread, immediately produced a few  of the colourful fish. 

The following day, our last full day of the trip, it was very windy again. We were pretty much resigned to the fact that fishing in the sea was either going to be very challenging, pretty unproductive, or both! Regardless, we decided to visit a few places on the north coast. Our first stop was Costa Paradiso. Whilst having an espresso in the morning, a local spearfisherman had told Lee that the sea surrounding it contained more fish, so we went to check it out. 

Costa Paradiso. A stunning location, but a fair swell was crashing over the rocks, so we had a quick stroll and then headed further up the coast. 

Portobello di Gallura was our next stop. Another beautiful stretch of coastline.

It also had a small harbour. We decided to fish at the outside of its inner breakwater.

We gave it a go, but all we caught before throwing in the towel were a few juvenile wrasse and seabream.

After enjoying some lunch, we decided to get away from the coast. Opting to be a little bit naughty and visiting a freshwater venue again. This time we headed to a stretch of the Coghinas river, which has lots of hot springs. As a result, there were lots of people around enjoying the warm water, but we found a quiet spot downstream from them and quietly wet a line. 

The rivers of Sardinia contain several species. I was hoping to catch a Mediterranean trout, but spotting some pumpkinseed in the margin, I quickly caught some using a small piece of worm. 

Such a nice looking fish. I love catching pumpkinseed!

Lee quickly caught one too, his first ever, in fact. Shortly afterwards, he caught a couple of juvenile largemouth bass on soft plastics. I spent ten minutes trying to get one myself, but as we didn't have the required licences to fish in freshwater, we didn't want to push our luck and left. 

In the evening, we had one last session in Isola Rossa marina. Lee spent his time trying to catch another barracuda, whilst I focused on fishing down the side again. This produced a few damselfish, small seabream and an East Atlantic peacock wrasse before the sun set. After dark, the bites dried up until I caught a small dusky grouper.

My biggest East Atlantic peacock wrasse of the trip. 

This juvenile dusky grouper brought a smile to my face. Even the small ones are fiesty!

Our last day on Sardinia had arrived. As we had a few hours spare in the morning before our flight back to the UK, we had one last go fishing around Olbia. Revisiting the rocky areas, Lee quickly spotted a few small salema in amongst some other seabream in a corner. Dropping a small section of ragworm in amongst them, I managed to catch one fairly quickly.

This small salema was my last species of the trip, taking our joint tally to twenty five.

In amongst some rocks slightly further along from where I caught the salema, I spotted a small peacock blenny. It couldn't resist a piece of ragworm either!

Male peacock blenny have a rather impressive forehead!

We carried on walking along the boardwalk, ending up underneath in the shade of a road bridge crossing the estuary. There we found a shoal of annular seabream, and having used up my ragworm, I caught a few more on Gulp! Angleworm before it was time to head to the airport.

My last fish of the trip was an annular seabream.

My third trip in three months had come to an end. It was nice to go away on holiday with Lillian again, and it was nice for us both to catch up with Lee again. The wind had been blowing strongly most of the time, and the fishing had been hard going, but we still caught a few fish. Here's a summary of what I caught with my only new species of the trip in bold...

1. Annular Seabream
2. Big Scale Sand Smelt
3. Black Goby
4. Common Two Banded Seabream
5. Damselfish 
6. Dusky Grouper 
7. East Atlantic Peacock Wrasse
8. European Barracuda
9. Five Spotted Wrasse
10. Goldfish
11. Mediterranean Rainbow Wrasse
12. Mystery Blenny
13. Ornate Wrasse
14. Painted Comber
15. Peacock Blenny
16. Pumpkinseed
17. Red-Mouthed Goby
18. Rock Goby
19. Rusty Blenny 
20. Saddled Seabream
21. Salema
22. Sharpsnout Seabream 
23. White Seabream

Lee also caught...

24. Black Scorpionfish
25. Largemouth Bass 

Sardinia was a beautiful place, lush and green with wild flowers everywhere and some incredible breathtaking scenery. The fishing was very dissapointing though. Perhaps it would be better in less windy conditions or later in the year? Perhaps the fishing around Cagliari and the southern end of the island is better. Will I return to Sardinia at some point in the future to find out? You never know!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species Hunting Adventures On Sardinia: Part 1.

A trip to Sardinia had been on my to do list for a few years, so when my mate Lee suggested we go, I obviously said I’d love to. Lillian was also keen to come too, so last month we made the long drive down to Lee’s and then very early the next morning, the three of us flew down there from London Gatwick. Lee organised everything and it was nice not to have all the hassle that goes with booking flights, accommodation and a hire car for a change! After landing in Olbia we drove west to Isola Rossa, where we’d be staying for the duration of our holiday. After unpacking our cases, we went for a walk. A strong wind was blowing onshore from the northwest, and the sea was crashing onto the rocks at the back of the town’s large marina, but inside it was nice and sheltered. 

The red rock a few hundred meters offshore that the town is named after.

We decided the inside of the marina’s breakwater would be our first fishing spot, but we were quite hungry so headed back into town for some pizza and beer. 

After our late lunch, we were all feeling pretty tired, so we headed back to the apartment for a much needed nap. When we got up, we headed down to the marina to see what fish we could catch. We decided not to set any kind of fishing targets for the trip. In fact, neither of us had done any pre trip planning, we were happy just to wing it, do some fishing and target whatever species were present. Trying various spots around the marina, it quickly became apparent that we might actually struggle to catch anything! It strangely seemed to be devoid of fish!

Lee fishing away, waiting for bites. 

Eventually I caught a couple of fish. This being the second of two saddled seabream I caught. 

The next day we drove west to Castelsardo, officially one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. From the end of its port’s outer breakwater we got a great view of the ancient fortifications and the colourful buildings on the steep slopes surrounding them. 

The ancient town of Castelsardo.

To begin with, we fished inside the port and were quickly getting lots of little nibbles. Lee was fishing with soft plastics on a jighead whilst I fished small pieces of squid just above the bottom. I had to scale down to a smaller hook to find out what was biting. 

It turned out to be black goby, and they were present in large numbers.

After catching several black goby, and nothing else, we moved along to a gap in the wall of the outer breakwater and fished from the rocks there into the sea. It was quite windy and the resulting swell made fishing tricky. I caught a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse further out, whilst Lee pulled out a beautiful East Atlantic peacock wrasse from much closer in amongst the boulders.

Mediterranean rainbow wrasse would turn out to be by far the most prevalent wrasse species of the trip for me. 

Lee’s stunning East Atlantic peacock wrasse. Easily the most colourful example I’ve ever seen. 

After a while we hadn’t caught anything else, so we decided to head back to the car and drove south to the large port city of Alghero. At the first spot we fished in the city’s expansive harbour, there was a large shoal of juvenile annular seabream.

Catching these small annular seabream soon became quite repetitive.

Moving to fish along the outside of the northern breakwater of the port, I spotted a few blenny sitting on some submerged rocks. I had an idea which species they were, but there was an element of doubt in my mind, so I spent ten minutes or so trying to catch one, just to be sure. 

My suspicions were correct, they were rusty blenny. This particular specimen was rather plump!

A bit further along the rocks we found some deeper water and focused our efforts fishing over a cleaner area. Again, I fished small baits just above the bottom whilst Lee fished with lures. There were a few fish around and we were fairly sheltered away from the wind. 

I caught a solitary painted comber,..

…a couple of common two banded seabream,..

… and also my first East Atlantic peacock wrasse of the trip. 

Annular seabream were also around in good numbers. 

Lee wasn’t catching as many fish on soft plastics, so he went off to try his luck at another spot on the inside of the breakwater. When I went over to join him, he told me there were lots of damselfish in a corner next to where he was fishing. I switched to a split shot rig with a very small hook and quickly caught a few of them. 

Although we didn’t have a target, I just couldn’t help myself and added a damselfish to my tally. 

I also caught a few small seabream and wrasse by letting my split shot rig fall all the way to the bottom. Just before we left, I also caught a goby. Swinging it up to my hand, I quickly recognised what it was and realised that I had caught a new species! 

My first ever red-mouthed goby! I had no expectation of catching anything new on Sardinia, so this was a very welcome surprise indeed!

After a while, we walked back to the car, put our tackle in the boot, and went for a stroll around the older walled part of the city. Many medieval features remain, most notably its high sea walls. As well as some sections of the city’s fortified walls, there were several pieces of wooden artillery on display that would have been used to attack the ships of unwanted visitors. 

Quite an impressive catapult and some hefty stone projectiles on display. I’m not sure if this is an original weapon or a reproduction. 

The following day the wind had picked up again, so we drove west to Stintino. Being located on the eastern side of a peninsula we figured it would be fairly sheltered. It was, but when we arrived at the first spot it was raining heavily. When it stopped, and we started fishing, we were quickly approached and politely told we were not allowed to fish in that area. At the next spot the bottom was very snaggy, and the fishing was very slow. Apart from a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse, I struggled to catch much else. 

More spots that looked very fishy turned out to be pretty much devoid of any fish. 

With a lot of perseverance, and by moving constantly and trying a lot of different spots, I did manage to add one sharpsnout seabream and a five spotted wrasse to my tally, but it was really, really tough going. 

Only my second ever sharpsnout seabream. 

I pulled this tiny five spotted wrasse out from a deep hole in the rocks.

By this point, it was becoming quite clear that the fishing was going to be very challenging. Most of the areas we visited looked like they should hold plenty of fish, but the lack of any was quite startling. After some seafood for lunch in a small restaurant, we headed back to Isola Rossa. In the evening we fished around the marina again. It was another tough session, but Lee’s persistence with soft plastics was rewarded when he caught the biggest fish of the trip so far.

A cracking black scorpionfish, a nice reward for his efforts. 

The following day, we drove all the way over to the northeast coast. The first two places we visited, we didn’t stay long because it turned out fishing was not allowed. We ended up driving into Olbia where we fished for a couple of hours over an almost featureless silty seabed. We quickly discovered there was a very healthy population of black goby in the area.

All we caught was black goby. The bottom was carpeted with them. I must have caught about fifty of them by the time we gave up trying to catch anything else!

Sardinian goby fest 2025 in full flow.

I did spot a blenny down the side at one point, but it swam off into a crack and refused to come out again. Feeling pretty deflated at this point, we again put our tackle away in the car and spent a few hours wandering around Olbia, Lee treated himself to a pair of hand made loafers, and then we went for some pizza and pasta before driving back to Isola Rossa.

Passing this fountain in Olbia, I was tempted to toss a coin into it and wish for better fishing!

Our first few days on the island had not been kind as far as the weather or the fishing had been concerned. Lee’s East Atlantic peacock wrasse and black scorpionfish, as well as my first red-mouthed goby aside, the fishing had been very disappointing. To make matters worse, much stronger winds were forecast for the coming days, with gusts in excess of 50mph. Before those arrived, we decided to have another evening session in Isola Rossa’s marina.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the second part...