Finding the right hole.

On Sunday, I visited a rocky shore mark in Gourock to spend a few hours targeting topknot. I was given detailed information by my friend and fellow species hunter Andrew on exactly where he caught one himself recently.

Here's one I didn't catch earlier. Such a cool little fish. I particularly love the banding that runs from their eyes. Makes them look like a little bandit!

Andrew, for the time being anyway, fishes mainly ultra light tackle and does so exclusively using lures. Although, he's told me in the future he wants to broaden his horizons into the smelly world of bait fishing, mainly so that he can catch a few different shark species. Years ago, I went through a similar phase, so I decided to spend the session fishing only with artificial baits. Knowing that topknot sit flush on rocky surfaces, I decided to use a 3g cheburashka weight to present these.

A Gulp! Hellgrammite rigged up, ready to get eaten...

...which it soon was by this tompot blenny.

This combination was getting hammered by what I suspect were goldsinny wrasse, but the hook I had on was a little too big for them to get into their mouths, so I decided to try a few unscented lures in an attempt to actually catch my target. Unsurprisingly, these got less attention, but eventually a long spined sea scorpion took a liking to a bright pink straight tail as I twitched it down inside a gap in the boulders.

Greedy little swine!

After a while, a seal arrived and hung around just out in front of me. Obviously expecting the opportunity to steal mackerel from a set of feathers, it sat up in the water staring at me for a short period. Eventually, it realised that my fishing activity didn't involve mackerel and swam off again.

Looking for an easy meal.

Getting back to my topknot hunting, I switched back to Gulp! again and after missing quite a lot of bites I caught a small corkwing wrasse that did a decent job of getting down into the rocks, but with a little gentle pressure and also by giving it some slack line I managed to coax it out.

Yummy! Hellgrammite.

The non-stop little taps kept coming though, tugging my hellgrammite around the bend of my hook, ruining the nice straight presentation, so eventually I gave in and rigged up a small hook on a stinger. Tying this onto my cheburashka weight and threading a Mini Isome up onto it so that the hook was placed near the bottom, soon had a few of the culprits caught.

Peck, peck, pecking away. Got you!

For the last couple of hours, I stuck with this presentation and caught dozens of goldsinny wrasse. If there was a topknot lurking down there, getting through the goldsinny wrasse was going to be a huge problem. I also caught a few long spined sea scorpion and another two tompot blenny as well though, so I guess it's a numbers game. A huge slice of good fortune will be required also, being lucky enough to drop your rig down into the right hole, at the right time, with a topknot in the rig's vicinity when it hits the bottom.

I'd forgotten how good Isome is for close quarter mini species fishing. I've got loads of it too, so will probably make an effort to use it more often going forward.

Another fun session had soon came to an end, even if a topknot had remained elusive. I enjoyed messing about with artificial for a change. Being honest, I'd almost always choose to fish with top quality bait as it will always give you the best chance to catch fish, but as a backup Gulp! and Isome are great to have available. The highlight of the day was catching a few tompot blenny, not a species I've caught that many of up here in Scotland, and now thanks to Andrew sharing his topknot holding spot with me, it seems that I have another place here to go catch them!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting fun on Kefalonia.

Well the weather of late has been pretty terrible with August being particularly dreadful and to be honest this along with working a lot of hours means my drive to go fishing locally pretty much deserted me over the summer. My motivation to write blog posts about what little fishing I have done also sadly seems to have waned somewhat but better late than never as they say so I'll be making a concerted effort to catch up over the next week or two.

Way back at the end of May I had a week long holiday on Kefalonia with my partner Lillian. Having visited both Crete and Zakinthos several times we thought it would be nice to try a new island for a change, after all Greece does have over two hundred of them! To be honest we weren't sure what to expect from Kefalonia but it did not disappoint and we had a great time. With mountains falling away straight into the sea it was lush and green with beautiful views around every corner and our hire car allowed us to experience many of them. We stayed in the lovely harbour town of Sami on the island's eastern side but every day we headed off in our hire car to explore rest of the island, returning in the evening to enjoy some great meals by Sami's large yacht filled marina in one of it's dozens of excellent restaurants. As we travelled around the island I was as usual permitted to fish for an hour or two in various spots we found that looked a little fishy and I did quite well, catching lots of different species.

The small village of Assos on the north west coast.

A stunning place to wet a line just a matter of getting down to the rocks at the waters edge.

Common combers were out in force especially around deeper areas with rocky seafloors.

As well as wetting a line at various places as we explored the island I also had a few sessions along the coastline of Sami, around its various harbours and at the back of its ferry port. These were also quite productive in terms of catching several different species.

There were quite a few East Atlantic peacock wrasse in the harbours, some like this one had vivid markings.

Normally a night time capture, Cardinalfish can be targeted during the day if you drop your rig down into dark gaps between boulders that often shore up a harbour's external sea walls.

Whilst out and about I found myself a new fishing partner.

Sight fishing a bit of freelined dried ragworm caught this nice parrotfish.

As you'd expect in the Mediterranean, I caught a few different types of bream too including this common two banded seabream.

There were plenty of damselfish down the harbour walls in Sami's main marina so a #18 hook was tied on, baited with a tiny piece of angleworm and another species was added to my tally.

One evening after another day exploring the island in the car we stopped before returning to Sami and had some delicious fresh fish in a small taverna called "The Fisherman's Hut" in the little village of Zola on the island's north west coast. It was another beautiful spot so after eating the last piece of rather tasty fried red mullet we went for a walk along a nearby beach. Being a romantic at heart my fishing tackle came along too and after only a couple of casts I caught my first new species of the trip. Being a venomous fish it was handled with extreme care and quickly photographed before being carefully released again.

Lesser and greater weever are usually amongst the fish I catch on holiday in the Mediterranean. This one however was my first ever spotted weever.

Midway through our holiday we decided to spend an afternoon climbing to the top of the island's highest mountain. Being a couple of lazy sods we took the easy option and drove most of the way up the mountain to a carpark not too far from the summit, passing several large herds of goats on the way. From there it was an very easy thirty minute hike to the top.

Driving on the island requires extra caution due to the amount of goats roaming around freely, often around blind corners!

Sami from the side of the mountain as we hiked up.

Sadly once at the top it was very cloudy so we didn't get to enjoy the awesome views of the whole island.

Towards the end of our holiday we spent a fair amount of time exploring the island's capital Argostoli. Whilst taking a stroll over De Bosset Bridge which crosses Koutavos Lagoon we were surprised to see quite a few sea turtles heading in and out of the inner part of the lagoon via the bridge's arches.

Always nice to see these beautiful creatures and it was a most unexpected bonus.

After lunch one afternoon we went for a drive along the coast just to the north of Argostoli past the main part of town and before too long we passed a nice little harbour that looked promising  so I fished there a couple of times. The variety of ground in and around it again meant it turned out to be very productive species wise. The water was crystal clear and after catching a few fish I decided to take my time to have a look for mini species on the bottom in shallow areas and amongst the boulders on the outside of the harbour walls. After catching some gobies I spotted a few very small but very colourful fish. I had an idea what they were and there were a few of them around but they were easily spooked. It took a fair bit of persistence with #18 hook that I ended up baiting with a tiny piece of mussel before I eventually caught my second new species of the trip and my first ever fish from the triplefin family.

This is a male red-black triplefin, cousin of the black faced blenny that is sometimes spotted in the UK on the south coast. Once caught they change colour and become mottled brown and red.

Here's what the males looked like when I was spotting them relaxing on the bottom with a jet black head and bright red body making them stand out like a sore thumb! Triplefins have three separate dorsal fins hence their name.

Like the black faced blenny, the male of which has a black head and bright yellow body, a female red-black triplefin is pretty dull being a fairly drab mottled brown colour. Not very colourful but certainly well camouflaged. There were probably just as many females around as males but I just couldn't see them!

Over two visits to the little harbour I caught lots of fish, had lots of fun using a variety of techniques and nudged my tally over the thirty mark which I was quite pleased about. Painted combers were a particularly exciting target as I was able to see them charging out from cover to attack my lures. There were plenty around and after I'd caught my fill Lillian had a go and caught a few of the them too.

Straight retrieving small soft plastics on jigheads fairly slowly over the boulders down the outside of the harbour wall produced lots of aggressive painted combers.

Inside the harbour a piece of angleworm fished on a drop shot rig caught this black scorpionfish.

Casting out as far as I could into the deeper water at the back of the harbour produced a few brown comber.

Fishing small pieces of angleworm on a split shot rig over shallow sandy areas produced some wide eyed flounder, striped sea bream and this Bucchich's goby.

A drop shot rig baited with angleworm slowly worked over a rocky area caught this nice rainbow wrasse...

...and the same rig over clean sand produced a funky colourful pearly razorfish. I love these!

The biggest surprise techniques wise was catching this tompot blenny on a metal jig, a first for me.

As always before we knew it the end of the holiday had arrived and all too soon. My species hunting had been pretty good too especially as I'd kept my sessions reasonably short. Here's what I caught during the holiday with new species in bold.

1. Annular Seabream
2. Atlantic Lizardfish
3. Axillary Seabream
4. Black Goby
5. Black Scorpionfish
6. Bogue
7. Brown Comber
8. Bucchich's Goby
9. Cardinalfish
10. Common Comber
11. Common Two Banded Seabream
12. Damselfish
13. East Atlantic Peacock Wrasse
14. Giant Goby
15. Gilthead Seabream
16. Goldblotch Grouper
17. Madeira Rockfish
18. Mediterranean Rainbow Wrasse
19. Ornate Wrasse
20. Painted Comber
21. Pandora
22. Parrotfish
23. Pearly Razorfish
24. Red-Black Triplefin
25. Rock Goby
26. Rusty Blenny
27. Spotted Weever
28. Striped Seabream
29. Thick Lipped Grey Mullet
30. Tompot Blenny
31. White Seabream
32. Wide Eyed Flounder

We'd enjoyed a fantastic stay on Kefalonia and I'd definitely like to go back there again. We love visiting the Greek islands and we also want to return to Crete again in the not too distant future. With so many other islands to try as well and the potential for a trip down there with some of my mates for a week long dedicated fishing holiday I can see myself having a few more vacations there over the coming years.

Tight lines, Scott.

The joy of catching little fish.

After work last Friday I popped over to Burntisland for a few hours fishing with a few of the Fish Club guys. It wasn't an official meet but with four of us there ironically it was the best turn out yet! Col and Brian had already caught a few wrasse by the time Dan and I arrived and it didn't take us too long to get a few bites too. The fish were being a bit finicky though and after struggling to connect with tentative taps on scented soft plastics we started fishing little pieces of ragworm and raw prawn which the fish took a little more aggressively leading to a few being caught. At one point Brian hooked a ballan wrasse that headed towards my line so I started reeling in. I didn't get my line out of the way quickly enough though which resulted in a tangle. I just gave Brian enough slack line so he could land the fish. Initially we thought that the fish had simply got my line wrapped around it but when unhooking it Brian told me it had my hook inside its mouth as well as his which had us both scratching our heads a bit. Quite a bizarre event really and we weren't sure what exactly had just occurred.

Brian's fish or 50/50? I let Brian claim it.

I then decided to try and catch a Yarrell's blenny inside the harbour. Fishing away I caught a coalfish, a goldsinny wrasse and a corkwing wrasse whilst trying. The corkwing was a nicely coloured male.

Col's favourite wrasse is the corkwing and they are very pretty fish but I think he might change his mind when he catches his first rockcook.

As the evening progressed some nice fish were being caught by the boys over the back of the harbour and Dan also caught his first goldsinny wrasse. I kept trying inside the harbour and I eventually got a nice surprise when I caught my second butterfish of the year. Its markings were much more vivid than the one I winkled out of a rockpool back in April.

Not sure how this pretty little fish got my #10 hook in its mouth but it did!

Things started to slow down a bit and after a while Col and Brian decided to head off but Dan and I fished on for about an hour or so. I returned to the harbour wall to fish down the outside and tried some mussel ledgered on a #6 hook. This produced a few bites which eventually resulted in a small cod being caught. Dan meanwhile fished a vibe metal to try and tempt a mackerel and soon had one on briefly before it managed to shake his hook. We headed off shortly afterwards bringing an end to a nice evening session. It was good to catch up with Dan and Brian whom I've not fished with for some time. It was also good to fish with Col without doing any dodgy climbing other than up onto the harbour wall. 

On Tuesday afternoon I returned on my own for another go for a Yarrell's blenny. Fishing little pieces of raw prawn and mussel on #14 hooks things were pretty slow until I caught a common blenny and a coalfish. These were followed by my second butterfish from Burntisland from pretty much the same spot as the first four days previously.

It would seem that Burntisland Harbour is a good spot to target butterfish. I really like them and they always remind me of turning over rocks as a child, finding them but struggling to pick them up. Big hands help with handling them now. 

I carried on fishing but bites were pretty few and far between and not very strong. When I got a better one however the fish got hooked and it turned out to be my target species. A Yarrell's blenny was quickly swung up the harbour wall into my waiting hand before being quickly unhooked, photographed and then popped into my little observation tank for a few more snaps. I was over the moon and grinning like a Cheshire cat I admired the fish through the thin plastic of my water filled empty chocolate box.

Only my second ever Yarrell's blenny. I was rather excited to catch one again. They are a pretty strange looking species.

Submerged in my mini aquarium the full funkiness of my little brown and pink fish's hair becomes apparent. Ferrero Rocher I am in your debt once again!

Still on a bit of a high I popped the cool looking blenny back and in a daze like state started fishing down the outside of the harbour wall for a while but as it was overcast and the sea was a little lumpy I only managed two fish, a ballan wrasse and a long spined sea scorpion.

In my excitement I'd lost focus. Ballan wrasse are great but I've caught them already this year.

I've caught plenty of these cheeky little chaps too.

Calming down a little I realised that if I'm going to stand a chance of catching fifty species from Scottish saltwater this year then I need to try and catch species I've not had already where possible. I should really have been trying to catch a sand goby, a species I've caught before in Burntisland Harbour, to take this year's tally up to thirty so I quickly changed to a suitable rig and started doing so. I spent the next little while casting out into the harbour and slowly working tiny baits on #18 hooks along the sandy bottom but it soon became clear that getting through the shoals of juvenile coalfish would prove very difficult so I gave up and headed home still on a bit of high from catching the Yarrell's blenny. Focusing on my little challenge aside, sometimes catching small fish can make me very happy. I know that sometimes other anglers find this an odd concept but I enjoy it and true angling success should be measured in pleasure experienced, not in pounds and ounces. 

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.

Each to their own.

Looking at my list of possible remaining saltwater target species last Monday night I decided to head west again last Tuesday. With last Wednesday off work as well however I opted to have an evening session at Greenock, fishing the Victoria Marina, followed by an overnight stay in Glasgow before heading up to Loch Fyne early on Wednesday morning. I knew my mate Dimitrios who lives in Glasgow was free on the Wednesday and is still without a car so I sent him a message to see if he wanted to ride shotgun which he did. My plans complete I put them into motion early in Tuesday afternoon. Really I choose Victoria Marina with shore rocking and common eels in mind as I have read reports online of them both being caught there recently. Common dragonets are also known to turn up there too from time to time. Given these facts I felt there was a good chance of adding a species to this year's tally.  There were a few other angler fishing when I arrived but one leaving as I got organised to start my own session told me that not many fish were being caught but looking along the marina I could see most anglers were fishing heavier gear and no doubt large baits for larger fish. Fishing a scaled down three hook flapper and various small baits on #10 hooks I quickly caught a couple of small cod at fairly close range and when I cast out a bit further I caught a few tiny haddock.

A pleasant little surprise and my first of the year. Even juveniles bear the "devil's thumbprint".

As the session carried on I caught a few more fish and when the tide turned and began to flood, submerging the weed covered rocks at the bottom of the marina wall, I caught a few goldsinny wrasse.

There are a few of these little chaps who feed in the weedy rocks at close range.

I fished away quite happily catching mainly juvenile haddock, dab and cod. As the evening progressed the other anglers, who still didn't seem to be catching much, slowly started to pack up and head off and before too long I had the place all to myself. 

A nice little early evening codling.

It was quite a nice night and as the sun set I changed end gear and was hopefully that maybe a shore rockling or common eel would become active and take my ledgered fish bait and my #6 hook with it.

Red sky at night. Lines will be tight?

As darkness fell however all activity ceased apart from the resident shore crabs which had my rod tip rhythmically nodding ever so slightly, a few of them holding on for dear life, munching away, as I reeled in to rebait periodically. At about 01:00 I called it a night and drove east to Glasgow where I stayed the night in a budget hostel. 

In the morning it was a lovely day. I picked up Dimitrios and after making the nice drive through some lovely scenery we were soon on the bladderwrack covered shore of Loch Fyne. I was hoping for a common dragonet again and fished small chunks of raw prawn on a three hook flapper using very light tackle. Dimitrios fished small metals and before I had finished setting up my gear he had caught a launce and a tiny whiting. The area I planned to fish was fairly weedy and quite shallow until it reached a drop off though so he soon headed south to fish some deeper water. 

Dimitrios heads off to do his own thing.

I was soon fishing and catching the usual suspects. A black goby was first to be caught and was followed by a few tiny cod, a mackerel and a string of dabs. 

Even at range holding my rod meant I could feel the fish attacking my little baits. 

I've been catching a lot of dab recently. 

I have a strange fixation with the big eyes of the dab. They are just plain weird and freak me out a bit if I'm honest.

Rather than swimming off this one just went straight to the bottom and with a quick shake buried itself. I held my cheap sunglasses close in front of my phone to take this photo without the surface glare. Who needs an expensive camera and a polarising lens filter? 

After a while Dimitrios came back along to get his ultra light rod. He had with him a few mackerel which he'd had fun catching but he wanted to up the ante and catch a few more on even lighter gear. After a while doing just that he returned again and decided to have a bit of a nap in the sun. I carried on fishing away and as the tide dropped away revealing more of the shoreline I was able to get my three hook flapper out further and further. After catching a few more black gobies I was getting a few bites that I couldn't connect with so I switched from #10 to #14 hooks. I was hoping the culprits were common dragonets but after missing a few more of the tiny little knocks I was beginning to wonder if it was crabs when I eventually hooked something and landing it added another species to this year's tally. 

Feeling the bite of this tiny sand goby at a fair distance in deep water is testament to the incredible sensitivity of the tackle I was using. Still very lucky to hook it on a #14 hook though.

Quite pleased I carried on fishing hopeful that the receding tide would allow me to reach an area that held my target. Dimitrios feeling refreshed from his afternoon snooze headed back along to enjoy some more sport with the mackerel. Most of them had moved off but he did have some fun when he hooked a sea trout. As they often do however it eventually managed to throw his hook. I didn't manage to locate any common dragonets in the end but I caught a few more dabs, cod, mackerel, a solitary juvenile haddock and a couple of short spined sea scorpions before it was time to pack up and head home. 

These are much more prevalent in sea lochs than their long spined cousins.

It had been an enjoyable little two day trip and with the addition of another two species taking my 2015 saltwater tally to thirty four it had been worth putting a few more miles on the car's clock again too. It was good to meet up with Dimitrios again even if we both spent most of the day doing our own thing. Nothing wrong with anglers enjoying different styles of fishing but as Dimitrios fishes exclusively with lures I think next time we meet up I'll join him fishing with them too, if not for the entire session then for the majority of it at least. Personally I think Dimitrios is one of the most talented light game anglers in the country and I think I could learn a lot from him, particularly when it comes to fishing metals. We're thinking about a trip to fish Loch Linnhe with ling and cuckoo wrasse being the main target species. I think between now and the end of the year I'll be spending a lot of my time fishing over on the western half of the country so no doubt Loch Linnhe won't be the only venue that Dimitrios and I visit.

Tight lines, Scott.