Rock hopping and here's hoping.

Since the five mile travel restriction was lifted I've been down the A1 to Eyemouth and St Abbs several times. Fishing light tackle, I was hoping to get lucky and catch some of the more unusual species that are occasionally seen by divers along that part of the coastline. Ledgering ragworm sections on small hooks was the approach taken but unsurprisingly the much more common species that one usually encounters repeatedly found the bait.

On a rock mark near Eyemouth it was nice to have a fish put a bend in my rod. Any fish.

St Abbs Harbour and Starney Bay to the north of it were also visited.

St Abbs Harbour produced some coalfish and wrasse but it's also a great venue to sight fish lures for flounder and I spent a couple of hours doing just that. When they're in the mood they'll take all sorts of offerings including this chartreuse hellgramite fished on a Carolina rig.

Whilst fishing the rocks that get cut off over high tide on the southern side of Starney Bay, amongst another steady procession of small coalfish and pollock, I caught this ballan wrasse which was great fun on light tackle.

During a different session on another Eyemouth rock mark I fished small baits on the bottom again in an attempt to pick up something unusual yet again. Lots of coalfish, a single flounder and a long spined sea scorpion were all I caught however.

I still love catching these little gremlins.

I'm trying to be realistic about my chances of catching something odd during these sessions. To be honest they're slim at best! That being said you never know and it was nice just to be able to visit these areas again. I dare say that simply spending time outside doing a bit of fishing won't be taken for granted for some time regardless of what's being caught.

Tight lines, Scott.

Hitting the rocks.

After enjoying my holidays to Kefalonia and Madeira earlier this year I decided it was time to hit the coast locally, something I had not done for way too long. I headed down to East Lothian to catch up with my mate Nick and we decided to have a go for pollock from the rocky coast of Eyemouth.

A glorious day to be out on the rocks.

Well the weather was great but sadly the fishing was not, with neither of us catching any pollock. After a while and a quick change of tactics from metal jigs to a soft plastic worm on a drop shot rig I did get a few tentative taps straight down the side which I though might be a small wrasse. After changing from an unscented plastic to tried and trusted angleworm on my hook I soon caught the culprit. As it turned out the fish wasn't a wrasse after all but when I realised what it was it did put a big smile on my face.

A rather big long spined sea scorpion. I always enjoy catching this funky looking mini species.

After a trying a couple more spots with no luck we called it a day, scrambled back up the rocks and headed home. It was great to catch up with Nick, getting a little sunburnt in the process and despite not catching our target species the specimen sea scorpion with its devilish appearance left me with a determination to get out locally more often. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Missing the boat?

After Sunday's superb skate trip aboard "Reel Deal" with Willie and Gordon I headed out locally on Tuesday to try and add yet more, but much smaller species to this year's tally. I had two targets in mind and arranged to fish a few marks around East Lothian with my mate Mikey. First stop was Eyemouth Harbour where I was hoping to locate a fifteen spined stickleback. The water in the harbour was the clearest I've ever seen it but alas there was a distinct lack of fish. I had to resort to fishing in an isolated pool of water trapped amongst some boulders to open my account. The fish had spines but it wasn't a stickleback. 

This little brute charged out of a crack to wolf my piece of Angleworm.

Next on our little tour of East Lothian was Dunbar Harbour, again I did a spot of stickleback hunting whilst Mikey focused on flatfish. The tide was about half way in and whilst the bladderwrack on the walls was partially covered I couldn't see any of my target species to lower my rig in front of. There were dozens of two spotted gobies though so I amused myself trying to catch them using a micro fishing float rig. They were being quite fussy though and my tiny pieces of mackerel and squid had to be twitched by lifting the float ever so slightly to get them biting. 

Not quite small enough but the closest fish yet to fitting on my one yen coin.

After I caught a couple I joined Mikey pestering the flatfish and we caught a few small flounder and plaice. By early evening I still hadn't spotted any sticklebacks moving around in the weed and the flatfish were being less aggressive with their bites. With the sun getting fairly low in the sky it was time to head to our final mark, Ravenshuegh Beach. My target there was the lesser weever and the conditions once we walked down to it looked great, the sea being flat calm with small waves gently rolling in. I went with half a set of herring hooks, four small hooks with small blobs of fluorescent paint at the top of their shanks and baited two of them with tiny strips of mackerel and the other two with slithers of squid. Mikey meanwhile decided to fish Angleworm on a split shot rig. Twitching our rigs back towards us bites were few and far between to begin with as we wandered along the beach but once it got dark we finally got a few. When I  connected with one it was a small fish and reeling it in I had high hopes but it wasn't my target species and instead I beached a palm sized flat fish. Shining my head torch on it I did get a little surprise though when I discovered it was a plaice, quite an unusual capture for the area. 

The first plaice I've caught from East Lothian outwith the little corner that produces them in Dunbar Harbour.

After a while the few bites we were getting petered out again so we ended the session. I haven't seen a fifteen spined stickleback for a few weeks now and I'm wondering if I perhaps have missed the opportunity to catch one? I've also had about half a dozen attempts at catching a lesser weever on marks I know hold them. I don't think they are present in great numbers but I'm also not sure if they are resident all year round or only move inshore when the water temperature rises in the summer? I have a pair of waders on order that I plan to use in my efforts to catch both these species so I'll have a few more attempts but my thoughts are beginning to turn to switching my focus to conger eels and three bearded rocklings, two species that I can definitely expect to catch over the coming colder months. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Tiding me over.

Well the weather continues to be fairly rotten but despite this I've been out several times over the last week. With winds forecast to gust at over 40mph last Tuesday I headed down the coast to try and find a few sheltered spots. Firstly I headed over the back of Eyemouth Golf Course where I soon spotted a nice looking platform and after a while figured out how to safely get down to it. The water in front of it was incredibly deep and I started off fishing a paddletail on a cheburashka lead to try and tempt any resident pollock. This didn't produce any fish though so I then tried Gulp! Sandworm on a drop shot rig but this didn't draw any bites either. I was quite disappointed but I think later in the year the fishing at this spot will be productive so happy to have found a new spot to return to I decided to head up the coast to St Abbs.

Once there I sought shelter on the rocks at the back of the harbour, stuck with a drop shot rig and began casting it into gaps in the kelp. Eventually this produced a few sharp taps that made me think I had located a small wrasse but when I hooked the culprit it turned out instead to be a small long spined sea scorpion. Continuing to work my way around the rocks I had no further luck so decided to try inside the harbour before leaving. The tide was almost half way in by this point, normally a good time to catch flounders as they enter the harbour to hunt. Methodically working my way around and slowly covering as much of the bottom as I could I finally caught one.

This flounder seemed to have the whole harbour to himself.

Just after popping it back the wind picked up again making fishing virtually impossible so I decided to call it a day.

Last Wednesday there was a slight break in the weather and feeling frustrated by the previous day's fishing I opted to head to the River Forth to see if there were any dace around, to relax watching a float and practice casting using my centrepin reel. I certainly got plenty of casting practice as the river was a little higher than I expected, was flowing by quite quickly and as a result meant there didn't seem to be any dace around. I did run my float a little closer in though and holding it up I caught a little brown trout and a trio of rather plump minnows which brought a smile to my face.

Minnows are really pretty little fish. Pretty greedy as well.

In the afternoon I headed up to Orchill Coarse Fishery to try my luck there. Fishing maggots on the waggler things were quite slow and I only managed a few chub. Another frustrating day's fishing really and in future I must check the Forth's water level on the SEPA website before I visit it again to target dace.

On Sunday evening I met up with my mate Nick and we headed down to Torness Power Station outflow area to try for bass. Despite a promising start with a couple of them following my lure in on my first cast we had no luck tempting them. As is customary when visiting Scotland's premier blenny mark I dangled a piece of Angleworm into a few rockpools before we left and caught a couple of them, although they weren't as obliging as they normally are.

Even the resident blenny population seemed to not be in the mood.

Yesterday I headed back down the coast and went to St Abbs Head. It was a nice sunny day although still quite windy but the swell below wasn't too bad and I decided to climb down to a new mark. I know fine well that it's not the type of place to go exploring on your own but truth be told I find it quite exciting. Anyway, when I managed to get myself down to water I noticed it was absolutely teeming with millions of small jellyfish. The arrival of jellyfish is normally a good sign as it means the water temperatures are slowly creeping up and summer species should start appearing but I've never seen so many of them. It looked like a great mark but after a couple of hours with no action I decided to climb back up to the top of the cliffs and walk back to St Abbs Harbour to try my luck there. It too was full of jellyfish but unlike the rock mark I'd fished in the morning it also had a few fish in it and I caught several dozen coalfish, a couple of flounders and a little cod before heading back up the road. I also bumped into a mate who came down to fish for an hour after his work which was nice. 

I bought myself a packet of Marukyu Isome during the week. I used to fish with it a lot but whilst it's a superb ragworm imitation and its effectiveness isn't in question, it's not the most durable lure and is also quite expensive. Not a great combination.

This little cod took an Aquawave Straight on a drop shot rig. Another excellent worm shaped product, a packet of these lures cost about the same as a packet of Isome and are almost as effective but they are super durable making them much better value.

Well quite a nice end to a frustrating week really with the persistent strong wind becoming rather annoying if I'm brutally honest. It almost feels like it has been like this all year. The fishing is still tough at times and really by the middle of May I'd expected it to be better than it is. Never mind, in just over a week I'm off on holiday to Nessebar, it can't come soon enough and surely the weather there will be better? I hope so and when I get back from the Black Sea maybe the summer will have arrived here and some better fishing with it? Fingers crossed.

Tight lines, Scott.

Subtle tweaks.

With sea trout in mind I headed down the A1 again yesterday. This time my destination was Eyemouth where the River Eye runs into the harbour. At the top of it a sluice gate diverts the flow into a channel that runs down the eastern side of the harbour. This means that lots of sea trout make their way into the harbour and can't find the channel, instead heading up the main harbour towards the sluice gate where they get stuck providing a nice opportunity for a species hunter like me to turn up and, in theory, easily catch a few of them. Trout being trout though I expected that should they be around I'd have a few of them throw my hook.

The view down the harbour from the sluice gate next to the slipway. The channel that the sluice gate diverts the river into is over to the right and it runs parallel to the harbour but not all the sea trout that enter the harbour can find it. 

I rigged up an 1.3" Aquawave Shad on a 1.3g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead and fished my way up from the car park to the top of the harbour. A few small coalfish were tempted by its nice action as I cast it out, let it sink and then slowly retrieved it steadily.

Small plump coalfish. 

Once at the top of the harbour I soon had a few small sea trout coming from the bottom attacking my lure, their silver flanks flashing as they swam up, had a swipe, turned and quickly shot off. They were tail nipping though so I switched to a smaller lure. This saw me hook a few but I failed to land any of them. Trout have a reputation as being "soft mouthed" but if you ask me the exact opposite is true, the structure of their mouths is very bony and lacks the soft membranes that other species have or other soft places for a hook to easily penetrate. I really could have used a jighead with a fine wire hook to get a better hook set in their tough little mouths and I often think that when a trout thrashes the weight of a jighead allows them to easily throw a poorly set hook. A bit frustrated I decided to try something different. I removed the jighead and slid a 1g bullet lead onto my leader, tied on a #14 hook and inserted it into my lure placing it a little further back than the jighead hook had been.

The lure is the same, a Cultiva Pin Worm, a little lure I've used to catch small brown trout before. The two presentations at first glance looks the same but I would discover the bottom presentation had a few benefits.

Top: 1.3g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead.
Bottom: Free running 1g drilled bullet. #14 Owner Pin Hook.

Almost straight away I hooked a small sea trout on this new presentation. As I landed it and the little silver fish thrashed wildly and the bullet lead shot up my leader. My mate Martin swears by inline metals for sea trout and I can see why as they cannot use the weight to throw the hook. It was also nicely hooked in the bottom jaw. 

Got you!

This little change to the way I was fishing the tiny lure drastically increased my catch rate, I then proceeded to hook a few more and landed most of them. Every single fish was hooked in a similar place, in the gap between its tongue and bottom lip.

Well hooked. 

The weight of the hook and the fact the lure was free to rotate meant the hook was facing down as I retrieved the lure and obviously I had accidentally stumbled upon a great way for my little hook to find a chink in the armour of a trout's mouth. I ended up catching seven of the little trout before deciding to move to another spot further down the harbour to see what else was lurking in it.

The biggest little sea trout of the seven landed. A very nice looking little fish indeed. Cleanly hooked in the bottom jaw again.

Heading around the harbour the wind was howling so I sought shelter down on a floating pontoon and started fishing an Angleworm on a drop shot rig to see if there were any flounder or mini species near the bottom. I caught a few small coalfish but nothing else seemed to be present or interested.

Nothing fishy going on. Apart from the every present East Coast coalfish. I shall try again in the summer and who knows what might be down amongst all those pilings. Hundreds of coalfish in all likelihood but you never know.

After a while I decided to head back up the road but I took a detour on the way to visit Gullane Bents to try for flatfish. I had a quick walk down but the wind made fishing virtually impossibly with the ultra light tackle I had with me so after a dozen casts I went back to the car and headed back up the A1.

Another lovely golden East Lothian beach. I'll be back.

On the way home I made one final stop, visiting Mike's Tackle Shop in Portobello to pick up a permit for the Water of Leith. As per usual I somehow managed to spend a few quid on tackle that I didn't even realise I needed before I went in as well. You can never have too many lures I suppose right?

In the past I've fished this water with soft plastics on jigheads which was a bit naughty as it clearly states bait or fly fishing only.  This year I'm going to try chucking some grey dusters I tie around.

Trout can be frustrating fish at the best of times but at least with a fly their is no weight for them to use to throw the hook and as it faces down it should in theory find the sweet spot on their bottom jaw. Come to think of it perhaps my little soft plastic rigging revelation is something that most fly fisherman have been taking advantage of for decades? Oh well! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Cold, wet and informative.

I did a bit of overtime at work last week. Next year's fishing trips require financing after all! That and the weather conspired to ensure that opportunities to get out fishing were pretty much non existent. Sunday was my only day off and I had planned to head to Loch Fyne with my mate Nick but unfortunately he text me on Saturday to say he couldn't make it after all. When I woke up on Sunday morning I didn't really fancy the five hour round trip on my own so instead opted for a lie in and made the much shorter drive down the east coast in the evening to have a go for a viviparous blenny, an old nemesis that I've not caught so far this year. The conditions were far from ideal with the water in both Eyemouth and Dunbar harbours being very coloured due to a bit of a swell running outside them. The harbours did afford me reasonable shelter however and fishing very light with scaled down bait rigs I did manage to catch about thirty fish but my target species wasn't one of them.

Coalfish predictably made up the bulk of my catch with a couple of very small cod successfully muscling their way to my raw prawn baits.

I was suitably dressed for the cold weather and apart from the persistent rain from about 19:00 onwards it was actually a fairly pleasant evening. I ended up with company when a chap out walking his dogs whom I'd got talking to last year stopped and had another good chat with me for a while. A fellow angler and also a keen diver we discussed species hunting and he gave me some useful information on the locations he had observed some of the species which are on my "Most Wanted" list. Targeting some of these species sometimes presents different sets of problems to overcome in terms of the approach adopted but it obviously helps tremendously to have a rough idea where they might be in the first place! From that perspective alone it had been well worthwhile venturing out for a few hours on a cold and wet November evening.

Tight lines, Scott.

Hard work.

Headed down the coast with a couple of lads from my work last week. Stewart and Robert were keen to catch some pollock and mackerel so we decided to fish the cliffs to the north west of Eyemouth Caravan Park to see if we could locate some. When we got to the first spot however there were three people already fishing it so we fished along the rocks from them. Stewart and Robert both started off fishing Savage Gear Sandeels and I went with a Dennet Super Sprat metal. 

Robert hadn't fished for a good few years but was soon getting the hang of things.

After a while I hooked and lost a decent fish but apart from that over an hour's fishing didn't produce any action so we moved to a second spot. This didn't see a great change in our fortunes but after a while I hooked something tiny on my metal.

Greedy little pollock. Almost as big as the lure!

We carried on fishing and I caught a second, marginally bigger pollock.  Whilst Stewart and Robert were a bit wary of climbing around on the rocks I clambered up onto a bit jutting out high over the sea below. This allowed me to get a bit of extra distance on my cast. After two or three casts I hooked a fish at range that gave a good account of itself and a mackerel was soon being dispatched and put into the cool box.

Between a rock and a wet place.

Tea sorted.

Shortly afterwards I caught a second mackerel and Stewart got off the mark with a small coalfish.  By this point Robert was getting a little bit frustrated and was obviously keen to catch a fish. After a while none of us had caught anything else however so I suggested we head along the coast to St Abbs harbour as coalfish there are normally a dead cert. Sure enough there were some small ones around in the harbour mouth and Robert soon caught one on drop shotted Gulp! Angleworm.

Blank avoided.

I then made a comment about there usually being flounder about and cast out into the harbour. Working the rig back towards me I only turned the handle a few times before feeling a solid take. The line went a bit slack as the fish swam towards me so I quickly retrieved line until it went tight again and I could feel some headshaking going on. The culprit soon appeared on the surface and brought a big smile to my face. Couldn't have planned it any better if I tried.

St Abbs flounder. Right on cue.

No sooner than I had put the flatfish back the sky opened and it started raining rather heavily so to avoid a soaking we retreated to the car and headed up the road. It had been a tough day's fishing and I would have liked to see the lads catching more fish but it had been for the most part a beautiful sunny day and we had a laugh so we couldn't complain too much. Both the lads are keen to get out fishing again and they're also interested in getting out in a boat so I'll try to get something arranged on that front as soon as I can. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Put on ice.

I met up with my mate Nick on Wednesday and we headed down to the rocks at the back of Eyemouth golf course to try for pollock and wrasse. Arriving at the sea however we were both surprised given how calm a day it was by the slow rolling swell that was running and the slightly coloured state of the water. Undeterred but knowing that realistically this would make fishing tricky and drastically reduce our chances of catching our targets we climbed down and gave it a bash anyway. We decided to give the Savage Gear Sandeels a day off and started off with some classic pollock lures.

Still looks fishy. 

Firetail jellyworms and rhubarb and custard shads. Classic pollock catchers.

Unfortunately after an hour or so our fears were confirmed so I decided to tie on a metal to cover a bit more water. Jigging this back towards me I soon caught a couple of coalfish before moving to join Nick who was fishing in a slightly calmer small rocky gully. Changing to a drop shot rig with a 15g lead and a #6 Sakuma Chinu hook baited with a whole Gulp! Sandworm my first cast resulted in another small and greedy coalfish.

Still a fair bit of water movement as Nick seeks fish in this nice deep gully.

Gulp! Aptly named.

After another coalfish the bites dried up completely though and we decided to have an amble further along the cliff and try another spot. It didn't take long for us to find one and figure out how to get down.

No doubt this whole stretch of coast will produce fish in the right conditions. It's just a matter of finding a way down.

Climbing down was fairly easy but the uneven surfaces created by the areas warped rock layers meant a twisted ankle was a distinct possibility so we took our time.

Once down I started drop shotting again and Nick went with a firetail jellyworm fished on a jighead. I quickly caught another coalfish and was just about to work my way along the rocks to our left when Nick's rod arched over. A pollock had taken his lure at close range and had got into the kelp beneath him but applying some pressure he soon freed it and hand lined it up.

Nick proves that pollock love firetail jellyworms. 

Nick gets off the mark with a nice fish. 

We carried on working our way around the area but didn't tempt anything else so after a while we decided to head off east to explore the cliffs to the east of Eyemouth Caravan Park. We both thought the open sea there might be a little less coloured and perhaps casting a metal might give us the chance of some mackerel too. Parking at the caravan site and walking around the cliffs past the old cannons that sit on them we soon found a nice easily accessible mark and climbed down. The water was a bit cleared but there was still a long rolling swell to contend and ever so often a wave would break and water would race up the rocks forcing us to make a hasty retreat up them to safety. Starting with metals to try and catch our dinner Nick soon hooked a surprise fish on a mackerel patterned TronixPro casting jig.

This very greedy launce took a lure almost half its length!

Just to prove that this wasn't a fluke Nick promptly caught a second! Keen to catch one too for this years' species tally and to hopefully increase my chances I tied on a 12g Dennet Super Sprat in a sandeel colour. Casting this around and working it back using a slow steady retrieve it was soon taken by a mackerel. Nick then caught one too.

Dinner in hand I run back up the rocks with it away from another wave. 

Canniballistic. Nick's dinner sorted too and on a mackerel patterned metal.

I then caught a second mackerel shortly afterwards but then things went quiet again so I tied on a rhubarb and custard shad to try for pollock but sadly had no joy. With the tide now making its way up the rocks at an ever increasing pace we headed back up to the cliff top and decided to head up the coast to St Abbs Harbour to try for flounders for an hour. Before leaving Eyemouth we grabbed a bite to eat, a bag of ice to keep our mackerel fresh and Nick grabbed four bottles of Corona to quench his thirst.

St Abbs Harbour. Known to throw up some nice fish on a fairly regular basis. 

Tying up another drop shot rig and fishing a whole Gulp! Sandworm my first cast produced another small coalfish. Nick had a few casts but then settled down in the shade to enjoy a couple of his beers whilst they were still cold. I carried on casting around the harbour and was rewarded with another coalfish and a couple of nice pollock.

The harbour is normally full of coalfish. The odd pollock does turn up though. 

Probably the biggest I've had from inside the harbour. 

No flounders were biting but I was fairly happy. After an hour or so we headed back to Dunbar and I dropped Nick off before heading home to enjoy my grilled mackerel fillets with Lillian who had prepared a nice beetroot, celery and potato salad to have with it.

One of my goals this year is to fish locally more often and to be honest I'm failing miserably on that front but I'm keen to fish around Eyemouth again with Nick when the conditions are better so that'll be a small step towards my target. That being said I'm off to begin a eleven day fishing trip tomorrow starting in Dorset, then heading to Cornwall for a few days fishing aboard Bite Adventures out of Penzance before flying over to Alderney next Friday with my mate Ross. Oh well, fishing locally will just have to be put on ice too I suppose!

Tight lines, Scott.

Mackerel jacuzzi.

The weather was quite nice yesterday so I went for a walk with my girlfriend, my sister and her partner. On the advice of a mate the chosen route was from St Abbs to Eyemouth via a coastal path that runs along the clifftops and down to some nice beaches. Obviously the opportunity to do a quick spot of fishing was a possibility so I took an ultralight rod and popped the bare minimum of tackle along with a single pack of large pink Isome into my pocket. We arrived in St Abbs just after 12pm and set off along the path. After a short walk the path headed down to surfers' mecca Coldingham Bay before heading back up again and running along the clifftop. As we walked along I made a few mental notes on potential marks for future visits.

The whole coast looks very fishy.

About half way along the girls wanted a break so whilst they sat on a large bit of driftwood for twenty minutes I went to see what was in the rockpools nearby. Blennies and long spined sea scorpions unsurprisingly and they were being very shy, darting off under rocks and into weed and I couldn't tempt any of them to take my offering so we headed on our way again. As we approached Eyemouth and headed along the cliffs at the back of the caravan park I spotted a lot of surface activity and quickly hopped down the rocks. A massive shoal of mackerel was swimming just under the surface and very close in. 

The shoal erupts on the surface to my left just as I'm about to cast into it.

I can only assume that something was underneath hunting them. It wasn't long before I had hooked one and followed that up with another two before the shoal moved off out of range. I headed back up the rocks to the path with our dinner.

The humble mackerel. Great sport on ultra light tackle and delicious too.

We then headed down to Eyemouth harbour and while the girls enjoyed a hot drink in small cafe I had a go in the harbour. Not much sign of any fish though apart from a few small coalfish that weren't interested in my lure. Probably more concerned by the resident seal.

The inner harbour. Easy access fishing via pontoons.

I wasn't the only one after the fish.

The girls then rejoined me and we jumped on the bus back to St Abbs. A very enjoyable walk with the nice bonus of stumbling on the mackerel jacuzzi at just the right time at an accessible spot and catching our dinner. Good to see such a big shoal of mackerel relatively late in the year. I'll also be back to this stretch of coastline to do further exploration with some heavier tackle for sure.

Tight lines, Scott.