Trying a new spot for a new two spot.

I think it's fair to say that over the last couple of months I've rediscovered my love for fishing. Obviously lockdown meant fishing wasn't even possible for a long time and this combined with being furloughed for a few months gave me a complete break from fishing altogether. I love my job in the Edinburgh Angling Centre but perhaps working in a tackle shop full time and fishing in my free time had eventually taken its toll and the enforced interruption has definitely been a positive thing. As they say never combine business with pleasure! Anyway, my recent gilthead hunting trips and late night scad sessions down at Torness Power Station as well as other sessions further afield have rekindled my passion and last Wednesday it was a nice day so Lillian and I went for a leisurely drive to the west coast. I got permission to try fishing at a new spot on the shore of Loch Creran, inspired by an underwater photo of a fish with two spots I've never caught before I found online that was taken there.

This is a two spotted clingfish, so named due to having, you've guessed it, two spots. These are located one on either side, to the rear of the fish's pectoral fins. A very small species, its maximum length of 6 cm will obviously make catching one tough but if you don't try...

Fishing into deep water from the end of a small pontoon using #14 hooks baited with tiny pieces of raw prawn, I quickly added a few species to my 2020 tally in the shape of dozens of pin whiting and a few small dabs.

I got comfortable for a couple of hour's fishing while Lillian read a book and took the odd photo of me.

These pin whiting made up the bulk of my catch from the deeper water out in front of the pontoon.

After a while I decided to switch from casting out as far as I could and tried dropping my rig straight down off the end of the pontoon. It's always worth remembering that a lot of the time there are usual fish right at your feet! As soon as my rig touched down on the bottom my rod tip started twitching away to rattling type bites, so I swapped to an even smaller hook to see if I could find out what the culprits were. This worked a treat and I now have a new favourite mark for targetting painted goby. Their size averaged about 4cm long and with mouths perhaps smaller than the two spotted clingfish I was hoping to catch this gave me confidence that my tactics were spot on and might work should I happen to get lucky and put my rig in the vicinity of my target species.

There were plenty of them down there and my little observation tank soon had a few in it.

After a while I decided to ignore my own advice on fishing at my feet and began firing my rig out into deeper water again, trying different distances and directions. A few more whiting, a solitary cod and a lone sand goby were all caught and released. The sand goby again a vindication that small fish at distance in deep water can be successfully caught. Before we left I tied on a small HTO shore jig fitted with a single hook at the rear and had a go for mackerel as I'd had one or two of them follow my lead in when I had been retrieving my bait rig earlier in the session. It didn't take long to catch a few and whilst most were released by shaking them off the hook a couple of slightly bigger ones were kept for my tea the following day. 

It's easy to forget how beautiful the humble mackerel is with its colourful markings and iridescent sheen. They're great sport on very light tackle as well and grilled with a generous splash of Frank's red hot original cayenne pepper sauce they're very tasty into the bargain.

So, yet again a my first ever clingfish had eluded capture but if nothing else I'm persistent, so I might return to the west coast sea lochs to try my luck again if the weather is suitable during the coming weeks. With summer well and truly over now my thoughts are also beginning to turn to my old Scottish pink,red and brown nemesis, the three bearded rockling, so a trip or two down to the Southwest of Scotland for an after dark session targetting those is on the cards too.

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.

Unfinished business.

Last Sunday I headed down to the Isle of Whithorn with my mate Martin for a relaxing session targeting wrasse. We arrived at about 9:00 armed with a few ragworm and crabs and made our way along the coast until we found a nice looking gully to fish in. Martin started off fishing ragworm under a float and I started off with a very simple one up rig with a short snood formed by tying a blood loop. We had a great morning and by early afternoon had both caught ballan, corkwing, goldsinny and rock cook wrasse as well as a few pollock, a coalfish, a poor cod and a common blenny. Not a bad bit of species hunting and all from a relatively small area.

My first fish of the day was a corkwing wrasse.

A ballan wrasse puts a nice bend in my light rod.

A few more ballan wrasse followed.

Smaller hooks and pieces of ragworm were required to catch the resident goldsinny wrasse.

I love catching rock cook wrasse. Their facial markings are beautiful.

This meant I had completed my grand slam attempt that I began five days earlier albeit in a much slower time than my sub three hour one I managed up at Lochaline last year. Martin by this point had switched to a rig similar to mine and had tried using small hardback crabs as bait to see if he could tempt a large ballan but smaller fish did a good job of quickly attacking and eating them without in the main getting themselves hooked.

In the afternoon I decided to throw some small metals about into the tidal flow and see what else was around. There were literally hundreds of sandeels swimming past against the tidal flow and after a while I spotted what I thought was a bass swimming past underneath them. Casting my metal in the general direction where it had been heading I had no luck tempting it. I was however getting the odd tiny tap which I suspected was the sandeels so I tied on the smallest metal I had in an attempt to catch one. As most of them were under 20cm it took a while to get one but eventually my persistence paid off and I finally hooked one.

Which type of Sandeel was it though? No dark spot on its nose which is a distinguishing feature on a launce. A lesser sandeel perhaps? Looking back at photos of last years sandeel captures has planted a seed of doubt in my mind about some of their identities too. Further research into UK Sandeel species is certainly required.

Shortly afterwards I saw a bass take a sandeel from the surface and shouted over to Martin who came over and started fishing a Savage Gear Sandeel. He had no luck catching a bass from the tidal flow but dropping down closer in he soon caught a small pollock at close range that gave a good account of itself in the current.

A feisty little pollock.

It went a bit quiet after that, although I did manage a second sandeel, so we went back to where we had started fishing and switched back to worm baits. Martin told me that he'd read reports of tompot blennies being caught in the vicinity so we were both hopeful that one of those or some other unusual mini species might beat the hordes of small wrasse to our ragworm chunks. Mid afternoon Martin hooked yet another small fish and as he reeled it in he was saying out loud "It's a tompot, it's a tompot." over and over. Amazingly when it came into view it was! Quickly swung up to hand, Martin was very pleased to get himself a new species and I was quite jealous having never caught one from Scottish waters. We carried on fishing and after a while my envious feelings were taken care of when I hooked a small fish that felt a little different and it turned out to be another tompot blenny.

My first Scottish tompot blenny. A "tampot blenny".

Like the stereotypical Scot, "Tam" had shaggy ginger hair.

Fishing on we both caught another tompot blenny each and a few more small wrasse before we both switched to fishing float tactics for the last hour or so. This produced one or two more small wrasse and we packed up at 18:00 and headed up the road. Ten species between the two of us wasn't a bad result and it was another thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing days fishing. The coast around Isle of Whithorn certainly deserves further exploration and I might have to return on smaller tides and have a go after dark for a three bearded rockling. Martin has also been reminded about my desire to target smoothhounds down the south west coast and hopefully we can arrange that so I'll probably be back down there soon targeting something new.

Tight lines, Scott.