The fishing is usually pretty tough locally at this time of year and the weather so far in 2026 has been nothing short of dreadful, especially the wind. As a result, I've not been out that much. Before my mate Ben came up to Scotland at the end of last month, I had a second session at Newhaven Harbour. One of his target species whilst up here was a viviparous blenny and after catching a small cod, I caught a small one, but the session was very slow apart from those two fish and a few tiny whiting.
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| This juvenile cod hovered up a tiny piece of ragworm. |
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| My second viviparous blenny of the year. |
When Ben did come up, he visited Hartlepool on his way from Wales and caught his first ever viviparous blenny there, so there was no need for him to visit Edinburgh. Instead, he drove up to the Scottish Highlands and spent a week fishing there in some pretty terrible, wet and windy conditions. Keen to try and meet up towards the end of his trip, we discussed a session in Dundee to target smelt on the Tay Estuary, but the conditions were poor, so sadly we didn't end up fishing together. In the end, Ben's first ever viviparous blenny, his 80th saltwater species in a calander year, was enough to see him crowned champion of the Angling Trust's year long species hunt again, so his trip north and a week of tough fishing had been worth the effort!
On Wednesday, I headed down to Torness Power Station, where I spent a couple of hours fishing with two of my mates, Nick and Ryan. A neap tide and coloured water made for a very slow session, but the sun was out, and with little wind for a change it was a nice day, quite a contrast from the severe gales, rain and snow that Storm Dave brought over the weekend! Nothing was biting as we chatted away, but eventually something ate my piece of ragworm and I wound in a small dab which ended up being the only fish from our time at the lifeboat station platform.
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| The only fish we caught for the first couple of hours! |
None of us were that surprised to be honest, but hoping to catch a few more fish, the three of us headed around to the hot water outflow area. Things weren't much better there sadly. Nick and I managed to catch a couple of blenny from the water between the sea defence boulders, whilst Ryan fished a soft plastic mounted on a jighead for a while hoping a bass would grab it, but he didn't get any takers. We discussed staying for a bit longer so that we could fish bread for mullet once the tide came in, but decided against it.
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| My second fish of the day! |
So, despite the arrival of spring, the fishing locally remains pretty tough and the constantly changing weather certainly isn't helping either. Thankfully, I've got a week on Gran Canaria coming up soon, and I’m really looking forward to that! Hopefully when I return, the fishing here will be better and the weather will have improved a bit too!
Tight lines, Scott.