The Midas touch.

Last month, another of the UK’s globe trotting species hunters came up to Scotland to try to add a few more species to his already impressive tally. Having overtaken my own tally during a recent trip to the US, and closing in on six hundred species at the time, I met up with my mate Donny at St Abbs harbour where he hoped to catch a few “Scottish” species that are much more common up here. I arrived first, and while Donny and his mate Lucas had to wait for a tyre fitter to come and replace a couple of flat tires after Donny hit some raised ironworks on the outskirts of Coldingham, I started fishing and caught a few flatfish. 

There are plenty of flounder in St Abbs Harbour,..

…and the odd plaice as well. They’re a more recent arrival and are turning up at a few venues on the east coast now.

Donny and Lucas eventually appeared and got stuck straight into fishing straight down the side, hoping to catch species like short spined sea scorpion, butterfish, viviparous blenny, Yarrell’s blenny and coalfish. 

Top species hunters Donny and Lucas get to work. The sun was out but it was still quite chilly. Later on the temperature dropped quite abit as some clouds rolled over and Donny admitted that he’d underestimated how cold the Scottish climate would be and had some regret about wearing shorts!

Things were pretty slow, but we all caught a few fish and it was nice to be in their company, talking about species hunting with very passionate anglers who love that particular area of fishing. Donny and Lucas didn’t get any of their targets while I was there, but they were up for a few days and I was sure they’d get a coalfish at the very least!

Before I headed back up to Edinburgh, I caught a few dab,..

…a small ballan wrasse,..

…and a chunky shanny.

Over the next couple of days, and after heading in to Dunbar so that Donny could buy himself a pair of jogging pants to fish a bit more comfortably, they did manage to catch some of their target species. This despite some terrible conditions that restricted their venue options. As I publish this post, Donny is off travelling around Asia for a month. Currently in Malaysia, he caught his 600th species the other day.

Donny Midas with his 600th species. A Midas chiclid! How very apt!

If you want to check out what else he’s been catching head over to hisInstagram or alternatively you can watch some videos covering some of his previous adventures around the world over on his YouTube channel.

Tight lines, Scott.