Something to look forward to.

I had a short session on Sunday evening with my mate Ryan, scratching about at Newhaven Harbour. Rockling were the target species again, but for the majority of the night the resident whiting had other ideas. They were straight onto our black lug baits as soon as they hit the bottom, sometimes before they got there!

We caught plenty of small whiting, but it wasn't exactly exciting.

There was very little wind, but it was quite cold, and it rained lightly constantly, making things a little unpleasant. Casting our rigs in towards slightly rougher ground, I caught something that I knew wasn't a whiting as I wound it in. It turned out to be a beaten up long spined sea scorpion that was a little bit tatty around the edges and had a damaged tail.

A bit of an old warrior. Life is tough sometimes.

Over low tide, things went very quiet, and we didn't get many bites until it began to flood. Not long before we called it a night, Ryan struck into a decent bite and pulled in a rockling. Having caught a shore rockling during our last after dark session down in the Scottish Borders, he was hoping it was a five bearded rockling, but was disappointed when he lifted it up over the railings and realised it was a shore rockling.

Ryan's shore rockling was a nice deep reddish brown colour.

After catching a few more whiting, it was getting quite late, so we decided to call it a night after having a few "last casts". Rockling are probably my favourite target species in winter, but I've got to be honest, I'm not really a massive fan of venturing out at this time of year. Most of the time the conditions are, at best, pretty miserable, and at worst, downright rotten. Strong easterly winds the remainder of this week, mean I probably won't get out targeting rockling. Perfect winter cod conditions, but fishing for them just isn’t my thing! Luckily, I'll be getting a break from the cold Scottish winter next month when Ryan and I head down to Tenerife with our mate Nick. Should hopefully be a bit warmer down there, and whiting definitely won't be a problem! Not sure that I'll catch any rockling either mind you,although there is a spotted rockling found there so you never know!

Tight lines, Scott.

Photo opportunity.

A few days after getting back from my trip down south, I met up with my mate Ryan for a short session locally on the western breakwater of Granton Harbour. We’re off to Japan next month, so we spent most of the afternoon talking about that. Fishing away as we chatted, I caught a couple of wrasse and Ryan caught a long spined sea scorpion from around a group of large submerged boulders at the base of the sea wall we were fishing from. This area was very snaggy though, and after losing a few rigs, we turned our attention to fishing further out onto some cleaner ground. This quickly started producing lots of small whiting.

Catching dozens of small whiting wasn’t very exciting. In fact, this is the first whiting that I’ve bothered to photograph this year!

I was hoping that a passing striped red mullet might get to one of my ragworm baits, but even in the highly unlikely event that there was one around, the ravenous whiting weren’t letting anything else get anywhere near them, hitting them as soon as they hit the bottom. After a few hours, we opted to bring the session to an end, with some dark clouds rolling in making the decision just a little bit easier. Hopefully the next whiting I catch will be a Japanese one!

Tight lines, Scott.

Five above zero.

Leaving Singapore at the end of November, where the average temperature was about 30°C, and stepping off the plane in Edinburgh on a dark and rather chilly evening into a temperature of 1°C, was not much fun. Winter in Scotland is pretty grim, even in the Central Belt. At least I had lots of photos to crop, watermark and upload into fourteen blog posts that I still had to write. Something to keep me busy for a couple of weeks when it was horrible outside.

About halfway through that process, I checked the weather forecast for the coming days, and seeing a short, fairly mild spell approaching, I arranged to meet up with my mate Ryan to catch up. We fished locally at Marine Esplanade, our main target for the evening was five bearded rocking, a species I’ve not caught this year. Ryan brought some frozen black lug, and we fished small sections of it, on small hooks, on the bottom. We got bites from the start of the session and both of us opened our account with pin whiting. 

There are lots of pin whiting around this part of the coastline.

I also caught a solitary poor cod. They seem to be increasingly common in the Forth Estuary.

After catching a few more whiting, my rod tip started nodding away again. Lifting it up and feeling the weight of a small fish, I wound it in to find the target species for the evening had snaffled my small smelly bait. 

My first five bearded rockling of the year! My 267th species of 2024!

The rockling reminded me slightly of the bigeye cusk I had caught in Singapore. A pleasant little flashback! Things slowed down after that, but as we chatted away, another bite registered on my rod tip and picking my rod up I felt another fish on. It felt like a second rockling, wriggling around as it came up through the murky water towards me, but it turned out to be a viviparous blenny.

A nice bonus fish!

Before we left, I caught a second five bearded rockling. I love it when a plan comes together! Speaking of plans coming together, Ryan will be coming to Japan with Lillian and I next November, and we’ll be planning our three-week itinerary over the next few months. It’s a trip I'm already really looking forward to!

Tight lines, Scott. 

Scratching around.

I’ve had a few short sessions over the last week, trying to catch larger sandeel species and my first topknot. The inlet area of Torness Power Station was the first venue and after collecting some bait in the shape of a handful of dog whelks, I tied on a small metal to try and tempt any large sandeel species that might have been present. A few years ago, I caught a sandeel there that I suspect may have been a Corbin’s sandeel. I took photos of it at the time, but really I should have kept it, so I could have carried out a thorough inspection to confirm its identity as either a Corbin’s sandeel or a greater sandeel. 

Matching the hatch in fly fishing terms. Large sandeel species eat small sandeel species. 

After an hour or so, I hadn't caught any sandeel, instead catching quite a few reasonably sized coalfish that were good fun on my ultra light setup. 

These plump coalfish put up a spirited fight. 

After a while the incoming tide forced me from the concrete platform where I was fishing, so I scrambled back up the sea defence boulders where I spent some time dropping pink isome down into the gaps between them. I was hoping to catch a topknot, but after trying several deep holes, all I’d caught were a couple of long spined sea scorpion. I then switched my attention to fishing over a rocky area at the edge of a large kelp bed. Baiting up small hooks with the flesh from the dog whelks was quite productive, with several mini species falling for their strong scent. 

This leopard spotted goby was first to munch a chunk of shellfish. Looks like popcorn but tastes a bit fishy. 

This blenny also took a liking to the small bait. 

As did this long spined sea scorpion. 

A few days later, I decided to visit the end of Granton Breakwater at low tide, to fish in the rocky bottom between the end of the breakwater and the rotten remains of the old wooden pier that used to be there. Fishing small pieces of ragworm I was expecting to maybe catch a few wrasse, but instead all I caught were some tiny poor cod, and I had to go down to tiny hooks to discover what was tapping away. 

There were lots of these, my first poor cod of the year, but sadly nothing else. 

The following day I headed to Newhaven Harbour to use up a small amount of maggots that I had left in my fridge that had started to turn. The juvenile whiting were loving them, hitting them as soon as my rig settled at the bottom of the wall I was fishing down.

Maggot proving once again to be a very effective bait for saltwater targets.

After a while, a piper turned up and began playing his pipes for the passengers arriving from a cruise ship that was moored out in the Forth. It was quite cool catching a few fish as he played his instrument behind me!

What's more Scottish than a red-headed, red-faced young man playing the bagpipes!

The juvenile whiting were numerous and equally ravenous, but eventually a viviparous blenny managed to get my wriggling little baits in its mouth first and was quickly hoisted up.

I've caught a few of these lately, but on maggot was a first for me.

All good fun, and my expectation of catching anything new during these types of sessions is minimal, but you never know. I just got back from a two-day trip down to Dumfries & Galloway with my mate Ryan, and on Saturday I'm heading back down there again with my mate Nick. Ryan and I had a good time, although the fishing was challenging at times. We caught a few fish, but we didn't get the one species that we went for. I have no expectation of encountering anything unusual on Saturday evening, having already ticked off a Dover sole, but I'm looking forward to hopefully another action packed session. I might spend some time trying to catch a starry smoothound during the session, fingers crossed one can get to a peeler crab bait before the hordes of thornback ray do.

Tight lines, Scott.

Summer has arrived…

Getting up this morning and looking out of the window I was puzzled by the weather. There was very little wind and the sun was out. Excited by this rare occurrence I decided to visit a couple of local spots today armed with a few ragworm. First up was Newhaven Harbour.

Blue skies? Calm conditions? Oh my god!

Not sure how long the freak weather would last, I decided just to fish the last two hours of the ebbing tide at the mouth of the harbour, dropping small pieces of ragworm tight down the sides of the walls. Things were pretty slow, but eventually a few fish started having a go at my bait and I caught some cool mini species. 

Ragworm. Yummy!

My first viviparous blenny of the year. 

My fourth butterfish this week! This one did a spot of breakdancing as I tried to get a hold of it to remove the hook. 

Eventually it tired itself out!

As low water arrived, the bites dried up so I decided to head to the exposed boulders opposite the entrance to Leith Docks. Not much to report from there apart from a few tiny whiting. I tied on a 7g metal jig and had a few casts with that to see if there were any mackerel around, but if they were around they weren’t impressed by my efforts! 

Probably the smallest whiting I’ve ever caught!

Before leaving, I dropped my ragworm section down into some holes in the boulders I was standing on. This surprisingly didn’t produce any fish. Something did grab my bait though, and it felt quite strong, violently pulling my rod tip down a few times. Initially I thought it was a small cod or a wrasse thumping away, but it turned out to be a tiny lobster, using its tail to try and make its escape. 

Lobster are such strange creatures. Their bulky, powerful claws look ridiculous when compared to their thin, spindly legs. 

Their colours are amazing too. 

I persisted for a while, but with no fish biting I called it a day and headed home. A short, fun session and for some reason my head has gone a little bit red. I’ll be heading out again to Newhaven Harbour tomorrow evening to fish the last few hours of the flooding tide. I wonder if it’ll still be summer? Who knows, I might have to put some factor on!

Tight lines, Scott.

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.

Trying a new spot for a new two spot.

I think it's fair to say that over the last couple of months I've rediscovered my love for fishing. Obviously lockdown meant fishing wasn't even possible for a long time and this combined with being furloughed for a few months gave me a complete break from fishing altogether. I love my job in the Edinburgh Angling Centre but perhaps working in a tackle shop full time and fishing in my free time had eventually taken its toll and the enforced interruption has definitely been a positive thing. As they say never combine business with pleasure! Anyway, my recent gilthead hunting trips and late night scad sessions down at Torness Power Station as well as other sessions further afield have rekindled my passion and last Wednesday it was a nice day so Lillian and I went for a leisurely drive to the west coast. I got permission to try fishing at a new spot on the shore of Loch Creran, inspired by an underwater photo of a fish with two spots I've never caught before I found online that was taken there.

This is a two spotted clingfish, so named due to having, you've guessed it, two spots. These are located one on either side, to the rear of the fish's pectoral fins. A very small species, its maximum length of 6 cm will obviously make catching one tough but if you don't try...

Fishing into deep water from the end of a small pontoon using #14 hooks baited with tiny pieces of raw prawn, I quickly added a few species to my 2020 tally in the shape of dozens of pin whiting and a few small dabs.

I got comfortable for a couple of hour's fishing while Lillian read a book and took the odd photo of me.

These pin whiting made up the bulk of my catch from the deeper water out in front of the pontoon.

After a while I decided to switch from casting out as far as I could and tried dropping my rig straight down off the end of the pontoon. It's always worth remembering that a lot of the time there are usual fish right at your feet! As soon as my rig touched down on the bottom my rod tip started twitching away to rattling type bites, so I swapped to an even smaller hook to see if I could find out what the culprits were. This worked a treat and I now have a new favourite mark for targetting painted goby. Their size averaged about 4cm long and with mouths perhaps smaller than the two spotted clingfish I was hoping to catch this gave me confidence that my tactics were spot on and might work should I happen to get lucky and put my rig in the vicinity of my target species.

There were plenty of them down there and my little observation tank soon had a few in it.

After a while I decided to ignore my own advice on fishing at my feet and began firing my rig out into deeper water again, trying different distances and directions. A few more whiting, a solitary cod and a lone sand goby were all caught and released. The sand goby again a vindication that small fish at distance in deep water can be successfully caught. Before we left I tied on a small HTO shore jig fitted with a single hook at the rear and had a go for mackerel as I'd had one or two of them follow my lead in when I had been retrieving my bait rig earlier in the session. It didn't take long to catch a few and whilst most were released by shaking them off the hook a couple of slightly bigger ones were kept for my tea the following day. 

It's easy to forget how beautiful the humble mackerel is with its colourful markings and iridescent sheen. They're great sport on very light tackle as well and grilled with a generous splash of Frank's red hot original cayenne pepper sauce they're very tasty into the bargain.

So, yet again a my first ever clingfish had eluded capture but if nothing else I'm persistent, so I might return to the west coast sea lochs to try my luck again if the weather is suitable during the coming weeks. With summer well and truly over now my thoughts are also beginning to turn to my old Scottish pink,red and brown nemesis, the three bearded rockling, so a trip or two down to the Southwest of Scotland for an after dark session targetting those is on the cards too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Finally!

Over the last few years I've been down to the Mull of Galloway several times and have never had any luck whatsoever when targeting tope in either Luce Bay or the Irish Sea. On Sunday the 24th last month I went down there again with two of my mates to have another go. The forecast looked terrible right up until the day before the trip but luckily it changed in our favour. Heading out of East Tarbet the weather was still pretty poor for the time of year being cloudy and it also rained a few times too but there was hardly any wind and more importantly the fishing was great with several periods of intense action.

Nick was first to catch a tope. His first ever. 

Stewart was next to catch one. Also his first ever. 

Some of them were rather grumpy. Can't blame them I suppose.

A fantastic day's fishing was had and when the time came to head back to dry land we'd had over twenty tope between us and a few more had dropped baits too. I also had a few whiting, grey gurnard and dogfish during quiet spells on a second rod and lost a nice bull Huss at the side of the boat when it spat my bait as they often do. The early start and the seven hour round trip makes it a long day but it's always well worth it and it was great to finally catch some tope down there and bust the hoodoo. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Overnight success.

Way back in April I had an enquiry from a fellow angler living in Edinburgh about meeting up for a light game session on the coast. We tried a few times to arrange this but never managed to meet up. Last week I asked Mikey if he fancied a day out in a boat that I had booked but he couldn't make it. During this conversation he told me he was going to Loch Etive to fish through the night and asked me if I fancied going too. I jumped at the chance and finally we met for the first time last Friday night. After putting my gear into his car off we went, chatting about fishing pretty much the whole way there. When we arrived at our preferred mark it was already being fished and a brisk wind was blowing directly onto the second mark we visited so we ended up going all the way around the loch to Bonawe Quarry. Walking through it we arrived at a spot I always do quite well at and got set up. Pulley rigs baited up we cast out our first baits of the night. Mikey fished two rods whilst I elected to fish only one. Our baits hadn't been on the bottom long when Mikey spotted a common eel snaking through the bladderwrack at our feet. I quickly tied a small hook onto a length of 15lb line and baited it with a small piece of mackerel. Flicking this out near the fish saw it eagerly swallowing the bait very aggressively and I quickly yanked the line upwards hooking it. Soon hoisted clear of the water it was a superb start to the session. 

A great unexpected bonus capture, adding to my 2015 tally.  

Action on the bait rods was quite slow to begin with and we amused ourselves watching more eels appear as we tossed scraps of bait in at the water's edge. They fought for these with the resident shore crabs and provided us with a bit of light relief. Eventually one of Mikey's rod tips registered some interest and he struck into the first spurdog of the night. 

The first of a few spurdogs for Mikey. 

I then caught a few dogfish whilst Mikey's rods produced a few more spurdogs. As we were pretty much fishing the same end tackle and baits I was puzzled as to why he was catching spurdogs and I wasn't but a cast over nearer to the spot he was fishing eventually produced one for me.

My first spurdog of the year. 

As the evening progressed we carried on catching fish and as well as more sharks a few cod and whiting were also landed too. The general size of the fish was small but the action was reasonably constant and it was quite a nice night to be out. By about 6am we had caught about twenty fish between us and things had slowed down a bit so we ended the session. We were both pretty tired but as I had to get back to Edinburgh so I could go to work in the afternoon we loaded the car and drove home. It was pretty hard going trying to stay awake but thankfully Mikey just about managed it thanks to a coffee break on the way back and with the help of the the rumble strips on the M9. I enjoyed fishing together and I hope it's not another four months before we meet up again although next time I think we'll stay on the east coast for a spot of light game at a much more sociable time of the day.  

Tight lines, Scott.