I'll take the high road.

At the end of last month, I set off on a road trip up to the highlands to try and see two species of butterfly for the first time. My first stop was the Allt Mhuic Butterfly Reserve, situated on the northern shore of Loch Arkaig in Lochaber. It’s a great place to see the chequered skipper, a rare butterfly that is only found within a thirty mile radius of Fort William. After a four hour drive, it didn’t take me too long to spot one, just a short walk up into the reserve from the car park. 

My first chequered skipper!

With the possibility of seeing a few other species of butterfly, I continued walking up the hill further into the reserve, but after a while all I had seen were a few more chequered skipper, so I headed back down to the car and began the second leg of my journey, heading much further north to Balnagown Woods in the County of Ross. Once I arrived, it didn’t take me long to walk from the car to a clearing in the trees and spot my target, the dingy skipper. Much to my delight, there were also large numbers of small blue fluttering around the vegetation.

I saw quite a few of these dingy skipper.

They small blue is the UK's smallest butterfly species.

I spent an hour or so wandering around the woods and all the open areas I explored had lots of butterflies flying around. Walking back to the car, the prospect of doing another four hours of driving to get home didn’t fill me with excitement, but seeing two new species of Scottish butterfly and my first small blues of the year had made the trip well worthwhile. 

The following day Lillian and I drove north again to spend the weekend at her parent’s house in Keith. A last minute unplanned trip, I didn’t expect to drive all the way back up to the highlands quite so soon! Whilst there we visited Cullen on the Saturday and Portknockie the following day. While Lillian and her mum went for a walk, I spent an hour at both of the town's harbours fishing. Not much was biting, and I only managed to catch four fish, but all of them were different species. 

This savage shanny didn’t take too kindly to being caught and clamped its jaws onto my finger. 

It really didn’t want to let go either!

When it finally did, it had left quite an impression!

After spending some more time working my way along the inside of Cullen harbour, fishing straight down the wall, I’d only tempted two fish to bite my piece of Angleworm. The second, a very small rockling, most likely a five bearded, fell off as I lifted it out of the water. Fancying a change, I walked around to the mouth of the harbour to try fishing there. 

When your chosen area is not very productive, sometimes it’s a good idea to move.

At the end of the harbour, there was a bit more structure around the base of the breakwater, some small kelp beds and more depth. It looked promising, but despite that, nothing was biting to begin with in close, so I had a few casts further out. This produced a few odd knocks and then I caught a small sandeel. 

Given it’s relatively smsll size, it could have been one of several species. 

Small teeth on the roof of the mouth meant it was one of the two Hyperoplus genus that are found in UK waters, the greater sandeel or the Corbin’s sandeel. 

With no obvious spot on its snout and a black chin, most species hunters would declare this as a Corbin’s sandeel, but I'm not convinced these features can be relied upon to distinguish between the two.

A Corbin's sandeel would be an addition to my Scottish species tally, but I'm not going to add it at this point. For the time being I'm recording this as a greater sandeel. I feel that further investigation is required because the research that I've done online and looking through the books I own fails to provide a more concrete way to tell the two apart. Corbin's sandeel is only supposed to be found on the west coast of the UK for example and it's also described as more commonly found offshore. 

The following day visiting Portknockie, we went for a short walk along the cliffs to see Bow Fiddle Rock. As we walked along the cliff top path, I was also on the lookout for butterflies, and we did see quite a few painted lady, but that was the only butterfly we spotted.

Bow fiddle rock is an impressive natural sea arch near Portknockie.

Heading down to the town’s harbour, I fished from the small concrete pier on the outside of the harbour’s outer wall, accessed through a small tunnel. Again, not a lot was biting, but a small ballan wrasse eventually grabbed my Angleworm and tried its best to get into the kelp. Just before I left, I caught a solitary long spined sea scorpion. 

Even relatively small ballan wrasse fight dirty. 

This cheeky little fellow was the last fish of the weekend.

The following day we drove back down to the capital again, and over the two back to back highland trips I'd probably done about twenty hours of driving! It wasn’t as bad as it sounds however. Large parts were actually very pleasant. I always forget just how stunning some of the scenery is in the highlands and I really should make more of an effort to head up there more frequently! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Under the weather.

At the end of May, I headed off to the Isle of Lewis for the first time with fellow species hunters, Mike and Mark, for two days of boat fishing. Hopes were high that we'd be able to catch some unusual fish out in the deep water off the island's north west coast. On the way there, whilst we waited to board the ferry at Ullapool, we fished for a couple of hours from the harbour. Small sections of ragworm and tiny strips of squid fished close to the bottom, both produced some poor cod and both the species of UK sea scorpion, a pretty even mix of long spined and short spined.

My first poor cod of the year.

The short spined sea scorpion were also my first of the year.

Most of them were sporting a spotty underside.

There were lots of people queuing up when we arrived at the harbour, and the reason became apparent when the only fully operational seagoing paddle steamer came into the bay to pick them all up.

The Waverley sails up and down the UK coastline. It passed by whilst I was fishing at Greenock last year.

Just before we left, I caught something quite unexpected, in the shape of a lesser weever. The ground we were fishing over was not really the type I'd expect to produce them. Usually, they can be found living in fine sand, but the ground we were fishing over was pretty mixed with lots of rocks and weed. I guess there must have been a few small sandy patches down there though!

Yet another addition to my 2025 species tally!

Heading back to the car, we boarded the ferry and made the crossing to Stornoway. After we disembarked, we met up with our skipper in the Stornoway Angling Club, right next to the ferry terminal. Angus is quite a character, and we spent an hour or so hearing about some of the more unusual captures he’s made over the years, and discussed where we would be fishing the following day. Conditions in the lead up to the trip had been fantastic, but the wind had picked up and would limit how far offshore we could go. 

In the morning, we headed to on the other side of the island, loaded our gear onto the boat, and set off. Our first task was of course catching some fresh bait. To begin with, we targeted greater sandeel and once we caught a few dozen of those, we headed to another spot to target mackerel.

A nice big launce. 

Unfortunately, the mackerel weren't around in any great numbers. Not a problem as Angus had backup supplies of frozen mackerel, so we headed to our next spot where we hoped to catch some cusk over some rocky ground. After a few ling were boated, I caught a nice spurdog, but winding it up, I started to feel quite unwell. I quickly unhooked the fish and returned it, before being violently sick over the side. Anyone who's suffered with sea sickness well tell you, it's absolutely brutal, and it rarely goes away until you get back onto dry land. I made a couple of attempts to fish again, but they only made me feel worse again, so that was me for the day. 

Since returning from Gran Canaria at the end of March, I’ve not really felt one hundred percent and when we returned to the harbour I continued to feel unwell, which had me wondering if it was this that had triggered the sea sickness. In the evening, after eating dinner, I had an early night, but in the morning I still felt rotten, so decided not to go out in the boat. The trip had turned into a bit of a disaster for me. Mike and Mark had a good day out, fishing inshore as the wind had picked up again, and they caught some specimen dab and plaice, as well as some spotted ray. I had some ultra light tackle with me but felt so terrible that I didn’t even feel up to fishing at all, instead going for a walk around the town and up Gallows Hill. The following day, Mike and I headed back to the mainland, whilst Mark stayed on the island an extra day, to do some shore fishing. Arriving in Ullapool, Mike had an hour fishing from the harbour. I just went for a stroll around the town to get some more fresh air. 

It was a dull day and my fishing mojo hadn’t returned. 

So, my first trip to the Isle of Lewis is one I'll remember for all the wrong reasons. It was great to meet up with Mike and Mark, and I wish I’d been able to spend more time fishing with them. Despite my first trip to the Isle of Lewis turning into a bit of a nightmare, I’d love to return in the future at some point!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting road trip: Mull of Galloway.

Earlier in the summer, I arranged a couple of days out on Tuesday and Wednesday last week aboard Mull of Galloway charter boat "On Yer Marks" for myself and my mates, Nick and Ryan. A few weeks after this was booked however, I was offered a place on a boat out of Weymouth to target something quite unusual. Butterfly blenny! This trip was taking place the following day on the Thursday so I had a difficult decision to make as the dates caused problems travel wise. In the end, the opportunity to catch a butterfly blenny proved too tempting for me to turn down, so I broke the news to Nick and Ryan that I'd be driving south whilst they were out fishing on the second day. 

Going all the way down to Weymouth is a long way to go for just one day out on a boat, so I decided to use up the last of my holidays at work and extend my stay afterwards. This would allow me to try and catch a few species down there that I'd not yet caught this year, and also hopefully perhaps even some new ones as well. So, a two day trip to the southwest of Scotland had become an eight day long road trip to the southwest coast of the UK!

Last Monday night the three of us drove down to Stranraer, where our accommodation was booked. The next morning we drove down to East Tarbet where the boat was being launched. The conditions weren't great, it was pretty windy and a bit of a swell was running, so after catching some mackerel to use as bait, skipper Matt headed down around the Mull of Galloway to some sheltered water where we spent a large portion of the day float fishing for pollock. We all caught lots of them, but Nick seemed to consistently pull out the bigger specimens.

One of Nick’s pollock.

In the afternoon, we briefly visited a second mark, where we fished for launce over a sandbank using sabiki. There were shoals of mackerel in the area however, and as a result we only managed to catch two launce, but I got one of them, and it was my first of the year, so I was happy enough.

Look at the size of that mouth!

After a bit more pollock fishing in the afternoon, the wind had dropped off a bit, so we headed back around to the Luce Bay side of the peninsula where we spent some time live baiting joey mackerel for bass. We made several drifts over fairly shallow ground, letting out lots of line in the hope a passing bass would devour one of our baits as they swam along, but sadly this approach didn't produce any results. Before calling it a day and heading back in, we did a few final drifts fairly close to shore over a mark that Matt assured us would, and did, produce a few small tub gurnard.

The second addition to my 2023 species hunt tally.

The first day's fishing over, it was touch and go whether the second day's fishing would go ahead due to the forecast, but in the evening I got a text from the skipper saying that Nick and Ryan were to head to Port Logan for a 09:00 launch. I wouldn't be joining them as I had a long drive to make south. In the morning we parted company and I wished them luck targeting tope, bull huss and conger eel. They wished me luck targeting butterfly blenny! Not something you hear very often!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.

Striking gold.

So, throughout August, back to Drumtassie Trout Fishery I went repeatedly, to try to catch my first golden trout. As I've said before, it's probably my least favourite type of venue and style of fishing, so I was keen to try and get one quickly. Six visits later, I finally managed to catch two of the super spooky brightly coloured fish! The number that swim up to your fly and inspect it before turning away at the very last second is incredible. After dropping to 4lb tippet and giving it a going over with Fuller's Mud, a suspender buzzer and a white moth were the surface flies that finally tempted the two golden trout I caught.

The golden trout. A very colourful and very frustrating fish!

My 100th species from Scottish venues! I was over the moon reaching this milestone! There was one thing in the back of my mind though. Niggling away. Corbin's sandeel. I've caught a couple of large sandeel that I suspect may have been Corbin's sandeel during the last few years. They can be distinguished from the greater sandeel because they lack the dark spot on the side of the snout and instead have a dark chin.

I'm not 100% sure that this is a Corbin's sandeel.

This, I'm sure, is a greater sandeel.

I'm still not confident that I've got the identification correct though, and as the Corbin's sandeel was included in my Scottish species tally total of one hundred, I decided I wanted to catch one more Scottish species, so I could say with absolute certainty I'd reached my goal.

Tight lines, Scott.

Somewhere over the Forth.

I headed over to Fife last Sunday to mess about in a couple of the harbours there with my mate Dan. We were quite optimistic about enjoying some light game fun and I also planned on fishing mini species bait rigs too but a few showers on the drive over had us unsure about where to fish. St Monans was to be our first stop but we decided to head further east towards bluer skies and started our session in Cellardyke Harbour instead. Two anglers were already fishing for cod off the end of the outer breakwater and hadn't had any bites. Dan and I struggled to get any inside the harbour fishing Isome on drop shot rigs either. A sure sign usually that there aren't any fish around and a single tiny coalfish later we headed along to Anstruther to try out luck there. After trying a few spots that didn't produce anything other than a second tiny coalfish we ended up along at the lighthouse fishing around the harbour mouth. Dan decided to try fishing metals and I decided to switch to fishing small baits in gaps in the kelp on a mini one up one down rig. Dan soon had a bit of fun when he caught a mackerel and followed this up by catching his first ever launce after getting a few bumps from them. 

Dan didn't realise that launce are quite an aggressive species until I spotted them cruising beneath and picking off juvenile coalfish and pointed them out. They were aggressively attacking Dan's lure too. 

My mussel and raw prawn baits weren't getting any attention and Dan was having way more fun than I was so I removed my bait rig, tied on a leader and a small metal. Jigging this with short sharp lifts of my rod tip before lowering it as the metal fell keeping just in touch with it I was getting little bumps on the drop and after hooking and loosing a launce of my own I hooked and landed a couple. 

My first one was rather plump.

Even mini species deserve a trophy shot. All good light hearted fun. 

After hooking and loosing a couple more I returned to fishing baits. Some people think bait fishing is easy but anyone who thinks you just turn up, cast in some baits and pull out fish clearly hasn't done much bait fishing. I patiently waited for bites trying different areas to hopefully locate some fish. I eventually caught a couple of coalfish. Dan carried on fishing in the mouth of the harbour and caught another mackerel but as the session progressed and low water approached things went very quiet. 

Somewhere over the Forth (and rainbow), mackerel swim.

I was hopeful that as light faded some shore or five bearded rockling might start hunting but apart from a couple more coalfish the only long slimy fish I caught was a viviparous blenny which proved tricky to unhook as it slithered backwards around my hand. 

It would seem that these are present all year round. I've had a few of these from Anstruther White Pier now. 

As it got dark we saw a flounder swimming near the surface and Dan had a few casts in the general direction it headed off in but to no avail. Soon afterwards we called it a night. It hadn't really been the action packed session we had been hoping for but the launce were good fun and Dan enjoyed some sport from the mackerel too. I have mixed feelings about fishing over the Forth as it rarely fishes really well and is sometimes quite poor. Regardless I'll be back to try for the two rockling species again although waiting for the longer nights later in the year might prove a better choice to have more time to target them. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Blown away.

I went out for a few hours fishing this afternoon. I started off at Dunbar Harbour but after trying various spots, struggling to fish in the wind and not getting any bites I decided to head down the coast to the inlet area of Torness Power Station, more to get out of the wind than anything else, but I also wanted to fish in the rockpools there. A couple of years ago I caught a few leopard spotted gobies from them and was curious if they were still around. Before I hit the rockpools though I fished an Angleworm on a drop shot rig from the exposed concrete platform below the gantry at its western end into the deep water below it. Whilst I was slightly sheltered from the wind it was still difficult to feel for bites and when I finally got one I wasn't sure if I had hooked the little culprit. As I slowly reeled in it felt like it was just my drop shot lead that was putting a tiny bend in my rod tip but then I felt a little head shake and to my surprise a sandeel came into view.

I think this the second time I've caught a greater sandeel using this approach. My drop shot lead had jettisoned during the "fight" which explained why I didn't really feel the extra weight of the fish. I was quite pleased as it was other potentially hard to catch species ticked off my Scottish species hunt target list.

Note the dark mark above its upper lip. A key distinguishing feature.

I carried on fishing the area just as the tide had started to lap up over the platform and I was just about to move over to the rockpools when I heard a voice behind me. Turning to see who it was I was confronted by two uniformed officers. It was the station's Civil Nuclear Constabulary who had spotted me as they patrolled the site, were concerned I was fishing in a dangerous place and had come over to make sure I was OK. After thanking them and reassuring them that I was fine and was about to move anyway I  headed over to the rockpools to start searching for a leopard spotted goby. Slowly working my jighead mounted Angleworm around the gaps in the partially submerged sea defence boulders I was searching it soon became apparent that there weren't any leopard spotted gobies around, or any other mini species for that matter. Eventually I managed to coax a solitary long spined sea scorpion out from a crack.

I never tire of catching these little rockpool gremlins.

As the afternoon progressed the wind cranked itself up a few more notches and got so strong that even fishing in rockpools effectively became a bit of a challenge! After a while with no further reward for my efforts I decided to call it a day and headed back up the road. Despite only catching two fish I was happy to have added another species to my Scottish saltwater species hunt tally. It's fair to say that the weather so far this year has not been great with the wind in particular often making things difficult. My mate Nick tells me that the first mackerel have been caught by Dunbar's commercial boats so hopefully it won't be too much longer before they and some other summer species start showing up inshore and hopefully we get some nice weather to go with them.

Tight lines, Scott.