Keep calm and carry on fishing.

For most anglers winter is a difficult time. Usually because the species they choose to target are no longer around or they don't want to fish through the colder months. I also find it pretty tough but I still like to get out and try and catch something and there are still fish around to be caught. During the week I headed down the coast to St Abbs Harbour. At this time of year there are plenty of coalfish around and plenty of fun to be had catching them on ultra light tackle. It's very easy to catch them too so the action can be fast paced. I debarb my hooks to aid unhooking and prevent damaging the fish. On the first night I fished with my current favourite and perhaps the most convenient of baits, raw prawn. On the second night I fished with small lures and mixed it up with some small metals (with the trebles replaced with single hooks), paddletails on jigheads and Gulp! Angleworm and Isome on a dropshot rig. Over the two nights I caught just over one hundred coalfish, most of them only a few ounces but the odd fish about a pound put a good bend in my rod.

The humble coalfish is often overlooked but can give a good scrap on ultra light tackle.

A couple of pollock and a solitary long spined sea scorpion managed to muscle their way through the shoals of ravenous coalfish and in the back of my mind I was hoping that something unusual would turn up but nothing did. Still it was a lot of fun and just goes to show that if you're not too fussy about what you are targeting there are still plenty of fish in the sea and plenty fun to be had catching them!

Tight lines, Scott.

...and the sky is grey.

I hadn't seen my mate Keith for a while so when he told me he had a few days off this week we arranged to meet up. The weather was looking pretty rancid across most of the country so we agreed to go where ever conditions looked most favourable. The night before we checked the forecast and there was no escaping the howling wind. Dunbar was forecast to be overcast but dry at least and the wind was blowing off shore so there would be very little swell to make things even harder so I was confident we could find a sheltered spot or two for some ultra light mini species fun.

First stop was Torness Power Station outflow, Scotland's premier common blenny hotspot. Not a place I really like visiting anymore due to it being a bass nursery area that is sadly frequented by a lot of idiots who take undersized fish. Anyway, as Keith was keen to catch some blennies I made an exception and luckily we had the place to ourselves. Fishing for a couple of hours we had a lot of fun and caught several dozen blennies between us on Gulp! Angleworm and raw prawn. I also caught the smallest corkwing wrasse I've ever seen.

These cheeky little fish always put a smile on my face.

How cute!

It was quite interesting that whilst there were plenty of blennies amongst the large boulders that make up the sea defences they weren't being particularly aggressive but when we tried fishing down the edge of the outflow it was a blenny pretty much every drop. This was probably due to the artificially warm water and a reminder that over the coming months the fishing in saltwater will get quite tough as fish feed less. As it started to get dark we left, popping into Dunbar harbour for an hour to have a even more ultra light fun catching loads of small coalfish before finally heading back up the road.

Good fun on ultra light tackle and plenty of them in the harbour as always.

It was good catching up with Keith and he tells me he'll have a bit more free time next month so no doubt we'll be off fishing and with Keith being a keen fluff chucker I suspect we might try for grayling at some point.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Grayling.

The lady of the stream. Beautiful and elegant. Hard fighting. I'd love to catch one. There's no season for them in Scotland and with things slowing to a crawl on the saltwater front what better way to spend cold winter days than wading in icy cold streams and rivers, frosty air nipping at your fingers trying to catch a grayling?

Lovely looking fish with that large sail like and wonderfully coloured dorsal fin.

I'm not sure if I'll get myself a centrepin reel and try trotting maggots, fish one of the tried and tested grayling fly patterns and hopefully improve my fly casting in the process or perhaps do something different and fish a tiny soft plastic on a jighead using my ultra light gear. Whichever approaches I end up using I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun and the reward will be well worth braving the cold should I manage to catch one.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Gilthead Seabream.

Another addition inspired by my recent trip to Crete, the gilthead seabream is a species that can also be targeted in UK waters. Named due to the golden band between their eyes and golden hue on their upper gill plates, this member of the seabream family is renowned as a powerful fish that offers great sport when hooked. The small common pandora, a very similar fish shape wise, that I caught gave me a little bit of an idea what to expect, scrapping well, putting a nice bend in my ultra light gear and taking line in short but powerful little runs. 

All that glitters may not be gold but in this case it is.

With at least one trip to the Mediterranean already on the cards, perhaps a holiday there too and a trip or two to the south coast next summer a distinct possibility as well I'll hopefully get more than one opportunity to have go for them. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Stargazer.

Having caught four out of the six Mediterranean species on my "Most Wanted" list I'm going to add a few more. Then I can justify more species hunting sessions if I go for a holiday there next year and if I don't I'll just have to go for a fishing trip! I quite like weevers. There's just something about them that I'm drawn to. Perhaps it's their aggressive nature or cunning method of camoflage. I just think they are cool. Stargazers are without doubt my new favourite weever though. Having seen them buried and waiting to pounce I fell in love with their grumpy looking faces in the sand. 

Grumpy but certainly not dopey.

The cunning predator uncovered!

The ones I saw in the aquarium in Hersonisos were all caught in fisherman's nets and my capture of a greater weever at range from a harbour makes me think that stargazers will also be a viable target from the shore too. Weevers being aggressive also suggests to me that locating them will be the hardest part and once I've done that catching one won't be too hard. Local knowledge will no doubt be the key and hopefully I can find some fisherman who are prepared to share it with me!

Tight lines, Scott.