I love it when a plan comes together.

On Tuesday I headed down to Port Logan again to have another day out fishing with local skipper Spike along with two of my mates, Stewart and Mikey. It was a lovely day especially for mid October and I had two main targets in mind, red gurnard and ling, but with a few skate being caught down there this year Spike suggested it was worth trying for one over slack water. Before we targeted anything however we had to catch some fresh bait. This proved difficult but after a bit of perseverance we got a couple of dozen mackerel and headed out to the first mark. Whilst the lads relaxed and waited for runs I fished a second rod to see what else I could pick up. As I've already said I was hoping to pick up a red gurnard or a ling but really we weren't on a mark that produces them so I wasn't surprised when all I caught were whiting and dogfish. When Stewart wound in his big bait to change it for a fresh one he discovered a small bull huss had snaffled it. This was a new species for him and whilst he's still not entirely comfortable handling sharks there was no way he wasn't getting his photo taken with his first bull huss. 

Just a baby but it left Stewart wondering how strong a bigger one would be. 

After a while our bait supply began to dwindle so we headed inshore to find some more mackerel. This proved to be incredibly difficult at the first spot we tried so we moved to a second. This is where I got a big slice of luck. Working my unbaited mackerel feathers at different depths to try and locate the fish I hooked one close to the bottom and was pleasantly surprised to see a red gurnard come up which was rapidly swung into the boat. 

The difficult task of bait box replenishment had produced one of my two targets and Scottish saltwater species number fifty five.  

This bonus capture had me on a bit of a high especially as the fish had taken the dressed hook with no bait on it. After a while jigging away on the drift we eventually caught a few mackerel and anchored up at another mark to try for tope. Again I fished a second rod and after a few cod, dogfish and a haddock I caught a small ling, adding a second species to my 2015 Scottish saltwater tally.

Mission accomplished! 

Over the moon I carried on scratching around but we were all hopeful one of our tope baits would get picked up. After a while Mikey's rod started nodding but it looked like a dogfish bite to begin with. Allowing it to develop though the tip movements got a bit bigger and lifting his rod Mikey wound in to find a bit of weight on the end. A nice bull huss was soon on the surface at the side which I leaned over and lifted into the boat for him.

Mikey's first ever bull huss was a good size and as ever didn't want to cooperate while being photographed.

With no interest being shown towards our baits by tope we headed back nearer to port and anchored fairly close in over some rougher ground. Stewart float fished mackerel strips and sandeel for pollock whilst Mikey fished Sidewinder paddletails for them. I meanwhile added a weak link to a three up rig and fished the rocky bottom with mackerel strips. We all caught a few fish including a cracking pollock for Stewart that had his rod nicely bent and his drag doing some work. Mikey caught a few pollock too and I caught a few smaller pollock and some cuckoo wrasse including one beautifully marked male.

We didn't weight it but this pollock was a new personal best for Stewart. 

My nicest cuckoo wrasse. For most this would have been a lovely fish to end the day on but I couldn't resist trying something else just before we hit dry land again. 

On the way back in I clipped on a two down rig with Nordic bend hooks on it. Once we entered Port Logan I had a few casts to see if I could tempt a small turbot. Spike had told us earlier in the day that he had seen them swimming away on the clean sandy bottom whilst launching and retrieving his boat. I knew I was pushing my luck and as it turned out I had used it all up earlier in the day.  A turbot would have been the icing on the cake but adding two species to this year's tally had made the trip a massive success in my eyes anyway and seeing the lads getting their first bull huss was great too. The red gurnard and ling had left me with only four species remaining to catch to reach sixty in my Scottish saltwater species challenge. I think the boat fishing out of Port Logan might start to taper off now as winter sets in so the next time I visit the area I'll be shore fishing for conger eels and three bearded rockling. Something to keep me busy after dark over the coming months. I better dig out my thermals and stock up on headtorch batteries.

Tight lines, Scott.

...I'm having such a good time.

When my mate Martin arranged a day out on his mate Scott's boat for us I hadn't reached my target of fifty saltwater species from Scottish venues. When the three of us left Port Logan aboard Scott's boat on Sunday I had already caught fifty two so the pressure was off as far as I was concerned and I was just looking forward to enjoying a bit of fishing in good company. That being said the species hunter in me knew there were still a few species that I could catch during the session that would add to my tally and at the first spot Scott guaranteed that I'd catch a bull huss. He wasn't wrong and before too long I was reeling one in. Being notorious for dropping baits at the side of boats Martin netted it for me. Just as well too as the hook fell out as soon as it went into it. Their strength is quite something else and it was a particularly feisty one, proving very hard to handle, and photograph.

A very badly behaved bull huss.

Lemon sole was another and much more unusual species that Scott had caught at the first mark so I fished a three down rig on a 6-12lb class setup. I had added luminous beads, sequins and a piece of split shot to each snood and put a small piece of ragworm on the #8 hooks. This produced a few other species but no lemon sole or anything else that added to my 2015 tally. After a while we raised the anchor and headed to a second mark where we did some drifting. Scott had caught a lemon sole there too and told us it was a good spot for red and tub  gurnards as well, two additional species that I'd not caught so far this year. Again Scott was spot on and he soon boated a red gurnard, jokingly apologising for doing so. Of course after this every other fish the lads hooked was a red or tub gurnard until it reached the surface and morphed into a haddock, dogfish or something else. Like any other gurnards that might have been down there though, I wasn't biting. 

No more gurnard were caught drifting at the second mark and the action along with the gurnard wind ups slowed down after a while so we finished up the session drifting in a bay to the south of Port Logan. On the first drift Martin caught a tub gurnard on a set of mackerel baited daylights and the gurnard related teasing resumed. I switched to a two up rig with some yellow beads on the snoods, baited with tapered strips of mackerel hooked through the thin end. Over the next few drifts I caught a few more small fish before hooking something a little bigger. I jokingly told Martin to get the net ready for my tub but when a tub gurnard did actually appear I didn't wait for it and swung it in instead.

My first tub gurnard of 2015 was in fine condition. I didn't realise it at the time but it was also my 100th saltwater species of 2015, equalling last years total.

Of course I was still hopeful that a red gurnard would take one of my mackerel baits next but instead it was a plaice followed fairly quickly by a short spined sea scorpion.

Not big by any stretch of the imagination but this was still my biggest plaice from Scottish waters so far. 

Another cracking looking fish and also my biggest ever short spined sea scorpion. 

Soon it was time to head back to Port Logan. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable day's fishing and I'd added two species to my 2015 Scottish saltwater species tally, taking it to fifty four. Between us we'd caught fifteen species in total which isn't bad going for October. It was nice to fish with Scott for the first time too, it was very generous of him to take Martin and I out and I'd like to fish with him again if the opportunity ever arises. Over the last few years Martin has become a great friend and I always enjoy fishing with him. He had again gone out of his way to help me out with my species hunting by arranging the day and it's not the first time either. As well as offering info and encouragement he's put me in touch with some great anglers who've also done their best to help me too. On the way home another of Martin's friends happened to call him and a trip to Crinan was mentioned. Skate, conger eel and black mouthed dogfish are all potential catches and, as you've probably guessed, Martin mentioned me and another enjoyable day out fishing afloat is perhaps on the cards as a result. I'm sure if I do get a place on the boat I'll have another good time and maybe I can edge closer to sixty in the process.

Tight lines, Scott.

Three is a magic number.

Reviewing my list of potential target new species back in July I noted that I could catch a few from the waters around the Mull of Galloway so I booked the services of skipper Spike and his boat "Go West" for a trip in late August. I've been out with Spike before and I knew another day out with him would be a great way for me to enjoy a day boat fishing whilst getting the opportunity to target a few new species. When I made the booking the three species I thought I could realistically hope to catch for the first time were red gurnard, tub gurnard and tope. I caught a tope whilst over on Jersey since then so a bull huss was promoted into the top three of my new species hitlist for the day. Having gone ahead and booked the trip I had to try and get a few of my mates to come along! A text was sent out and my mates Nick and Naz replied saying they'd love to join me.

On Wednesday morning at 05:00 Nick picked Naz and I up and off the three of us went. Stopping in Stranraer on the way for breakfast I received a text from Spike to say we'd be fishing in Luce Bay due to the north westerly winds. Launching from Port Logan and fishing in the Irish Sea is probably better for species hunting but Spike reassured me we'd still be able to target a few different things and we soon arrived at Drummore where we'd be launching from. Spike was already there and after loading our gear onto the boat we were ready to launch.

A rather old and very rusty tractor is used to launch and retrieve the boats.

Soon fishing not far from shore, we made a few drifts to catch some mackerel to use as bait. A small box was soon full and we headed further out into the bay to target tope. Four baits were soon on the bottom and I was quite content to let Naz and Nick have any runs that happened on the two tope rods I had as neither of them had caught one before. I meanwhile fished a third rod with a two up rig to try and catch a few gurnards on mackerel baits. I opted to use #4 Sakuma Chinu hooks on the short 15cm snoods. I decided to try snelling these on to try and improve hook up rates. I soon caught a couple of dogfish and then Naz got a few knocks on his tope rod and caught his first bull huss. A good sign and when Nick caught one too I was confident that I would get one as well.

Naz's first bull huss.

A nice feisty bull huss for Nick too.

I then caught a double shot of grey gurnard, my first of the year. I handed them to Naz so I could get my camera and whilst I did that he put them both back. Just as well they weren't the red or tub variety! Luckily I caught a few more grey gurnard before it was my turn to catch a bull huss.

My third grey gurnard of 2013.

Busy catching gurnards, hoping that a red or tub would show up, I wasn't really paying attention to my other two rods and didn't spot one of them gently nodding away. As it was obviously not a tope Spike handed me the rod, the fish was already on and I wound it in. It didn't fight very much but I was still pleased to get my first new species of the trip.

I'm talkin' about sharkin'! Again.

We carried on fishing for tope, periodically changing our baits and increasing the amount of lead we had on as the tide started to pick up. I caught a few more grey gurnards and Nick had a second bull huss. After seven or eight more grey gurnard I caught a red gurnard, my second new species of the trip which I was very pleased about as they are the least common of the gurnard species in the area.

My second new species of the day, a red gurnard.

After about four hours with no tope runs we decided to head off to fish over a reef. The target there was pollock and we switched over to fishing soft plastics using light lure rods. There were plenty around and over the next couple of hours we caught and released about sixty between the three of us. Nick caught the biggest one and it really tested his light gear but he was able to bully it out of the kelp below the boat after some sustained pressure.

Naz's took this pollock on a Savage Gear Sandeel.

The biggest pollock boated.

The skipper then told us that despite fishing there for almost fifteen years he wasn't sure if the mark we were over held any wrasse so he dropped down my two up rig baited with small pieces of rag worm. Two ballan wrasse in quick succession soon cleared the matter up. Nick and I switched over to the same rig and caught a few wrasse too before we headed to our final mark where Spike told us we had a good chance of catching tub gurnards and also smoothhounds.

Once there Nick decided to ledger some crab to try and tempt a smoothhound and I focused on trying to catch a tub gurnard. Naz decided to lob out a small mackerel flapper to try and tempt any passing bass despite Spike warning him he'd more than likely catch dogfish on it. Having caught thirteen gurnards throughout the day on my two up rig, for some reason that looking back I can't quite explain, I decided to try a different approach and switched to mackerel strips fished on a two down running ledger setup. Spike meanwhile fished with one of my two up rigs baited with ragworm and when he caught the first tub gurnard of the day using it I quickly switched back and did the same! Time was running out though but when I got a decent bite I connected with the fish and it was the one I was hoping for.

My first tub gurnard was in lovely condition. A quite beautiful fish I'm sure you'd agree.

With only ten minutes to go I wanted to catch more of them but a shoal of mackerel arrived which made it hard for me, Naz as predicted by Spike had caught a couple of dogfish, Nick's crab hadn't attracted the smoothhounds and soon we wound our lines up for the last time to head back to port. Making a start to breaking down gear and tidying up the deck of the boat whilst Spike lifted the anchor he showed us some odd crustaceans that had been hanging on to it.

Woof woof. Who put the dog baits out?

How bizarre! Is it a juvenile spider crab perhaps?

"Go West" anchored just off shore waiting to be put back on her trailer.

Soon back on shore we packed our gear into Nick's car and thanked Spike before making the drive back up the road. It had been a long day and we were all quite tired although Naz, who had been up quite late the night before, was clearly more tired than Nick and I and slept most of the way home.

Naz does a good impression of a pollock whilst making sounds like a gurnard.

The three of us really enjoyed our day out in Lace bay. It was a great day's fishing in good company and whilst it was slightly disappointing not to get any tope runs all three of us caught some nice fish and I got three new species in one day. Snelling my hooks certainly seemed to improve my hook up ratios and used in combination with the Chinu hooks I can't recall any fish that weren't nicely hooked in the mouth either so that's another little positive from the trip and I'll carry on snelling my hooks from now on. Spike is a top skipper and the three of us are already talking about booking his services again next year although we may go earlier in the tope season when there are more around. 

Tight lines, Scott.