Testing the water.

I popped down to Galloway’s Pier at the back of North Berwick Harbour at the weekend whilst Lillian and I were in the area. During the week, I’d heard that quite a lot of lesser weever had been caught there recently. 

Galloway's Pier. This was once the base of an old wooden pier. It was in a poor condition until it was extended in a few years ago. Boats use it when the tide is out and they cannot get into the harbour due to lack of water.

It was a little bit windy, so I fished about a metre out from the concrete structure’s edge. Small pieces of dried ragworm were soon being attacked and in about fifteen minutes I hooked four of the target species. The first three fell off as I was lifting them from the water. I find lesser weever sometimes just have a hold of the bait and let go when they are wound in. Fish number four was well hooked however, and was carefully unhooked and popped into my new photo tank. 

Lesser weever are actually a very pretty little fish in my opinion.

Having established that there were plenty around, mainly for an upcoming visit with my mate Ryan who wants to catch his first, and managing to not get stung in the process, we headed off to enjoy a spot of lunch on the town’s high street. 

Tight lines, Scott.

So you're telling me there's a chance!

After hearing reports of a striped red mullet being caught on Granton Breakwater, I decided to get out and try my luck. The angler who caught the striped red mullet has fished on Granton Breakwater for many years and this was his first one. One other friend also caught one there many years ago, so clearly they are a potential catch, albeit an extremely rare one. So, I was under no illusions about my chances when I visited the venue last week. I had two sessions, neither producing a striped red mullet. Fishing small baits on the bottom, I did catch a lot of pin whiting, a few juvenile grey gurnard and a couple of mackerel. The breakwater was very busy and there were lots of people fishing of various ability levels. I witnessed a few leads being cracked off and flying away towards the horizon, and several cans of lager being cracked open too. When “the mackerel are in”, I’ve got to be honest and say it’s not my favourite place to fish!

My mate Ryan came down and joined me for a couple of hours during the first session and as we chatted away, he told me that a friend of his had caught a couple of dragonet in St Abbs Harbour. Quite unusual I thought. Having fished St Abbs Harbour quite a lot over the last decade, or perhaps even a little longer, I’ve never caught or heard of anyone else catching a dragonet there. I just assumed that they were common dragonet, but when I thought I better check and Ryan sent me photos of the fish in question a couple of days later, I was shocked to see that one of them was actually a reticulated dragonet! I jumped straight in the car and headed down there!

St Abbs Harbour has been very good to me over the years, most recently producing my first Scottish topknot. 

My first session was pretty productive in terms of the number of fish and species I caught, but no dragonet were in amongst them. The following morning I headed back down armed with some fresh ragworm. When I arrived, the tide was out and there wasn't much water in the harbour, so I decided to kill some time targeting three spined stickleback. It didn't take long to find a few fairly large specimens in a small rockpool. Tying on a tanago hook, baiting it up with a tiny piece of ragworm and twitching in front of them produced a couple pretty quickly.

First up was this large female.

It was followed by a very colourful male.

Heading back around to the harbour, I rigged up a running ledger and began casting it out onto the cleaner areas out in the middle of the outer harbour. I wouldn't really describe these areas of the harbour floor as sandy, it’s more like fine gravel with a few patches of rougher ground and weed. Slowly twitching the tiny bait back towards me along the bottom, the fish weren't biting as much as the previous day. Eventually I caught a long spined sea scorpion, a common blenny and a nice flounder.

St Abbs Harbour is a great venue to target flounder on ultra light tackle.

As the tide continued to fill the harbour, the fishing slowed down even further, and I went an hour or so without catching any more fish. Eventually, I cast out and just after my rig hit the bottom, my rod tip registered some interest. Leaving the bait for a few seconds to allow this to develop, I wound down and felt the weight of a small fish thrashing away. As it came to the surface, I recognised the shape almost immediately. It was my first ever dragonet from St Abbs Harbour.

A small dragonet, but which species? At first glance it looked like a common dragonet.

In my photo tank, the fish just sat on the bottom and didn’t want to flare its fins, so I had to lift it out to gently extend the second dorsal myself. 

The second dorsal fin had ten rays and a distinctive diagonal pattern to the markings on it. I'd caught my first Scottish reticulated dragonet!

I was over the moon, but couldn’t quite believe I’d caught one after spending such a short an amount of time trying. It felt a bit surreal if I’m honest. Quite a contrast to the umpteen sessions I’d put in to catch the topknot! I continued fishing for a bit longer, but it remained pretty slow, so after catching another two long spined sea scorpion and a second flounder, I called it a day, heading back up to Edinburgh happy enough! I really didn’t expect to catch another new Scottish species so soon after my first Scottish topknot. Chasing fish, particularly rarer species, when you hear about them being caught often leads to disappointment in my experience, but on this occasion, racing to the scene of an unusual capture had really paid off! The reticulated dragonet that Ryan’s friend had caught was a male, much more colourful than my fish, with much taller dorsal fins too, so there are at least two of them in there! I’ll leave them for other anglers to target for the time being, I’m going to get some sabiki out and try to catch a sprat next! Who knows how long that will take!

Tight ines, Scott.

Persevered.

I’d not seen my mate Ryan for quite a while, mainly due to poor weather conditions repeatedly ruining our plans, so at the beginning of July, when the latest heatwave began, we headed down to St Abbs Harbour to wet a line together. Still not feeling great, I had no expectations for the fishing, and really just wanted to catch up with my mate and enjoy the nice weather. Any fish caught would be a bonus really. Ryan was keen to catch a sand goby, so we fished tiny pieces of ragworm on the bottom over a sandy area I’d caught them from in the past. Sadly, this didn’t produce any, but we did catch a lot of small flounder instead. 

Small but perfectly formed. My first flounder of the year. 

Heading around to the mouth of the harbour, we caught a few small coalfish and pollock. Dropping a live prawn down close in amongst the kelp straight down the harbour wall, I caught a chunky corkwing wrasse. 

Wrasse don’t mess about when a live prawn appears in their vicinity!

Next up, we headed around to fish straight down the wall of the harbour’s large outer section. This produced several long spined sea scorpions, a few leopard spotted goby, a butterfish, a coalfish and several ballan wrasse. 

I had three chunky ballan wrasse in fairly quick succession. Live prawn presented close to the bottom doing the business again. 

To finish the session, we headed out onto the wall connecting the harbour to some of the rocks outside of it. I fished into an area I knew had produced a topknot in the past. After catching a couple of wrasse and a long spined sea scorpion on live prawn, I rigged up another, dropping my rig again, I felt a fish take my bait almost straight away. Lifting into it, it felt like my lead had got stuck, but I could also occasionally feel a small fish on my line too, occasionally shaking its head. After a while, trying to free my rig from the bottom, I was about to pull for a break when suddenly it came free. Winding up, it wasn’t fighting too much and felt a little odd. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the unmistakable shape of a small topknot came into view. I've seen a few people lose topknot lifting them out of the water, but without thinking, I quickly swung it up the wall and into my waiting net. Luckily it was well hooked! I’ve been after one of these rarely caught rock dwelling flatfish from a Scottish venue for quite some time, visiting three particular venues dozens of times over the last couple of years, so I was over the moon to finally get one!

I caught one over a decade ago on the Channel Island of Jersey, but this was my first ever Scottish topknot. 

What a cool fish! I love the way their markings make them look like a little masked bandit!

What a great way to end what had been a very enjoyable session. It was great to catch up with Ryan again as well. Since we started fishing together, he’s been by my side as I’ve caught quite a few species in Scotland for the first time.  Often wearing a very faded baseball cap, celebrating Hibernian’s 2016 Scottish Cup win. “Persevered” is embroidered on it, a reference to the 114 years since they last won the trophy, way back in 1902! I had certainly persevered too with my Scottish topknot hunt! I may not have been feeling great, but catching my one hundred and first Scottish species certainly gave me a much needed lift!

Tight lines, Scott.

Stuck in a rut.

Since returning from the Isle of Lewis at the end of May, I haven't been feeling very good. In fact, my symptoms have probably gotten worse: Constantly feeling fatigued, and having aching arms and legs isn’t much fun. As a result, I’ve been out fishing less than I normally would over the start of the summer months, usually choosing to stay fairly local when I have ventured out. A trip down to Torness Power Station midway through June didn’t produce that many fish, but a few leopard spotted goby and a butterfish were in amongst those I managed to catch, bringing a smile to my face. 

If pushed, I’d probably say that the leopard spotted goby is the coolest of all the UK goby species.

Butterfish are cool, and it's always fun to catch them!

Before heading back up the road, I quickly visited the sea defence boulders around at the station’s hot water outlet. My objective there, was to catch my first common blenny of the year. It didn't take long at all!

This shanny eagerly munched a small piece of prawn. 

Later in June, I also met up with a young American species hunter named Dominik, who was in Edinburgh for a few days before he and his family headed north on a Scottish road trip. We spent a few hours fishing beneath the lighthouse at Newhaven Harbour. It was a very productive session, during which, Dominik added a few new species to his lifelist, including butterfish, which we caught lots of. In amongst the more common species found there, all of which were new to Dominik, we also caught about a dozen grey gurnard, and towards the end of the session, I caught my first viviparous blenny of the year.

Dominik’s first ever butterfish. One of seven we caught between the two of us!

We also caught lots of juvenile grey gurnard.

My first viviparous blenny of the year. Another mini species I really enjoy catching!

So, I only went fishing a couple of times in June, but on both occasions, whilst the sessions may have been fairly short, they were very enjoyable! I might not have been feeling great, but getting out had cheered me a bit. I really enjoyed meeting up with Dominik and helping another species hunter successfully catch a few new species is always very satisfying.

Tight lines, Scott.

Under the weather.

At the end of May, I headed off to the Isle of Lewis for the first time with fellow species hunters, Mike and Mark, for two days of boat fishing. Hopes were high that we'd be able to catch some unusual fish out in the deep water off the island's north west coast. On the way there, whilst we waited to board the ferry at Ullapool, we fished for a couple of hours from the harbour. Small sections of ragworm and tiny strips of squid fished close to the bottom, both produced some poor cod and both the species of UK sea scorpion, a pretty even mix of long spined and short spined.

My first poor cod of the year.

The short spined sea scorpion were also my first of the year.

Most of them were sporting a spotty underside.

There were lots of people queuing up when we arrived at the harbour, and the reason became apparent when the only fully operational seagoing paddle steamer came into the bay to pick them all up.

The Waverley sails up and down the UK coastline. It passed by whilst I was fishing at Greenock last year.

Just before we left, I caught something quite unexpected, in the shape of a lesser weever. The ground we were fishing over was not really the type I'd expect to produce them. Usually, they can be found living in fine sand, but the ground we were fishing over was pretty mixed with lots of rocks and weed. I guess there must have been a few small sandy patches down there though!

Yet another addition to my 2025 species tally!

Heading back to the car, we boarded the ferry and made the crossing to Stornoway. After we disembarked, we met up with our skipper in the Stornoway Angling Club, right next to the ferry terminal. Angus is quite a character, and we spent an hour or so hearing about some of the more unusual captures he’s made over the years, and discussed where we would be fishing the following day. Conditions in the lead up to the trip had been fantastic, but the wind had picked up and would limit how far offshore we could go. 

In the morning, we headed to on the other side of the island, loaded our gear onto the boat, and set off. Our first task was of course catching some fresh bait. To begin with, we targeted greater sandeel and once we caught a few dozen of those, we headed to another spot to target mackerel.

A nice big launce. 

Unfortunately, the mackerel weren't around in any great numbers. Not a problem as Angus had backup supplies of frozen mackerel, so we headed to our next spot where we hoped to catch some cusk over some rocky ground. After a few ling were boated, I caught a nice spurdog, but winding it up, I started to feel quite unwell. I quickly unhooked the fish and returned it, before being violently sick over the side. Anyone who's suffered with sea sickness well tell you, it's absolutely brutal, and it rarely goes away until you get back onto dry land. I made a couple of attempts to fish again, but they only made me feel worse again, so that was me for the day. 

Since returning from Gran Canaria at the end of March, I’ve not really felt one hundred percent and when we returned to the harbour I continued to feel unwell, which had me wondering if it was this that had triggered the sea sickness. In the evening, after eating dinner, I had an early night, but in the morning I still felt rotten, so decided not to go out in the boat. The trip had turned into a bit of a disaster for me. Mike and Mark had a good day out, fishing inshore as the wind had picked up again, and they caught some specimen dab and plaice, as well as some spotted ray. I had some ultra light tackle with me but felt so terrible that I didn’t even feel up to fishing at all, instead going for a walk around the town and up Gallows Hill. The following day, Mike and I headed back to the mainland, whilst Mark stayed on the island an extra day, to do some shore fishing. Arriving in Ullapool, Mike had an hour fishing from the harbour. I just went for a stroll around the town to get some more fresh air. 

It was a dull day and my fishing mojo hadn’t returned. 

So, my first trip to the Isle of Lewis is one I'll remember for all the wrong reasons. It was great to meet up with Mike and Mark, and I wish I’d been able to spend more time fishing with them. Despite my first trip to the Isle of Lewis turning into a bit of a nightmare, I’d love to return in the future at some point!

Tight lines, Scott.

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.