Finger freezing finesse fishing fun.

I popped down to St Abbs Harbour earlier this week to target two species, coalfish and flounder. The sun was making a valiant effort to poke through the clouds, but an icy easterly wind made the session a pretty cold one. The tide was out when I arrived, so I fished into the channel at the mouth of the harbour to begin with.

The inner harbour was almost empty.

I had my trusted HTO Rock Rover in the car but decided to go with a bit of finesse, opting to hopefully give a setup I bought for targeting horse mackerel a bit of action. I'm not really a tackle tart but my Major Craft Crostage Light Game 6ft9 0.6-10g Aji rod paired with my Daiwa Legalis LT 2000 loaded up with 2lb fluorocarbon is a very nice combo for fishing on the drop with tiny metals and jighead mounted soft plastics.  I decided to fish the latter and looking through my small box an old favourite that I've not used for a while caught my eye, Marykyu Power Isome in pink. Rigging it up on an 0.9g Ecogear Shirasu Fine jighead, I flicked it out and let it sink slowly towards the bottom. It didn't get all the way down when suddenly my line tightened up. A fish had fallen for my blueberry flavoured trap. It put a good bend in my ultra light rod, was taking some line and was obviously a reasonable size, so I didn't bully the fish too much for fear of being broken off. When a coalfish eventually came to the surface, I had to hand line it up the harbour wall as I didn't have a net with me. I'll never learn!

Great fun on my ultralight setup.

I carried on fishing patiently, repeatedly letting my piece of isome fall down then twitching it back up through the water column. After a while I caught a second coalfish about the same size, so there were obviously a few of them around. My hands had gone pretty numb by that point though, so I decided to go target flounder in a more sheltered area. The water was pretty clear and after a while I hadn't seen any flounders following my isome as I slowly worked it across the bottom. My hands didn't seem to want to thaw out, so I called it a day and headed home, happy to have edged another species closer to my 2023 target of two hundred!

Tight lines, Scott.

Cliffhanger.

I met up with my mate Col on Tuesday for a day's light game fun in the crystal clear waters of St Abbs Head. It was Col's first time up there and we started out on the large rock beneath the lighthouse. Col was keen to catch his first ballan wrasse of the year so fished a large Gulp Sandworm wacky rigged on a drop shot rig at close range. I started off fishing metals and had three coalfish on my first three casts. They seemed to wise up after that and after catching a few more I switched to a Z-Man paddle tail rigged weedless on a cheburashka lead. I worked this close to the bottom but reeling it up past the kelp on the rocks below me at the end of my retrieves was what resulted in yet more coalfish.

I've been using these lures a fair bit recently. The are very durable but nice and soft with a great action even when worked slowly.

Col then caught a coalfish too before we decided to move around the rock to try another spot. I switched to a small junebug stickbait on my weedless cheburashka rig and started dead sticking it on the bottom to try and tempt any wrasse that might be down there. After a while I had a solid take but I could tell it wasn't a wrasse and after a couple of dives a nice pollock was on the surface and quickly netted by Col.

Stickbaits are a classic wrasse lure. Less is more too I find. Just give them the odd little twitch. This pollock found it irresistible and hoovered it up.

A nice fish on light game tackle. Fishing vertically into deep water always gives you an advantage in the fight though.

Shortly afterwards both Col and I had a few very distinctive bites that we were both sure were from ballans. The type of bite that to me suggests a wrasse isn't feeding but is instead pecking at what it sees as an intruder into its territory that it wants gone.

Col gets comfortable and patiently feels for more short sharp taps.

Col's persistence eventually paid off when a few bites in rapid succession resulted in a hooked fish. I grabbed the net and his first ballan wrasse of the year was soon being unhooked.

This little burgundy ballan had a mouth crambed full of crushed up food so was obviously in feeding mode. Not sure how it managed to fit Col's Gulp in there as well, the greedy swine.

I then switched to a drop shot rig to try and get myself one too but stuck with my stickbait on a weedless hook. Neither of us had any further luck though and after a quiet spell we decided to head to the other end of the cliffs to try another mark. On the way back up to the top of the cliff however we spotted an area down to our right that looked like a great wrasse holding spot.

Submerged boulders and weed. Must be full of wrasse surely?

Getting down looked a bit tricky but Col was confident we could do it so we gave it a bash.

Col leads the way. Why follow a path when you can blaze a trail?

Getting to the rocks below was quite difficult but we slowly made our way down, wedging ourselves into a crack and easing down it and then carefully making our way down a steep slopping rocky section. Sadly however our efforts weren't rewarded and after losing some end tackle to snags we decided to climb back up which turned out to be even more tricky than the climb down. Loose soil and crumbling rocks that had slowed our descent seemed to be a lot worse and Col slipped at one point. Luckily he managed the stop his fall before he reached me and I dodged the falling rocks that had given way causing him to slip. The final few meters slowly working our way back up the crevice was simply hellish. Back up on the well worn path we caught our breath and reflected on our decision to go down. A lesson learned and I don't think we'll be going down there again at least not using that particular route.

Safely back in the car we drove along to St Abbs but the rock mark that I wanted to go to can only be accessed over low water so we spent an hour or so sight fishing for flounders in the crystal clear waters of St Abbs Harbour. It didn't take us long to catch a few.

Flounders love a tasty worm. Or a lure that looks like one. Col caught this one using a Crazy Fish Cruel Leech. If I didn't have way too many lures already I might have bought myself some.

Another flounder comes to the surface. Mouths of harbours are bottlenecks that flounders must swim through when they move from one part of the harbour to another. This makes them a great place to try and tempt passing fish.

This chunky chap had a big set of juicy lips.

It also had a few "birth marks" too. These spots are caused when pigments that are meant to be on their "backs" form on their "stomachs". I have in the past caught a flounder that was entirely brown due to this.

Before long the tide had dropped enough for us to visit the second rock mark. Making our way along to the start of the clifftop path we then took the slowly slopping path down to the shingle beach of Starney Bay before making the easy scramble over the rocks to the point on the bay's eastern side.

The path down was still easily negotiable despite a recent large landslip. No where near as risky as our earlier escapades so two adrenaline junkies like us took it in our stride.

Once out on the rocks we both fished Gulp on a drop shot rig to try and tempt any wrasse that might have been around. We didn't have any joy but eventually Col was rewarded with another species.

The sea floor where we were fishing has large sandy areas that sometimes produce the odd flounder as Col discovered.

Towards the end of the session we both switched to other methods. Col went with a small pink curly tail grub on a jighead and I jigged a light game metal fitted with an assist hook close to the bottom. Casting around I caught a few coalfish before Col hooked a nice fish at range. It turned out to be a cod but unfortunately while we were getting ready to land it the fish thrashed on the surface and threw the hook before slowly swimming back down through the kelp to freedom. After that I had a few more small coalfish and then a couple of nice pollock smashed my metal on the drop as it was just about to hit the bottom. Both fish gave a great account of themselves but the fight the second one in particular put up was awesome. Because the water was not as deep here the fish made a few charges to the left and right instead of the usual dives down. Col and I both watched the fish making these surges at an incredible speed. The final run to my right almost saw the fish go round the rocks into a gully where I don't doubt my braid would have stood no chance against the barnacles but luckily for me the fish ran out of steam, I turned it and once I got its head up out of the water it was beaten.

A truely awesome adversary. Having a bent rod and a screaming drag is one thing but seeing the fish charging around underwater made the battle even more epic.

I'm really enjoying fishing light game metals at the moment I must say.

I was buzzing after that fight but we left soon after as Col had a train to catch. It had been a great day out with some nice fish being caught and Col and I had learnt a valuable lesson about foolishly taking our lives into our own hands for the sake of a few fish. I'd also kind of forgotten how strong pollock can be too and my third one has renewed my respect for them and their pure raw power. They are an underrated species in my mind as are ballan wrasse. Both offer fantastic sport on the right tackle and I'm looking forward to catching them over the next few months. Before that though I have sharks in my sights and I'm off to Dumfries tomorrow for a session out in local skipper Spike's boat with my mate Martin to hopefully catch a few of them. I also have Monday and Tuesday off as well so if the weather is reasonable I might stay down there to target some other species from the shore as well.

Tight lines, Scott.

Getting jiggy with it.

As is often the case the weather forecast for the weekend changed completely by the time it arrived. This presented a sun filled and dry window of opportunity on Sunday to head down to the borders and visit St Abbs Head for a few hours. My mate Nick was free and keen to join me so I picked him up in Dunbar just after 9:00 and off we went. I had four different marks in mind, numbered them all and asked Nick to pick a number from one to four. His selection corresponded to a mark I call "the rock". It is down beneath the lighthouse and is, as the name suggests, a large rock separated from the rest of the cliff by a narrow, water filled gully which you have to step over to get onto it.

St Abbs lighthouse and fog horn.

"The Rock".

My plan for the day was to mess about with some metal jigs rigged with the assists hooks I have been beavering away on my fly tying vice making. I had two setups with me, one light and one  ultra light but having caught some decent pollock in the area before I started fishing with the light setup. I forgot to pack some suitable lure clips in my bag for the heavier jigs however so I improvised and slipped the metal up my leader and then tied my assist hook on. This worked a treat and jigging the metal up and then letting it fall through the water it was being attacked by coalfish on the drop.

The jig was a bit big for the size of fish that were attacking it but was still reasonably effective. 

Nick meanwhile was after bigger fish and was patiently going through a few different soft lures to try and find one.

Nick wasn't interested in the coalfish. He wanted a rod buckling pollock.

I was quite happy catching coalfish and also tried free spooling, fishing on the drop by casting out, leaving the bail arm open and letting the braid go out through my forefinger and thumb. The object of this is to allow the lure to sink as close to vertically as you can to give a more natural fall. I kept my little finger on the bail arm ready to quickly close it over and strike at bites. This method was quite difficult to do and maintain contact to feel for bites so will require more practice but I still had some success and managed to catch a few more coalfish. To be honest though shoals of coalfish seem to be pretty aggressive and will hit most lures on the drop so it's hard to assess if using different techniques makes a great deal of difference where they are concerned. After a while and with the size of the coalfish caught being fairly consistent I decided to switch to a paddletail on a Cheburashka lead and joined Nick in his search for a pollock.  Fishing this using a slow steady retrieve didn't produce any bites though so after a while casting around from various spots I switched to my ultra light setup and searched the sea bed with a Gulp! sandworm on a drop shot rig. This produced another coalfish and a small pollock which both took the ragworm imitation on the drop before it hit the bottom.

This pollock didn't do any dives so I thought I had hooked another coalfish until it came to the surface.

Nick meanwhile was still searching out a bigger fish and hadn't caught anything by the time I switched back to fishing metals. Dropping from a 25g to a 8g metal which was better matched to the size of the fish present saw me catching a couple more coalfish on consecutive casts.

Tide approaching low water I climbed down onto a nice little ledge to be able to land fish more easily.

Nick then caught his first fish of the day but unfortunately not the big pollock he was after, instead catching a coalfish on a metal jig.

Nick's rod finally gets bend. 

Dark clouds then came rolling over the cliffs behind us, the forecast rain on its way we though. But it didn't rain. Instead we were treated to a light shower of hailstones. Not wanting to be down the cliff on soaking wet slippery rocks if the sky really opened up we quickly packed up and climbed back over the gully and up to the top of the cliffs.

When the sky turned from blue to grey and dropped a few hail stones on us we figured it was time to go.

I didn't think I would get out at the weekend so it was nice to be able to visit St Abbs Head for the first time this year. I really like fishing there as it's a stunning stretch of coastline. It reminds me of Cornwall and to have that kind of terrain and fishing an hour from Edinburgh is great. Catching coalfish on isn't particularly difficult but they do provide an obliging target to practice fishing metal jigs using different on the drop styles which is an area of my fishing I'm keen to explore and improve so I'll be doing more of it in the future so in that respect it was a fun and productive session. We didn't come into contact with any big pollock but when there are a few more sandeels around  Nick and I will be back to St Abbs Head to target them and explore the area more hopefully.

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.