The sweet smelt of success.

I drove up to Dundee yesterday to have another session fishing the Tay Estuary in the hope that I would get lucky and catch a smelt. I decided to fish a bit further up the river than my last visit, mainly so I could fish out of the boot of my car and quickly pack up and head to a second spot should the first not prove productive. In contrast to my last session things were very slow, perhaps because the water was a bit more coloured, and it took quite a while before I got any bites. I missed the first few but on my third cast my rod tip nodded a couple of times and I wound in to find a double shot of a small flounder and a smelt on my rig. Needless to say both were quickly swung up the wall.

Only my second ever European smelt, known in Scotland as a sparling. My fifty ninth species from Scottish saltwater this year.

To say I was over the moon would be a massive understatement and I felt like jumping around shouting like an idiot, but didn't want to startle a nearby dog walker. After putting the fish back I took a moment to compose myself before rebaiting and casting out again. I carried on fishing but after a while with no more interest shown in my small cocktail baits, having caught my target, with rain beginning to fall and more dark clouds heading towards me, I decided to end the session prematurely, quickly packed up and headed back down the road. Only one more species stands between me and a tally of sixty saltwater species from Scottish waters. A conger eel seems the most likely species to see me achieve this but a three bearded rockling, black mouthed dogfish or fifteen spined stickleback are also possible targets over the next few weeks that might also get me there. I can't see myself being in this position again so will be going all out to get the final species. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Fishing flat out.

On Tuesday evening, taking advantage of a drop in the wind, I had another go for a conger eel from an Eyemouth rock mark. This unfortunately only resulted in lots of lost gear and a blank so the following day I headed up to Dundee to fish the Tay estuary. I've been told that a few European smelt were caught recently during a match so I was hoping to get lucky and catch one myself. To increase my chances I fished two rods. Three hook flappers were my rig of choice and I went with light snoods and Nordic bend hooks baited with black lug and tipped with a mackerel sliver. My first rod tip was going before I had finished baiting up the rig on my second and the first fish of a hectic session was a dab. This was soon followed by a sea trout and then more dab and flounder. More flatfish followed and I was kept busy unhooking dabs and flounders, the rod still in the rest often registering interest as I was rebaiting the other one.

The first dab of many. 

A nice looking fish. 

Lots of flounder were around too. 

As the tide picked up weed and debris building up on my line became a pain and I began to wish I had mono mainline as removing it from my braid was a real chore. I ended up cutting off my rig, sliding the weed off from my braid and tying my rig back on again repeatedly to speed up removal. As the tide dropped off this became less of a problem again and I caught a second sea trout. As high tide approached it started raining and did so constantly for an hour or so. Looking like a drowned rat I fished away and had caught just short of fifty flatfish by the time I eventually run out of bait. This was no big deal as by that point the tide was ebbing and combined with the flow of the river had produced a down stream current that was gradually becoming too strong to fish effectively so I packed up and headed off. It had been an enjoyable session despite not catching any smelt. I might return and try from Broughty Ferry or from the Fife side at Tayport. I might also try a night time session as well. The Estuary offers reasonably sheltered fishing in windy weather and looking at the forecast there's plenty more of that over the next few days.

Tight lines, Scott.

I smelt a fish and I liked it.

I headed up to Dundee to fish the Tay Estuary today. Smelt, or sparling as they are known in Scotland, frequent brackish water, a few are usually caught from the Tay's banks at around this time every year and with a few being caught recently I decided to head north to see if I could catch one. Before setting off I knew I would need a large slice of luck but I was happy to give it a go, it was forecast to be a nice day and as I drove up I just had one of those feelings you sometimes get that things are going to go your way.

Arriving at about eleven, I quickly set up two rods and clipped on three hook flapper rigs. Six #4 circle hooks baited up with small strips of mackerel were soon on the muddy bottom held in place in the current by uptide leads. It didn't take long at all for my rod tips to start registering interest and a small flounder was soon landed.

First cast and a flounder took one of my mackerel strips.

I can't promote the use of circle hooks enough. I love them and almost all of my fish were nicely lip hooked.

This set the scene and the action was fairly constant with a few more flounders soon following over the next hour or so until I landed a sea trout to break up the flatfish onslaught. After that the flounders kept coming for the next couple of hours until I caught what I was after, my first ever smelt and my first new saltwater species of the year.

An odd looking fish with an odd smell too. They smell strongly of cucumber!

A nasty little mouth full of sharp teeth, even its tongue had a tooth on its tip!

Its vicious mouth reminded me of the lizardfish I caught last year while on holiday on Crete. Anyway, I was extremely pleased to catch it, popped it back and carried on fishing, catching more flounders.

A steady flow of flounders kept coming.

By half past four I had run out of bait and had caught a total of twenty eight flounders, with a few double shots and a single triple shot helping make up my tally. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon's fishing and the most flounders I've ever caught in one session but the smelly smelt was the fish that had really made my day.

Tight lines, Scott.