Species hunting road trip: Wet, windy and worth it!

The weather for the last two days of my time in Cornwall was pretty terrible. Wet and windy with the Met Office issuing weather warnings. Adam, who had hoped to join me again, decided against making the journey and another friend who I’d hoped to catch up with as well also cancelled their planned trip to Cornwall, so I ended up braving the elements on my own. Determined to add a few more species to my 2023 tally, I checked the forecast for different areas and came up with a plan, so I could try and avoid the worst of the weather, fishing mainly sheltered marks. On the morning of my penultimate day in Cornwall, I headed up to the north coast, where I parked the car and walked for an hour or so along the SW Coastal Path before dropping down to hunt for a Montagu’s blenny in some exposed rockpools. It was windy and overcast, but the scenery was still quite breathtaking. 

Golden sandy beaches,..

…and rugged cliffs,..

…led me to lots of exposed rockpools.

I spent some time fishing in different rockpools and caught a few small fish, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. After a while, it started raining and the rocks I was clambering over became a bit slippery, so I thought it was best if I cut my losses and headed back to the car. 

As well as a few common blenny and rock goby, I caught this tiny long spined sea scorpion before I got a bit wet and left the rocks, which were becoming pretty treacherous. 

In the afternoon, I headed to the Fal estuary to target Couch’s seabream, a species I’ve caught abroad but never in the UK. Things were slow to start with, but as the tide began to slacken off as high water approached, I began to catch quite a few black seabream. Unfortunately, that was all I caught. A young angler fishing next to me did catch a single Couch's seabream though, so that was a promising sign. I decided to return the following day for a second attempt. In the evening it rained heavily so I relaxed back at my accomodation.

Not the seabream I was after. 

The following morning the heavy rain continued, but as soon as it stopped I drove to Penzance to pick up some fresh ragworm. I then headed along to Marazion to try yet again to locate and catch a Montagu’s blenny in the rockpools there. For some reason, the rockpools were very sparsely populated, so I tried blindly dropping my split shot rig into likely looking spots. I got quite a shock when, after a fairly unproductive spell, a giant goby charged out of a crack and swallowed my tiny bait. It’s been a while since I’ve caught one, and I’d forgotten that they sometimes hide in shallow rockpools in holes that you’d never expect to find a fish of their size in!

A surprise giant goby with the impressive St Michael’s Mount off in the distance. 

I fished on for a while, but had no joy locating any Montagu’s blenny. It was time to WhatsApp a friend. Richie of The Big Lerf Podcast was the chosen friend, and he gave me a spot to try that he assured me was “stacked” with Montagu’s blenny! I jumped in the car again and headed straight there. Upon arrival, I found some large, fairly weedless rockpools, and set about locating my target species. It didn’t take me long to spot a few of them in amongst some common blenny. 

"Stacked" rockpools.

As well as several common blenny there were a few blenny with darker colouration and the telltale lappet of the Montagu’s blenny. Surprisingly they weren’t particularly interested in a pinkie maggot, so I dropped in a tiny piece of ragworm on my tanago hook. The result was instantaneous! I caught two in quick succession, took a few photos and popped them back before returning to the car. 

Montagu’s blenny is easy to spot if you know what you’re looking for. 

Finally! My first UK Montagu’s blenny! 

After a short drive, I arrived at the Fal estuary and had another session targeting Couch's seabream. The wind was howling down the estuary though, which made fishing quite unpleasant. The fishing went pretty much the same as the day before. As high tide approached, shoals of small black seabream arrived, and I was soon well into double figures of them. My ragworm baits being assaulted as soon as my rig hit the bottom. After three hours, I admitted defeat on the quest for a Couch's seabeam and drove all the way back to Penzance for an after dark session at the end of the Harbour's South Pier there.

Penzance South Pier after dark.

I was hoping to catch two species there. Firstly, Atlantic horse mackerel, and secondly a seabream that a few other anglers have caught recently, whose identity was a matter of some debate. They were either axillary seabream or blackspot seabream. Pictures I had seen were inconclusive though. As the name suggests, the blackspot seabream had a conspicuous black spot, found at the start of their lateral line, but the fish I'd seen lacked this or at best it was extremely faint. Luckily it didn't take me long at all to catch both my targets. Adam had given me some pointers about where to cast, his info proved to be invaluable and my small ragworm section irresistible. After catching a few small pouting closer in, I caught a small scad casting further out.

No identity issues with this one.

I then caught two of the mystery seabream in quick succession. I took lots of photos of their fins and their teeth and after catching a second scad I was happy enough and called it a night. Back at my accommodation, I did a bit of research on FishBase and using the soft ray fin count of the fish's anal fin, I positively identified it as a blackspot seabream. Axillary have 9-10 anal fin soft rays. Blackspot seabream have 11-12 anal soft fin rays. I counted 12 on both   CV the fish I caught.

A blackspot seabream. Also known as the red seabream (although this example isn't particularly red)! You can just about make out the black spot feature in the specimen above. The first four or five scales above and below the beginning of the lateral line are ever so slightly darker than those above and below the rest of the lateral line.

So Couch's seabream aside, I think I'd made the most of fishing in the poor conditions and had pretty much caught all the species I'd set out to, adding another four to my 2023 tally in the process. The Montagu's blenny and blackspot seabream were also UK firsts for me. My time in Cornwall had come to an end, and the following day I had a very long drive back up the road to Edinburgh to make. The weather forecast wasn't looking great, but I had a little plan to hopefully stop off somewhere on the way home and perhaps add another unusual freshwater species to my tally.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the final part.

Chance encounters.

I visited Torness Power Station yet again on Tuesday last week. I only intended to spend an hour or so over high water targetting mullet but when I arrived I met an angler in the car park named Cooper that I'd been talking to in work about species hunting earlier this month so I ended up staying all day until it got dark. The mullet fishing wasn't great but we kept at it and eventually I caught one thick lipped mullet, one golden grey mullet and one bass. All of them took freelined breadflake. Cooper didn't manage to hook up with the bites he was getting which left him a little bit frustrated as he was after both types of mullet for a species hunt he is taking part in. They're there all year round so I'm sure he'll get them before the year is over no problem.

My first fish of the day was this nice plump thick lipped mullet.

Thick lipped indeed.

Next up I showed Cooper where he could catch a sand goby for his species hunt tally and we spent thirty minutes or so doing just that. Using tiny flecks of ragworm on very small hooks we caught several of the diminutive fish.

Successful species hunter don't ignore micro species.

Finally, before we left we headed around to the inlet area to see if we could catch some mackerel. I wanted a couple for the table and Cooper wanted a few to top up his bait freezer for future fishing trips. After a while, as the light began to fade, we eventually started catching some and as we did we chatted about our differing approaches size wise. Whilst Cooper was fishing a 28g jig fitted with a single treble, I was fishing a 3g micro jig fitted with two tiny assist hooks that I bought in Japan last year. The conversation then drifted to Japanese tackle shops and target species. I had literally just finished telling him about how popular fishing for horse mackerel (Aji in Japanese) was in the land of the rising sun when my rod tip was pulled over by another fish. It fought a little differently to the mackerel I'd caught already and at first I thought it might have been a coalfish. Then this appeared.  

Right on cue, only my second ever Scottish scad.

Neither of us could quite believe it, especially as I'd just been talking about them! Cooper was then keen to catch one himself as he'd never caught one before and it would also be a relatively unusual capture to improve in his species hunting tally for his club competition. Keen to catch more myself I then decided to switch to the method favoured by most Japanese Aji enthusiasts, a straight lure on a jighead fished on the drop. This method is incredible simple. You cast your lure out then let it swing back towards you in a curve fall under tension. This soon proved to be just as effective on The Japanese horse mackerel’s Atlantic cousin when I caught a second horse mackerel using it. A little while later Cooper eventually got one too on his heavier metal jig and was over the moon. It then went quiet so we ended our nine hour session on a high note.

Having discovered their presence I've subsequently been back again several times and have had a few more scad. They’ve all been a good size and are great fun on ultra light tackle. My mate Nick and a couple of my workmates have all joined me and they’ve all caught them too. It’s great to have discovered another potential target species for after dark on summer evenings. Maybe not as prolific as the shoals that arrive down on the south coast this time of year but with a bit of perseverance Scottish scad and the sport they offer the ultra light angler are there to be enjoyed.

Tight lines, Scott.

Opening a new account.

Well the weather so far this year has on the most part been absolutely dreadful. So bad in fact that I didn't venture out at all in January. Very frustrating so when I spotted some flights to Santander on the north coast of Spain for the bargain price of £45 return I treated my girlfriend Lillian and my light game travel rod to a short break there at the start of February. When we arrived the temperature was certainly an improvement on Edinburgh but there was no escape from the latest Atlantic storm system and its strong winds. After dropping our bags off at our hotel we went for a walk around the Peninsula de la Magdalena. Its coastline was being battered by the sea and all the spots I had picked out on Google Maps to wet a line were unfishable really.

Big waves breaking right up the rocks meant a rethink was in order.

A bit disappointed we headed up the estuary into town so I could fish for an hour or so. I tried at a few spots as we rambled along but there didn't seem to be any fish around. My persistence finally paid off though when I was rewarded with a very aggressive take that completely took me by surprise. The fish that had attacked my Angleworm was soon landed.

Opening my Santander account was real struggle.

A rather colourful little common comber. A nice first fish of 2016.

The next day it was still very windy but the sun was shining again so we went for a nice walk along the coast to Faro de Cabo Mayor, a lighthouse that sits above the cliffs to the west of Santander. I took my gear but suspected that the swell would make fishing impossible again. I was proved right.

Not really light game conditions. A stunning stretch of coastline though and the power of the sea was impressive too.

Eventually we reached the lighthouse. In calmer conditions I think there would be some nice fishing to be had where the sea could be accessed.

Arriving back at the hotel Lillian wanted an afternoon siesta so I jumped on a bus and headed back to where I had caught the comber the previous day. Things were slow again so I walked further into town. Passing an unusual set of sculptures I started getting a few little taps on my Angleworm and caught a few little fish. 

Normally I hate it when kids jump in next to where I'm fishing and spook all the fish.

My hard work was finally rewarded with an Atlantic horse mackerel.

I also managed to catch three of these little black seabream before heading back to the hotel.

On days three it rained heavily so Lillian suggested we head to the Maritime Museum. From the outside it didn't look like it would be that good but we were pleasantly surprised by the whale skeletons on display inside and the aquariums in the basement. As well as the usual seabream, bass and shark species in the main tank there were some large Atlantic wreckfish. 

Wish I could have caught some of these. They'd have put a real good bend in my rod!

These were very curious and came right up to the glass to have a look at us.

Our last day in Santander saw more heavy rain battering the city so we sought shelter and enjoyed some tasty tapas and drinks before heading to the airport to fly home. It had been a pleasant relaxing trip to a lovely place. The fishing wasn't great but I'm sure in the summer the estuary and the open sea would provide many excellent fishing opportunities so I may return sometime in the future to find out. 

Tight lines, Scott. 

Full of surprises.

Today I headed down to Dunbar harbour with a few of my mates for a Fish Club meet. It was the first one for a while but it was the biggest gathering so far with seven of us in attendance including two anglers who I'd never met before. For a change the weather was nice and we enjoyed the sun while fishing away. Over the last few years I've caught quite a few different species from inside the harbour but today I added a few more. After we had caught a few flounders, blennies, long spined sea scorpions and a plaice I caught a small corkwing whilst trying to tempt a two spotted goby or a fifteen spined stickleback out of the weed lining the harbour wall. 

My first corkwing wrasse from inside the harbour.

Just after this one of the lads came over with a small fish he wanted me to identify. I was surprised to see it was a scad, quite an unusual capture for the harbour although my mate Nick tells me he has caught a few when he has been out in his kayak not too far away from it. I changed to a piece of isome on a jighead and tried to catch one where I was but when Mikey caught a second I was straight over to where he was fishing, pinched a piece of his smaller isome and was soon into one myself.

My first Scottish Atlantic horse mackerel and my forty eighth saltwater species from Scottish saltwater this year.

Quite pleased with this little surprise we carried on fishing away. The mood was relaxed and it was nice just mucking around, catching a few fish and chatting to each other. Really it's exactly what I had in mind when I started the group.

Nick and his son Harry, Mike and Tam all fishing away while a few passers by take an interest in what they're doing and catching.

There was a fairly big shoal of small silver fish swimming back and forth whose movement made me suspect they were something not normally found in the harbour. At first I thought they might be smaller scad but after scaling down to a #18 hook and pestering them for a while I managed to catch a couple of them. They turned out to be juvenile herring, another species I'd never seen or caught in the harbour before. After a while things slowed down a bit but when we saw a rather big flounder swimming along the harbour wall and heading underneath the bridge on its way into the old harbour we decided to head around with it. Fishing Gulp Angleworm and Isome on drop shot rigs soon saw us catching a few of them. A few small coalfish were caught too as well as the odd blenny from down the walls.

One of a few flounders caught from the old part of the harbour.

When a large commercial boat came in and churned up the bottom things went very quiet so we headed all the way around to the rocks at the mouth of the harbour to see what was around in the deeper water there. Not much was biting apart from lots of small coalfish. Fishing small metals and soft plastics on jigheads on the drop was most effective.

This greedy coalfish really wanted my metal. I had to undo my clip to remove it and my assist hook to get them both back. A treble fitted to the lure would have probably resulted in a dead fish.

A few dozen coalfish later we headed back around into the harbour to end the session. I focused on the weed lining the harbour wall again and soon spotted a pair of two spotted gobies hovering just above it. My tanago hooks haven't arrived yet so I tied on a #26 hook and put a tiny piece of Angleworm on it. A single split shot a few inches above the hook helped me get it down to them and one of them was soon having a go at it. Perhaps twice the size of the one I failed to catch on Tuesday it had no problem gobbling up my little offering and was quickly hooked and swung up to hand.

This is a fairly big two spotted goby. Their maximum size is only 6cm. With some tanago hooks in the post I fully intend to catch one that will fit on the one yen coin that I also expect to receive in the next few days.

This two spotted goby was another species I'd never caught from Dunbar Harbour before and it was also the first one that I had not winkled from a rockpool. Being my first of the year as well it leaves me with only one species to catch to hit my target of fifty from Scottish saltwater this year. A few more fish were caught before we called it a day and headed off bringing an end to a great little session. I'm looking forward to the next meet and hopefully there will be another good turn out. Given it'll be the middle of Autumn by the time we meet up again I think a night session might be likely. As ever if you're interested in coming along to Fish Club and want to know when the next meet is happening please get in touch. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Seal in the bay!

When I got back from my fishathon at the start of the month I arranged a short trip back down to the south coast with my good friend Lee as he was keen to visit Swanage again after enjoying our trip there last year. Whilst I'm enjoying another superb year on the angling front Lee's fishing this year hasn't been so great. Conditions where he lives in Wales have restricted the amount of time he's been able to get out fishing. When he has managed to get out he's found that the severe winter storms have changed many of his usual marks and the fish movements through them have altered too as a result. All the time and effort he had put in to establishing the movement patterns of his main target bass will probably have to be repeated. On top of this he's been a bit unwell and recently has moved house, which can be a stressful thing at the best of times. I think it's safe to say he was quite glad to get away for a few days.

On Sunday the 20th off we went for a nice relaxing, stress free and hopefully fish filled seventy two hours species hunting. We decided that as well as visiting Swanage we would also fish around Weymouth Harbour, head west to Brixham to fish the breakwater there and also try fishing the deep water in front of the old quarry platform at nearby Berry Head. For a bit of fun we set ourselves a little goal of twenty species between the two of us over the duration of the trip. In addition Lee also had a trio of species he wanted to try and catch for the first time, these being black seabream, goldsinny wrasse and Atlantic horse mackerel. I wasn't too optimistic about catching anything new but I had read a report online that a single striped red mullet had been caught along at Swanage from the Banjo Pier and as ever there was a slight glimmer of hope that my little triple finned nemesis, the black faced blenny, could be tempted out from underneath Swanage Pier.

Arriving in Weymouth mid afternoon we dropped our gear off at our hotel, headed along to the Pleasure Pier and started fishing lures on ultra light tackle. Fishing was fairly slow and Lee and I had only caught a few corkwing wrasse and pollock between us when local angler Andy Mytton arrived to fish with us for the rest of the evening.

My first fish of the trip. The first of many corkwing wrasse.

A few small pollock soon followed.

After a while persevering at the one area the three of us moved along to the end of the pier. This improved our fortunes slightly and a few small pouting were soon caught. A young lad fishing close by then caught a couple of black seabream which had Lee quite excited. Andy and I then caught black seabream too but unfortunately Lee just wasn't having any luck getting one. Whilst trying for one Lee caught a small ballan wrasse and I changed to a small metal and caught a couple of sand smelt. The first one was taken jigging the lure and the second on a slow straight retrieve.

I think pouting are quite pretty fish.

Juvenile black seabream are pretty too and seem to be around in numbers on the south coast this year.

Lee bought me this little Palpuntin metal jig last year after I lost my only one. I find it's great for sand smelt and launce.

After a while we decided to move to another spot to try and locate some goldsinny wrasse. Exploring an area I've caught them at before and it didn't take long for me to spot some hiding in the weed down the wall about a foot below the surface as they came out to inspect my lure and started attacking it. I quickly pointed them out to Lee and he had go trying to catch one.

Target in his sights.

I moved to along a few metres and soon found some more but had difficulty hooking them on my #10 jighead so I switched to a split shot rig with a #18 hook at the end. This did the trick and Lee switched to this approach too. Soon all three of us had caught a few goldsinny wrasse and Lee was chuffed to get his first new species of the trip.

Kissing small toothy fish should only be done by trained professionals. Do not try this at your local harbour!

Lee carried on targeting goldsinny wrasse and caught a few more and then caught a tompot blenny which did not want to be photographed.

The tompot blenny did its best to avoid being photographed. Andy did a spot of photobombing too.

Finally calming down a bit the dark brown fish even managed a smile for the camera.

Andy and I then decided to fish our split shot rigs on the bottom and this saw us both catch a few gobies. I caught a couple of black gobies and a leopard spotted goby and Andy caught a couple of sand gobies.

A specimen leopard spotted goby.

Keen to add another species to our tally we moved again to another spot to try for flounder but this instead saw us catching a large number of black gobies. We also managed a couple of rock gobies though and I dropped down the side, worked my way along the harbour wall, eventually finding a crack that was full of common blennies and quickly caught one taking our species tally to twelve.

One of Lee's black gobies.

The rock gobies seemed to be located closer in to the base of the harbour wall.

I'll always have a soft spot for the common blenny.

By this point it was getting quite late so we called it a night despite not locating any flounder and headed off to get something to eat before heading back to the hotel.

Last Monday morning Lee and I headed east along to Swanage Pier. After passing through the small village of Corfe Castle we stopped to take a photo of the castle that gives the village its' name. It's a lovely little village and if I ever drag Lillian down to Swanage I'm sure she will insist we visit the old fortification up on the hill.

Corfe Castle.

After popping into Swanage Angling Centre and picking up some ragworm, a packet of mackerel fillets and a stray coarse angler also called Lee whom was about to try fishing in the sea for the first time we made our way out to the end of the pier. I decided to fish ragworm on or close to the bottom whilst Lee gave his namesake a few pointers to get him started fishing in saltwater before fishing himself with small soft plastics using a variety of rigging methods. The fishing wasn't quite up to the usual epic standards we've come to expect from the venue which we put down to the very small tide but most of the usual suspects soon made an appearance, the notable exception being pollock.

As usual corkwing wrasse made up the bulk of our captures with the odd small ballan wrasse getting hooked too. 

Tompot blennies are also resident in good numbers under the pier.

Lee also caught his first ever sand smelt, his second new species of the trip. Early in the afternoon I caught a black seabream, a species I've never caught from the pier before so again Lee was in with a chance of getting one. Moving out from the centre of the pier and fishing a running ledger onto the sandy areas on the outside I caught a couple of common dragonets.

The sandy patches around the pier usually contain a common dragonet or two.

I then started casting around further out to see what else might turn up. After a few more wrasse I hooked something that fought a little differently and was pleasantly surprised to see a striped red mullet appear. It was quickly swung up to hand and I was very excited to catch a new species.

Small but perfectly formed. A cool capture.

In the afternoon things went very quiet for a while and I switched to tiny pieces of mackerel on my hook hoping to avoid the resident wrasse hordes and give any other species down below more of a chance to get to my bait. This worked and I caught a couple of small rock gobies that at first I thought were female black faced blennies as they came to the surface. I always get excited briefly when I catch a small rock goby at Swanage Pier and should know by now not to. Anyway, I carried on fishing and the wrasse soon took a liking to my fish baits and a few were caught. Late in the afternoon Lee eventually caught a couple of black seabream which he was very pleased about.

Despite the serious expression Lee was very happy to get his first black seabream.

Meanwhile our apprentice and saltwater virgin had been ledgering baits at range and his efforts were rewarded when he caught a common eel on a sandeel bait. It was soon time to leave the pier so we said goodbye to our new friend after exchanging contact details and headed off to pick up some bait for the session we had planned in the evening. Overall it was a pleasant days' fishing but for the second time this year no Baillon's wrasse had been caught. I was a bit sad about this because they are a very pretty little wrasse and every time I fished the pier last year it always produced them. I hope they are still present. I'm also beginning to wonder if the black faced blennies are down there under the pier and to be honest I now have no real expectation of catching one when I visit. My mate Ross tells me a few were caught on Alderney late last year so I may have to make another trip over there to have a go for them with him. After picking up our bait and grabbing something to eat we made our way along to the Banjo Pier.

Sadly our evening bait session was very poor. Lee and I caught one ballan wrasse each but that was the sum total of the action all night and we fished into darkness. Andy came along too after he finished his work and fished a split shot rig along the clean sandy bottom to try and catch himself a lesser weever. He hooked something small at range but sadly it came off. The session was also spoilt somewhat by what I shall call "danglers". Cider drinking numpties who had an attempt at fishing, dangerously casting leads around our heads and generally getting in our way whilst they got drunk and let their kids run wild. Truth be told we should probably have moved off of the peir and fished from the beach but for some reason we didn't. By the time one of the drunken group came over to inform us repeatedly that the reason we weren't catching anything was that there was a "Seal in the bay!" we were quite tired, decided to pack up and head back along to Weymouth.

Last Tuesday Lee and I drove west into Devon and headed to Brixham. We were both quite excited as it's always nice to try somewhere new as you never quite know what you will catch. First off we walked along to near the end of the breakwater and found a spot we could climb down the outside of it and fish from.

Another nice day to be out fishing. Berry Head off in the distance.

Going with the highly effective Gulp! Angleworm on a drop shot rig I soon discovered that the ground in front of us was very snaggy so I cast out a bit further. This paid of almost immediately and I caught a small Atlantic horse mackerel.

The big eye and mouth of a predator.

This of course was the third of Lee's trio of species that he wanted to catch so it was good to know they were a potential catch from the breakwater. Lee was losing quite a few leads and seemed to be fishing into a particularly rough area so he moved along the breakwater a bit and this seemed to solve the problem. We started catching a few poor cod and small pollock with most of the fish coming at fairly close range where the rougher ground gave way to the cleaner sand beyond it. We then tried fishing the inside of the breakwater into the area between it and a disused concrete platform that had several sets if rusty old trawling gear piled up on top of it. This produced a lot of goldsinny wrasse.

I gave the Gulp! Angleworm a break and tried some other lures. These chartreuse lures proved popular with the goldsinny wrasse.

After catching about a dozen goldsinny wrasse and a single corkwing wrasse we headed back to the start of breakwater to try for flounders. Before doing that however I tried for a long spined sea scorpion down in a corner of some submerged steps. This didn't produce one but I did catch a couple of common blennies and a tompot blenny.

After spending a short while bouncing lures along the bottom and failing to catch any flatfish we walked along to Berry Head and made our way down to the loading platform. It looked great but there was already a few other people fishing so Lee and I started fishing from the rocks to the left of it. Fishing was surprisingly quite slow but one guy on the platform soon caught a few scad. Lee was obviously excited by this. I caught a few small wrasse from close range before I moved over to the platform when most of the other anglers left. Lee stayed on the rocks but switched from fishing a metal jig to a caro rig and caught a sand smelt, a pollock and a mackerel.

It seems sand smelt aren't too fussy about presentation method and will have a go at most lures fished at the right depth.

Shortly afterwards I got a shout from Lee that he had another fish on. It was his scad and was on the surface before I could get over with the net so Lee quickly swung it up.

Lee was over the moon to catch his first Atlantic horse mackerel (scad).

Still on a bit of a high a large seal appeared which had Lee doing impressions of the chap we'd had the misfortune of meeting the night before. This had me in fits of laughter.

"Seal in the bay!", "Seal in the bay!".

Heading back over onto the platform I decided to switch from lures to fishing chunks of mackerel down the side close in. This produced a pollock and then a long spined sea scorpion.

Another species added to our tally.

By this point the tide had really picked up. Whilst I carried on fishing baits Lee decided to switch back to fishing metals from the right hand side of the platform and he soon got a nice bonus "fish".

This cuttlefish was a pretty cool little thing changing colours rapidly and when we put it back it spurted ink into the water before jetting off out of sight.

The current now too strong to hold bottom with the small leads I had with me I joined Lee fishing metals and  caught a mackerel. Lee then caught another scad.

A happy angler.

As light faded I decided to call it a night and packed up my gear while Lee had quite a few "last casts".

As light faded Lee was hopeful of a few more scad and didn't want to leave.

By the time Lee finally called it a night it was fairly dark and the only other angler still fishing caught a shore rockling just before we left. With only two species remaining to catch for us to reach our target of twenty I maybe should have borrowed a lead from the other angler and tried for one but with a two hour drive to get back to Weymouth we just headed off.

Last Wednesday was the last day of our trip and we decided to have a quick drive over to Portland after popping into Chesil Bait n' Tackle. Stopping at the top of a hill we took in the awesome view of Chesil Beach stretching out into the distance.

Eighteen miles of shingle beach. Having visited Weymouth several times now it's criminal not to have fished it really.

We then drove up to Portland Bill. It would have been nice to have fished there but it was a long way down to the water, the tidal rip would probably have made fishing difficult with the light gear we had with us and we only had a few hours before we had to leave so we headed back to Weymouth to fish around the harbour. First up we visited a spot to try for flounder again. There were a few small ones about and lots of tiny gobies. The flounder were half heartedly mouthing our lures though so on went a #22 hook and sliver of mackerel. Five common gobies were quickly caught taking us to nineteen species.

One more species to go.

For a little while we persisted trying to get flounder. Lee came close when one took his lure right into its mouth but frustratingly somehow it didn't get hooked when he struck. We then decided to try for a thick lipped mullet. There was a big shoal of tightly packed juveniles in a very shallow area so I cast in amongst them. Predictably they all quickly darted away but soon came back over and I was surprised to get a bite fairly quickly and struck hooking one. Quickly swinging it up to hand I got another surprise when I realised it was actually a tiny bass.

Pre-school bass.

Twenty species achieved Lee fancied fishing the Stone Pier for the last couple of hours so off we went grabbing a sandwich and a cold drink on the way. Fishing the outside of the pier bites were slow in coming but I eventually caught a few sand smelt at distance. Lee meanwhile was catch lots of corkwing wrasse.

Lee caught loads of colourful corkwings.

We then switched to fishing down the side on the inside of the pier and whilst Lee carried on catching loads of corkwings I wasn't catching any so made a few adjustments to my drop shot rig. This produced immediate results with a few corkwing wrasse quickly being caught. A few black seabream then turned up and we both caught some which was a nice way to end the trip before we reluctantly packed up and made our way back into town to the car to start the long journey home.

Well it was great catching up with Lee again and despite the fishing not quite being up to usual standard for the south coast we still caught twenty species and had a good laugh in the process. It was good to meet up with Andy again too. I was also really pleased to see Lee getting four new species, three of which he really wanted to catch and I was over the moon catching my first striped red mullet. A nice relaxing fishing trip in glorious weather is hard to beat and we are both really looking forward to more of the same when we fly off for a week on the Spanish island of Menorca. I just hope there aren't any "Seals in the bay!"

Tight lines, Scott.