It takes two to tanago.

Yesterday I went out to try and catch a tiny little fish. Armed with some #26 hooks and a little 0.15g dibber float I visited Yellowcraig Beach in East Lothian and after an hour of staring into over a dozen intertidal rockpools, trying to see through the ripples being produced on the surface by the light rain that was constantly falling, I finally located my target, a two spotted goby.

Here's a two spotted goby I caught last November from a rockpool in East Lothian.

It was suspended fairly high up in the water and only its head was visible, its tail nestled into some weed on the side of the rockpool wall. I'm not sure how I even managed to see it but I was relieved I had and the "fun" could begin. The fish was even smaller than the one above at roughly 20mm long so I knew catching it was going to be very tricky. Hastily baiting the very tip of my tiny hook with a tiny piece of Angleworm I lowered it in well away from the fish and slowly pulled it back into range. Straight away it eagerly came out from its hiding place and attacked. Rather than wait for the float to move I watched the tiny bait and as soon as I thought the fish had taken it into its mouth I lifted my rod tip with a short sharp tug. This was repeated multiple times over the next half an hour or so until the little fish got bored and began to completely ignore my efforts. I was surprised the fish had been so persistent and whilst it had been quite frustrating, in a kind of twisted masochistic sense, I actually enjoyed the challenge of trying to hook it. By this point I was rather wet and whilst I did attempt to locate another two spotted goby to annoy, I failed to do so, resigned myself to a blank and headed home. When I got in I went straight online and ordered myself some snelled Owner Smallest Tanago hooks and a few Owner Micro Floats. Tanago is what the Japanese call bitterling and in Tanago fishing the objective is to catch the smallest bitterling you can. In fact the aspiration of many Japanese Tanago fisherman is to catch one that will fit on a one yen coin.

A bitterling. Another little fish I caught last year but big by Japanese standards.

The Tanago hooks are obviously tiny but the pattern also has an extremely short hook point that is not even 1mm long so that tiny fish can get the hook point into their mouths. I think these will be perfect for  micro fishing for two spotted goby, fifteen spined stickleback and other small fish with tiny mouths.

Hopefully it won't take too long for my package of little hooks to arrive so I can go and have another go for the little fish that will edge me a bit closer to my target of fifty saltwater species from around Scotland in 2015. 

Speaking of this goal, whilst writing this post I realised that catching the two spotted goby last November meant that I had caught at least forty eight saltwater species from Scottish venues over the course of the last year. Quickly looking back over last year's catch reports I discovered that on the 21st of September last year I caught a ling and a pouting from Loch Etive, two species I've also not caught yet in 2015. This means that over the course of a full year from 21st of September 2014 to 20th September 2015 I've caught fifty saltwater species from Scottish venues! Obviously I'm delighted to have reached this milestone even if I was unaware of doing so when I caught the shore rockling twelve days ago. This doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to catch fifty species in 2015 though and maybe my new Tanago hooks will help me do it!

Tight lines, Scott.

Blank-22.

I don't normally post reports when I blank, I don't really see the point. However I would say that whilst I don't like blanking most of the time I fish in nice places, it's a pleasure to do so and really at times catching fish is a bonus. To show that I do blank occasionally I did add a blank count to the blog this year on the left hand side below my catch record. Given the obscene amount of fishing I do the blanks I draw are relatively few and far between but I blanked last week and on this occasion I will make an exception and post about it mainly because I want to thank my mate Martin Allison for taking me out bassing down on the south west coast of Scotland last Thursday night.

Martin with an after dark bass. One he caught earlier this year. When I wasn't around.

After driving down and picking Martin up we arrived to find the conditions were, for a change, as forecast. It was pretty grim with a lot of cloud cover and fairly persistent rain, but we gave it a bash anyway. We tried a few areas along the shore and Martin's early confidence that despite the weather we would still catch a few fish, soon faded as it became apparent that there were few if any fish around. Despite the lack of action, throughout the night it became quite clear that Martin really has put a huge amount of time and effort into understanding how each area fishes and it was very generous of him to share some of his insights with me. We worked our way along the shore trying a few different tactics at different spots but all to no avail. Regardless it was good to fish with Martin again and catch up with him and it was also interesting to get an insight into lure fishing in the dark which is not something I do very often. To be honest I found the lack of visibility quite difficult. Not really being able to see what you are doing, exactly where you're casting to etc is quite disconcerting. I did start to get used to it after a while but it is clearly a skill that I'll have to practice if I want to fish in darkness again and improve my chances of catching. Wading over mixed ground too is another art form that proved quite tricky although I managed not to fall over during the session which was good, mostly due to the use of a wading stick that Martin lent me. So, after four fishless hours we walked back to the car and drove back to Martin's house in Ayrshire where I was staying the night.

That's the second time this year I have been out to target bass with another angler on their bass marks and we have both blanked. Perhaps I am a jinx! Maybe 2013 will be a bassless year for me?  Having equalled last years species tally already, my focus for the remainder of the year is new saltwater species and catching another five species of shark so I may not even try for bass again but who knows, one might turn up when I'm not even targeting them!

Whilst Martin dedicates most of his angling time these days to bass and sea trout on lures he was once the species hunting champion in his angling club with an impressive forty seven saltwater species from Scottish waters only and has in the past given me advice to aid my own species hunting antics. On Thursday he told me he fancies getting his bait gear out and I'm hoping that maybe we can go fishing again and do some species hunting together before the end of the year.

If you haven't already, check out Martin's blog, he's a great angler and a great bloke too.

Tight lines (or wet at least), Scott.