A tad surprized.

Keen to have some fun with some of the smaller wrasse species I headed Greenock with my mate Dan on Sunday. When we arrived there were a few other anglers fishing and we got talking to one of them as we set up our rods. He told us how the venue had been fishing and mentioned that he had caught a tadpole fish a few days previously. Quite excited by this news we started fishing away and were soon catching a few small pollock, coalfish and cod on Angleworm fished on drop shot rigs at close range amongst the rocks and weed. After a while I switched to fishing small pieces of raw prawn and before too long we had both caught a few goldsinny wrasse. 

This one was particularly grumpy.

Whilst I got stinky fingers, Dan stuck to fishing Angleworm and dropping his rig down again after unhooking a fish he got a very aggressive take just as it hit the bottom. A short scrap ensued and looking down to see what would appear from the depths I was expecting to see a small cod or maybe a small ballan wrasse. I think Dan was just as surprised as I was to see the distinctive dark body and gaping white mouth of a tadpole fish! Rather excited by this odd sight Dan didn't wait for me to grab the net and instead quickly swung it up to hand. 

What a weird looking fish! Dan told me he had seen one caught before but this was the first time he'd caught one himself. It was the first time I'd seen one in the flesh though and as well as being fascinated, I was also a little bit jealous.  

Coming over to see Dan's tadpole fish and to ask what else we had been catching the angler we had talked to earlier very kindly offered us a small amount of few freshly dug ragworm to improve our catch rates which it unsurprisingly did. Wrasse love ragworm after all! To mix things up a bit I switched to float fishing for a while whilst Dan stuck to fishing close to the bottom. A string of goldsinny wrasse and then a few corkwing wrasse were caught by us both including some very beautifully coloured males.

Some of the corkwing wrasse were particularly stunning with incredibly bright blue markings. This one was possible the most colourful example I've ever seen.

By high water we had used up the ragworm and things slowed down for a while until the tide began to ebb. I switched back to a running ledger and dropped a bigger piece of raw prawn down the side. It wasn't down long when my ultra light rod slammed over and a fish, which I guessed was a small cod, started swimming off staying close to the bottom. Tightening up my drag and putting a bit of pressure on the fish I gained some line and it soon appeared from the depths. To my delight it was another tadpole fish. Being bigger than the one Dan had caught I didn't want to try and lift it up so I asked Dan to net it for me which he quickly did. 

At just over a pound my first ever tadpole fish was a specimen. 

Quite a large mouth to say the least with lots of small sharp inward facing teeth. 

They look like they are slimy but they aren't. Instead their almost black skin is just very shiny. 

To me they resemble a stumpy rockling and having one last good look before returning it I could see they share many of their features.

I was absolutely delighted to catch this fish. It was my first new U.K. species for a while and my first of 2016 too. Seeing Dan catch one was pretty awesome but I didn't expect to catch one as well. I was on a high afterwards but things went quiet again and after losing a few rigs to snags we decided to end the session. What an incredible day's fishing. Lots of fun with the small wrasse but the tadpole fish were the highlight. Not a fish many anglers will ever encounter so we were amazed that we'd both caught one in the same session. One I don't think either of us will ever forget.

Tight lines, Scott.

Ling time no see.

When my mate Ad asked me if I fancied a weekend staying in Oban and fishing a few spots nearby I reluctantly had to tell him I wouldn't be able to. Having used up all my holidays at work I couldn't book the time off unfortunately. I did however agree to drive through and spend a day with him, his girlfriend Katie and his mates William and Martyn fishing on Loch Etive and on Sunday I drove through early to do so. Arriving at the small stone jetty before they did I spent thirty minutes or so with my ultra light gear trying to tempt the rising trout with a small lure fished on a jighead.

A misty morning on Loch Etive.

I didn't manage to catch any of the trout that were splashing about but did manage a few coalfish and a codling before everyone arrived, we got everything loaded onto the two boats we had hired for the day and headed out onto the loch.

A bit of fun on ultra light tackle before the main event kicked off.

I was in a slightly bigger boat with Ad and Katie and William and Marytn were in the other boat. First off we tied up to some buoys in Airds bay and it didn't take us long to start catching a few spurdogs and dogfish on luminous hokkais and muppets baited with mackerel and squid.

The smallest spurdog I've caught.

This good start didn't last long however and it went very quiet after an hour so we headed north up the loch and tried a few spots there. Drifting near the quarry Ad caught a grey gurnard but apart from that there wasn't much happening.

Gurnards are pretty cool fish.

My one little target for the trip was to try and catch a ling so we drifted over a rocky area where Ad was sure there would be some having caught some there on a previous visit. After a few drifts over the areawith not much happening I eventually felt a few knocks and wound in hooking the fish responsible. I suspected it was a cod but when it came into view I realised I had got lucky.

It had been a couple of years since I last caught one so I was quite chuffed to catch this small ling.

That was it for a while though apart from the odd mackerel which we kept for bait. The afternoon was very slow indeed and despite moving around we just couldn't seem to find any fish. Heading back to where we caught the spurdogs in the morning William and Martyn caught a few grey gurnards and a poor cod. With our time running out we decided to drift in the middle of Airds Bay.

We were all hopeful of catching a few more fish before we had to head back in.

Things remained quiet until William and Martyn drifted over a pack of feeding spurdogs and seeing them boat a few of them we quickly headed over closer to where they were to get in on the action. We ended up catching about a dozen between us.

All of them were quite small but it was nice to end the day with a few of them.

The last one I caught was very small so I stupidly let my guard down and tried to handle it with one hand, only gripping it behind the head. It promptly did a manoeuvre similar to the one a dogfish normally does given the opportunity, wrapping itself round my arm and moving backward, driving its second dorsal spike into my arm, tearing a small but rather deep little gash into my wrist in the process. Just as well it was time to head in as I couldn't stop it bleeding.

 Ouch! Having now experienced what the dorsal spine of a small spurdog is capable of I thought about what a larger fish could potentially do if not handled carefully. As a result I now have an increased amount of respect for them.

Back on dry land and with my wound soon patched up I said goodbye to Ad, Katie, William and Martyn as they headed back to their hostel. I decided to visit a nearby pier for an hour or so to target gobies before driving home. The last time I fished their I caught one that I didn't quite recognise but accidentally dropped it back into the water before I could get a photograph so I was keen to see what might turn up. When I got to the pier the sun was getting quite low and what little wind there had been dropped off making the loch look quite nice.

The remains of an old pier. A snaggy home to many mini species no doubt.

This part of the pier is still in use and the sandy loch floor next to it contains lots of small gobies.

Using a split shot rig, a #18 hook and a tiny piece of Angleworm I had soon caught a dozen gobies but they were all the sand variety. Tying on a jighead I turned my attention to the trout that were once again splashing around as the sun began to set. As with the morning session the resident coalfish were much more obliging and a single pouting also took my lure. 

I think this was my first pouting from Loch Etive.

The sun had soon gone, it was getting a bit cold and with a 120 mile drive to make I called time on a good day's fishing. It was nice to catch up with Ad again and join his fishing party for the day. The fishing may have been slow in the afternoon but it was nice to catch a few spurdogs and a ling, adding another species to this year's tally, especially as it's one that I hadn't caught for a while. I've been invited to do some cod fishing up around Aberdeen with Ad over the winter and I think I'll almost certainly take him up on his offer. Something else to look forward to.

Tight lines, Scott. 

A Fyne day out.

Back at the end of last month I went to Loch Fyne to have a first go for Fries' Goby after reading some divers studies that reported sightings of them there. I set of at about 9:00 and went to the Glasgow Angling Centre on the way and got a few bits and bobs. The drive up the west shore of loch Lomond and through the Trossachs was lovely. I really enjoy heading to the west of Scotland to fish! I arrived, parked the car and made my way down to the shore where I found a nice rock to fish from. The tide had just turned and was beginning to flood as I got set up. As there was a fair amount of bladderwrack floating in the water in front of me I found a fairly clear gap in it that I could retrieve fish through and started fishing. I went with my Nories Rockfish Bottom Light rod to start with and clipped on a scaled down three hook flapper rig made up with very short snoods with #10 Sabpolo Wormer hooks baited with small chunks of raw prawn and tied on a 14g lead. Casting out about thirty yards and holding the rod in my hand I got bites from the off and my first fish was soon hooked.

Small but still my first haddock of 2013.

This welcome addition to my annual species tally was soon followed by a few small codling and then I caught a dab. Dab are a bit strange. The eye that migrates from the "bottom" looks like it didn't quite make it all the way over like it does on other flatfish species and when you hold them up to the light they have a weird translucent look to their body with their internal organs blocking the light.

Lots of these little codling around. A good sign for years to come hopefully.

Grumpy.

Next up I caught a black goby. Because my main target was also a goby I had brought my little observation tank along with me and popped the fish it in for a photo.

Dorsal fins in full glory.

A few more black gobies soon followed and when I caught smaller ones I was hopeful that they would be a colourful Fries' goby as I reeled them in but each time I had to settle for another black one. I wanted to get a bit more distance so I switched over to my slightly longer Nories Rough Surf 88 rod, clipped the rig on and tied on a 28g lead. I was able to get a bit more distance and must have found a cleaner sandy patch because I was soon catching sand gobies, more dabs and my first ever Scottish dragonets.

No prizes for guessing where sand gobies are normally found.

The female of the species...

...has a much smaller first dorsal fin than the male.

The session continued like this, I had a lot of fun and caught almost fifty fish including several double shots but alas no Fries' goby. It was quite interesting to fish these scaled down rigs on very light gear though and holding the rod in my hand I could feel every tiny bite even at distance especially on my Rockfish Bottom rod.  No doubt if I can locate and get my rig out onto a muddy patch where Fries' goby is holed up I will be able to catch them. This may require gear capable of casting further which may mean a compromise in bite detection or perhaps a boat hire and a switch to fishing vertically may be required. Solving problems like this is one of the things that I like about fishing for different species as it sometimes requires you to think outside of the box. Since the visit I've also noted that black mouthed dogfish and tadpole fish have in the past been caught from the loch so I may end up spending a bit more time there in the future.

Tight lines, Scott.

Location, location, location.

Locating marks where your target species can be caught is half of the battle when you are a species hunter. Sometimes this is a simple case of looking online for info or asking fellow anglers where they have caught what you're after. Sometimes a bit of research into a species' preferred habitat and having a go on a suitable mark will produce your quarry. Occasionally you just get lucky and stumble accross a new species completely by accident whilst out fishing for something else entirely. Once you know a spot where your target is the rest is normally fairly straightforward and it is usually just a case of getting your tactics right if you want to deliberatly target them. In addition, I normally find that once you've caught a species, return trips will often produce them again due to most fish being creatures of habit even if the time between trips is considerable. That being said, their movements may be seasonal and their feeding patterns might be dependent on various factors but even so location remains for me the single most important thing to figure out when trying to track down a species.

With improving my knowledge of good marks to fish in the future for two of my latest targets in mind, on Friday morning I headed down the coast to meet up with my mate Nick as he had very kindly agreed to show me some spots where he has caught lots of rockling whilst targeting cod. He also showed me the exact spot where he caught a Yarrell's blenny a couple of years ago. Whilst there we had a go for Yarrell's blenny, fishing small baits on light gear we had a laugh and caught a few fish.

Lots of small codling around the Scottish coast can only be a good thing!

Lots of small coalfish around the Scottish coast can only be a good thing?

After a coalfish and codling I caught a single blenny but it was the common cousin of the one I was after.

I also foul hooked a lobster that managed to shake itself off as I lifted it up out of the water. We then moved to another spot and caught a couple of long spined sea scorpions from an area of partially submerged large boulders. Nick caught one that was an awesome purple shade with strange lichen like markings. I caught one like that before in the same area last year.

Sea scorpions are cool little fish with a lot of attitude. Nick really enjoys catching them too.

Very cool.

After a few hours Nick had to head home and I decided to hit Dunbar Harbour for a couple of hours before driving back to Edinburgh. I caught a few coalfish, a single plaice and a nice flounder which some small children asked to see. They were quite surprised when I briefly explained how the fishes eyes weren't always on the "top" of its body and were also amazed at how quickly it swam away when I put it back!

A good scrap on my light gear and caught on my "last cast".

So, quite a relaxing way to spend the morning and early afternoon, fishing three locations in the process. Obviously the last one I know quite well but thanks to Nick I now have a better idea about exactly where to keep trying for a Yarrell's blenny and have somewhere else to spend winter evenings trying to catch a three bearded rockling with the added bonus of perhaps catching a cod or two!

Tight lines, Scott.

My first wrasse grand slam.

On my two days off this week, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was planning to fish at Orchill Coarse Fishery in Perthshire on my first day off with my mate Keith and head up to Lochaline the following day to have a go at a wrasse grand slam, catching all five main U.K. species in one session. It was also a chance to maybe pick up a surprise new species if I got lucky fishing small baits on light tackle with one of my current targets, Yarrell's blenny, being one that has been caught there before. On Monday though, with all the rain over the weekend, Keith was tempted to chuck fluff and Mepps around at the trout in some of his local rivers. My fly casting is pretty poor and I feel I get in the way a bit when Keith takes me to these small waters with him so after checking the weather forecast for Lochaline and noting it looked better on Tuesday I decided to change my plans, wished him luck with the salmonids and decided to head up to Lochaline a day early. So on Tuesday morning I got up early at 5:00 and drove west through the Trossachs and up through Glencoe. The scenery on this route is quite breathtaking.

Glencoe. An awe inspiring landscape.

After three hours or so I reached Ardgour, drove onto the small ferry and made the extremely short crossing to Corran on the western shore of Loch Linnhe before making the final thirty mile drive south to Lochaline, the final twenty miles along a single track road. Lochaline is a very remote small village that sits at the mouth of Loch Aline where it meets the Sound of Mull. I would be fishing from the rather run down, but still working, west pier that faces out onto the Sound of Mull just past the village.

After all the stunning scenery along the way the pier was a rather uninspiring place to be fishing. I didn't mind as long as there were plenty of fish around its submerged structure.

From various reports I had read I knew it was very deep water just out in front of the pier but I wasn't sure how deep it was close in and around the sides so I quickly setup my gear and had a few casts at various spots to find out how deep it was. Around the sides it wasn't that deep. Along the front directly next to the pier it wasn't that deep either but casting any further than a couple of metres and it was taking a ridiculous amount of time for my lead to hit the bottom. I decided to start fishing off of the right hand side of the pier and work my way around it until I located some fish. Fishing a two up one down rig with #8 Sabpolo Wormer hooks and a 1oz bomb the first bait used was small chunks of raw prawn. First drop down the side and I got a few bites which resulted in the first fish of the day being caught. It was a coalfish though and I was worried about how many were down there.

I thought they were mainly an east coast species. I was concerned about hundreds of them making my task difficult.

Next drop I started getting the distinctive bites of wrasse though, a very welcome feeling through my rod. The bites weren't overly aggressive, just steady sharp little plucks that soon resulted in the rod tip nodding away signalling one of the culprits had been hooked and when I reeled in I was delighted to find I had a double shot of a goldsinny wrasse and a cuckoo wrasse on my rig. What a great start to my first real grand slam attempt!

Quite a dark brown goldsinny with nice deep red and golden markings.

A small female cuckoo wrasse. All small cuckoo wrasse are female. They are born that way and change sex later in life!

These were followed by a few more of each before I caught my first ballan wrasse of the session. A nice mottled brown fish. I caught a few more goldsinny, cuckoo and ballan wrasse and after another twenty minutes or so I caught my first rock cook wrasse of the morning.

Third wrasse species of the five required.

I really like rock cook wrasse. Especially this one as it left me with only one species of wrasse to catch!

Having only been fishing for about forty five minutes and with just a single corkwing wrasse required for me to complete my first wrasse grand slam I was very excited. I carried on fishing away at the same spot and steadily caught more fish including a few other species. Every time I hooked a wrasse I was hoping for a corkwing. Every time I hooked something else I was hoping it was something odd and new.

A long spined sea scorpion manages to fend of the wrasse.

All of the goldsinny wrasse I caught had a red or pink hue to their colouration and a golden underbelly. Very dark spots too which makes me think it might be breeding season for them.

Rock cook wrasse really do have absolutely tiny mouths.

As well as some very large cod I've also been catching loads of tiny codling this year. A good sign hopefully that cod stocks are doing well.

A solitary rock goby also beat the wrasse to my bait.

As the day progressed the action slowed down a bit and I was starting to think that a corkwing wrasse would prove elusive when I hooked a small wrasse that came off just as it reached the surface. I only got a quick glance at it but I was pretty certain it was a corkwing. Slightly frustrated this spurred me on a bit and I was considering trying a new spot when I finally got my fifth wrasse species of the day completing the grand slam in the process!

I've done it!

I was very pleased and to be honest having been fishing for less than three hours I expected it to take longer than it did. This left me the rest of the day to explore around the pier a bit more and maybe get lucky and pick up something odd or even better something new to add to my species tally! Unfortunately however the wind  started to pick up and the action slowed to a crawl as the tide went slack as low water approached. I was also beginning to feel a bit tired and quite hungry. I persevered for a bit longer, moving along to the opposite end of the pier and getting a little shelter by fishing from behind the large upright concrete blocks there. I managed to catch a few more wrasse, tiny codling and also found a small pocket of small poor cod but when the wind picked up even more and with the thought of a four hour drive to get home on my mind I decided to leave earlier than I had originally planned. After getting something to eat from the local store I headed home enjoying the drive once again on the way stopping to take this photo of the famous Scottish mountain Buachaille Etive Mor on my way back through Glencoe.

At the time the sun was blinding me but I took this as it disappeared behind a cloud just above the mountain's peak. Whilst you could say I failed to capture the thing I was trying to photograph I still quite like this dark menacing photo.

All in all it was a great little trip, even if I probably did end up spending more time driving than I did fishing! I achieved one of the goals I set myself this year although in hindsight perhaps it wasn't a particularly difficult one, it just being a case of finding the right mark really and I think there are a few spots on the west coast where all five wrasse species can be caught. I love wrasse though and it was another excuse to go and catch loads of them so I enjoyed doing it. Maybe next year I'll try and do it quicker or throw Baillon's wrasse into the mix and try and complete a six wrasse species super grand slam! In the end I wasn't really disappointed about nothing new being caught because I knew the chances of that were fairly slim anyway. I'd certainly like to fish there again and it seems like a great spot for a short break, I'd also love to fish the deep water directly in front of the pier with some heavier gear and I'm sure over a few days a new species would turn up so I'll definitely be back.

Tight lines, Scott.

This week I 'ave been mostly huntin'...

...three bearded rockling an' Yarrell's blenny. No doubt some anglers will be horrified that anyone would deliberately try to catch a rockling and some anglers will be asking what the hell is a Yarrell's blenny!

The three bearded rockling can grow much larger than its cousin the shore rockling, that rather confusingly also has three "beards". Colouration is the key to telling them apart. The three bearded rockling is light beige/pink with dark brown almost leopard like spots whilst the shore rockling is either uniformly dark brown or dark brown with light mottling. Both are easily distinguished from their other two much less common cousins with more impressive beards.

Here's a shore rockling I caught earlier this year.

I'd be tickled pink if I caught a Yarrell's blenny!

A few short sessions at various spots along the coast have so far seen my efforts fail to produce either of these new species. I have instead caught the usual suspects. Coalfish mainly, a few mackerel, pollock, flounder, plaice, codling, common blennies and long spined sea scorpions all keeping me smiling as I try to avoid catching them!

Don't be embarrassed! It's not your fault.

Maybe I'll fluke a new species soon?

The Scottish harbour equivalent of a pouting. Apologies to Lee and Mal!

My two year long viviparous blenny saga proved, if nothing else, that I'm a persistent bugger as well as a reasonably patient species hunter and I'll be having further attempts at catching a three bearded rockling soon. No doubt I'll catch loads of other species in the process and have fun doing so but hopefully a three bearded rockling won't take two years to track down, Yarrell's blenny may be, if you'll excuse the pun, another kettle of fish all together.

Tight lines, Scott.