SIBly the best?

On Tuesday last week, I headed west and met up with my mate and fellow species hunter Gordon for a day afloat in his SIB on the upper section of Loch Creran. He recently sent me a link to a diver’s photos of some interesting mini species that were taken in Loch Creran, so we thought we’d spend a day fishing tiny baits to see what might take them. 

Upper Loch Creran on a breezy, overcast day.

Our fishing platform for the day. You can also see the bladderwrack beds that make fishing from the shore with ultra light tackle very difficult. Getting your rig back through them is problematic.

Things were pretty slow to start with, mainly due to the fac that the SIB was drifting a little too fast along the northern shore of the loch, so we tied off on a large grey buoy at the eastern end of the loch to try there. We soon started getting some little taps, and I eventually caught one of the small culprits on a tiny piece of ragworm. It wasn't anything unusual sadly, but it was proof that our delicate rigs and tiny baits were working OK if nothing else.

The first fish of the day was a sand goby. 

After the sand goby was caught the bites dried up, so after a while we decided to untie the SIB from the buoy and to have a go drifting again, along the loch's southern shore this time. The water there was fairly deep relatively close to the shore and the drift was a little slower. By slowly letting out line as we drifted, we managed to leave our rigs in a stationary position and were soon catching lots of black goby.

We caught a few black goby.

After a couple of hours we'd caught a dozen black goby between us and nothing else. We were both feeling a little bit cold too by this point, so we decided to head back in and after packing up the SIB we headed off to get some hot food. Before heading home, we spend a couple of hours fishing at Kelly's Pier on Loch Etive. I was hoping to catch a painted goby for my 2023 species hunt and managed to do just that. I also caught a single black goby and a few rather rotund three spined stickleback.

A painted goby. My third goby species of the day.

A nice photo showing the black goby's elongated dorsal fin ray.

The sticklebacks were pretty chunky. What a bloater!

So, no unusual species were caught, but we did learn a little about fishing from the SIB in upper Loch Creran. If we do it again, we'll do so when the weather is nicer and there is little wind. We might also use an anchor to fish over the one area. The drifts along the southern shore did also give some ideas about potential shore fishing spots too. Perhaps fishing from the SIB isn't the best approach to take? All food for thought. So, a fairly productive day trip for formulating future trips there, and I also added a sand goby and painted goby to this year's species tally in the process!

Tight lines, Scott.

My nemesis.

After returning from The Azores, and with renewed enthusiasm towards attempting to reach the target of catching one hundred Scottish species following my Connemara clingfish capture just before I went, I headed to the west coast to try yet again to catch my first ever Scottish three bearded rockling. This species has been my Scottish species nemesis of sorts for quite some time. I've tried to catch one numerous times and failed on each and every occasion.

Here's one I caught earlier. South of the border, in Ilfracombe, Devon.

My mate Ryan joined me as he wanted to try and catch his first ever conger eel, a species often found in the same rough ground as my pink and brown arch enemy. Due to the distance involved, we decided to make a full day of it. We set off reasonably early, arriving at Kelly’s Pier on the shore of Loch Etive late in the morning. We had a few hours fishing there using ultra light tackle, and it was all quite fun. Using small hooks we both caught a few small fish around the base of the pier in the shape of painted gobies, two spotted gobies, long spined sea scorpions, three spined sticklebacks, some small sea trout. After a bit of patience, and scavenging some fresh bait, I also caught a fifteen spined stickleback.

One of several three spined sticklebacks that were caught. Tanago hooks once again proving to be a great weapon in my micro species hunting arsenal. 

A small straight lure twitched slowly and gently fooled this sea trout. There were a few around, probably predating the three spined sticklebacks.

I find fifteen spined sticklebacks are quite difficult to catch, even when sight fishing for them. This is only my second ever. They are quite fussy eaters, I think. This one wasn't interested in tiny pieces of raw prawn lowered in front of it. It took a tiny piece of a ragworm that I found under a rock near the pier.

In the evening, after stopping in Oban to check into the hostel we were staying in that night and grabbing some food, we headed south to our mark for the evening on the island of Seil. After making our way around a rocky outcrop to get to our spot, we got comfortable and set up our rods. Simple running ledger tactics were employed but as Ryan was after a conger eel, his terminal tackle and mackerel bait were considerably heavier and bigger than mine! We waited patiently for darkness to fall and for our rod tips to register some interest in our fish baits.

The sun set over Mull in spectacular fashion. Red sky at night, anglers delight?

Unfortunately, the fishing was very poor. Nothing was tempted by Ryan's mackerel flapper and all I caught was a single pollock and a small spurdog. In the early hours of the morning, after a couple of hours with no further bites, we admitted defeat and scrambled back around the bottom of the cliffs to the car park before making the drive back up to Oban to get some sleep.

The next day we headed north and fished at a couple of marks that are normally very productive, particularly for catching a variety of mini species, but quite incredibly neither of us caught anything. We didn't even get any bites! Feeling rather dejected and a little perplexed as to why the fishing had been so dreadful, we called it a day and drove home. Fishing can be tough sometimes, and yet again a three bearded rockling session had seen my rough ground nemesis evade capture once again. I’ll get one from a Scottish venue eventually!

Tight lines, Scott.

Colourful captures.

I drove through to the west coast last Wednesday for a day's fishing, targetting mainly colourful mini species. My workmate Callum joined me, and we headed to a spot in Oban that I know has produced Connemarra clingfish in the past. Truth be told it was one of these strange looking little fish that I was hoping to catch.

This small species "clings" to rocks using its fused pelvic fin that acts as a suction cup.

My approach was fairly simple, drop tiny chunks of raw prawn down into nooks and crannies where I thought a clingfish might hide. The mark in question usually produces lots of goldsinny wrasse, poor cod and leopard spotted goby as well as the odd rock cook wrasse. It was one of these small mouthed colourful fish that I happened to catch first.

I love catching rock cook wrasse. Just look at the beautiful violet markings on them.

Callum's experience of fishing in saltwater is relatively limited but it didn't take him long to start pulling out lots of little fish from the crystal clear, relatively shallow water we were fishing in. Between us we caught the main three residents but I also managed a small female cuckoo wrasse and a small ballan wrasse as well. The bulk of my fish were leopard spotted gobies though. They like hiding in cracks too.

We must have had about fifty of these! It's easily the best mark I know of to visit if you want to catch a leopard spotted goby.

Callum concentrates on his rod tip. He didn't have to concentrate too hard however as the bites were frequent. Most of the species he caught were his first too.

Before we knew it the time had come to return to the car as the parking ticket was about to expire. We had a couple of casts each on the way back, over some rocky ground, and Callum caught his first ever corkwing wrasse, completing a wrasse grand slam between the two of us in the process. Lochaline logging pier is the only other place I know where this feat is a reasonable possibility.

A male corkwing, yet another colourful fish.

After some lunch we headed up to Loch Etive to fish from Kelly's Pier. Here we hoped to catch a few grey gurnards on light tackle, fishing raw prawn on a one hook paternoster at range and we eventually did, yet another new species for Callum. We only managed three between us though, so I decided to switch to my micro fishing setup and tried to catch a few gobies from around the legs of the pier using tiny flecks of raw prawn on tanago hooks. After catching a three spined stickleback I fiddled around with my float rig until I got the depth correct and found a pocket of two spotted goby. After catching a few small ones myself I handed the rod over to Callum so that he could have a go. Before too long the tiny chianti float went under and he pulled out this monster.

Possibly the biggest two spotted goby I have ever seen!

After switching back to targetting grey gurnard for a while, but with no further interest in our baits, we decided to pack up and make the three-hour drive home. It had been a great day trip and whilst I didn't get my intended colourful little target we had caught plenty of other just as colourful fish. It was nice to see Callum enjoy trying some of my slightly unorthodox fishing styles and catch quite a few species for the first time in the process.

Tight lines, Scott.