Back to the drawing board.

Last week I headed west and spent a day on Loch Fyne trying to catch a Fries' goby. It was a pretty miserable day weather wise, especially for the middle of August, being rather grey and windy. Anyway, I caught a few dozen small fish and nine different species over the session. All were caught at range on #14 hooks baited with tiny sections of Dynabait ragworm. Only one goby was caught and sadly it wasn't the one I was after.

A black goby. Fries' goby is a much more colourful chap.

I've now had numerous attempts over the last few years to catch this elusive little fish and I think a new approach is required. I'm confident that being a goby it won't be shy about attacking a baited hook but fishing from the shore I just don't think I'm getting my rigs out far enough to reach them to give them the opportunity. Luckily my mate Robert has just had a tow bar fitted to his car and has offered to take me out in his boat. This will hopefully allow us to drift over the ground where they are located and increase my chances of catching one. I'm looking forward to a few days afloat with Robert and as well as trying to catch Fries' goby we're also hoping to have a go for black mouthed dogfish in the Sound of Mull.

Tight lines, Scott.

Would you like Fries' with that?

Inspired by my discussion last Sunday night with the diver about unusual, rarely targeted/caught species, I decided on Tuesday to drive west to fish from the shore of Loch Fyne. My target for the day was a small fish called a Fries' goby that is quite rare in terms of its distribution but is quite common in some Scottish sea lochs. It is seen by divers and seems to have some kind of symbiotic relationship with another sea bed resident, the Norwegian lobster, living in borrows in muddy areas. 

This beautifully coloured goby only grows to about 10cm. Most anglers simply wouldn't be interested in trying to catch one. To a species hunter like me however, all fish are interesting and worth trying to catch.

A few factors make targeting this particular goby tricky so solving those problems is interesting too. The size of the target dictates that small baits be used so keeping them on the equally small hooks when casting them out is an issue. The muddy habitat where they live normally only occurs below a depth of 15m which at the spot I chose was quite far from the shore so tackle capable of casting out this distance is needed but I also wanted to maintain bite detection too so a compromise was required. I decided to adopt the following approach. I chose a sensitive lure rod rated to cast 10-40g as I felt given that because it was a fairly small tide, leads closer to the top end of that range would hold bottom. I used an 8lb braided mainline to aid casting distance and bite detection. My end tackle consisted of a scaled down three hook flapper rig made from a 15lb main body, very short 6lb snoods with #14 hooks. I clipped a 1oz lead to the end of that. For bait I decided to use the leftover raw prawns I had from my session on Sunday. I cut these in half lengthwise and bound the long thin halves up with fine bait elastic. Small chunks were snipped off and used as required. I did this to hopefully keep them on the hooks during the cast and on impact with the water and it worked quite well. Casting out as far as i could, trying to find areas of mud, things were slow to begin with and catching a trio of invertebrates had me chuckling away to myself and wondering if there were any fish around let alone my target.

It was an overcast day but it was quite mild with hardly any wind. I could see the bright white buildings of the small town of Inveraray across the water to my east.

The first thing I caught was a small common starfish that was followed by...

...a rather grumpy shore crab and then...

...a hermit crab who badly needed a new "home". His current one had a large hole in the side.

Casting around in different directions eventually some fish took an interest in my baits. Fishing at a fair distance into deep water I was still able to detect the little bites on my light rod and quickly struck at them to try and avoid deep hooking the culprits.  Upon feeling any extra weight I wound in quickly to get my rig and any hooked fish up over the weed covered ledge out in front of me that is typical of many Scottish sea lochs and I managed to start landing a few small fish.

A tiny cod was my first fish of the day. Proof that my approach could produce small fish at distance from deep water.

A few small dab followed with mouths much smaller than the cod. A sign that my hooks and baits were small enough. 

I also caught a few black gobies, another encouraging indication that my approach should work if I could cast my rig into an area that contained any Fries' gobies.

As light started to fade I caught a few more small fish and I decided to call it a day when the sun set.

This small haddock was my final fish of the session.

Quite a nice sunset to look at whilst packing up.

So no Fries's goby but I was quite happy to try out this approach and was encouraged by the results. To be honest I'm not entirely sure I'm fishing in exactly the right area. Further sessions will no doubt be required and perhaps a different spot on the shore might produce my target. Maybe distance is the key though in which case a different approach might be required. I really don't want to go as heavy as a beachcasting setup so perhaps a vertical assault from afloat may be required. Food for thought and if I do eventually catch the little colourful goby it will be a very satisfying capture indeed. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Who let the dogs out?

My mate Stewart has a mild case of galeophobia so on Sunday we headed west to Loch Fyne for a nice relaxing days' fishing. In order to prove to him that whilst sharks should command respect and require careful handling when caught they are also very interesting, beautiful creatures that are worthy of admiration and are not really that scary, the main targets for the session were dogfish and thornback rays.

It was a lovely sunny day and after a quick stop to pick up a few packs of frozen mackerel and a couple of boxes of squid on the way, we were soon at our chosen spot, a comfortable mark very close to the car. Two rods were quickly setup, one with a pulley rig and the other with a three hook flapper rig. I explained the rigs to Stewart and quickly gave him the lowdown on using my slosh multipliers before baiting up with mackerel and casting them out. Last year I fished the same spot with very light tackle and caught dabs, dragonets, black gobies, sand gobies, haddock and cod so I started to set up a third, lighter rod to fish very small baits on #10 wormer hooks to see if I could tempt any mini species that might be present. Before I had finished doing that however one of the other rod tips started bouncing away.

Lifting the rod it kept nodding so I handed it to Stewart and told him to wind in quickly. Sadly he didn't reel quite quickly enough and the fish was lost on the way in as it came up over the weedy ledges in front of us. Fortunately it didn't take too long for another bite and I thought it would be best to demonstrate how to quickly retrieve a fish up over the ledges to hopefully help Stewart minimise any further fish or tackle losses. Feeling slight pressure to land the fish I was glad when I managed to do so, the first dogfish of the day was soon on the bladderwrack and a quick lesson on handling and unhooking dogfish could begin. I explained how confidence is key when handling sharks and to maintain control of them two hands should be used. Unhooking the dogfish I gripped it firmly behind the gills and brought It's tail forward, holding it against the side of the sharks body leaving one hand free to work on removing the hook. I explained that alternatively the tail of the shark could be placed between the thighs again leaving a hand free to unhook and that the reason for handling them in this way is that dogfish have extremely rough skin, will try to wrap themselves around your arm and attempt to rasp your skin from it causing nasty wounds that will bleed for a prolonged period. Maybe Stewart was right to be cautious!

Dogfish are quite strong for their size. This one was particularly feisty and refused to behave for a photo.

Put back into a shallow bay to our left it adopted a defensive position. As well as being efficient hunters and scavengers they are also pretty tough. Easy to see why they are so prolific in places.

After a while it uncurls itself and gracefully swims off.

It wasn't long before another fish was attacking our bait and Stewart lifted the rod to feel for the fish. Once he confirmed it was on he kept the rod high, wound in fast enough to clear the ledges and soon he was looking rather worried as his first ever shark came through the weed. He was clearly still a bit nervous so I unhooked it for him and again explained how to hold it before he had a go himself.

Stewart lifts the rods and feels for a fish on the end.

Still slightly unsure Stewart faces his fears and gets to grips with his first shark.

A rather cute one if you ask me!

Pretty soon we had landed a few more although it was a bit of a pain getting the three hook flapper rig back through the weed so I swapped that over to a second pulley rig. I also swapped the circle hooks from #3/0 to a #1/0 because a couple of the dogfish had the hook points penetrate close to their eyes and gills and I didn't want to risk causing unnecessary damage to these delicate organs on future catches. This worked a treat as the next few fish were all hooked nicely in the bottom jaw. After about ten dogfish between us I decided to put out a couple of sandeels wrapped in squid, a cocktail that has produced rays for me in the past. I asked Stewart to reel in one of the rods whilst I prepared the baits and low and behold a tiny thornback had taken the mackerel bait.

Speak of the devil and a cute little ray doth appear.

Stewart with his second shark species of the session and he was a bit happier handling it.

Popped back the little ray sulked in the shallows for a while before heading off.

We carried on fishing, hoping for some more rays but all our sandeel and squid cocktails were attracting was more dogfish. Meanwhile my mini species rod hadn't attracted anything at all which was quite a surprise so I decided to pack it up. I then headed along the shore to check out another spot. When I returned Stewart had caught a dogfish, unhooked and released it on his own. I was suitably impressed. In the early evening we headed along the shore to try the other spot but this turned out to be not as productive as our first mark. The water there was a lot deeper but the ledges proved more difficult to get our gear and fish back up over. Three more dogfish were caught before we called it a night taking our tallies to ten sharks each making the day a fairly busy one with plenty of exposure to sharks for Stewart. 

Another lovely evening making it a real pleasure to be out fishing.

After our failed attempts afloat on Loch Etive a couple of weeks ago it was good to see Stewart get his first sharks and I think he has gone some way to curing his mild phobia of them, although more "therapy" is probably required. Maybe in the summer we can up the ante and target tope and bull huss. Stewart's isn't keen on conger eels either so maybe that's an issue we can work on too. He does seem to be enjoy our fishing trips though which is of course the most important thing. Next time we go fishing we'll have a break from sharks but whilst we may target some smaller species I can't promise Stewart we won't encounter some vicious Blennies. If he thinks sharks are nasty he's in for a shock!

Tight lines, Scott.

A Fyne day out.

Back at the end of last month I went to Loch Fyne to have a first go for Fries' Goby after reading some divers studies that reported sightings of them there. I set of at about 9:00 and went to the Glasgow Angling Centre on the way and got a few bits and bobs. The drive up the west shore of loch Lomond and through the Trossachs was lovely. I really enjoy heading to the west of Scotland to fish! I arrived, parked the car and made my way down to the shore where I found a nice rock to fish from. The tide had just turned and was beginning to flood as I got set up. As there was a fair amount of bladderwrack floating in the water in front of me I found a fairly clear gap in it that I could retrieve fish through and started fishing. I went with my Nories Rockfish Bottom Light rod to start with and clipped on a scaled down three hook flapper rig made up with very short snoods with #10 Sabpolo Wormer hooks baited with small chunks of raw prawn and tied on a 14g lead. Casting out about thirty yards and holding the rod in my hand I got bites from the off and my first fish was soon hooked.

Small but still my first haddock of 2013.

This welcome addition to my annual species tally was soon followed by a few small codling and then I caught a dab. Dab are a bit strange. The eye that migrates from the "bottom" looks like it didn't quite make it all the way over like it does on other flatfish species and when you hold them up to the light they have a weird translucent look to their body with their internal organs blocking the light.

Lots of these little codling around. A good sign for years to come hopefully.

Grumpy.

Next up I caught a black goby. Because my main target was also a goby I had brought my little observation tank along with me and popped the fish it in for a photo.

Dorsal fins in full glory.

A few more black gobies soon followed and when I caught smaller ones I was hopeful that they would be a colourful Fries' goby as I reeled them in but each time I had to settle for another black one. I wanted to get a bit more distance so I switched over to my slightly longer Nories Rough Surf 88 rod, clipped the rig on and tied on a 28g lead. I was able to get a bit more distance and must have found a cleaner sandy patch because I was soon catching sand gobies, more dabs and my first ever Scottish dragonets.

No prizes for guessing where sand gobies are normally found.

The female of the species...

...has a much smaller first dorsal fin than the male.

The session continued like this, I had a lot of fun and caught almost fifty fish including several double shots but alas no Fries' goby. It was quite interesting to fish these scaled down rigs on very light gear though and holding the rod in my hand I could feel every tiny bite even at distance especially on my Rockfish Bottom rod.  No doubt if I can locate and get my rig out onto a muddy patch where Fries' goby is holed up I will be able to catch them. This may require gear capable of casting further which may mean a compromise in bite detection or perhaps a boat hire and a switch to fishing vertically may be required. Solving problems like this is one of the things that I like about fishing for different species as it sometimes requires you to think outside of the box. Since the visit I've also noted that black mouthed dogfish and tadpole fish have in the past been caught from the loch so I may end up spending a bit more time there in the future.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Fries' Goby.

There are over twenty species of goby in UK waters. For an obsessed species hunter like myself that's a lot of potential targets to ignore because they are small. Besides, the challenges faced when trying to catch the smallest of species can be just as interesting and difficult to overcome as those faced when trying to catch huge ones and I enjoy doing both. I have managed to catch eight species of UK saltwater goby so far and would like to try and add a ninth. Looking at the ones I've never had I have picked out Fries' Goby. There are a few reasons for this choice. With a maximum size of only 10cm they are small but they are one of the bigger goby species too which may make catching them a little easier. They are found in a few Scottish lochs too which means I don't have to travel too far to try and catch them. Finally they are beautiful little fish. Overall a violet shade with yellow spots on their flanks and fins as well as one yellow and one electric blue stripe along the edge of some of their fins.

Quite distinctive but could perhaps be mistaken for a leopard spotted goby.

They seem to like a soft sedimentary seabed and divers often see them in burrows in the same areas as langoustines. Certainly not a fish many anglers, if any, have ever caught let alone set out to deliberately. I'm looking forward to having a go though!

Tight lines, Scott.