F1 Sunday.

The conditions on Sunday meant that I decided to head away from the coast for a few hours for my fishy fix. I perhaps would have preferred to visit one of west Scotland's sea lochs but to be honest as I didn't have company I decided to stay closer to home and made the one hour drive to Magiscroft to drown maggots instead. Not being too fussy about what I would catch when I was told that lots of F1 carp had been stocked into the Woodside Pond I decided to head to that and was soon setting up. There were lots of other anglers fishing already but not many fish were being caught and I also found things quite slow to start but fishing the bottom with single maggot on a #22 hook to 2lb nylon I eventually caught a few small roach before a slightly bigger fish took my bait. It was no match for my 13ft waggler rod but it put up a spirited little fight. 

I really like these little hybrids. They scrap quite well for their size.

The small roach kept coming along with a few more of the bullish little fish. I really wished that I had taken a much lighter rod though to get the best out of their little charges. I then caught my first perch of the year. 

Perfection in miniature. 

For the last hour of my session I moved over to the Birch Ponds to try and catch some gudgeon, another diminutive favourite of mine, but instead managed a steady procession of small roach. I think they dump all the silvers caught in the main pond matches into it as it is rather full of them. All in all a pretty chilled out day and the little perch has got me thinking about catching some more freshwater predators soon. I might have to go down south so I can have a crack at Zander as well.  I really like Zander and I know someone who is also fond of them too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Double figure fish.

Finally feeling a bit better after being off work sick I popped down to Dunbar Harbour midweek for a short session to see if there were any fish around inside it. I decided to try fishing a different presentation and went with a small Cheburashka lead weighing 3g. I rigged this up with a #10 undressed assist hook and threaded on a Gulp Angleworm to begin with but half way through the session changed to an EcoGearAqua Katsu Mebaru Shirasu (bit of a tasty mouthful that and not just for fish!). I went with this as it meant the hook was placed about three quarters of the way down and I could slowly retrieve it along the bottom to catch the attention of any bottom dwellers. To be honest though I don't find that presentation method matters too much with these "hybrid" type products, the heavily "scented" nature of them normally means putting them anywhere near a fish will invariably draw their interest. When I say "hybrid" and "scented" I mean soft plastics that are saturated with chemicals that fish recognise as belonging to an edible item, hence they are a sort of cross between a lure and a bait. Anyway, I find hook placement is the important aspect of whatever presentation you choose as this can improve hook up rates particularly where small mouthed fish are concerned. There weren't many fish around but a few small flatfish gave themselves away over the course of a couple of hours, emerging from the sand and lazily swimming over to have a chew on my pungent offering when I stopped moving it and gave them the chance to catch it. Three of the little fish ended up getting hooked and all of them were juvenile plaice. 

My Scottish saltwater species hunt moves into double figures. 

I also managed a single long spined sea scorpion before the wind picked up and became too annoying to persist when there weren't many fish biting. My short visit had served its purpose anyway and I think it'll be a few more weeks before things start really picking up along the East Lothian coast. I did plan on trying the open sea today to target pollock in the deep water around Eyemouth with some 100% lures, namely unscented soft plastic paddletails and metal jigs, but the onshore winds, accompanying swell and overcast sky made me change my plans and I ended up fishing the other end of the lure-bait spectrum, maggots under a waggler. It comes in handy not being fussy about what you put on your hook at times.

Tight lines, Scott.

All about that bass, 'bout that bass, no mullet.

With another sunny calm day forecast on Wednesday I decided to get some bread and sardines and have a go for the golden and thick lipped grey mullet that frequent the outflow at Torness Power Station. Arriving just before low water I decided to have a go for a bass while I waited for the tide to turn. This turned out to be a good idea. After a few dozen casts a small fiesty fish took my 6g cheburashka mounted 3" Daiwa D-Fin and put a nice bend in my ultra light setup. After a short but exciting scrap, with a couple of nervous moments involving a submerged rock, the fish was played out and in my net.

A rather angry little bass. Even after I quickly unhooked it the spiky fish repeatedly flared its gill plates at me. Not a happy fish. 

I was quite happy though. Another species added to my 2015 tally and a nice fish on very light tackle. Another angler kindly took this photo for me. Not the most picturesque backdrop perhaps but I've never been one for hiding where I fish.

The angler who took the photo was also fishing for bass using soft and hard plastic lures. After chatting to him for a bit I then set about making up my groundbait for the mullet. Spooning it into the bay just next to the outflow as well as tossing in a few bits of crust, a few small mullet soon appeared giving away their presence as they nosed the floating freebies. The water had a fair amount of weed suspended in it though and this seemed to get worse as the tide flooded in. It soon became a real pain to remove it from my line between casts and after an hour or so of frustration I admitted defeat and decided to head down the coast. As I got my gear together and walked back up the rocks I found the angler whom I had chatted to earlier trying to catch blennies in a large rockpool. He told me he was struggling to hook them because his hook was a bit too big so I lent him a #10 jighead and delayed my departure for a bit to join him fishing in the rockpool. We caught a few blennies and chatted away again for half an hour or so. I introduced myself properly, told him I was going to head down the coast to St Abbs and asked him if he fancied joining me which he did, so off we went back to our cars and drove south down the A1.

Soon at the harbour and fishing in the crystal clear water around its mouth it wasn't long before a couple of flounder were spotted meandering their way along the bottom into the harbour and then a sea trout slowly cruised in. A promising start indeed. We both had a go at tempting the trout and it did carefully inspect both of our jighead mounted lures before turning its nose up at them and swimming out of the harbour again. I then switched to a drop shot rig and a piece of Angleworm to cover a larger area and hopefully find some flatfish. This eventually worked and I caught a plaice and a couple of flounder. Keen to get a flatfish himself my fishing partner tried a piece of my Isome on his jighead. A good choice indeed as he caught a nice flounder on his next cast slowly retrieving it along the bottom.

One of my flounders had a nice honeycomb colouration.

This nice chunky flounder was caught by the other angler and was a much darker shade.

Shortly afterwards my fishing companion had to leave to get back to Edinburgh for 17:00. I had enjoyed fishing with him even if it was only for a short period and I also enjoyed chatting too so I told him about my blog and invited him to get in touch via email if he wanted to meet up again. I carried on fishing for another hour or so and worked my way around the harbour trying a few different spots. This saw me hook and lose another flounder and a small cod before I landed a rather beautifully marked little pollock.

Some juvenile pollock have lovely copper markings on them.

I then headed out onto the rocks at the end of the outer harbour to see if any larger pollock were around in the deeper kelpy water there. Tying on the 6g Cheburashka, Sakuma Manta hook and Daiwa D-Fin combo that my bass had fallen for in the morning I cast it out between two rocks further out and started working it back towards me. Using a very slow steady retrieve I had a few taps every other cast before one of the culprits eventually took a bigger mouthful and was soon being bullied away from the kelp. The fish didn't do any strong dives that are the trademark of a pollock though so I suspected it wasn't one and this was soon confirmed as the fish came to the surface and was drawn over my net.

It was the pollock's close cousin a coalfish that had put a little bend in my rod. Not as good a scrap as the bass had offered me but the bass was probably twice the size and had a current to use against me. Still fun on balanced ultra light tackle though.

I have to say that I'm really enjoying the versatility of the cheburashka leads. You're free to combine any size of lead with any hook to suit different lures and applications. I also think my undressed assist hook concept has big potential as well in that respect and also means that short shank hooks can be located where you want and leave the soft plastic free to move more. They are a lot cheaper than jigheads too. On this occasion however I felt a hook placed further back would have resulted in more hook ups but as I didn't have a larger hooks with me so I instead changed to a smaller lure. This did the trick and I started converting more bites into fish landed.

Another super tough little AquaWave lure. This one is a small clear ribbed shad with silver glitter.

As high water arrived and the tide slackened right off the action ceased so I ended the session and headed home. It had been another great day out in lovely sunny weather. I love catching mini species but fish like the bass and the coalfish are great fun on ultra light tackle too. I also added another two species to my 2015 tally as well. Only thirty six left to catch to reach fifty! It was also nice to meet another angler who likes fishing in rockpools! Hopefully he'll get in touch and we can meet up again. You can never have too many fishing friends!

Tight lines, Scott.

Great expectations.

I've been trying to sort out a day afloat on Loch Etive with my mate Martin since the start of the year. The weather when we were both free has made this pretty impossible however. At the start of last week the weather at the weekend looked great though so the boat was booked and my mate Nick was free too so two became three and I was looking forward to the trip. The day after booking the boat I developed the initial symptoms of "man flu" and by midweek I had been sent home from work to get in bed and rid myself of it. It soon turned into the worst dose of man flu I've ever had but by Saturday evening I thought I was over the worst of it and I wasn't going to pull out of the trip.

Nick and I met Martin in Dumbarton and off we went in Martin's car. I didn't feel great at all and while Martin and Nick chatted away about kayaks I just sat there quietly until I had to ask Martin to pull over so I could be sick. Not a great start to the day and a few more pit stops were required before we finally arrived at Loch Etive. Luckily by that point I felt a little bit better and as the water was flat calm I didn't think I'd be adding any man flu groundbait to it. Gear loaded into the boat off we went to tie up on one of the many large buoys found around the loch.

Loch Etive has a strange draw. It's well known that it can produce large spurdogs and thornback rays and holds an impressive amount of other species too. It's also surrounded by stunning scenery and on a nice day this makes being afloat on it a real pleasure. Those anglers who have fished it regularly will also know that it can also be a very hard place to fish at times. Every time I fish it though I still have high expectations and if I'm honest they are rarely met. Last Sunday would turn out to be one such day with the fishing proving very slow at times. After a few small members of the cod family were boated at the first spot followed by a lull in activity we decided to head further up the loch to tie up next to a fish farm.

My first whiting of the year adding to my 2015 Scottish species hunt tally.

Fish cages can be a good place to try when things are tough. Feed that makes it all the way down through the trout filled pens attracts small fish which in turn should attract bigger fish and sharks. That's the theory anyway.

Nick baits up while I hold my rod hoping for a bite.

One of the downsides of fishing near these large floating fish factories are the many ropes down below which often end up snagging your tackle when you wind it up from the bottom. Not really much of an issue unless you are getting bites but when Martin eventually hooked a nice spurdog and got it almost to the surface that is exactly what happened so we started the engine and I slowly moved the boat away from the offending rope. This did the trick and Martin was able to free his shark and soon had it in the boat.

A nice spurdog and we were all hopeful that more would follow as they normally move around in packs.

Unfortunately this was the only action at the fish cages however so after a while longer we decided to move again. Trying a third area sadly didn't see a huge improvement in our fortunes either. A few tiny knocks resulted in me boating a poor cod and a switch to some Sabiki then saw Martin catching a succession of little grey gurnards. Nick then caught one too.

Small but perfectly formed.

I tried in vain to catch one as well but had no luck, instead thinking I had one only for a small coalfish to appear from the depths. It had been a slow day on the fishing front and heading back to shore we had one last drift close in. This saw me hook a fish which came off and Nick almost immediately afterwards hooked one as well, boating his biggest fish of the day, a cod weighing a couple of pounds.

So the fishing wasn't very good but there's just something about Loch Etive that keeps me going back. I'm not sure what it is exactly because more often that not the fishing disappoints. Never mind it was a nice day to be afloat in good company and the fresh air probably did me good too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Freshwater Blenny.

Whilst it's still quite a while away and my mate Martin and I are visiting the River Ebro primarily to target freshwater predators I was curious about what other fish live in the massive Spanish river. All you ever really hear about from an angling perspective is that the Ebro holds huge carp and catfish. When conditions recently have been a bit too miserable to go fishing I've been doing some research into what other freshwater species are found in the river and it turns out that there are lots! Whilst putting together a list of the forty plus species that are found in it I got a pleasant surprise when I discovered that one of them is the freshwater blenny!

Blennies are one of my favourite fish families so I just had to add this one to my "Most Wanted" list.

To be honest I wasn't aware that there were any blenny species that lived exclusively in freshwater but this one does, hence its name! It has a fairly wide distribution too being found throughout southern Europe and northern Africa. It is also a popular fish that is kept in aquariums too. Normally found in fairly shallow water I'll be packing a few floats to fish maggots for them. I was already looking forward to the trip immensely but now I'm even more excited!

Tight lines, Scott.

PS: This isn't an April Fools.