Finally!

Popped up the Water of Leith today for a few hours and happy to report that I landed my first brown trout from the river. Taken from the first pool I fished, small but perfectly formed. 

My first Water of Leith brown trout.

The first of many urban brown trout hopefully!

Before I hooked it I had a lot of interest from a larger fish who had several swipes at a pink 2" Ecogear Strawtail. After five goes the interest waned so I switched to a 2" Shiraso (silver glitter) Ecogear Paramax and first cast the little fellow swallowed it whole. I've put in a fair amount of hours now and whilst I've had a fair bit of excitement and landed a sea trout, the brown trout have been giving me the run around so it was nice to land one.

My mate Jake popped down for an hour and had a go in his favourite pool but an otter he saw last week seems to have spooked the fish away from the vicinity. We headed downstream. I had a go at another bend where I've seen a few fish and spotted some free advice I hadn't noticed before carved into the wall.

"So Far It's A Good Spot To Fish From"

We also had a go in the pool where I caught my fish and I had the bigger trout have three goes on the same retrieve at a pink Cultiva Pin Worm before he felt the hook and quickly threw it. Jake headed home and I left shortly afterwards.

A nice, enjoyable and rewarding (finally) way to spend a nice sunny Sunday afternoon.

Tight lines, Scott.

Can't hook a brown trout for love nor money! No problems with sea trout though!

I headed to the Water of Leith to try and catch a brown trout again this afternoon with my new Nories Rock Fish Bottom Ultra Light and Daiwa Steez setup in hand. Spooled up with Sunline Rockfish #0.3 PE 6lb and tied on a 3ft leader of 6lb Sunline Siglon Flourocarbon. Ecogear Shirasu jighead and a Gulp! 1" Minnow on the end to start off with. The water was quite high and coloured up from all the snow and rain recently and as I worked my way upstream fishing each pool with no sign of any fish I began to think I was wasting my time. I decided to try a Bass Assassin 2" Curly Shad in Black Shad and a few casts later a golden flash signalled I had just missed a bite from a brown trout. I cast over it again but with no further interest I continued to work my way upstream.

No further action and soon reached the point in the river where flood prevention work is being carried out so I headed back downstream fishing the pools as I went. I tried a large red Isome this time hoping the trout would be looking for worms washed into the river. I got all the way down to where I had started and decided to try a 2" Reins Rockvibe in Gold Legend. I started casting over to the far side under a tree where I've had a few bites before. Nothing. I tried a few casts down towards the bottom of the pool and on the third or forth cast just after the lure had entered the water I was hit by a decent fish. The rod handled it effortlessly, absorbing the initial headshakes with ease and I was in total control playing the fish up through the current towards me. As I lifted it out of the dirty water I quickly realised he was in fact a nice silver sea trout. A lovely way to break in the new gear!

My first Water of Leith trout! Not a brown trout but I don't mind!

Lovely bar of silver. Weighing in at 1lb and 12oz.

I headed home shortly afterwards with a nice big grin on my face! I'll just have to keep persevering with the pesky brown trout I suppose! I was very pleased with the way the new rod handled the fish. Initial impressions of the rod are that it's a lovely piece of kit but I would say it's a little too heavy to be described as "Ultra Light" though and can see it being better suited to fish of 2lb+. Perhaps I've just gotten used to my ultra sensitive solid tipped Shimano Diaflash though and I'll reserve judgement until I do a spot of blenny bashing.

On another note I spotted the kingfisher again today. He seems to be a bit of a lucky charm. I'd love to get a few photos of one. Beautiful little birds.

Tight lines, Scott.

Bass and mini species fun.

I was out today climbing Traprain Law near Haddington...

Traprain Law near Haddington, East Lothian.

 
...and afterwards popped down to the outflow at Torness Power Station to have a quick go for bass. Armed with my usual ultra light setup, a Shimano Diaflash 237L-S 0.8-8g and Exage 2500FC loaded with 6lb Sunline RockFish. Just as I was arriving someone else was leaving who told me he had been fishing for six hours without any action so I knew I was probably fighting a losing battle but had a go anyway. An arkansas shiner tiny Slug-Go, a white clouser fly, a silver pearl "Flasher" Redgill and a white Kiddy Sidewinder Brill Bait were all launched into the wind and a slight one foot swell using an 8g sinking bombarda but after a while I had no takers. A quick change of end gear to a short 6lb Sunline Siglon Flourocarbon leader, a 1.8g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead and a red Gulp! Alive! Fish Fry and I turned my attention to the blennies that inhabit the deep holes between the boulders of the sea defences. Two drops and I had two blennies straight away. This took my tally to 100 so far this year! Here's I am with my 100th blenny.

Congratulations! You are my 100th Blenny of 2012!

"What did I win?"

He didn't win anything unfortunately! I headed back to the car and went further south to St Abbs harbour. Just to see if the fish activity had picked up there. I stuck with the Decoy Rocket jighead but opted for a pink medium sized Isome and began exploring the weedy edges of the harbour. The water was very clear and I could see the bottom despite there being a fair bit of water in the harbour as it was just after high tide. No fish activity whatsoever. Quite disappointing but I soldiered on, working my way round the harbour. Just before I was about to leave a tiny long spined sea scorpion came out of a crack and greedily wolfed down the lure. 

All puffed up and trying to look intimidating.

That was it for the session. I was hoping that St Abbs would be a bit more productive with at least a few flounders chasing the lure but even they were nowhere to be seen. I guess I may have to have a rethink about my mini species hunting sessions until the water temps rise and the usual suspects move back into the harbours. I may have to try a different approach if I want to catch a few more species before then.

Tight lines, Scott.

Short Dunbar Harbour and rockpool session.

Today I decided to head down to Dunbar Harbour  for a quick session. Upon arrival I quickly rigged up a section of pink Power Isome on a Carolina rig, using a 3g drilled lead ball and a Kamasan Animal # 14 barbed hook to 4lb nylon. These are ideal for this purpose as they enable a neat presentation of your small lure section and the hooks are very sharp but strong. Perfect for the bony little mouths on many mini species. I tried various spots around the harbour to see if there were any flounders, blennies, sea scorpions or anything else around.

After thirty minutes of no action I decided to head to to back of the old part of the harbour to see if there were any fish in the rock pools. I wasn't disappointed. Most of the rock pools contained some cover, large rocks with gaps underneath or crevices with overhanging weed containing long spined sea scorpions. I caught four and missed a few more.

A nice little blood red coloured long spined sea scorpion.

Slightly bigger and quite a contrast in colouration. Olive with much higher concentrations of dark brown flecks.

I find if they've had the lure in their mouths once or twice and have either spat it out or you've pulled it out trying to hook them they realise it's not food and they lose interest. I have only really fished a tiny part of the shoreline around the harbour and it seems to be dominated by long spined sea scorpions however, my mate Jake grew up there and remembers finding butterfish and rocklings as a child so I plan on heading back soon for a bit more exploration and with any luck a bit of variety!

Tight lines, Scott.