The final countdown.

Last Monday I managed to get away from work early and headed through to Galston in Ayrshire to my mate Martin's in preparation for our flight to Spain the following day. It was a lovely afternoon so on the way I made a slight detour, picked up a small tub of ragworm and decided to visit Greenock's Victoria Marina to have have a go for a common dragonet. There were lots of juvenile cod and hadock around and I thought that getting through them might be a big ask but before I had used up my first worm I caught my target.

Number forty in my Scottish saltwater species hunt. A fantastic start to my time off.

Having caught what I went for fairly quickly I decided to head south to Troon. Martin had told me there were plenty of rock gobies to be found in the rockpools there and he wasn't exaggerating. When I slowly approached them I could see my target sitting on the bottom before shooting off into the weeds when they saw me. A #14 hook and single split shot was soon on the end of my leader and a little piece of ragworm was soon being dangled in close to potential fish holding areas. Rock gobies are not shy but a particularly bold blenny bullied its way past one to be my first fish from the mark. Not to be outdone in the kamikaze mini species stakes, three rock gobies all took my miniscule offering, darting out to gobble it up, were hooked and quickly landed.

The biggest of the trio.

Grinning like an idiot I headed off to Martin's, grabbing a couple of celebratory bottles of beer en route. I now have nine species left to catch to reach the fifty mark. Looking at my list of remaining potential targets I'm feeling fairly confident with a day out of Port Logan already arranged and a second in the pipeline where I have a good opportunity to tick off a few more. Those trips along with shore sessions on my days off work will with any luck see me achieve my goal over the next four months.

Tight lines, Scott

Each to their own.

Looking at my list of possible remaining saltwater target species last Monday night I decided to head west again last Tuesday. With last Wednesday off work as well however I opted to have an evening session at Greenock, fishing the Victoria Marina, followed by an overnight stay in Glasgow before heading up to Loch Fyne early on Wednesday morning. I knew my mate Dimitrios who lives in Glasgow was free on the Wednesday and is still without a car so I sent him a message to see if he wanted to ride shotgun which he did. My plans complete I put them into motion early in Tuesday afternoon. Really I choose Victoria Marina with shore rocking and common eels in mind as I have read reports online of them both being caught there recently. Common dragonets are also known to turn up there too from time to time. Given these facts I felt there was a good chance of adding a species to this year's tally.  There were a few other angler fishing when I arrived but one leaving as I got organised to start my own session told me that not many fish were being caught but looking along the marina I could see most anglers were fishing heavier gear and no doubt large baits for larger fish. Fishing a scaled down three hook flapper and various small baits on #10 hooks I quickly caught a couple of small cod at fairly close range and when I cast out a bit further I caught a few tiny haddock.

A pleasant little surprise and my first of the year. Even juveniles bear the "devil's thumbprint".

As the session carried on I caught a few more fish and when the tide turned and began to flood, submerging the weed covered rocks at the bottom of the marina wall, I caught a few goldsinny wrasse.

There are a few of these little chaps who feed in the weedy rocks at close range.

I fished away quite happily catching mainly juvenile haddock, dab and cod. As the evening progressed the other anglers, who still didn't seem to be catching much, slowly started to pack up and head off and before too long I had the place all to myself. 

A nice little early evening codling.

It was quite a nice night and as the sun set I changed end gear and was hopefully that maybe a shore rockling or common eel would become active and take my ledgered fish bait and my #6 hook with it.

Red sky at night. Lines will be tight?

As darkness fell however all activity ceased apart from the resident shore crabs which had my rod tip rhythmically nodding ever so slightly, a few of them holding on for dear life, munching away, as I reeled in to rebait periodically. At about 01:00 I called it a night and drove east to Glasgow where I stayed the night in a budget hostel. 

In the morning it was a lovely day. I picked up Dimitrios and after making the nice drive through some lovely scenery we were soon on the bladderwrack covered shore of Loch Fyne. I was hoping for a common dragonet again and fished small chunks of raw prawn on a three hook flapper using very light tackle. Dimitrios fished small metals and before I had finished setting up my gear he had caught a launce and a tiny whiting. The area I planned to fish was fairly weedy and quite shallow until it reached a drop off though so he soon headed south to fish some deeper water. 

Dimitrios heads off to do his own thing.

I was soon fishing and catching the usual suspects. A black goby was first to be caught and was followed by a few tiny cod, a mackerel and a string of dabs. 

Even at range holding my rod meant I could feel the fish attacking my little baits. 

I've been catching a lot of dab recently. 

I have a strange fixation with the big eyes of the dab. They are just plain weird and freak me out a bit if I'm honest.

Rather than swimming off this one just went straight to the bottom and with a quick shake buried itself. I held my cheap sunglasses close in front of my phone to take this photo without the surface glare. Who needs an expensive camera and a polarising lens filter? 

After a while Dimitrios came back along to get his ultra light rod. He had with him a few mackerel which he'd had fun catching but he wanted to up the ante and catch a few more on even lighter gear. After a while doing just that he returned again and decided to have a bit of a nap in the sun. I carried on fishing away and as the tide dropped away revealing more of the shoreline I was able to get my three hook flapper out further and further. After catching a few more black gobies I was getting a few bites that I couldn't connect with so I switched from #10 to #14 hooks. I was hoping the culprits were common dragonets but after missing a few more of the tiny little knocks I was beginning to wonder if it was crabs when I eventually hooked something and landing it added another species to this year's tally. 

Feeling the bite of this tiny sand goby at a fair distance in deep water is testament to the incredible sensitivity of the tackle I was using. Still very lucky to hook it on a #14 hook though.

Quite pleased I carried on fishing hopeful that the receding tide would allow me to reach an area that held my target. Dimitrios feeling refreshed from his afternoon snooze headed back along to enjoy some more sport with the mackerel. Most of them had moved off but he did have some fun when he hooked a sea trout. As they often do however it eventually managed to throw his hook. I didn't manage to locate any common dragonets in the end but I caught a few more dabs, cod, mackerel, a solitary juvenile haddock and a couple of short spined sea scorpions before it was time to pack up and head home. 

These are much more prevalent in sea lochs than their long spined cousins.

It had been an enjoyable little two day trip and with the addition of another two species taking my 2015 saltwater tally to thirty four it had been worth putting a few more miles on the car's clock again too. It was good to meet up with Dimitrios again even if we both spent most of the day doing our own thing. Nothing wrong with anglers enjoying different styles of fishing but as Dimitrios fishes exclusively with lures I think next time we meet up I'll join him fishing with them too, if not for the entire session then for the majority of it at least. Personally I think Dimitrios is one of the most talented light game anglers in the country and I think I could learn a lot from him, particularly when it comes to fishing metals. We're thinking about a trip to fish Loch Linnhe with ling and cuckoo wrasse being the main target species. I think between now and the end of the year I'll be spending a lot of my time fishing over on the western half of the country so no doubt Loch Linnhe won't be the only venue that Dimitrios and I visit.

Tight lines, Scott.

Bits and bobs.

I'm rather excited at the moment because I'm off to Lanzarote next Monday. As anticipation builds I  have been sorting out my tackle so I can do a little bit of fishing whilst there. Noting I was low on a few bits and bobs I'd already sorted out a load of drop shot weights and treated myself to some new #0.4 PE braid. With a small list of items still required I drove through to the Glasgow Angling Centre on Tuesday to pick them up. I also thought whilst through there I would head a bit further west to the Clyde Estuary and see if I could catch some goldsinny wrasse so I put some ultra light gear in the car. The shopping was quickly done and I exited the superstore before any potentially expensive impulses got the better of me and my bank balance. Armed with some ragworm I headed along the motorway and was soon at the small marina opposite Morrison's in Greenock. Setting up a very simple one up rig with a #10 wormer hook I was soon getting bites close in and landed a couple of small pollock.

Tempted from the weeds close in by a chunk of ragworm.

Being overcast and a bit windy I was concerned that the conditions weren't ideal for wrasse to be active but I was soon proven wrong when I began to feel the rather distinctive sharp taps of a wrasse and quickly hooked the fish responsible, a small dark brown goldsinny.

Mission accomplished. My first wrasse of 2014. Looking forward to a few exotic ones next week hopefully!

One of my goals this year is the improve my fish handling, particularly in saltwater. To work towards this objective I've bought  myself a 4m long telescopic landing net handle and a rubberised net that I can use around harbours and on rock marks. As I caught the fish I had the net propped over the railing in front of me and unhooked the fish over it before using it to return the fish rather than drop them from my elevated position. I fished on for a couple of hours and caught a second goldsinny wrasse, a few more pollock and then had to use the net to land a nice little codling which I probably would have struggled to land without it.

My net came in handy for this handsome chap.

I was obviously quite pleased with the way the session went and was very happy to catch my first wrasse of the year. Using the net as an unhooking aid meant the fish were safe if I dropped them and returning the fish using the net worked very well too. If these practices minimise the risk of unnecessary injury and improve the chances of a successful release then they can only be a good thing so I'll be using the net whenever appropriate in the future.

Tight lines, Scott.