Small stream shenanigans.

Last Sunday's Fish Club meeting was cancelled due to nobody being able to attend. I still wanted to get out though and my mate Nick agreed to meet me for a couple of hours' fishing late on in the evening. We hit the coast to explore a low water rock mark but the windy conditions were against us and we failed to catch any fish. On the way back to the car we passed a small stream and spotted a few trout rising, an opportunity too good to miss. We quickly rigged up some tiny soft plastics and from the first cast had little brownies attacking them as we cast them upstream and retrieved them a little faster than the current. A few casts later I hooked a fish and quickly landed it.

A pristine little brown trout. Lovely.

Working our way upstream we found another couple of nice little pools and soon landed a couple more of the beautifully marked little fish. We were both glad to have avoided a blank and our unscheduled foray into freshwater was a reminder to me that I really must get out with my brook rod and put the grey dusters I tied up to use. I think some of East Lothian's small streams might be getting a visit soon.

Tight lines, Scott.

Fifty shades of grey.

With adding a few more species to my 2015 Scottish saltwater challenge tally in mind I grabbed my sun cream and hat and headed west on Tuesday. Sadly neither were required as this year's rather dreadful weather continued. 

The summer sun nowhere to be seen on Loch (not so) Fyne.

All of the recent stormy weather had dumped a lot of water into the loch and as a result the water was quite peaty and had a fair amount of loose weed suspended in it. Removing this from my scaled down two hook flapper was a bit of a pain but fishing small raw prawn chunks on some very light tackle had me catching fish from the first cast. The only species that were on the feed were dabs which I caught a steady procession of. 

Goggle eyed dabs. Another species added to my 2015 tally.

On most flatfish the second eye seems to make it all the way over but not on a dab. Their eyes are quite large and there's not really enough room for two of them on one side!

In the past I've also caught haddock, common dragonets, black gobies and sand gobies from the area I was fishing but after wandering along the weedy shoreline as the tide creeped up it all I had caught were more dabs. Keen to catch something else I headed up to Loch Etive to fish around Kelly's Pier at Taynuilt. In the past amongst other species I've caught black gobies, sand gobies and pouting from it but there was no sign of any gobies so I started fishing off the end of it into deeper water. This resulted in a steady stream of fish. 

Some quite dark grey gurnards.

A few small codling put up a good fight on my light rod.

It was soon apparent that grey gurnards were present in large numbers including this very darkly coloured, almost black old warrior.

After a whle I caught a string of poor cod. They can be quite pretty little fish with their pearlescent pink flanks. 

With seemingly no pouting around I returned my attention to hunting for gobies and plopped my rig into the rotten remains of what used to be the main part of the pier. 

Full of hiding holes and covered in weed. The perfect place for mini species like gobies to hang out.

Trying different spots close in to the decaying timber pilings I eventually had a few taps and hooked a fish. My first black goby from Scottish waters this year was soon in hand.

Species number thirty one successfully added. Much darker in colour than the ones I caught from the Black Sea last month.

Before leaving I tried in the deep water again which resulted in a few more grey gurnard, cod, poor cod, a coalfish and a whiting. No pouting though.

Not the member of the cod family I was hoping for but I was happy to provide a free of charge parasite removal service before releasing it again. 

The miserable grey sky overhead and a few showers hadn't stopped me having fun catching plenty of fish and I lost track of the time before remembering I had a fairly long drive home to do and checked what time it was. Two species added to my tally meant it had been quite a productive day really. I'll no doubt return to these two venues later in the year and perhaps by then the summer will have gotten its act together and my sun cream and hat can come out of retirement as that would be nice but I'm not counting on it.

Tight lines, Scott.

A day at the wrasses.

Sunday's Fish Club meet saw myself, Brian and Col hit Starney Bay at the eastern end of St Abbs Head. The fishing was quite slow though after the lads initially caught a few coalfish. I tried fishing small baits over the sandy areas to see what mini species might be lurking there but after a while with only a tiny cod and coalfish to show for my efforts I joined the lads targeting wrasse. There wasn't much happening for a while until Col shouted over to say he had hooked one and Brian headed over with a net to help him land it.

Col loves catching wrasse and was ecstatic. Honest.

Needless to say Brian and I were soon perched either side of Col and the next thirty minutes or so saw Brian then catch a couple and Col catching a second too.

Brian readily admitted that in the past he has been guilty of plundering Col's swims when they trot maggots for grayling. Entering another angler's wrasse hole is another matter however but Col didn't complain too much.

One of Brian's colourful big lipped ballans.

Col's second ballan was a bit of a lump and he did well to keep it out of the kelp on the very light gear he was fishing.

You don't need use huge hooks and big baits to catch wrasse. Small strong hooks like this Kamasan Animal baited with a small section of ragworm will usually see them nicely lip hooked like this.

I just wasn't at the wrasses however and didn't have any luck getting myself one, instead catching a couple of very greedy little long spined sea scorpions whose enthusiastic assaults on my piece of ragworm had me thinking a wrasse was tapping away before they got hooked and I pulled them up. 

It then went fairly quiet again so after a while we headed to St Abbs Harbour but fishing there was also very slow. There seemed to be a lot of diesel on the  surface and the water itself was uncharacteristically quite coloured too. I managed a solitary flounder, Brian caught a coalfish and Col got a couple of long spined sea scorpions before we decided to call it a day. Even though I hadn't got into some wrasse myself it was nice to see the lads get into some nice ones. I'm sure if we return to St Abbs in the future when the conditions are a bit better we'll all enjoy catching colourful, hard fighting wrasse. Speaking of colourful, Brian and Col are also both keen to catch some cuckoo wrasse and as I still require one for my species hunt I dare say a trip up to Lochaline at some point might be on the cards. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Creatures of habit.

Last Monday morning after breakfast whilst I waited on the local tackle shop opening I had a few casts around Stranraer Harbour. As well as killing time  it was nice to try somewhere new as you never know what you might catch. The water was quite coloured up but I fished away for half an hour or so and managed to catch a solitary long spined sea scorpion before heading to get a box of ragworm. I suspect if the water clarity had been better it might have produced some more fish.

A grey start to the day.

Long spined sea scorpions are pretty funky looking fish. They look like little gargoyles.

As the afternoon approached the clouds soon started to disappear but it was still fairly windy. It had been my intention to head down to the Mull of Galloway to target small wrasse from the rocks on its northern side, another spot I've never fished from before, but I was unsure what the conditions would be like down there so I popped to Portpatrick first.

Clouds all gone but because of the wind blowing down the coast and the accompanying slight swell I decided to have a fish in shelter of the harbour.

In the past amongst other species I've had from Portpatrick harbour I've caught sand gobies and rock gobies and the capture of  either would have added to my annual tally so I setup to try for them. My scaled down one up one down rig with #14 hooks and tiny chunks of ragworm wasn't tempting anything to bite though so I worked my way around the harbour until I ended up fishing in its mouth. There is a lot more kelp and snags in it though so I switched to a one up rig and eventually caught my first wrasse of the year, a small ballan.

Wrasse love ragworm. I could have fished with the ever reliable Angleworm too but really if I have the choice of that or quality ragworm then the bait wins every time.

I carried on fishing but feeling quite frustrated by the lack of further action I decided to bite the bullet and head down to the Mull of Galloway to see what the sea state was like. Getting down there I found that the north coast of it was a bit too rough to fish for wrasse and whilst the southern side looked a lot calmer most of it was inaccessible or involved dangerous climbing. Given my recent rock climbing misadventures I decided against that and instead parked the car at East Tarbet and headed north from there to try and find a sheltered gully to fish.

The Mull of Galloway lighthouse in the distance. It was a pleasant walk along the clifftop footpath and I did head down the grassy slopes to the rocks to try a couple of spots but the water just wasn't deep enough really and I had no luck finding any wrasse.

It was turning into a bit of a frustrating day really and after some head scratching I headed back up to Portpatrick. This time I explored some gullies to the north of the harbour and managed to catch an additional three ballan wrasse. It was hard work though and I had to do a fair amount of rockhopping to find them. Still it was good to cover some new ground that I'll no doubt return to during future visits to the village. 

I love ballan wrasse. Even small ones scrap hard and you need to react fast to get them away from their lairs quickly.

Later in the evening I returned to the mouth of the harbour and managed to catch a small coalfish, a small pollock and a couple of corkwing wrasse, another welcome addition to my 2015 Scottish saltwater species hunt.

A nice male corkwing wrasse.

I fished on for a while hoping that as light began to fade later in the evening some shore rockling might start feeding as I've caught them there before. I switched to a running ledger with a bigger hook baited with a large chunk of mackerel from a couple of fillets I'd kept from the fish we'd caught the day before. This didn't produce any bites though and feeling quite tired from the day's fishing, driving, clifftop walks and clambering around on rocks, I packed up and headed back to the B&B. The wind was forecast to drop off the following day and I was heading to the Isle of Whithorn to target small wrasse again as well as tompot blennies at a spot my mate Martin and I had caught them at last year.

After checking out of the B&B and picking up another box of ragworm last Tuesday morning I made the drive around Luce Bay and down to Isle of Whithorn. It was a lovely sunny day and as forecast the wind had almost died off completely although it was blowing onshore so when I got down to the rocks I found there was a little bit of a swell running. I also found someone already in the spot I wanted to fish but luckily he was just leaving.

An old gentleman tends to his lobster pots. Pulling an empty pot up from the gully I wanted to fish in he decided to drop it elsewhere which was great for me.

With goldsinny and rockcook wrasse in mind and to combat the tackle hungry kelp I went with a single #14 hook at the end of a very short snood on a one up rig baited with a little piece of ragworm. Things were slow to start with but once the tide started to flood I started getting some positive bites which I soon started converted into hooked fish. Ballan and corkwing wrasse were the first to be caught but eventually I caught a few goldsinny wrasse too.

A nice little brown and biege mottled ballan wrasse was my first fish of the day. 

All of the goldsinny wrasse I caught were beautifully coloured with golden undersides and vivid dark spots on the leading edge of their dorsal fin and top edge of their tail roots.

A few more ballan, corkwing and goldsinny wrasse followed although I caught no where near the amount of fish that I did when Martin and I visited mid July last year. After a quiet spell I started getting more bites again though and landed a few more wrasse. Eventually I caught my first rockcook of the year.

Again a particularly vibrant example. Not sure if I prefer these or male cuckoo wrasse. Both are quiet stunning when their livery is bold.

With the wrasse species having added another four species to my annual tally I swapped my hook for a slightly bigger one and used a larger piece of ragworm to try and tempt a tompot blenny. After a few more ballan wrasse I caught a blenny and got excited for a brief moment before hoisting it to hand and realising it wasn't the right one.

A common blenny. The one I was after is much rarer in Scottish waters.

Last year Martin and I caught two tompot blennies each so with it being only mid afternoon I was confident I'd get one if I just kept plugging away. I also remembered that we caught them after the tide rose past a certain level and not long after it reached a similar height I caught one. This brought a huge smile to my face.

Tompot blennies are funky looking fish. I was over the moon to catch another Scottish one. Another species ticked off that may prove pivotal in my quest to catch fifty from Scottish saltwater this year. 

Mission accomplished really and I was in two minds about what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Should I stay where I was and try fishing other methods to see what else might turn up or head off somewhere else? In the end I decided to head up the coast to try somewhere new. Walking back to the car I bumped into another angler who was on his way down to the rocks I had just left to try and catch some mackerel. He told me that there was a nice little pier along the coast at Garlieston so I headed up there to use up the last of my ragworm.

Fish are creatures of habit and so am but I try not to be all of the time. Fishing new spots is a great way to perhaps discover somewhere else that produces fish. You might also get a surprise species too. 

Fishing a one up one down rig with #10 hooks I didn't have any joy fishing it out onto the sandy bottom around the end of the harbour. Dropping it down closer in onto some patches of small rocks resulted in a steady stream of kamikaze shore crabs and a dozen common blennies before a female corkwing wrasse took my final piece of bait.

Once I managed to get my hook back off them rather than make good their escape the shore crabs become rather aggressive, arching up and spoiling for a fight.

A nice little fish to end the trip on.

All in all a productive three days fishing if a little slow at times. Five species added to my tally whilst out in Spike's boat with Martin and another five added whilst out species hunting on my own. That's twenty eight down and twenty two left to catch, a much better position to be as the half way point in the year approaches than when I left Edinburgh last Saturday night. Looking at my list of remaining viable targets I can see more visits to Dumfries & Galloway on the cards.  Portpatrick, Killantringan, Mull of Galloway and another day out in Spike's boat all offer opportunities to add quite a few things to my tally. Some of these trips will be to places I've fished before but some will involve trying new spots too. I better start planning when I can fit these trips in!

Tight lines, Scott.

Back on track.

After talking about it a few times last year but failing to actually organise it, my mate Martin and I headed down to Drummore on Sunday armed with some crab to spend a day out in local skipper Spike's boat "Go West" targeting starry smoothhounds. As well as fishing with Martin again, which I always enjoy, it was a great opportunity for me to add a few species to my fifty saltwater species from around Scotland challenge tally.

I think Spike's boat should be called "Go South West".  It's all relative though I suppose. 

Gear loaded aboard we were soon drifting over a drop off not far from the shore to catch some fresh mackerel for bait. There were plenty of small ones around a small bait box soon had enough in it to keep us going for most of the day and off we went to drop anchor. Both of us fished two rods, one with a ledgered half mackerel bait for larger sharks like tope, bull huss and thornback rays and a second for smoothhounds and other smaller species. Martin's half mackerel bait must have landed right next to a thornback ray as it took the bait almost as soon as it hit the bottom. After putting that back and casting out a fresh bait he fished a one up one down rig on his second rod with both hooks baited with crab to try and tempt a starry smoothhound. I went with a three up rig and baited my hooks with mackerel strips to try and catch some gurnards. Inevitably we both caught a few lesser spotted dogfish before we eventually caught what we were targeting.

My first dogfish of the year gets a kiss. 

A nice smoothhound eventually beat the dogfish to Martin's crab baits. 

I added a second species to this year's tally with a grey gurnard in nice condition. 

We both caught a few more dogfish and after a few more grey gurnard I switched to a crab bait on a running ledger which eventually saw me catch my first ever starry smoothhound.

My first new species of the trip. 

A few more dogfish later Martin and I both landed a couple of nice sharks at the same time.

A nice thornback ray for me, a fourth species added to this year's tally and yet another smoothhound for Martin. 

Shortly afterwards I caught a smaller ray. When it came into view though I could tell from its markings that it wasn't a thornback and got a bit excited. Quickly lifting it into the boat my suspicions were confirmed and I had struck lucky with a spotted ray. 

Quite a rare capture. Spike told us he'd only ever seen two or three boated. I was extremely happy to catch my second new species of the trip and add a fifth to this year's tally. 

With no tope or bull huss showing interest in our bigger baits we upped anchor and tried a few drifts fishing with smaller hooks to see what else might turn up. This saw us catching some whiting and a few more mackerel. Dropping anchor at a second mark didn't  see anything else being caught except a succession of whiting and dogfish. Slightly disappointed not to catch any tope or bull huss it had still been a good day and when we got back< to Drummore we discovered that none of the other boats had caught any tope either. After loading up our cars and saying goodbye to Martin he headed up the road but I headed north to Stranraer where I'd be staying the next two nights. I had Monday and Tuesday off of work and my species hunting in Dumfries & Galloway wasn't over just yet.

Tight lines, Scott.