A cracking trip.

I headed to the west coast for a few days of species hunting last week. I was joined by my mates Ryan and Ben, and we based ourselves in Oban. After checking in to our accommodation late on Monday afternoon, we hit the road again and headed south. For our first session, we fished into very deep water from a rock mark on the island of Seil. After scrambling around the rocks below some cliffs, we got comfortable in our chosen spot, set up our gear and waited patiently for bites. Fishing at close range into rough ground, one hook paternoster rigs were the order of the day, incorporating a rotten bottom link to our leads. Ryan was first off the mark with a small pollock just as the light began to fade. After dark, I started getting some interest in my fresh blow lug bait and caught some poor cod and a pouting. Changing to a small mackerel and squid cocktail then produced a lesser spotted dogfish.

Ryan and I both caught a few poor cod and pouting.

My lesser spotted dogfish.

It was a reasonable start, but my main target for the evening was a three bearded rockling, a species I'd been trying to catch for years before visiting Ilfracombe in Devon back in 2017 where I finally caught one. I've subsequently been trying to catch one from a Scottish venue, so in fact, it was my main target species for the three day trip! If I failed to get one on the first night, the plan was to return to the mark the following evening. If I didn't get one on the second night, we'd return again on evening three. About two hours into our session however, my rod tip started nodding away and my long wait for a Scottish three bearded rockling was finally over! The pressure off, I could relax and enjoy my fishing for the rest of the trip.

Got you! Finally! Another species added to my Scottish lifetime list.

The last time I visited the mark with my mate Nick, he caught a tadpole fish and as I sat there holding my rod, I was thinking that it would be cool to catch one myself. The next bite I got was quite an aggressive one, my rod tip pulling down firmly. I was delighted when I wound in to discover my wish had been granted!

Only my second ever tadpole fish. Such a weird looking fish. Note the thread like branched rays of its simple pelvic fin. I think the tadpole fish uses these to detect potential meals. The tadpole fish is also known as the lesser forkbeard due to these structures.

By this point Ryan wasn't getting any more bites and Ben had missed a few bites but still hadn't caught anything. I offered to move to a new spot and let them try in the area I'd been catching all my fish from. It remained quiet for a while, but before we called it a night I felt some slow rhythmic pulls and lifted into a fish. It turned out to be a small conger eel.

The perfect size to handle without too much trouble!

It was about 23:00 when we packed up and began to make our way back to the car. We had not got far however when disaster struck. Ben stepped on a rock that he didn't realise was loose, and it suddenly moved. His ankle gave way underneath him and down he went. Luckily he fell onto a soft grassy area which probably prevented him from sustaining any further injuries. He was in a lot of pain though and told us he thought his ankle was broken as he'd heard a crack when he'd gone over on it. I thought we'd have to call the coastguard to come and rescue him, but after resting for a bit he managed to get up and somehow the three of us managed to slowly make it all the way back to the car. Returning to the youth hostel, we helped Ben get his boot off and his ankle was badly swollen. He applied an ice pack, and we all went to bed.

The next day we had a self drive boat booked on Loch Etive through TFC Boats. This meant Ben was able to have a seat and elevate his foot for most of the session. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was hardly any wind. The fishing was pretty tough going though. Loch Etive can be like that, I think over the years I've had more slow sessions than action packed ones. We tried various different spots and didn't really enjoy any great success. I did manage to tick off a few more species for my 2023 challenge however, so that was a definite positive.

The first fish of the day was this spurdog. It would be the only spurdog. It took a launce section rapped in squid that I fished hard on the deck, I was hoping to tempt a thornback ray.

Switching to small hooks saw us all catching a few small whiting...

...and a few poor cod too.

Ben and I both caught some small grey gurnard...

...and I caught the only thornback ray of the session, fishing on the bottom with a small strip of mackerel wrapped in squid.

Before we knew it, the time to head back to shore had arrived, after doing so we drove back to Oban to get some food and figure out what we'd do in the evening. We had intended to fish after dark again, but we were all pretty tired and had caught a bit too much sun as well, which didn't help. Ben understandably wanted to rest his ankle and get some ice on it again, so we had some food in the hostel and headed to bed early. I dare say I'd probably have been back out on the rocks again three bearded rockling hunting had I not caught one the previous night!

The following day we decided to drive south to Portavadie to try fishing Loch Fyne there. The drive down was quite pleasant, passing through some lovely scenery. It was the first time I'd visited the area and unfortunately the comfortable harbour spot I thought would be a perfect mark for us to fish from was off limits due to construction work, so we ended up fishing from the rocks a few hundred metres to the south of it. 

Some of the views were impressive, as the road there followed the coast and went up and down the hills.

The spot we ended up on was reasonably comfortable, but sadly the fishing was very poor. We tried three hook flappers with smaller baits and also pulley rigs further out with larger offerings. Ben and Ryan didn't catch anything at all, with the local crabs making short work of all our baits. At least Ben was able to recline, putting his leg up.

Ben got "comfortable" on a flat rock and elevated his ankle.

I struggled as well and only managed two fish, a dab at the start and a lesser spotted dogfish on my final cast of the session. I'm not sure if I'd return to Portavadie again, especially given it's a three hour drive from Edinburgh. Maybe it would fish better in the summer or on a bigger tide. I might give it another go at some point in the future.

My first dab of the year and my eleventh species of the trip.

We left late in the afternoon and got back to Edinburgh by early evening. Ben went home and got freshened up and then went to the hospital to have his ankle checked over. He was seen pretty quickly and had an X-ray done. Turns out he was right, he had broken a bone in his ankle! Fair play to him for fishing through the pain!

Ben fractured the very bottom of his fibula and is now sporting a "moon boot".

Despite Ben's accident and the patchy fishing, we all had a good time and I added eleven species to my 2023 tally, so it was definitely worth heading over to the other side of the country. On a serious note, please be extremely careful if you are out fishing on rock marks! They can be dangerous places to fish! No fish is worth getting yourself badly hurt or worse. Not even a three bearded rockling! Ben had a lucky escape really, his fall could have resulted in a much more serious injury or even worse! Fortunately, his break doesn't require surgery and a few weeks wearing the "moon boot" should hopefully see him ready to hit the rocks again, being a little more careful no doubt.

Tight lines, Scott.

Blogging again.

So, it's been a while. Over two years in fact have passed since my last post on the blog. I've still been fishing with varying regularity during that time but just haven't felt inclined to write about it. As well as catching a few fish I also manged to catch Covid recently too, not a pleasant experience but I'm almost back to normal now. Over the summer I achieved a personal fishing milestone that I'm quite proud of so I've decided to start rambling on here again and will be posting a few reports covering a few trips I've done in the last two years and also sessions working towards the goal I reached. My trumpet isn't going to blow itself and I figure some fellow anglers out there may even like to see some photos of my captures or read about my exploits perhaps. Anyway, I'll get started...

At the end of August last year I headed to the west coast of Scotland with my mate Nick for a few day's relaxation, camping and fishing. We based ourselves in Auchindarroch Touring Park and headed out each day to various different spots to see how many species we could catch. We fished various styles, everything from jigs on light tackle to big baits on heavy ground beachcasters and it didn't take us long to start racking the species up. During the daytime we caught lots of fish, all five main UK wrasse species, most members of the cod family and various mini species. Those who know me or read this blog will already be aware that I love mini species!

A short session at Ganavan Sands beach saw us catching lots of sand gobies using a simple split shot rig, tiny hooks and tiny pieces of raw prawn.

Sticking with the small hooks and little chunks of raw prawn the next day, I caught this stunning rook cook wrasse when we visited Lochaline West Pier.

Lochaline West Pier is one of the best spots I know to catch an incredibly wide variety of mini species. Nick caught this leopard spotted goby while we fished there.

I also caught this large butterfish which was also tempted by some raw prawn on a small hook.

Heading out after dark a few times also saw us adding to our species hunt tally. I was hopeful that I might catch a three bearded rockling, a species I've caught before but never in Scotland. Unfortunately our night time sessions weren't as productive as our daylight ones. I caught a three bearded rockling sized ling which I briefly thought was a three bearded rockling when it surfaced but my excitement didn't last long when I realised what it actually was. Nick landed a couple of dogfish and he then caught a tadpole fish which he was over the moon about.

We were on the rocks, set up and fishing at close range into deep kelpy ground by sunset. Who needs a tripod?

Not Nick's first tadpole fish but still a great catch nonetheless. Probably the coolest fish of the trip.

All too soon though the day arrived when we had to get up, pack the tents away and make the drive home. The species hunting had been very enjoyable and we ended up catching just over twenty species between the two of us. On our way back to the east coast we stopped off at Loch Lubnaig for a couple of hours for a spot of ultralight sport targeting it's pristine perch.

Pink has always been a successful colour choice for me to dropshot for these lovely Loch Lubnaig perch.

It was also good to discover that the three big hairy beasts that live by the loch were still around. They must be getting on a bit now.

All in all it was a very enjoyable, much needed short break in good company in a beautiful part of Scotland, even if the pesky three bearded rockling had eluded me yet again. I was determined to add new species to my Scottish tally so I'd return again earlier this year to have another crack at catching one.

Tight lines, Scott.

A tad surprized.

Keen to have some fun with some of the smaller wrasse species I headed Greenock with my mate Dan on Sunday. When we arrived there were a few other anglers fishing and we got talking to one of them as we set up our rods. He told us how the venue had been fishing and mentioned that he had caught a tadpole fish a few days previously. Quite excited by this news we started fishing away and were soon catching a few small pollock, coalfish and cod on Angleworm fished on drop shot rigs at close range amongst the rocks and weed. After a while I switched to fishing small pieces of raw prawn and before too long we had both caught a few goldsinny wrasse. 

This one was particularly grumpy.

Whilst I got stinky fingers, Dan stuck to fishing Angleworm and dropping his rig down again after unhooking a fish he got a very aggressive take just as it hit the bottom. A short scrap ensued and looking down to see what would appear from the depths I was expecting to see a small cod or maybe a small ballan wrasse. I think Dan was just as surprised as I was to see the distinctive dark body and gaping white mouth of a tadpole fish! Rather excited by this odd sight Dan didn't wait for me to grab the net and instead quickly swung it up to hand. 

What a weird looking fish! Dan told me he had seen one caught before but this was the first time he'd caught one himself. It was the first time I'd seen one in the flesh though and as well as being fascinated, I was also a little bit jealous.  

Coming over to see Dan's tadpole fish and to ask what else we had been catching the angler we had talked to earlier very kindly offered us a small amount of few freshly dug ragworm to improve our catch rates which it unsurprisingly did. Wrasse love ragworm after all! To mix things up a bit I switched to float fishing for a while whilst Dan stuck to fishing close to the bottom. A string of goldsinny wrasse and then a few corkwing wrasse were caught by us both including some very beautifully coloured males.

Some of the corkwing wrasse were particularly stunning with incredibly bright blue markings. This one was possible the most colourful example I've ever seen.

By high water we had used up the ragworm and things slowed down for a while until the tide began to ebb. I switched back to a running ledger and dropped a bigger piece of raw prawn down the side. It wasn't down long when my ultra light rod slammed over and a fish, which I guessed was a small cod, started swimming off staying close to the bottom. Tightening up my drag and putting a bit of pressure on the fish I gained some line and it soon appeared from the depths. To my delight it was another tadpole fish. Being bigger than the one Dan had caught I didn't want to try and lift it up so I asked Dan to net it for me which he quickly did. 

At just over a pound my first ever tadpole fish was a specimen. 

Quite a large mouth to say the least with lots of small sharp inward facing teeth. 

They look like they are slimy but they aren't. Instead their almost black skin is just very shiny. 

To me they resemble a stumpy rockling and having one last good look before returning it I could see they share many of their features.

I was absolutely delighted to catch this fish. It was my first new U.K. species for a while and my first of 2016 too. Seeing Dan catch one was pretty awesome but I didn't expect to catch one as well. I was on a high afterwards but things went quiet again and after losing a few rigs to snags we decided to end the session. What an incredible day's fishing. Lots of fun with the small wrasse but the tadpole fish were the highlight. Not a fish many anglers will ever encounter so we were amazed that we'd both caught one in the same session. One I don't think either of us will ever forget.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Tadpole Fish (Lesser Forkbeard).

I recently read some reports on the World Sea Fishing Forum of tadpole fish being caught from Peterhead Breakwater. Loch Leven also seems to be a venue where every now and then one gets caught. They are a pretty weird looking fish and I'd really like to catch one. My friend Ross has caught one three years running from the same spot on Anglesey. This tells a species hunting nut like me that if you know where they have been caught in the past you can realistically go there and deliberately target them.

Ross with a fine example of the aptly named fish.

I believe that these fish only come inshore at certain times of the year to breed before going back out to deeper water again. I've spoken to Ross and he has caught all of his at the same time every year so this will give me something to target early next year and who knows, perhaps I can persuade Ross to return from Alderney and take me to his favourite tadpole fish mark?

Tight lines, Scott.