Under the weather.

At the end of May, I headed off to the Isle of Lewis for the first time with fellow species hunters, Mike and Mark, for two days of boat fishing. Hopes were high that we'd be able to catch some unusual fish out in the deep water off the island's north west coast. On the way there, whilst we waited to board the ferry at Ullapool, we fished for a couple of hours from the harbour. Small sections of ragworm and tiny strips of squid fished close to the bottom, both produced some poor cod and both the species of UK sea scorpion, a pretty even mix of long spined and short spined.

My first poor cod of the year.

The short spined sea scorpion were also my first of the year.

Most of them were sporting a spotty underside.

There were lots of people queuing up when we arrived at the harbour, and the reason became apparent when the only fully operational seagoing paddle steamer came into the bay to pick them all up.

The Waverley sails up and down the UK coastline. It passed by whilst I was fishing at Greenock last year.

Just before we left, I caught something quite unexpected, in the shape of a lesser weever. The ground we were fishing over was not really the type I'd expect to produce them. Usually, they can be found living in fine sand, but the ground we were fishing over was pretty mixed with lots of rocks and weed. I guess there must have been a few small sandy patches down there though!

Yet another addition to my 2025 species tally!

Heading back to the car, we boarded the ferry and made the crossing to Stornoway. After we disembarked, we met up with our skipper in the Stornoway Angling Club, right next to the ferry terminal. Angus is quite a character, and we spent an hour or so hearing about some of the more unusual captures he’s made over the years, and discussed where we would be fishing the following day. Conditions in the lead up to the trip had been fantastic, but the wind had picked up and would limit how far offshore we could go. 

In the morning, we headed to on the other side of the island, loaded our gear onto the boat, and set off. Our first task was of course catching some fresh bait. To begin with, we targeted greater sandeel and once we caught a few dozen of those, we headed to another spot to target mackerel.

A nice big launce. 

Unfortunately, the mackerel weren't around in any great numbers. Not a problem as Angus had backup supplies of frozen mackerel, so we headed to our next spot where we hoped to catch some cusk over some rocky ground. After a few ling were boated, I caught a nice spurdog, but winding it up, I started to feel quite unwell. I quickly unhooked the fish and returned it, before being violently sick over the side. Anyone who's suffered with sea sickness well tell you, it's absolutely brutal, and it rarely goes away until you get back onto dry land. I made a couple of attempts to fish again, but they only made me feel worse again, so that was me for the day. 

Since returning from Gran Canaria at the end of March, I’ve not really felt one hundred percent and when we returned to the harbour I continued to feel unwell, which had me wondering if it was this that had triggered the sea sickness. In the evening, after eating dinner, I had an early night, but in the morning I still felt rotten, so decided not to go out in the boat. The trip had turned into a bit of a disaster for me. Mike and Mark had a good day out, fishing inshore as the wind had picked up again, and they caught some specimen dab and plaice, as well as some spotted ray. I had some ultra light tackle with me but felt so terrible that I didn’t even feel up to fishing at all, instead going for a walk around the town and up Gallows Hill. The following day, Mike and I headed back to the mainland, whilst Mark stayed on the island an extra day, to do some shore fishing. Arriving in Ullapool, Mike had an hour fishing from the harbour. I just went for a stroll around the town to get some more fresh air. 

It was a dull day and my fishing mojo hadn’t returned. 

So, my first trip to the Isle of Lewis is one I'll remember for all the wrong reasons. It was great to meet up with Mike and Mark, and I wish I’d been able to spend more time fishing with them. Despite my first trip to the Isle of Lewis turning into a bit of a nightmare, I’d love to return in the future at some point!

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting adventures on Malta: Part 1.

A couple of weeks ago, whilst I was in the Edinburgh Angling Centre picking up some bits and pieces, my former workmate Gordon asked me if I had ever been to, and fished on, the islands of Malta. He was thinking about booking a last minute holiday there. I hadn’t been, but told him what I thought he could expect to catch if he decided to go and took some fishing tackle with him. A week or so later, I sent him a message to see if he was going. He told me he had booked up and was going on his own at the end of September. I’ve always fancied visiting Malta, so I thought about it briefly and asked him if he wanted some company! He said yes, that would be great, so I booked my flights, accommodation and a hire car for us to explore Malta in. Easily the most impulsive, last minute foreign holiday I’d ever decided to go on, we flew out from Edinburgh and arrived in Malta early in the afternoon. On the flight down there, as we passed over Sicily, I spotted something off in the distance.

Smoke rising from Mount Etna off in the distance. Other budget flights are available.

After picking up our hire car and dropping off our luggage at our hotels, we were on our way to wet our lines. The standard of driving on display during the short twenty odd minute drive was a real test of my patience and hazard perception to say the least! Thankfully, we made it to the south coast town of Birżebbuġa in one piece and parked the car next to a large rusty statue.

This artwork celebrates the end of The Cold War.

Fishing with small pieces of dehydrated ragworm, we were both quickly catching a few small fish. As we did so, I suggested we set ourselves a target of thirty species for the week. As is usually the case at the beginning of a trip, we got our species hunt off to a good start. Within an hour or so, we’d caught nine between us. I caught damselfish, painted comber, East Atlantic peacock wrasse, common two banded seabream and annular seabream. Gordon caught some five spotted wrasse, parrotfish, Mediterranean rainbow wrasse and a solitary ocellated wrasse. Somehow, neither of us had caught any of the species that the other had!

There were lots of damselfish around. Expert bait strippers!

One of the larger East Atlantic peacock wrasse I caught.

Further out there were a few annular seabream.

After a while, the bites dried up considerably, and we were struggling a bit in the heat too, so we headed around to the side of the Birżebbuġa Waterpolo Club, a few hundred meters away from where we had started our first session, where we were able to fish in the shade. There, we found a large rockpool and set about catching a few mini species from the bottom of it. There were lots of goby on the sandy bottom and a couple of large blenny sitting on rocks. The goby proved very straight forward to catch, but the blenny weren’t so easily tempted by our small pieces of dried worm. 

There were two species present. The majority were incognito goby.

Amongst them, usually hiding, was the odd rock goby.

Next, we switched our focus to fishing in the sea next to the rockpool, where as well as a few more of the species we'd already caught, I managed to add a few five spotted wrasse to my own tally.

The five spotted wrasse, so named due to the five spots on its dorsal fin. These aren't always well-defined. It belongs to the same genus as the corkwing wrasse.

Before we left, we walked around the outside of the waterpolo pool to the end of the beach in Pretty Bay. After taking a short break on a bench, where we enjoyed some fried chicken, chips and some cold drinks, we spent some time fishing over the sand as the sun set. Surprisingly, this wasn’t very productive and only produced a couple of small white seabream. Still, it had been a fairly fruitful start to our species hunting. We were into double figures after only a few hours fishing!

These small white seabream were caught by casting back towards the shoreline, very close to the beach.

On day two, I picked Gordon up from his hotel and we headed west, to fish from the rocks near Zurrieq Valley. The sea inlet there is where all the boats leave from to take their passengers to see the famous Blue Grotto, one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island. Gordon and I stopped briefly at the cliff top view point on our way there and took in this stunning geological feature from above.

Perhaps the most visited tourist spot in Malta.

Once we made our way down, parked the car and clambered down on to our chosen spot on the rocks, the never ending boat traffic, and also multiple groups of divers passing by, made fishing very difficult. We quickly used up the small amount of dried ragworm we had left and switched over to using Gulp! Angleworm, but neither hook bait produced a single fish! Breaking for lunch in a small restaurant, we decided to head south in the afternoon to fish from a small breakwater near Delimara Power Station. Before we paid the bill, we asked the chef for a small portion of raw squid, so we could cut it into little strips to use as bait. Unfortunately, the fishing there also turned out to be very challenging. The bottom was very snaggy, and we lost a fair amount of end tackle. It felt like we spent more time tying up rigs than we spent fishing, but eventually our persistence paid off when I caught a small wide eyed flounder.

I love catching wide eyed flounder. I'd love to catch a bigger one, having only ever caught palm sized specimens.

After losing a few more rigs, we moved to a second spot right next to the power station’s gates where the bottom was much cleaner, but this only produced a few small painted comber and seabream species that we had caught already. It had been a difficult morning’s fishing, and we’d only added one species to our tally. We decided to head to a third venue, the pier on the left hand side of the entrance to Portomaso Marina.

The entrance to Potromaso Marina with the Hilton towering over it.

In terms of numbers this turned out to be a great spot, but the species were fairly limited, and we didn't add any new species to our tally sadly. As well as the occasional damselfish and annular seabream, the odd Mediteranean rainbow wrasse for Gordon, which were proving elusive for me for some reason, all we caught were lots of common two banded seabream and even more painted comber.

The area held lots of these little common two banded seabream.

Painted comber are plentiful around Malta. This colourful, aggressive, toothy predator was by far the most common catch from the pier.

So, day two had very much been a game of two halves, a tough morning during which we had only added one new species to our tally, and an action packed afternoon that had failed to produce anything we hadn't caught already during the trip. Fitting then, that in the evening we went out for a meal, then enjoyed a few drinks whilst we watched some football in a bar down in St Julian's by Spinola Bay. We were still on track to reach our target of thirty species, and with plenty of venues for us to try during the coming days, I was quietly confident that we'd be able to hit it.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.

A day at the dogs.

Earlier this week, my species hunting mate Gordon invited me for a day out afloat aboard his Warrior 165. After a fairly early start we arrived at the slipway of Crinan Harbour over on the west coast of Scotland. It was a nice day weather wise and the sea conditions were pretty good too. We were both hoping to get lucky and perhaps catch black mouthed dogfish and maybe even luckier still and catch cuckoo ray but we both knew that a certain other shark species would no doubt dominate the day, the much maligned lesser spotted dogfish. We were also aware that some skate might pick up our small baits too. Not really what you want to happen in several hundred feet of water when your fishing fairly light tackle! 

Well, things went pretty much as we expected, we had no luck locating any black mouthed dogfish or cuckoo ray, and by the end of the day we'd caught so many lesser spotted dogfish we'd lost count. Gordon caught a solitary spurdog and we both caught one thornback ray each. Thankfully, no skate gobbled our small mackerel and squid baits!

Baby shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo!

I love the eyes on thornback rays.

So, no unusual shark species were caught. Still, I enjoyed the fishing, and it was a relaxing day out in good company and weather. I've got a couple more boat trips coming up soon that I'm excited about later this month. A day species hunting around the Mull of Galloway is first up, followed by a day out of Weymouth targeting butterfly blenny, red band fish and other small unusual species. I'm quite looking forward to stretching my sea legs again!

Tight lines, Scott.

Let's just go anyway.

Before I went off on my recent Asian adventure, I booked a night in Glencoe Youth Hostel, so I could have a two day fishing trip to the area with my mate Ryan shortly after I got back to the UK. When I got back and checked the forecast however, it was dreadful for the two days. I could have cancelled the booking at the hostel, but we decided just to go and brave the weather.

Lots of nice scenery on the way there.

We drove up there fairly early and began fishing on an old pier on Loch Linnhe at close range into rocky, weedy ground. Small sections of ragworm and strips of squid were the baits of choice. I was hoping to repeat last year's Connemarra clingfish capture and was fishing straight down the side to begin with. It was windy, a few light showers passed by and things were very slow, but we were getting the odd little sharp rattling bite. After switching to very small hooks, I caught a rock cook wrasse and Ryan also got off the mark with a goldsinny wrasse shortly afterwards.

My first rock cook wrasse of the year.

Ryan swears by beads. He's always buying them in work. I've been known to use them occasionally, but not usually for mini species.

It went quiet again for a while when a seal appeared right in front of us, but after a while Ryan caught a couple of pollock. The wind then got stronger, so we headed off to try a different spot that I thought would offer us more shelter. 

One of Ryan's pollock.

The second spot, whilst certainly more comfortable, didn't produce anything at all, so after about an hour we moved to a third. Only one fish was caught there, so we headed back to the car and drove south to fish in Loch Creran from a pontoon near some moored yachts.

Mark number three produced my first long spined sea scorpion of the year.

The fishing at the pontoon was dreadful as well, with neither of us catching anything. The rain had started again at this point, and truth be told we were both a bit fed up, so we decided to get some food and alcoholic beverages and head to the hostel to check in, warm ourselves up and chill out for the remainder of the evening.

On the second day, we headed to a mark in Oban, but there were no fish there whatsoever. It's a mark that's normally like an aquarium, so given it was devoid of life, we didn't hang about. Pretty frustrated, we cut our losses and head home but decided to visit Kelly's Pier on Loch Etive, where we were rewarded with a bit of a soaking. At least whilst there, I managed to catch a couple of species in the shape of some three spined sticklebacks and two spotted goby. Tanago hooks proving to be deadly for targeting micro species yet again.

Another species ticked off for my 2023 species hunt.

A great photo showing the electric blue scales on a two spotted goby

So the trip had probably panned out exactly the way I had expected it too. Poorly! Maybe just over a dozen fish between us in less than favourable conditions. All in all, not a total disaster though, as I'd still managed to add four species to my 2023 tally. That's what happens when you book a trip away at this time of year, too far in advance. Sometimes, Scottish weather throws a spanner in the works. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting adventures in South Korea: Busan.

Back on the South Korean mainland, we arrived in the city of Busan quite late and grabbing some instant noodles and snacks we headed to our hotel in the Seomyeon area. In the morning, we jumped on the subway and got off at Dongbaek. From there we went for a walk around Dongbaek Park to Dongbaekseom Lighthouse. My expectations for the fishing around Busan were pretty low, but when we spotted half a dozen anglers on the rocks below the lighthouse, I was slightly encouraged. I need not have been. Climbing down the rocks, so I could have a cast, we didn’t see them catch anything and I didn’t catch anything either.

It looked so fishy. There were banks of very long seaweed that made things tricky, but I fished in the gaps between them. After an hour or so, we headed back up to the path and headed towards Haeundae Beach.

Haeundae Beach is a very popular place in the summer when the water warms up. The sea around mainland South Korea probably livens up in the summer as well.

Halfway along Hueundae Beach is the Sealife Busan Aquarium, so we took the opportunity to get out of the sun for an hour or so and I reminded myself what a fish looked like. I had a feeling the fishing around Busan was going to be very challenging, and I might not see another fish.

These threadfin trevally were probably my favourite. They're so cool!

Carrying on along to the end of Haeundae Beach, I had a quick cast or two over the sand inside the small harbour there, but predictably caught nothing. We grabbed a potato spiral each to refuel and then caught the Haeundae Blue Line Train that follows the coastline north.

Spicy snack time!

We hopped off at the Cheongsapo Daritdol Skywalk, a glass floored platform that extends out from the cliffs seventy metres above the sea. Walking to the end of this and back to the station didn't take too long, and rather than wait for the next train we decided just to walk along the coastal path to Gudeokpo. I tried my luck fishing in the small harbour there. The water was crystal clear, but there was no sign of any fish. Dropping my bait in close next to the tetrapod blocks at the harbour mouth eventually produced a solitary fish in the shape of a sunrise.

Success! I'm not sure why they are called a sunrise. They should be called a greedy green gobbed goby if you ask me.

They have green mouths. I thought this one had a parasite in its mouth, so tried to remove it with my forceps.

It actually turned out to be a very long, half digested, pipefish that was almost as long as the sunrise! So instead of doing the fish a favour, I ended up stealing its last meal!

Happy to have caught something, we carried on along the coast until we reached Songjeong Beach. Taking a leisurely stroll along that, we ended up at Jukdo Park where we continued our ramble and soon arrived at the beautifully decorated Songiljeong Pavilion.

Painted in the tradition Korean style, like all the temples we'd visited in Seoul.

Before catching the subway back to Seomyeon, I had one last roll of the dice. Half an hour fishing around at the mouth of Songjeong harbour under its red lighthouse. Again, this did not produce any bites, so we headed off for a big pot of spicy kimchi stew.

Yummy!

The following day, I was determined to find some better fishing, so we caught the subway again and headed down to Diamond Bay Park. There were two other anglers already fishing when we got there using float tactics, so I did likewise. On a plus note, I spotted what I thought were small groups of darkbanded rockfish suspended under the long flowing seaweed. I also saw what looked like bream deeper down, at the base of the seaweed, occasionally rolling onto their flanks and giving themselves away with a silver flash. Neither could be tempted though despite my best efforts, so I admitted defeat, and we headed off for some lunch.

Lillian's choice of restaurant was pretty healthy and the food was delicious!

Being a glutton for punishment, we headed to Millak-dong Breakwater to try fishing from the large tetrapod blocks on its seaward side that face the impressive bi-level highway Gwangan Suspension Bridge. I'd seen someone catching a nice gurnard and a few other fish from them on YouTube but walking around there were several signs saying no fishing from the tetrapods. I get why fishing from them is dangerous, but the problem for anglers is that they are used in the construction of most harbours in South Korea, so that really limits fishing options.

I was planning on clambering down these tetrapod blocks.

Google Lens is great for getting bad angling news. £1800 is a hefty price to pay!

A heron clearly flaunting the law.

Frustrated, we walked further along the coast and up the Suyeonggang River where there were more tetrapods and no fishing signs. In the end, I gave up, and we headed to the subway, so we could go and pray for my fishing fortunes to improve at the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple further up the coast.

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. The self proclaimed most beautiful Buddhist Temple in all of South Korea.

After throwing a few coins and saying multiple prayers, we walked along the coast and ended up in Dongamhang Port, a small fishing harbour. It was clearly a very busy harbour and there was lots of fish and seaweed drying out on lines and racks.

Drying fish and kelp.

Predictably, the fishing was tough again, but eventually I managed to catch a single goby. The Buddhist gods must have forwarded my prayers on to the Japanese God of good fortune, the ocean, and fishing folk, Ebisu, as requested. The coins we donated back at the temple had been a good investment!

This is a hairchin goby. It has little barbules on its chin. Another new species added to my tally. Thanks Ebisu!

This is Ebisu. The Japanese God of good fortune, the ocean, and fishing folk. The only God a desperate angler requires!

By now I had accepted that the fishing around Busan was limited and very poor. I told Lillian we'd be having a fishing free day the following day, but in the morning she said she wanted to ride a cable car that was near a "fishing park". My will power deserted me however, I just couldn't leave my tackle in the hotel when we set off! On the way to the cable car, we went for a stroll through Jagelchi Fish Market to assault our senses.

An incredible assortment of seafood was on display. Some familiar, some not.

Scabbard fish,..

...dried fish,..

...flower crabs,..

...sea pineapples...

...and weirdest looking of all, spoon worms.

Leaving the sights and smells of the market behind, we walked south until we reached Songdo Bay Station, where we took the Busan Air Cruise cable car across the bay. At the other side, we headed down the hill to the Amnam Park Embankment "fishing park". We needn't have bothered, after an hour or so I hadn't had a bite, and we didn't see anyone else catching anything either. By that point it was pretty much what I expected, so we didn't hang about any longer, I packed my gear away, and we caught the cable car back over the bay.

I think this is the first cable car I've taken over the sea.

The Amnam Park Embankment fishing park. Basically it's a raised area at the edge of a large car park by the sea with a railing running along it and a few containers for anglers to put their rubbish in.

On the way back to the hotel, we treated ourselves to a coffee and cookies and bought some expensive berries to try. Back at the hotel the rain began absolutely hammering down and showed no sign of stopping, so we popped to a nearby 7Eleven and got some instant noodles, kimchi, snacks and a few beers. Lying in bed, we ate, drank and watched Korean Fishing TV. My idea of a great night in! All the fishing on the shows seemed to involve charter boats or remote islands. Maybe the shore fishing is poor all year? Surely not?!

These mountain berries cost £9.00. They were delicious though!

It was still pouring down in the morning, so we were lazy and had a lie in. When we got up, the rain had eased off, and we decided to definitely have a fishing free day. Instead, we caught the subway and visited a fishing tackle shop, so I could try and get some Sunline Small Game braid. Afterwards we went for a stroll around some gardens on a hill. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, which was nice.

Getting to the point. I've visited one of these stores in Japan before and they are great.

Mission accomplished! I replenished my stash with two spools and got a few packets of my favourite Thirty34Four Octpus Aji lures as well.

It was the peak of cherry blossom season in South Korea while we were there.

In the evening we went out for dinner in a Taiwanese restaurant where we enjoyed a large bowl of spicy mapo tofu and a few mango beers. Afterwards we had a few more drinks in a heavy metal pub before shooting a few racks of pool in the Star Billiard's Club.

Nice and spicy mapo tofu washed down with...

...a few fruity mango beers.

An impressive vinyl collection in the rock music basement bar.

Where did all the solids and the 8 ball go?

Finally, to end the evening off perfectly, we visited the Danakka Fishing Cafe, a cafe located in a basement with a large fishing pond inside where you pay an hourly rate to fish for carp, catfish and sturgeon and win prizes. 

 

Catch it all! Indoor fishing cafe.

I was looking forward to a fun, fishy end to our evening, but sadly it wasn't open as advertised, so Lillian got her fishing free day after all! Feeling slightly drunk, we headed back to the hotel for a few more beers and to do some drunken packing.

Our four days in Busan were over and the following day we were off to Gimhae International Airport to catch a short flight to Jeju Island. We'd enjoyed our stay, even if the fishing in Busan had been almost as bad as the fishing around Seoul. I guess in March, the saltwater shore fishing around the mainland of South Korea is just not very good due to the cold water temperature. I had my fingers crossed that the waters around the "Hawaii of South Korea" would be a little warmer and the fishing a little more productive!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Jeju Island.