It's grim up north.

The fishing is usually pretty tough locally at this time of year and the weather so far in 2026 has been nothing short of dreadful, especially the wind. As a result, I've not been out that much. Before my mate Ben came up to Scotland at the end of last month, I had a second session at Newhaven Harbour. One of his target species whilst up here was a viviparous blenny and after catching a small cod, I caught a small one, but the session was very slow apart from those two fish and a few tiny whiting.

This juvenile cod hovered up a tiny piece of ragworm. 

My second viviparous blenny of the year.

When Ben did come up, he visited Hartlepool on his way from Wales and caught his first ever viviparous blenny there, so there was no need for him to visit Edinburgh. Instead, he drove up to the Scottish Highlands and spent a week fishing there in some pretty terrible, wet and windy conditions. Keen to try and meet up towards the end of his trip, we discussed a session in Dundee to target smelt on the Tay Estuary, but the conditions were poor, so sadly we didn't end up fishing together. In the end, Ben's first ever viviparous blenny, his 80th saltwater species in a calander year, was enough to see him crowned champion of the Angling Trust's year long species hunt again, so his trip north and a week of tough fishing had been worth the effort!

On Wednesday, I headed down to Torness Power Station, where I spent a couple of hours fishing with two of my mates, Nick and Ryan. A neap tide and coloured water made for a very slow session, but the sun was out, and with little wind for a change it was a nice day, quite a contrast from the severe gales, rain and snow that Storm Dave brought over the weekend! Nothing was biting as we chatted away, but eventually something ate my piece of ragworm and I wound in a small dab which ended up being the only fish from our time at the lifeboat station platform.    

The only fish we caught for the first couple of hours!

None of us were that surprised to be honest, but hoping to catch a few more fish, the three of us headed around to the hot water outflow area. Things weren't much better there sadly. Nick and I managed to catch a couple of blenny from the water between the sea defence boulders, whilst Ryan fished a soft plastic mounted on a jighead for a while hoping a bass would grab it, but he didn't get any takers. We discussed staying for a bit longer so that we could fish bread for mullet once the tide came in, but decided against it.

My second fish of the day!

So, despite the arrival of spring, the fishing locally remains pretty tough and the constantly changing weather certainly isn't helping either. Thankfully, I've got a week on Gran Canaria coming up soon, and I’m really looking forward to that! Hopefully when I return, the fishing here will be better and the weather will have improved a bit too! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Pre-trip reconnaissance.

I popped out with my mate Ryan on Sunday evening, for a couple of hours’ fishing at Newhaven Harbour. Ryan had never caught a viviparous blenny before, so that was our main target for the session. I also had another motive for trying to catch my second viviparous blenny of the week. My species hunting mate Ben is heading up to Scotland soon, and a viviparous blenny is high on his list of targets, so I promised him I would get out to see if any were around! 

Ryan brought a box of ragworm with him, but fishing small pieces of it straight down the side of the harbour wall didn’t produce any bites to begin with. Moving our rigs around, I eventually caught the first fish of the session, but it wasn’t the species we were hoping to catch.

A greedy long spined sea scorpion was the first fish to munch a bit of ragworm. 

Things continued to be very tough, with nothing else biting, and as the sun set it got pretty chilly. Ryan eventually got off the mark with a small codling, and once it was dark I caught a pin whiting. Almost all of the viviparous blenny that get caught there, seem to reside within a fairly concentrated area, and Ryan’s rig was right in the middle of it. Not long before we were about to pack up, he hooked a small fish and wound it in to find it was the species we were after. 

Ryan’s first ever viviparous blenny was small but very lively, making getting a photo of it challenging! Mission accomplished for Ryan and confirmation for Ben that viviparous blenny were around for his upcoming trip.  

We carried on fishing for a little while longer, but when I caught a few more pin whiting in quick succession, we decided to call it a night. Once they start feeding, often hitting the bait as soon as it touches the bottom, not much else is getting a chance! I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting up with Ben locally to target viviparous blenny when he comes up from Wales. I think he’ll be spending the bulk of his time in the highlands and perhaps I’ll be able to do some fishing with him up there too. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Something to look forward to.

I had a short session on Sunday evening with my mate Ryan, scratching about at Newhaven Harbour. Rockling were the target species again, but for the majority of the night the resident whiting had other ideas. They were straight onto our black lug baits as soon as they hit the bottom, sometimes before they got there!

We caught plenty of small whiting, but it wasn't exactly exciting.

There was very little wind, but it was quite cold, and it rained lightly constantly, making things a little unpleasant. Casting our rigs in towards slightly rougher ground, I caught something that I knew wasn't a whiting as I wound it in. It turned out to be a beaten up long spined sea scorpion that was a little bit tatty around the edges and had a damaged tail.

A bit of an old warrior. Life is tough sometimes.

Over low tide, things went very quiet, and we didn't get many bites until it began to flood. Not long before we called it a night, Ryan struck into a decent bite and pulled in a rockling. Having caught a shore rockling during our last after dark session down in the Scottish Borders, he was hoping it was a five bearded rockling, but was disappointed when he lifted it up over the railings and realised it was a shore rockling.

Ryan's shore rockling was a nice deep reddish brown colour.

After catching a few more whiting, it was getting quite late, so we decided to call it a night after having a few "last casts". Rockling are probably my favourite target species in winter, but I've got to be honest, I'm not really a massive fan of venturing out at this time of year. Most of the time the conditions are, at best, pretty miserable, and at worst, downright rotten. Strong easterly winds the remainder of this week, mean I probably won't get out targeting rockling. Perfect winter cod conditions, but fishing for them just isn’t my thing! Luckily, I'll be getting a break from the cold Scottish winter next month when Ryan and I head down to Tenerife with our mate Nick. Should hopefully be a bit warmer down there, and whiting definitely won't be a problem! Not sure that I'll catch any rockling either mind you,although there is a spotted rockling found there so you never know!

Tight lines, Scott.

Stuck in a rut.

Since returning from the Isle of Lewis at the end of May, I haven't been feeling very good. In fact, my symptoms have probably gotten worse: Constantly feeling fatigued, and having aching arms and legs isn’t much fun. As a result, I’ve been out fishing less than I normally would over the start of the summer months, usually choosing to stay fairly local when I have ventured out. A trip down to Torness Power Station midway through June didn’t produce that many fish, but a few leopard spotted goby and a butterfish were in amongst those I managed to catch, bringing a smile to my face. 

If pushed, I’d probably say that the leopard spotted goby is the coolest of all the UK goby species.

Butterfish are cool, and it's always fun to catch them!

Before heading back up the road, I quickly visited the sea defence boulders around at the station’s hot water outlet. My objective there, was to catch my first common blenny of the year. It didn't take long at all!

This shanny eagerly munched a small piece of prawn. 

Later in June, I also met up with a young American species hunter named Dominik, who was in Edinburgh for a few days before he and his family headed north on a Scottish road trip. We spent a few hours fishing beneath the lighthouse at Newhaven Harbour. It was a very productive session, during which, Dominik added a few new species to his lifelist, including butterfish, which we caught lots of. In amongst the more common species found there, all of which were new to Dominik, we also caught about a dozen grey gurnard, and towards the end of the session, I caught my first viviparous blenny of the year.

Dominik’s first ever butterfish. One of seven we caught between the two of us!

We also caught lots of juvenile grey gurnard.

My first viviparous blenny of the year. Another mini species I really enjoy catching!

So, I only went fishing a couple of times in June, but on both occasions, whilst the sessions may have been fairly short, they were very enjoyable! I might not have been feeling great, but getting out had cheered me a bit. I really enjoyed meeting up with Dominik and helping another species hunter successfully catch a few new species is always very satisfying.

Tight lines, Scott.

Scratching around.

I’ve had a few short sessions over the last week, trying to catch larger sandeel species and my first topknot. The inlet area of Torness Power Station was the first venue and after collecting some bait in the shape of a handful of dog whelks, I tied on a small metal to try and tempt any large sandeel species that might have been present. A few years ago, I caught a sandeel there that I suspect may have been a Corbin’s sandeel. I took photos of it at the time, but really I should have kept it, so I could have carried out a thorough inspection to confirm its identity as either a Corbin’s sandeel or a greater sandeel. 

Matching the hatch in fly fishing terms. Large sandeel species eat small sandeel species. 

After an hour or so, I hadn't caught any sandeel, instead catching quite a few reasonably sized coalfish that were good fun on my ultra light setup. 

These plump coalfish put up a spirited fight. 

After a while the incoming tide forced me from the concrete platform where I was fishing, so I scrambled back up the sea defence boulders where I spent some time dropping pink isome down into the gaps between them. I was hoping to catch a topknot, but after trying several deep holes, all I’d caught were a couple of long spined sea scorpion. I then switched my attention to fishing over a rocky area at the edge of a large kelp bed. Baiting up small hooks with the flesh from the dog whelks was quite productive, with several mini species falling for their strong scent. 

This leopard spotted goby was first to munch a chunk of shellfish. Looks like popcorn but tastes a bit fishy. 

This blenny also took a liking to the small bait. 

As did this long spined sea scorpion. 

A few days later, I decided to visit the end of Granton Breakwater at low tide, to fish in the rocky bottom between the end of the breakwater and the rotten remains of the old wooden pier that used to be there. Fishing small pieces of ragworm I was expecting to maybe catch a few wrasse, but instead all I caught were some tiny poor cod, and I had to go down to tiny hooks to discover what was tapping away. 

There were lots of these, my first poor cod of the year, but sadly nothing else. 

The following day I headed to Newhaven Harbour to use up a small amount of maggots that I had left in my fridge that had started to turn. The juvenile whiting were loving them, hitting them as soon as my rig settled at the bottom of the wall I was fishing down.

Maggot proving once again to be a very effective bait for saltwater targets.

After a while, a piper turned up and began playing his pipes for the passengers arriving from a cruise ship that was moored out in the Forth. It was quite cool catching a few fish as he played his instrument behind me!

What's more Scottish than a red-headed, red-faced young man playing the bagpipes!

The juvenile whiting were numerous and equally ravenous, but eventually a viviparous blenny managed to get my wriggling little baits in its mouth first and was quickly hoisted up.

I've caught a few of these lately, but on maggot was a first for me.

All good fun, and my expectation of catching anything new during these types of sessions is minimal, but you never know. I just got back from a two-day trip down to Dumfries & Galloway with my mate Ryan, and on Saturday I'm heading back down there again with my mate Nick. Ryan and I had a good time, although the fishing was challenging at times. We caught a few fish, but we didn't get the one species that we went for. I have no expectation of encountering anything unusual on Saturday evening, having already ticked off a Dover sole, but I'm looking forward to hopefully another action packed session. I might spend some time trying to catch a starry smoothound during the session, fingers crossed one can get to a peeler crab bait before the hordes of thornback ray do.

Tight lines, Scott.

In the zone.

I popped down to Newhaven Harbour again this afternoon. I’m quite enjoying fishing there at the moment, three visits in four days is testament to that! Whilst the quantity of fish caught isn’t anything spectacular, it’s been pretty reliable in terms of the species present. The weather wasn’t great today, and it did rain again, but it was fairly light and only lasted about half an hour. 

Dull, with rain on the horizon. 

Employing the same simple tactics as my first two sessions, dropping small pieces of ragworm straight down the side of the wall, I winkled out two of the less frequently caught mini species I’ve been repeatedly catching there already.

My fourth viviparous blenny in as many days,..

…and my seventh butterfish in the last six days!

All three visits have produced both butterfish and viviparous blenny. Clearly, there are small, healthy populations of both of these interesting mini species present. It may sound like catching them is easy, but they’re actually fairly localised within a short section of the wall. Fishing outside this relatively small area or not close enough to the vertical surface, and you wouldn’t know either species were there because it’s highly unlikely you would catch either of them. As a species hunter, I find it very satisfying figuring these things out and then being able to target and catch specific species consistently.

Tight lines, Scott.

...but didn't stay long.

Well, rather predictably, the nice weather we had on Friday didn’t last long. There was no sign of the sun at all yesterday, it was grey and rained several times throughout the day. At least it wasn’t windy, that’s something I suppose. Despite these slightly miserable conditions, in the evening I met up with a couple of mates at Newhaven Harbour to target mini species. 

An overcast and soon to be wet Newhaven Harbour. 

Scratching around with little pieces of ragworm on small hooks, things were quite slow, but eventually a few fish were caught, including my fifth butterfish of the week! After a while I caught my second viviparous blenny in as many days as well.

Butterfish are very slippery customers. 

Also known as eelpout, viviparous blenny are tricky to handle too. Wriggling and writhing around when you try to hold them, making unhooking them tricky at times. A wet towel comes in handy. 

About an hour after meeting up it started to rain again. Lovely. After catching a lot of micro whiting and a small long spined sea scorpion, I then caught the only two wrasse of the session. Normally by this time of year there are quite a few wrasse around but they still seem to be a lot thinner on the ground than they usually are. 

First up was this goldsinny wrasse.

Followed shortly afterwards by this small ballan wrasse. 

After about three hours, it was still raining, we were all pretty wet, and the bites had pretty much dried up, so we decided to end the session. The arrival of some feather throwing mackerel bashers making this decision a little easier!

Tight lines, Scott.

Summer has arrived…

Getting up this morning and looking out of the window I was puzzled by the weather. There was very little wind and the sun was out. Excited by this rare occurrence I decided to visit a couple of local spots today armed with a few ragworm. First up was Newhaven Harbour.

Blue skies? Calm conditions? Oh my god!

Not sure how long the freak weather would last, I decided just to fish the last two hours of the ebbing tide at the mouth of the harbour, dropping small pieces of ragworm tight down the sides of the walls. Things were pretty slow, but eventually a few fish started having a go at my bait and I caught some cool mini species. 

Ragworm. Yummy!

My first viviparous blenny of the year. 

My fourth butterfish this week! This one did a spot of breakdancing as I tried to get a hold of it to remove the hook. 

Eventually it tired itself out!

As low water arrived, the bites dried up so I decided to head to the exposed boulders opposite the entrance to Leith Docks. Not much to report from there apart from a few tiny whiting. I tied on a 7g metal jig and had a few casts with that to see if there were any mackerel around, but if they were around they weren’t impressed by my efforts! 

Probably the smallest whiting I’ve ever caught!

Before leaving, I dropped my ragworm section down into some holes in the boulders I was standing on. This surprisingly didn’t produce any fish. Something did grab my bait though, and it felt quite strong, violently pulling my rod tip down a few times. Initially I thought it was a small cod or a wrasse thumping away, but it turned out to be a tiny lobster, using its tail to try and make its escape. 

Lobster are such strange creatures. Their bulky, powerful claws look ridiculous when compared to their thin, spindly legs. 

Their colours are amazing too. 

I persisted for a while, but with no fish biting I called it a day and headed home. A short, fun session and for some reason my head has gone a little bit red. I’ll be heading out again to Newhaven Harbour tomorrow evening to fish the last few hours of the flooding tide. I wonder if it’ll still be summer? Who knows, I might have to put some factor on!

Tight lines, Scott.

Exceeding expectations.

My workmate Gordon caught some viviparous blenny over on Granton breakwater recently, so the two of us headed out last Wednesday to see if we could catch some more. The exact spot we wanted to fish was busy, and the water in that area was slightly coloured up anyway, so we decided to head along to Newhaven Harbour instead where we felt it might be more sheltered from the easterly wind. I’ve not fished there for years and my expectations were pretty low as previous sessions there had been poor, but we were pleasantly surprised by the fishing. Dropping small pieces of ragworm down the side underneath the lighthouse produced lots of bites and several small fish to begin with. 

A common blenny was the first species to be caught. 

Followed by lots of long spined sea scorpion. 

After a while we both lost bigger fish and made some changes to our rigs. I increased the strength of my rig body and hooklength and also switched from fine wire pin hooks to a small chinu, a much stronger pattern. This saw us landing a number of ballan wrasse and cod. 

A nice ballan wrasse. It was great sport on my trusty Rock Rover. 

A small cod. No need to put the chips on. 

Switching back to lighter rigs produced more long spined sea scorpions and then Gordon caught a viviparous blenny. A good sign and I was confident I'd get one too if we fished for long enough. Next up though I caught a short spined sea scopion, a species I have caught at Newhaven Harbour before.

An unexpected bonus species added to this year's tally.

Shortly afterwards I did hook a viviparous blenny, but it fell of as I lifted it up the harbour wall. Disappointed, I carried on fishing and a few long spined sea scorpions later I caught a second viviparous blenny that stayed on the hook.

Viviparous blenny ticked off for another year!

We called it a day at about 21:00 having enjoyed a very productive session. In fact, we had enjoyed it so much that we returned the following evening after work again for a few hours. Gordon and I were joined by fellow workmate Ryan, who was keen to get in on the action. Unfortunately the water was a little more coloured up than the night before and the fishing wasn't as good. Ryan caught his first viviparous blenny and butterfish though, so he was glad he’d come with us. I caught a butterfish as well which I was over the moon about. I love catching them as I remember finding them under rocks on the foreshore as a child.

Butterfish always evoke happy memories of my rockpooling adventures as a young boy.

So, I've had to re-evaluate Newhaven Harbour as a species hunting venue. I'm pretty sure that Yarrell's blenny might be a potential target there too, most venues that produce butterfish usual hold them as well I’ve noticed over the years, so I'll definitely be going back to try and catch one of those! Although I’m away at the moment fishing marks soon that also throw up Yarrell’s blenny so I may get one sooner than that. 

Tight lines, Scott.