I'll take the high road.

At the end of last month, I set off on a road trip up to the highlands to try and see two species of butterfly for the first time. My first stop was the Allt Mhuic Butterfly Reserve, situated on the northern shore of Loch Arkaig in Lochaber. It’s a great place to see the chequered skipper, a rare butterfly that is only found within a thirty mile radius of Fort William. After a four hour drive, it didn’t take me too long to spot one, just a short walk up into the reserve from the car park. 

My first chequered skipper!

With the possibility of seeing a few other species of butterfly, I continued walking up the hill further into the reserve, but after a while all I had seen were a few more chequered skipper, so I headed back down to the car and began the second leg of my journey, heading much further north to Balnagown Woods in the County of Ross. Once I arrived, it didn’t take me long to walk from the car to a clearing in the trees and spot my target, the dingy skipper. Much to my delight, there were also large numbers of small blue fluttering around the vegetation.

I saw quite a few of these dingy skipper.

They small blue is the UK's smallest butterfly species.

I spent an hour or so wandering around the woods and all the open areas I explored had lots of butterflies flying around. Walking back to the car, the prospect of doing another four hours of driving to get home didn’t fill me with excitement, but seeing two new species of Scottish butterfly and my first small blues of the year had made the trip well worthwhile. 

The following day Lillian and I drove north again to spend the weekend at her parent’s house in Keith. A last minute unplanned trip, I didn’t expect to drive all the way back up to the highlands quite so soon! Whilst there we visited Cullen on the Saturday and Portknockie the following day. While Lillian and her mum went for a walk, I spent an hour at both of the town's harbours fishing. Not much was biting, and I only managed to catch four fish, but all of them were different species. 

This savage shanny didn’t take too kindly to being caught and clamped its jaws onto my finger. 

It really didn’t want to let go either!

When it finally did, it had left quite an impression!

After spending some more time working my way along the inside of Cullen harbour, fishing straight down the wall, I’d only tempted two fish to bite my piece of Angleworm. The second, a very small rockling, most likely a five bearded, fell off as I lifted it out of the water. Fancying a change, I walked around to the mouth of the harbour to try fishing there. 

When your chosen area is not very productive, sometimes it’s a good idea to move.

At the end of the harbour, there was a bit more structure around the base of the breakwater, some small kelp beds and more depth. It looked promising, but despite that, nothing was biting to begin with in close, so I had a few casts further out. This produced a few odd knocks and then I caught a small sandeel. 

Given it’s relatively smsll size, it could have been one of several species. 

Small teeth on the roof of the mouth meant it was one of the two Hyperoplus genus that are found in UK waters, the greater sandeel or the Corbin’s sandeel. 

With no obvious spot on its snout and a black chin, most species hunters would declare this as a Corbin’s sandeel, but I'm not convinced these features can be relied upon to distinguish between the two.

A Corbin's sandeel would be an addition to my Scottish species tally, but I'm not going to add it at this point. For the time being I'm recording this as a greater sandeel. I feel that further investigation is required because the research that I've done online and looking through the books I own fails to provide a more concrete way to tell the two apart. Corbin's sandeel is only supposed to be found on the west coast of the UK for example and it's also described as more commonly found offshore. 

The following day visiting Portknockie, we went for a short walk along the cliffs to see Bow Fiddle Rock. As we walked along the cliff top path, I was also on the lookout for butterflies, and we did see quite a few painted lady, but that was the only butterfly we spotted.

Bow fiddle rock is an impressive natural sea arch near Portknockie.

Heading down to the town’s harbour, I fished from the small concrete pier on the outside of the harbour’s outer wall, accessed through a small tunnel. Again, not a lot was biting, but a small ballan wrasse eventually grabbed my Angleworm and tried its best to get into the kelp. Just before I left, I caught a solitary long spined sea scorpion. 

Even relatively small ballan wrasse fight dirty. 

This cheeky little fellow was the last fish of the weekend.

The following day we drove back down to the capital again, and over the two back to back highland trips I'd probably done about twenty hours of driving! It wasn’t as bad as it sounds however. Large parts were actually very pleasant. I always forget just how stunning some of the scenery is in the highlands and I really should make more of an effort to head up there more frequently! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Two short sessions whilst up North.

Whilst up visiting Lillian's parent's who live in the tiny village of Forgue near Huntly in Aberdeenshire I managed to squeeze in an hour on Tues evening fishing the Burn of Forgue, a tributary of the River Deveron.

Fishing small soft lures on a 1.5g #12 Grazyg Wave HD jighead up through the current on my Nories Rockfish Bottom Ultra Light/Daiwa Steez ultra light setup I had a few small trout have a go in the first pool I fished but no hook ups.

Working downstream I changed from a Gulp 1" Fish Fry in red to a Gulp 1" Minnow in Watermelon/Pearl and cast over to the far bank and let it swing round in the current across a nice deep channel and a small brown trout took the lure and was quickly landed.

First brown trout of the session.

First cast with the Gulp! 1" Minnow gets a fish.

Next pool down a second even smaller brown trout fell for the same tactic.

Trying to sneak about when you're my size isn't easy!

Isn't it cute!

I moved a bit further down the burn to a bend and saw a nice deep pool on the outside of the bend with an overhanging tree providing some shade. I cast over to it and the moment the lure hit the water a fish nailed it. Another small brown trout landed.

This one took the lure on the drop.

At this point I decided to change lures and opted for a pink Cultiva Pin Worm. Most anglers would stick with a lure that's working but I like to mix it up! A couple of casts later I had a tentative bite that removed the long thin tail from the lure so I replaced it. Casting back over the same spot and working it back the culprit struck again but this time a quick strike hooked it and my forth small brown trout was quickly landed.

A tight squeeze perched quite high above this nice pool.

This little trout couldn't resist the Cultiva Pin Worm.

With all the fish being caught within the space of 35 min it was a most enjoyable little session although this highland cow didn't seem to appreciate me walking along the edge of his field on the way back.

Moo.

On Wed afternoon, Lillian and I headed north into Moray and to Portknockie Harbour, one of many small fishing harbours that can be found along the coast there.

The weather was lovely with just a slight onshore wind but the water inside the harbour was crystal clear and I could see a lot of small fry swimming around at the edges.

The harbour mouth.

I swapped my Daiwa Steez 2500 onto my Shimano Diafash 237L-S as I felt the extra sensitivity of its solid tip would be useful and rigged up a 2.2g #10 Crazyg Wave HD jighead with a 1" section of large red Power Isome and began exploring the harbour walls. After missing a few bites I hooked my first fish of the session.

Hoping to catch something unusual like a rockling, or maybe even a butterfish I had to settle for a common blenny!

Having caught a few of these already this year I decided to cast a little bit further out, just beyond the weed at the foot of the walls. It was not long before something had a nibble but try as might I couldn't hook whatever it was. Maybe it was a sand goby or two as they have tiny mouths but don't half thrash about when they bite.

After a little while the bites dried up so I began casting out into the harbour and working the lure back along the bottom to see if there were any flounders or dabs there as I know they've been caught there before. A couple if retrieves later i had a couple of gentle taps and paused the retrieve, waited about ten seconds and then lifted the rod tip and felt the weight of a fish. Small jerk to set the hook and I began reeling it in. Just a dead weight initially which had me wondering if it was a flat fish but then I saw it coming up towards the surface and it was and it decided to go motoring off. Great fun and put up a spirited fight, managing to dive down twice before I got it up, seeing the bright orange spots that told me it might be a plaice and lifted it up the harbour wall. I did a quick check to make sure it had a row of bony nodules on its head to confirm the species, a few photos and back it went powering back down to the bottom. This is a new species for me so I was very pleased!

My first ever plaice.

Some flounders have plaice like spots but not these bony nodules running from the eyes to the gill cover.

A then decided to change to a smaller Power Isome and I switched to a whole small pink one that I felt the jighead would work nicely as I retrieved it close to the bottom, a few casts later it worked a treat and I caught another, smaller plaice.

Another plaice.

Shortly after this a big shoal of sandeels came into the harbour. A good sign that fishing in the sea will soon be picking up and the mackerel will be arriving for the summer. There were also a few jellyfish floating in the harbour too and that's usually another good indicator that the stripey missiles will soon be here! I can't wait to catch some on my ultra light tackle.

I also ventured around the back of the harbour and the ground screamed pollock but unfortunately it was time to call an end to another short but very productive session. 

Pollocktastic.

Very satisfying to tackle two new marks and get a few fish from them both. With some great trout fishing and many small harbours and rock marks in the area I think I'll be back up here during the summer!

Tight lines, Scott.