Nothing to see here. Move along.

I popped down to Dunbar on Thursday and spend a few hours species hunting in the rockpools at the back of the old harbour, hoping to catch anything unusual that may have gotten trapped in them. There was no sign of anything in the open water, so I turned my attention to tempting fish out from under boulders and from inside cracks. I had a small amount of ragworm with me but also had some traditional freshwater baits too, and started off fishing a single maggot. This proved irresistable for several long spined sea scorpions. I also had a few small lob worm with me as well. Not a bait I'd ever tried in saltwater, but small sections also proved very effective.

The small piece of lobworm hanging out of this ones mouth looked a bit like a comedy tongue. It looked like it was licking its lips!

After a while I had exhausted all of my favourite rockpools and had caught over a dozen long spined sea scorpions. I then decided to head further down the shore to some rockpools I hadn't fished in before. They were fairly shallow but some had nice crevices at the edges, a good place for small ambush predators to lurk. Dropping a section of ragworm down in front of one such crack produced a rather large common blenny, my first of the year.

At just over 17cm it was a bit of a beast with a chunky head and large mouth.

It also had striking red eyes!

Working my way from rockpool to rockpool, the only fish that I spotted swimming out in the open was a large two spotted goby. I switched over to a tanago hook to try and catch it, but whilst doing so, it swam off and disappeared into some bladderwrack seaweed. Catching a few more long spined sea scorpion and common blenny, I then spotted a set of dark blue claws poking out from a hole.

A lobster, trying, but failing, to hide itself away.

Towards the end of the session, I caught a small reddish-brown coloured common blenny. In readiness for the rare mini species I had failec to catch, I had my photo tank with me, so took the opportunity to use it. 

This juvenile blenny fit in my tank nicely. 

I didn’t realise the common blenny had small structures around its nostrils. The tank is perfect for observing every minor detail on small fish. 

Shortly afterwards I decided to call it a day. On the way back home I visited a pond where I’ve been told that some koi carp have been introduced. I had a slow stroll all the way around it, but didnt spot any colourful, but unwanted pets. There were a few birds nesting however. 

A pair of swans and an ugly duckling. 

Two moorhens had decided to nest in the reeds right next to the path. 

So, two different sessions on consecutive days last week has failed to throw up anything unexpected. Like fishing in Loch Creran, I’m confident that if I spend enough time messing around in rockpools, I’ll eventually catch something unusual. I intend to fish in more rockpools over the coming months and will also be going out after dark later in the summer to see what’s in them as well. The weather forecast for my days off this week isn’t looking great so I’m not sure where I’ll end up fishing.  

Tight lines, Scott.

Not a new nemesis after all.

I visited Drumtassie Coarse Fishery on Thursday to try my luck at catching a Siberian sturgeon again. I've had a few attempts now and was beginning to think it might take me a long time to eventually get one. A potential new nemesis. Having chatted to a customer in work who had caught them during a recent session, I arrived very early to ensure that I got a peg in the area he had been fishing. During my last visit, I had fished in fairly shallow water, whilst he had caught them from the deepest part of the pond. I quickly got set up, and was soon catching a few fish using a pretty straight forward approach.

Nothing fancy, just a couple of pieces of chopped worm, ledgered on the bottom using a light feeder rod.

After four hours, I’d caught several common, mirror and F1 carp, a few tench, an ide, and a perch. After a short break for a bite to eat, I started fishing again. In my head I'd imagined how a sturgeon might fight, in some strange way given it looks so different to other freshwater fish, so when I hooked a fish that didn’t fight in any way unusually, I thought nothing of it. When it came close to the surface however, and I got a brief glimpse of a shark like tail fin, my heart rate instantly increased quite dramatically! I’d hooked my target!

Don’t come off. Don’t come off. Don’t. Come. Off!

Playing the fish carefully, trying not to bully it too much in case I pulled the hook, it eventually tired, came to the surface, and was drawn into my waiting net!

A juvenile Siberian sturgeon. My first sturgeon of any kind!

A small but perfectly formed, if somewhat odd looking, freshwater fish.

Its head was hard and bony, with a quartet of barbules.

They also have a protrusible mouth, that reminded me of the mouth of a saltwater ray.

I was ecstatic, and even better, soon followed it up with a second shortly afterwards. I'm not sure how many of them have been stocked, but I think they must be swimming around the pond in groups. Anyway, it was another species mission successfully accomplished! It's very satisfying to catch what you are after, and another species had been added to my Scottish lifetime list, edging me a little closer to my goal of one hundred, leaving me with only four to go! 

For the remainder of the afternoon, I decided to move to the smaller of the two coarse ponds at the fishery. There, I wanted to try and catch one of the very colourful koi carp, that have been recently stocked into it. I changed my tactics and switched over to a method feeder, fishing a bright purple 5mm wafter on a bait band. 

Wowsers "Hi Vis" wafters in bright purple.

A nice contrast against my 2mm feeder pellets.

The move proved to be a good choice, as I enjoyed fairly steady sport for the remainder of the session. Each time I hooked something, I was hopeful that a brightly coloured koi would appear, but it wasn’t to be. I can't complain though, as I caught plenty of nice fish and the sun even came out for a while.

I caught several bream,…

…lots of F1 carp,…

…a few small tench,…

…and few carp, including this nice mirror.

So, having caught my ninety-sixth species from Scottish venues, what’s next? Well, I’ve got a few ideas around what species I can target, but I think things are really going to get very tough now. I’ll probably be doing a lot of travelling over to the west coast of Scotland over the coming months, and the weather will no doubt play a massive part in how many trips I can do. Fingers crossed the summer gives us better weather than what we've had so far in 2024.

Tight lines, Scott.

A new nemesis?

I had another session at Drumtassie Coarse Fishery on Wednesday, targeting the small Siberian sturgeon that are in their coarse pond again. Chopped worm was the bait of choice, and this was fished over a bed of 2mm halibut pellets. Fishing with two rods for ten hours, I was fairly optimistic I’d catch what I was after, my first ever sturgeon, and coincidently my 96th fish species in Scotland. Things were pretty lively to begin with, when a few small F1 carp and a common carp picked up my bait and got hooked.  

There were quite a few of these little F1 carp in my swim,…

…and this nice common carp too. 

In the afternoon, things went very quiet for a few hours. There were two other anglers fishing and they both packed up and left. Eventually a few fish started biting again, and I caught a couple of bream and a few more F1 carp. 

Mid-flip. This bream didn’t want to lay still for a photo. 

Happy to pose. Some of the F1 carp I caught had a lovely golden colouration.

Just before I used up the last of my bait, I caught another couple of fish. Both were the same species, but sadly not the one I was after. 

The last two fish of the day were both ide. 

The second ide ate my last section of lob worm about thirty minutes before the fishery closed. So, I didn’t end up catching a Siberian sturgeon, and will just have to keep trying until I do. They have been getting caught recently, so I’m sure eventually I’ll get lucky and get one myself. There’s also a solitary large Siberian sturgeon, called Maisie, up in the fishery’s specimen pond that I might have a go at catching. Either way, I won’t be giving up until I catch one!

Tight lines, Scott.