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.

I don't know if the mackerel are in yet!

We must have been asked if the mackerel were in about half a dozen times the other day. Fishing down the inside of Burntisland Harbour's eastern breakwater with my mate Col we just weren't that interested if they were or not. There are other fish in the sea after all! Col was after a rock cook wrasse whilst I was hoping to catch a Yarrell's blenny or a Scottish record breaking goldsinny wrasse. I decided to fish small pieces of raw prawn on a one hook paternoster whilst Col decided to fish wacky rigged Gulp and Isome on a drop shot rig. The water was slightly coloured up and things were pretty slow but we started getting the odd tap and I landed a couple of goldsinny wrasse, one of them equalling the current Scottish record of 53g. Things remained pretty slow as the tide rose but Col eventually opened his account with a corkwing wrasse. I then landed a small ballan wrasse followed by bonus butterfish that I mistook for a Yarrell's blenny as it appeared from the rocky harbour bottom. 

My first ballan wrasse of the year. 

A bonus butterfish. Col caught one the day before as well so there is obviously a healthy population of them in the harbour. 

As the tide turned and began to ebb we caught a few more wrasse but neither of us managed to catch our main target for the day or any record breakers before we decided to head off. I think in a few more weeks there will be a few more fish around and might return for another session. Maybe the mackerel will be in too. 

Tight lines, Scott.

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.

Opening a new account.

Well the weather so far this year has on the most part been absolutely dreadful. So bad in fact that I didn't venture out at all in January. Very frustrating so when I spotted some flights to Santander on the north coast of Spain for the bargain price of £45 return I treated my girlfriend Lillian and my light game travel rod to a short break there at the start of February. When we arrived the temperature was certainly an improvement on Edinburgh but there was no escape from the latest Atlantic storm system and its strong winds. After dropping our bags off at our hotel we went for a walk around the Peninsula de la Magdalena. Its coastline was being battered by the sea and all the spots I had picked out on Google Maps to wet a line were unfishable really.

Big waves breaking right up the rocks meant a rethink was in order.

A bit disappointed we headed up the estuary into town so I could fish for an hour or so. I tried at a few spots as we rambled along but there didn't seem to be any fish around. My persistence finally paid off though when I was rewarded with a very aggressive take that completely took me by surprise. The fish that had attacked my Angleworm was soon landed.

Opening my Santander account was real struggle.

A rather colourful little common comber. A nice first fish of 2016.

The next day it was still very windy but the sun was shining again so we went for a nice walk along the coast to Faro de Cabo Mayor, a lighthouse that sits above the cliffs to the west of Santander. I took my gear but suspected that the swell would make fishing impossible again. I was proved right.

Not really light game conditions. A stunning stretch of coastline though and the power of the sea was impressive too.

Eventually we reached the lighthouse. In calmer conditions I think there would be some nice fishing to be had where the sea could be accessed.

Arriving back at the hotel Lillian wanted an afternoon siesta so I jumped on a bus and headed back to where I had caught the comber the previous day. Things were slow again so I walked further into town. Passing an unusual set of sculptures I started getting a few little taps on my Angleworm and caught a few little fish. 

Normally I hate it when kids jump in next to where I'm fishing and spook all the fish.

My hard work was finally rewarded with an Atlantic horse mackerel.

I also managed to catch three of these little black seabream before heading back to the hotel.

On days three it rained heavily so Lillian suggested we head to the Maritime Museum. From the outside it didn't look like it would be that good but we were pleasantly surprised by the whale skeletons on display inside and the aquariums in the basement. As well as the usual seabream, bass and shark species in the main tank there were some large Atlantic wreckfish. 

Wish I could have caught some of these. They'd have put a real good bend in my rod!

These were very curious and came right up to the glass to have a look at us.

Our last day in Santander saw more heavy rain battering the city so we sought shelter and enjoyed some tasty tapas and drinks before heading to the airport to fly home. It had been a pleasant relaxing trip to a lovely place. The fishing wasn't great but I'm sure in the summer the estuary and the open sea would provide many excellent fishing opportunities so I may return sometime in the future to find out. 

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.

The swimming wounded.

The second meeting of Fish Club took place last Sunday. Unfortunately there were fewer anglers in attendance than the first meeting with just new member Ryan available and turning up to join me at Dunbar to fish for flounders. Not what I'd hoped for but on the bright side that's now two new anglers I've met through starting the group and if I get someone new coming along to every session the group will grow and hopefully so will the numbers attending future outings. Anyway, it was nice to meet up with Ryan for the first time and we were soon chatting and fishing away. The fishing was pretty slow  though until Ryan decided to give drop shotting a try for the first time and caught a small flounder on his first cast using the method. After that fish bites were pretty much non existent however so we headed around to the old harbour to try there. There wasn't much happening there either so I switched to a Carolina rig and slowly moved it along the bottom close to the harbour wall hoping to catch a blenny. Eventually I got a decent bite, hooked the fish that had decided my half section of Angleworm was a tasty snack and got a pleasant surprise when it emerged from the depths into view.

My first viviparous blenny from the old harbour, in daylight and on a lure, well Gulp anyway.

It had the end part missing from its tail and it was a fairly fresh looking wound but the fish was still a lively little slimy chap.

Quite pleased with my slippery bonus fish we carried on fishing and eventually the sun managed to start poking through the clouds. Its arrival in the sky seemed to wake up the flounders and pretty soon we were both catching lots of them on drop shotted Angleworm and Isome and having fun watching some of them appear from the bottom to investigate what was disturbing the bottom and then swimming up to grab our scented worm like offerings.

A second small flounder for Ryan.

My first few flounders were fairly small too but good fun on my light game tackle.

Yet another small flounder for Ryan. We were both hopeful we would catch some slightly bigger one.

As the afternoon went on the clouds thinned out even further and as the tide dropped the sunlight and clear water meant we could see a few bigger ones moving around on the bottom. It was quite exciting watching them appearing from the silt and shooting over to attack. One flounder in particular had a very aggressive go at my drop shot lead before suddenly turning and lurching up to attack my white Isome which it engulfed rather quickly, hooking itself in the process. 

A nice fish and the second one of the day to be sporting an injury. This time it was older and well healed around a chunk that had been removed from one side.

Not long after this Ryan caught a flounder that a mouth shaped abrasion on both sides of it and we discussed the tough eat or be eaten life of some fish. As the water levels dropped out of the old harbour we moved around to the bridge and standing on it watched a few flounders as they swam out of the old harbour and into the deeper water of the main harbour. I spotted a larger one that was quite well camouflaged sitting motionless on the flat concrete bottom and dropped my rig down in front of it. Being honest I was just trying to get it to move so some people standing next to us could see it but it obligingly came up, took my Isome and was soon being more closely inspected by some of the interested spectators. It was rather amusing and a nice way to end the session.

It was a really nice day by the time we left and truth be told I think we both would have liked to have fished for a bit longer if we could have but we had to go.

So a slow and rather grey start to the day had turned into a fantastic bright sunny flounder filled session and I think it's safe to say Ryan is now a convert to drop shotting for flounder. I enjoyed his company and it was a pleasure fishing with him. Hopefully he can come to Fish Club meetings on a regular basis. The next one will be on the 28th of June and I have a session targetting wrasse in mind if the conditions are right so if you fancy coming along please get in touch.

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.

Size matters!

With no sign of the strong winds of late dying down any time soon I headed out yesterday to spend a few hours fishing in the rockpools around Torness Power Station. The large sea defences there offered me good protection from the icy cold gales blowing from the south west. I had three targets in mind although I also hoped that a bonus species might show up. Two of them were mini species and the third is what I would class as a micro species. Some anglers would no doubt frown upon such activities but when you are on a species hunt you can't ignore the smaller ones and besides I enjoy messing around in rockpools and find it can offer insights that benefit other areas of my fishing.

A long spined sea scorpion was first on my radar although their short spined cousin and leopard spotted gobies have also been caught in the area I was fishing. I decided to experiment a little with my end gear and fished a running ledger style setup with a 1g egg weight, 1mm bead, a micro swivel and a three inch hooklength to a #10 hook instead of using a split shot rig. I like using these types of presentations in rockpools as when the lead hits the bottom I think the noise it makes can attract the attention of any fish in the vicinity and then the bait takes a few seconds longer to sink down giving in the chance to pass enticingly into a fish's line of sight. Dropping the rig in next to various boulders and cracks it didn't take long for my target to charge out in a typically boisterous fashion and swallow my Gulp! Angleworm.

A perfect little ambush predator.

The next few rockpools also produced a couple of long spined sea scorpions and seeing each appear, stop in front of the lure and swallow it whole it was noticeable how easily they did this compared to when I use a split shot rig. As I mentioned above, this is one of the things I like about sight fishing in rockpools, you can learn quite a lot about rigs and tactics that can be applied when you scale up again to target larger fish on heavier tackle.

Next up I headed to another spot to catch an even smaller fish, a common goby. The rockpool where they live sometimes has two spotted gobies in it as well but there was no sign of them yesterday. Common gobies have a maximum size of only 6.5cm and an average size of 2-4cm so their tiny mouths require a seriously small hook. Onto my swivel went a #26 to 1lb nylon hook length baited with a tiny chunk of Angleworm. I find the best way to catch these bottom dwellers is to very slowly drag your rig along the bottom. This kicks up sand and normally has small groups of the diminutive fish following and fighting over it. Before too long I caught a couple of them. 

I find all fish interesting and small ones are no exception.

The last species on my list was the common blenny. A firm favourite of mine due to their cheeky character they are without doubt the easiest fish to catch at the power station outflow and are present in astonishing numbers. The artificially warm water from the outflow also sends them into a feeding frenzy when it floods into the boulders of the sea defences when the tide comes in. I have also seen a bootlace conger eels feeding in amongst them too but again only my target was caught. I don't think rig or bait choice matters in instances like this and this in itself is an important lesson, i.e. the warmer the water the more fish feed and the easier it becomes to catch them.

Common blennies are nasty little fish and will try and bite you. They have powerful jaws and will clamp on if successful. The par boiled examples found at Torness Power Station outflow area can be particularly feisty and this is probably another side effect of the warm water. All this being said though I've never had one break my skin. 

After catching a few more I decided to call it a day and headed up the road for something to eat. It was good to get out again though and I enjoyed targeting these small fish, even learning a little more about the benefits of using free running leads in rigs in the process. Fishing in rockpools might not be everyone's cup of tea but I think more anglers should try it. They might be pleasantly surprised how much fun can be had and it might just improve their fishing too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Ask the expert?

I've been exchanging emails recently with an angler from Fife called Dan who had been reading my blog and decided to get in touch. Feeling fed up of fishing in the sea in his local area using traditional methods and reeling in relatively small fish using fairly heavy tackle he has been exploring light rock fishing or LRF. For the avoidance of doubt this is the presentation of ultra light lures using a variety of methods and balanced ultra light tackle to target various species in saltwater. I was flattered when he said he wanted to ask an expert some questions but an expert in LRF I am not, by any stretch of the imagination. I was however happy to try and help him out and increase my circle of fishing friends in the process so I arranged to meet up with Dan last week and taking advantage in a drop in the wind we headed down to Dunbar Harbour for low water.

First off we started off drop shotting Gulp! and Isome in the old harbour for flounders but this didn't produce any bites. At this point I should say that both these products are examples of a hybrid of lure and bait because whilst they both take the form of an artificial soft plastic they both also contain active ingredients that fish can identify as belonging to something edible. This makes them incredibly effective and really they require little skill to achieve immediate results. Elitist, lure only anglers who use these hybrid products please take note, you might as well be using ragworm! Personally, being an angler who enjoys fishing with bait, lures and everything in between this doesn't bother me at all and I've caught lots of fish using both. On reflection though using these hybrid products does become the easy option when "lure" fishing and perhaps to the detriment of exploring other methods using wholly artificial lures.

As the flounders weren't around I suggested we headed over the back of the harbour to try and catch a few mini species in the rockpools. After explaining to Dan the types of features to look for in a rockpool that might hold some aggressive little fish we set about exploring to find some. The first thing I caught was a small hermit crab, one of several that stirred from their static positions and scurried across to attack my piece of Gulp!. Dan was quite surprised by the way everything in the rockpools, including the hermit crabs, reacted as soon as my chunk of Gulp! was dropped in even if I just let it sit on the bottom motionless.

The rockpools I searched soon produced a few gung-ho long spined sea scorpions.They charge out of their hiding places and attack with lots of aggression.

Dan was soon happily exploring on his own catching a few small spiky fish too.

After an hour or so, catching about ten long spined sea scorpions between us, we then headed further down the coast to St Abbs to try and catch some coalfish after dark using on the drop (OTD) methods. We probably could have stayed at Dunbar but usually down at St Abbs the fish are more numerous, occasionally bigger and there are usually far less seals too. Both armed with solid tipped rods we had a chat about the benefits of using them for fishing OTD. I started of with a mini Savage Gear Sandeel paddletail, casting it out and flicking the bail arm over as soon as it hit the water. I kept tension in the line, simply allowing it to fall back towards me in an arc. Fishing like this as well as feeling for positive bites you also have to watch your rod tip and line because some takes are not so obvious. If a fish takes your lure and swims upward or towards you the only sign might be a release in tension, the line going slack or even a subtle change in the slight bend in your rod tip as it straightens a little. Basically when fishing this particular OTD style I find that less is more and usually select a lure whose action works even at slow retrieve rates. Metals are also a great choice of lure for OTD fishing as again they have a nice action as they fall through the water attracting fish to investigate and strike. On this particular occasion however I found them to be not as effective as the paddletails. Again it didn't take long for Dan to try a few lures, make a few adjustments and start catching coalfish too. Over the next few hours we carried on messing about and must have caught about a hundred small coalfish between us by the time the wind picked up and our wet hands started to become unbearably cold.

These ravenous little buggers provide a good opportunity to practice fishing on the drop with both small soft plastics on jigheads and small metals too.

I really enjoyed the session and Dan said he felt he had learned from it too. It was nice to have helped another angler to get more from their fishing. I've lost count of the number of times in the past I've benefited from the advice of other anglers so it was good to share some of what I've learned for a change. It also made me realise that whilst Gulp! and Isome are highly effective fish catchers, other choices of lure when fished with the right technique can also produce fish if you are willing to put in some effort and on that front perhaps I am a bit of a lazy bugger. Anyway, going forward I think Dan and I will be meeting up again as his genuine interest in learning about the different approaches that LRF encompasses has kind of rekindled my own desire to try different methods within that particular subset of lure fishing. Gulp! and Isome are very effective weapons to have in your fish catching armoury but hopefully when we head out again we can both ditch them most of time, do some fishing with proper lures and broaden our LRF horizons a little further in the process.

Tight lines, Scott.