When the boat comes in.

Last month I visited Dunbar to have a fun session targeting coalfish after dark. As well as shoals of coalfish there were a few velvet swimmer crabs paddling around near the surface and also some oddly shaped small fish. I recalled spotting one of these distinctive looking fish a few years ago and I had an idea then what they were. After seeing a few I set about trying to catch one to see if I was right but had no luck. Everytime I put a jighead near one it swam down out of sight and besides the 2.3g #10 jigheads I was using were probably too big! Since that session I've been back a few times armed with a 3g controller float, some tanago hooks and a couple of raw prawns to bait them up with to try to catch one. Last week during a session there were a few of these small fish around again and with a bit of patience I successfully moved my rig into position without spooking the largest of them. With a bit of very gentle twitching I had the fish showing a little interest and then it took one of the miniscule baits on my three hook rig. Worried about it coming off it was very quickly wound in and swung up to my hand before being unhooked and popped into a small clear plastic tub for some photographs.

My suspicions were correct. The fish was a hooknose, also known as a pogge or an armed bullhead.
It's an odd little fish that has a hard bony body and the underside of its head is covered in small barbules which it uses to search for food on the seafloor.

Looking at the fish I was a little puzzled as to what a bottom dwelling species was doing swimming around near the surface and I suspect these are being brought into the harbour on shrimp boats along with their haul before being thrown over the side as they sort out their catch. Pure speculation of course and really I wasn't too fussy about how they had found their way into Dunbar Harbour, it was just nice to catch my first new species of the year.  

Tight lines, Scott.

Still putting a smile on my face.

I've been working a lot since starting my new job in the recently opened Edinburgh Angling Centre. As a result I haven't managed to get out that much. When I have wet a line I've hit the East Lothian coast. The fishing has been mixed but I've caught a fish or two that have put a smile on my face. A trip to St Abbs for a couple of hour's light game fun produced dozens of small coalfish but I also caught this nice little copper coloured pollock.

Juvenile pollock sometimes look much nicer than adults in my opinion.

A return to St Abbs a week later with my mate Garf with light game tackle saw us catching more small coalfish. I managed a couple of flounders too and hooked a very large pollock at the back of the outer wall that made me glad I had taken my net with me. Pity it had been left in the boot of the car at the top of the hill! The fish though beaten made good its escape when we tried to land it. Probably the biggest fish I've hooked on light game tackle. Not the first time I've been caught out by a surprise bonus beast and I should have learnt by now to always take my net!

One of the fish that didn't get away.

A few hours last down at Dunbar with some ragworm from work saw me catching dozens of coalfish again. They're good fun but I'd have prefered some flounders as they give a better account of themselves. Something else eventually managed to beat the coalfish to my bait though and had me smiling again.

My first ever ballan wrasse from inside Dunbar Harbour. I've had so many species from this venue now it's quite incredible.

Finally, I had a text from my mate Martin  recently telling me to look up the rockclimbing goby. A fascinating fish indeed but the text reminded me of another fish he told me to check out some time ago that always makes me smile. It's called the sarcastic fringehead.

The sarcastic fringehead is a very aggressive fish that puts its rather large mouth with its colourful interior to unusual use during territorial disputes. Check out this video to see it in action.

Anyway, I may be fishing less at the moment but it still gives me pleasure. Some of the goals I set myself this year have fallen by the wayside but I think over the coming months I'll focus on catching three new species which would take me to twelve for the year. From saltwater I'll be after a fifteen spined stickleback and a a three bearded rockling. Before I try for them though I think I'll hit some small streams in the evenings after work to try to catch my first bullhead.

Tight lines, Scott.

Missing the boat?

After Sunday's superb skate trip aboard "Reel Deal" with Willie and Gordon I headed out locally on Tuesday to try and add yet more, but much smaller species to this year's tally. I had two targets in mind and arranged to fish a few marks around East Lothian with my mate Mikey. First stop was Eyemouth Harbour where I was hoping to locate a fifteen spined stickleback. The water in the harbour was the clearest I've ever seen it but alas there was a distinct lack of fish. I had to resort to fishing in an isolated pool of water trapped amongst some boulders to open my account. The fish had spines but it wasn't a stickleback. 

This little brute charged out of a crack to wolf my piece of Angleworm.

Next on our little tour of East Lothian was Dunbar Harbour, again I did a spot of stickleback hunting whilst Mikey focused on flatfish. The tide was about half way in and whilst the bladderwrack on the walls was partially covered I couldn't see any of my target species to lower my rig in front of. There were dozens of two spotted gobies though so I amused myself trying to catch them using a micro fishing float rig. They were being quite fussy though and my tiny pieces of mackerel and squid had to be twitched by lifting the float ever so slightly to get them biting. 

Not quite small enough but the closest fish yet to fitting on my one yen coin.

After I caught a couple I joined Mikey pestering the flatfish and we caught a few small flounder and plaice. By early evening I still hadn't spotted any sticklebacks moving around in the weed and the flatfish were being less aggressive with their bites. With the sun getting fairly low in the sky it was time to head to our final mark, Ravenshuegh Beach. My target there was the lesser weever and the conditions once we walked down to it looked great, the sea being flat calm with small waves gently rolling in. I went with half a set of herring hooks, four small hooks with small blobs of fluorescent paint at the top of their shanks and baited two of them with tiny strips of mackerel and the other two with slithers of squid. Mikey meanwhile decided to fish Angleworm on a split shot rig. Twitching our rigs back towards us bites were few and far between to begin with as we wandered along the beach but once it got dark we finally got a few. When I  connected with one it was a small fish and reeling it in I had high hopes but it wasn't my target species and instead I beached a palm sized flat fish. Shining my head torch on it I did get a little surprise though when I discovered it was a plaice, quite an unusual capture for the area. 

The first plaice I've caught from East Lothian outwith the little corner that produces them in Dunbar Harbour.

After a while the few bites we were getting petered out again so we ended the session. I haven't seen a fifteen spined stickleback for a few weeks now and I'm wondering if I perhaps have missed the opportunity to catch one? I've also had about half a dozen attempts at catching a lesser weever on marks I know hold them. I don't think they are present in great numbers but I'm also not sure if they are resident all year round or only move inshore when the water temperature rises in the summer? I have a pair of waders on order that I plan to use in my efforts to catch both these species so I'll have a few more attempts but my thoughts are beginning to turn to switching my focus to conger eels and three bearded rocklings, two species that I can definitely expect to catch over the coming colder months. 

Tight lines, Scott.