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.

Species hunting adventures on São Miguel: Part 1.

At the end of March, Lillian and I flew from Edinburgh, via Lisbon, to Sao Miguel in the Azores for a ten day long trip. We'd be joined after three days by my mates Lee and Ross, who were flying direct from London Stansted. After a fairly long journey but excited to be somewhere new, Lillian and I explored the capital of Ponta Delgada on foot for the first couple of days, and then picked up a hire car the day before the boys arrived. The weather in the Azores at that time of year is similar to the UK in that it can change very quickly. One minute the sun is shining, the next it's cloudy or raining.

Hardly a cloud in the sky. Black volcanic rock and buildings painted white are a feature of Ponta Delgada architecture and the theme is also used on lots of pavements too.

After wandering around some of Ponta Delgada's quaint narrow streets on the morning of our first full day, we strolled down to the open coast to a small harbour, so I could do some fishing. Someone was already fishing when we got there, usually a good sign.

The local angler's tactics involved bread paste on treble hooks, fished under a float using a rod made of a piece of cane. I love that sort of thing. A reminder that expensive tackle might be nice but is not always neccessary to catch some fish.

After watching the gentleman catch a few seabream, I got quickly set up along from him and was soon pulling out lots of small fish myself on pieces of raw prawn. Ornate wrasse were the first species of the trip. No surprise there really and lots of them. A few other fish did manage to beat them to my bait eventually.

A nice blacktail comber...

...a damselfish that managed to get a relatively big hook in its mouth...

...and a few Guinean puffers. I'm not a massive fan of puffers. I might have mentioned that before.

This was the spot I'd just fished. By the time we left the clouds had rolled in.

We then took a slow stroll back into town, following the coastline. Walking past the main marina inside the town's huge harbour, I had a look to see what fish were in it. As well as shoals of mullet, lots of ornate wrasse and various types of seabream, I soon spotted some black faced blennies sitting still on submerged boulders close to the edge, occassionally shifting their position slightly. They are a tiny fish but the males have a bright yellow body, so they were easy to pick out against the dark volcanic rock. Whilst I was excited, as it was my first time I'd ever come across the species in the sea, I also knew that fishing there was strictly off limits. In fact, whilst I was pointing the black faced blennies out to Lillian, a couple of locals passing by, seeing that I had fishing tackle with me, warned me that the Marina had a security detail. They told me that they were very strict and should they see me fishing, they would be straight over, and I could end up with a hefty fine. Whilst I really wanted to catch a black faced blenny, I also didn't want to risk getting into trouble, so, feeling frustrated, we headed off again.

Full of fish but strictly off limits. The clouds had almost all gone again.

Walking further along the harbour's promenade, away from the marina, we found a small slipway behind a seafood restaurant and I did some fishing there. The chefs were out regularly tossing fish scraps into the water, meaning the area was full of fish. Freelined raw prawn chunks were soon doing the business.

Sun out again. Fish on again!

I caught plenty of these rather plump thick lipped mullet...

...and some small derbio that went off like little rockets and were great fun ...

...and a female emerald wrasse.

Feeling we had perhaps been exposed to a little bit too much sun, we decided to get into the shade and headed to one of Ponta Delgada's botanical gardens. As well as enjoying the cool cover the many different species of trees offered and admiring lots of nice plants, there were also some beautiful, very colourful birds strutting about.

A lovely looking cockerel.

The top of my head felt like it was almost as red as the cockerel's we had seen in the gardens so after getting some aftersun and a bottle of pineapple liqueur from the supermarket we headed back to the apartment to relax, and after a lengthy cold shower each, we enjoyed copious amounts of both. 

The next day we picked up our hire car and headed out of the capital to explore. We drove round its western end, making some short stops at roadside viewpoints to enjoy the scenery before carrying on to visit a few potential fishing spots. Mosteiros was our first destination where we checked out a small pier and then its natural swimming pools. 

São Miguel Miguel is lush with lots of grassy fields. Cows were also a fairly common sight. It could easily be mistaken for somewhere in the UK.

There are several deep rockpools at Mosteiros that people can go swimming in.

Rockpool blennies swim about in them too, rather unsurprisingly!

Leaving Mosteiros, we drove east along the northern coast to Ponta da Costa, a tiny slipway at the bottom of some huge cliffs. The winding path down was pretty steep and to be honest the fishing wasn't great when we eventually made it down to the bottom. I didn't realise it at the time, but I later discovered that I'd caught my first new species of the trip whilst down there.

The slight swell rolling in made fishing difficult.

As well as lots of ornate wrasse, I also caught a few very darkly coloured rainbow wrasse. I'd later discover they were blacktail rainbow wrasse, and also that looking back through my old catch report photos, I'd caught them on Madeira previously and mistaken them for...

...Mediterranean rainbow wrasse. The shape might be almost identical as they're from the same group of wrasses, the Coris genus, but the different colouration of the adult males of the two species is pretty obvious really.

Before we headed back up to the car I also caught a few bogue on small metals fishing out into deeper water.

The climb back up the cliffside paths to the car was pretty tiring so we headed back to São Miguel, visited the supermarket and chilled in the apartment that evening, enjoying a nice meal with some beers and a few passion fruit liqueurs. 

The following day the weather was pretty miserable being both quite windy and wet. We drove east along the south coast to check out the small harbour at Porto de Pescas da Caloura. A fair swell was running out in the open sea and the inside of the harbour didn't produce anything at all.

This spot is supposed to be a good mark to target moray eels after dark so if nothing else it was good to check it out in daylight.

We then drove further east before cutting inland and driving north into the island's interior to visit the Caldeiras das Furnas nature preserve. It has several steaming geothermal pools and geysers. The smell of sulphur is pretty pungent to say the least. Whilst there we also spent an hour or so in the Microbial Observatory of the Azores, learning about some of the types of life that exist in the extreme environments, like the ones found there.

Lillian's not usually a fan of smelly gasses when I produce them, and my gases normally don't smell half as bad as the stench these constantly produce.

To get the smell of rotten eggs out of our clothes we headed up to the north coast to the small harbour of Porto Formoso, a venue I would return to for a boat trip with Lee and Ross later in the trip. With the sea nice and flat due to the wind now being offshore, I fished for a while from the rocks at the outside of the harbour's mouth, but it was very tough going. It also rained pretty heavily for a brief spell while we were there and we both got a bit of a soaking.

It looked quite promising, but I really struggled to catch fish here.

A small common two banded seabream prevented a blank. If memory serves it was the only fish of the entire day!

Heading back up to the car we finished the day by following the coast all the way around the eastern end of the island, stopping off again at various viewpoints to take in the scenery.

The next day the wind had dropped off again and we headed east along the island's southern coast again to visit Ermida de Nossa Senhora da Paz, a small church perched on the hillside at the top of over one hundred steps.

I was happy with this photo but Lillian insisted we climb all the way up.

At the top I spotted a big harbour down below we could explore.

After driving down and visiting a small tackle shop in Vila Franca do Campo we headed to its harbour. Again a friendly local, upon spotting my fishing rod, was quick to approach us and tell me where I could and could not fish. I heeded his advice and headed well away from all the fancy, and no doubt very expensive, moored yachts. As we wandered along, I spotted the yellow bodies of some black faced blennies, sitting on the submerged rocks close to the edge. Out came a packet of tanago hooks, I quickly rigged up an ultra light running ledger and lowered the rig down onto one of the boulders where the black faced blennies were. After a few missed bites, I managed to hook a small fish that I initially thought was a female black faced blenny, but in my hand I recognised it to be a Montagu's blenny.

Only my second ever Montagu's blenny.

A little more persistence eventually paid off when I watched one of my targets take the tiny piece of raw prawn on my equally tiny hook into its mouth and I gently struck, successfully hooking it. My second new species of the trip was quickly swung up to hand. Having been after one of these for years, making several trips to Swanage Pier in Dorset to try and catch one, I was ecstatic to finally get one.

A male black faced blenny. Chilling out on a rock their head is jet black and their body is bright yellow. When caught their coloration dulls and is a little bit mottled. The female on the other hand is a fairly drab looking fish, being a mottled brown colour.

I carried on fishing, trying a few different spots around the harbour and caught quite a lot of fish. Mainly ornate wrasse, blacktail rainbow wrasse in the mix, as well as a solitary ballan wrasse and a nice striped red mullet. That's definitely the furthest west I've ever caught a ballan wrasse! I also managed to add a couple more species to my trip tally and my third new species of the trip in the shape of a blue wrasse, a cousin of the corkwing wrasse that is endemic to the Azores.

In amongst all the wrasse I caught this nice striped red mullet fishing over a clean sandy area.

I also caught this single small male parrotfish. Parrotfish males are the drab sex of the species.

Here's a ruby red female parrotfish I caught on Tenerife a few years ago.

While we're on the subject of sexual dimorphism in wrasse, I think this is a male blue wrasse but could be in the middle of a transition...

...and this ornate wrasse is in the middle of a sex change too I think. It has some colouration features of both. Most wrasse species can change sex from female to male when the need arises.

Anyway I've digressed. It's fascinting but that's enough fish gender politics! So, we were enjoying our time on São Miguel. Despite the fishing being a little hit and miss, I'd made a pretty good start to my species hunting. I was over the moon to catch the black faced blenny and also the two new wrasse species, even if technically I'd unknowingly caught one of them before. With six days left in the Azores we were both looking forward to Lee and Ross arriving as we hadn't seen them for a while due to the pandemic, so it would be great to catch up again and fish together again too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.

South Coast and Channel Island Fishathon Part 3 : Alderney.

The south coast half of my fishathon over, Ross and I got our gear sorted on the morning of Friday the 27th of June and loaded it into my car. We said goodbye to the rest of the lads and drove to Southampton to catch our flight to Alderney. Mark had left before us to drop off his car at Poole so it could be shipped back over to Alderney. The traffic was pretty bad though and we ended up missing the check-in for our flight. I was worried about incurring extra costs getting the next one but to my surprise Aurigny put us on the next flight later that day at no extra charge. Ross and I had a couple of lagers in the Airport before heading through to departures. It was soon time to board the plane and along with four other passengers we were taken out to it. Ross had warned me it was small but I still got a slight shock when I saw it.

With only eighteen seats this was easily the smallest plane I've ever travelled in. I was glad it was a nice day!

The short flight soon almost over it soon became clear just how small Alderney is as we approached the island. Mark kindly picked us up from the equally small airport and dropped us of at Ross' house. Ross and I then went for a quick drive around the island, Ross pointing out a few of his favourite marks as we went and we stopped at the harbour to mess about for an hour or so. Things were quite slow and Ross told me that high water wasn't a great time to fish there. Despite this Ross caught a small ballan wrasse and I hooked one too but lost it. I was quite surprised that they were in the harbour though as its bottom was pretty featureless. This would set the tone for rest of the trip however and I would discover that ballan wrasse can be caught pretty much everywhere. Looking forward to finding out what else could be caught we headed back to the house and enjoyed a tasty curry.

In the morning Ross had to work so I headed down to the Douglas Quay to see if anything unusual was hiding in the harbour walls. Ross has caught a topknot and a clingfish down the side of the harbour walls on Alderney so you never know what can turn up!

I thought the rocky breakwater may hold some surprises.

Working my way along the breakwater I missed a few bites before hooking a big ballan wrasse. I was fishing with ultralight tackle however and the fish charged off, snapping my braid on a piece of metal that was sticking out of wall. I was disappointed to lose another fish but carried on searching and soon caught my first fish on the island, a giant goby.

Fairly small for a giant goby but I was glad to finally land a fish.

Keen to see what else was hiding in the cracks I kept working my way round the end of the breakwater and back along the outside wall. With no more joy finding fish I climbed up on top of the wall on the outer edge of the first half of breakwater and decided to try a team of two lures. Removing my drop shot weight from the bottom of my rig I replaced it with a jighead and put two Reins Rockvibe paddletails on. Casting them out past some rocks and reeling them back I had a follow from a pair of bass. One turned away but the second kept following. I paused my retrieve and the fish swallowed the jighead mounted lure, turned and charged off. My drag was set fairly tight but it was a decent size fish, was taking line fairly easily and was headed straight towards some partially submerged rocks further out. I thumbed the spool to try and turn the fish but after a few seconds my leader snapped. Disappointed to lose yet another fish I carried on experimenting with the new rig but had no further action. I quite like this tandem lure presentation however and will no doubt try it again.

At this point Ross text to say he had finished work so I headed back to his house to meet him. He was taking part in a species hunting competition later in the day on the breakwater so I was happy to tag along and see what I could catch. Before that however we headed off so I could try and catch a Montagu's blenny. Ross had on previous visits caught two from the area we visited and was confident I would get one. I set up spilt shot rig with a #26 hook and nicked a tiny piece of Gulp! onto it. Before long dangling this into likely looking gaps in the weeds had a few small common blennies and rock gobies appearing. Then a blenny appeared that had some vivid gold markings on its flank. "That's a Montagu's blenny" Ross told me so all my efforts went into trying to tempt it. Trying to keep my tiny piece of Gulp! in front of it was very frustrating and when it eventually had a few goes at it and I finally hooked it the tiny fish came off as lifted it up through the weed lining the rockpool. I carried on and after a while another, or perhaps the same Montagu's blenny appeared. Its attacks were less aggressive though so I replaced the tiny chunk of Gulp! with a fresh piece and this seemed to get the tiny fish interested again and I eventually hooked it. This time I managed to get it up out of the rockpool before it spat the tiny hook and Ross quickly grabbed my second new species of the trip before it could wriggle back into the water.

Montagu's blenny. A very pretty little blenny with gold markings along its flank.

Nice light blue spotting on its gill plate too.

Quite happy to have caught a new species and in particular a new blenny we returned to the breakwater and Ross signed in to the competition. We headed along to the slipway at the start of the breakwater and got started straight away. I was using the two up one down mini species rig I used at Swanage Pier and baited my hooks with ragworm. We didn't have any luck there though but a move along the breakwater soon saw us catching a few ballan wrasse. The multitude of colourations ballan wrasse have is quite extraordinary and it's one of the reasons I like catching them.

Alderney Breakwater at low water.

Some ballan wrasse are mottled like this brown one.

Some are plain like this bright green one.

Ross thought about a dozen species would be required to win the competition and by the time we got all the way along to the end of the breakwater Ross had racked up five species. His luck however started to run out a bit at this point and despite changing his tactics and bait, species that would normally be easy to catch proved elusive. I spent a bit of time at the end of the breakwater trying to catch a rock cook wrasse after a few of the other anglers caught some but all I could catch was more ballan wrasse. I wasn't complaining though as they were good fun on my ultra light gear and I was still enjoying their beautiful colour variations.

Dark green with a stripe of small spots.

Deep red with grey spots.

Plain brown.

As the evening progressed we moved back and forth to various points on the breakwater trying for different species. Going all the way back to the slip at the start of the breakwater as high water approached I caught a few more ballans whilst Ross spent some time trying to catch a goby, eventually managing to get one.

Dark brown with light blue spots.

A funky shade of green and possibly the cutest ballan wrasse I've ever caught.

Deep red.

Mottled chocolate and lime.

We fished into darkness but Ross surprisingly had no joy adding to his tally of six despite us going all the way to the end of the breakwater again to try fish baits for species like rockling and dogfish. In the end his boss Mark won the competition with a tally of ten species. Quite unbelievably despite over a dozen species being caught by the other participants throughout the competition I only caught ballan wrasse so it was just as well I was fishing for fun! It had been a very long day walking back and forth along the length of the breakwater and rather tired we headed home.

The next day Ross was off work so after a cooked breakfast we went giant goby hunting in some nice big boulder filled rockpools. Ross clearly knew their hiding holes very well and quickly caught a few of them. Being a generous host however he very kindly left a spot or two for me to catch them from. I'd never noticed before but the edge to some of their fins is bright blue in the water. I guess this has escaped my attention because they are normally thrashing around when hooked. We caught a few specimen fish and they sometimes have ragged fins too. This is probably a result of fighting or being attacked by predators.

I popped one of mine into a small rockpool to try and capture its blue fin edges but couldn't get the light to catch them properly.

The half a dozen boulder filled rockpools all fished out we headed around the island and over the exposed tidal causeway that leads to Raz Island to fish soft plastics for ballan wrasse.

Fort Ile De Raz on a beautiful day. 

After getting a few knocks but not hooking up I tried a lure I'd not used for a while and my next cast produced a fish.

I'd forgotten how much ballan wrasse love a Nories Ladyfish.

Ross chucks soft plastics in the general direction of France.

A few more wrasse fell to the Ladyfish including this heavily spotted one. 

Pouting at me seductively as I looked over it.

It had a brightly coloured underside too.

Moving along the rocks soon produced a few more fish including this green, brown and heavily spotted one. 

Satisfied with our efforts we headed home and Ross cooked us a tasty beef chilli before we headed out at night to try a spot of bait fishing from a nice clean beach. The target there was bass with a slim chance of sole after dark.

Two rods out the waiting game begins.

It was a lovely beach and a nice sunset too.

Sadly we had no luck but it was quite nice just sitting there relaxing whilst watching the rod tips. It was however dawning on me that getting any more new species was going to be a big ask and my attentions began to turn to adding more to my tally instead.

The next day I had a lie in while Ross went into work for a few hours in the morning and when he returned just before noon we spent a few hours targeting mini species from the Commercial Quay. Ragworm baited sabiki were the weapons of choice this time and after no luck at our first chosen spot we soon found a pocket of fish at a second.

My first rock cook wrasse of the year.

These horrible parasites must be what cause the abscesses on some of the corkwing I'd caught previously during the trip.

After a few more small wrasse we moved down inside the quay and fishing on the bottom fairly tight into the walls we caught a few black and rock gobies and I caught a goldsinny wrasse.

A single goldsinny wrasse took my trip tally to twenty nine species.

Things then went fairly quiet for a while so we headed off and dug some lugworm before going to a rock mark to try for bass. None were tempted although predictably our efforts were appreciated by a few of the resident ballans. In between bites on the bait rod we took turns with my lure setup and jigged a metal around. This resulted in some very positive takes from, you've guessed it, more ballans!

Ross has caught some cracking ballans whilst on Alderney. This one being small by his standards. 

They were loving the Savage Gear Psycho Sprat.

They were loving the lugworm too mind you.

After a hour or so there was a good rattle on bait rod. I lifted the rod and felt the fish was still there so I struck to set the hook and started winding it in, aware that I had to put some pressure on to keep it away from some rocks to my left. Potential snag safely negotiated a cracking black seabream soon came into sight.

I was well chuffed with this fish. Better than a bass in my book.

Like some other fish, their iridescent markings are only apparent when they are in water. 

Shortly afterwards it was soon time to leave with no bass caught but I was pleased with another enjoyable session. We packed up and headed home before going round to Mark's for a few hours to watch the France versus Nigeria World Cup match. Mark's partner Fieona cooked us some delicious food and it was all washed down with a few tasty Rocquette ciders. Later that night Ross and I popped down to Commercial Quay again to try for a rockling at slack water. Two rods were setup with ragworm baits fished on one up one down rigs close to some submerged boulders. Ross expected the target to be caught in rapid fashion and was looking forward to getting back home to bed but there wasn't much action so after an hour or so we decided to head home anyway. Reeling in a rod each Ross reeled in the rig that had just happened to have a small shore rockling on its bottom hook which would have been my 30th species of the trip had I picked that rod up. On the way home we both had a good laugh about it.

On Tuesday Ross was working in the morning again so I went off on my own in Ross' van to explore. Finding some rocks and chucking around some soft plastics I soon added a few more ballan wrasse to my tally.

The amount of ballan wrasse in the waters around Alderney is ridiculous. 

I still enjoyed catching them though!

After a while I headed off to explore another area that I had spotted whilst Ross and I drove around the island. Arriving there it looked quite good and I was just about to climb down when Ross rang to say he had finished work so I went to pick him up. First off we quickly visited some rockpools to try and catch more Montagu's blennies. I didn't have any luck finding one but after a while Ross managed to get himself one. Now early afternoon we went and dug some more lugworm and headed off to try a Couch's seabream. Arriving on the rocks we met Ross' workmate Matt who had just started fishing for them. After the previous night's rockling debacle Ross had assured me that a Couch's seabream would be an easy capture and we would likely get one first cast. We hadn't even cast out when Matt caught one so things did look promising.

Matt shows us how it's done catching a Couch's seabream on his first cast.

Well after this things were very slow and when I did finally get a bite and hooked a fish on both occasions it turned out to be a ballan wrasse again. Admitting defeat we packed up and headed home before popping down to the Thai restaurant at the end of Ross' street for a tasty meal. We had a laugh about Ross' overconfidence backfiring and decided to try somewhere new later that night. Arriving at the chosen spot we put out two bait rods and cast a metal around. Things were fairly quiet with only a single ballan wrasse being caught until light started to fade and then a couple of pollock and a mackerel fell to the jig. Ross then hooked a fish as the sun dipped down below the horizon.

Fish on.

It turned out to be a bass.

As it got darker the bait rods started going but I missed a few bites. It was now quite late and Ross was working in the morning so we decided to call it a day. One of the rods had been ever so slightly nodding away which we suspected was a crab but just to be on the safe side I reeled it in and low and behold it felt like there was something hooked. It felt a bit strange though and the reason was soon apparent when a double shot of a ballan wrasse and a shore rockling appeared into the beam of my head torch and was quickly swung in.

This shore rockling rounded off my species tally to thirty.

Pleased with this we packed up but had to wait half an hour for the tide to recede so we could get off of the rocks were had been fishing on. Back in the van I thought the species hunting was over for the day but Ross had other ideas and we began a bit of a tour of the island looking for another species on the way home. After about an hour driving around, stopping at various spots and wandering around with our head torches on we finally spotted the species we were looking for.

Not a fish but the Alderney Blonde Hedgehog was well worth tracking down. Their blonde colour is caused by a genetic mutation. All hedgehogs on Alderney have it and there are no "normal" brown hedgehogs on the island.

Well pleased with this late night bonus new species we headed home. Ross was working in the morning again so after a lie in I got up and packed up my gear. When Ross returned in the early afternoon we went to try and catch a mullet at the island's sewerage outflow pipe. As is the norm with mullet fishing we had a couple of bites but had no joy connecting with any fish. Not wishing to end my visit to Alderney on such a pungent mark we headed off to another spot and I had a quick go casting a metal jig around. I had a few knocks but sadly didn't hook any fish.

The view from the "s**t pipe" is still quite nice even if the smell is not.

Ross patiently watches for one particular floating object to move.

Heading back to Ross' house we had a quick bite to eat before he dropped me off at the airport and headed off to work again. I had a fantastic time with Ross on Alderney. He is a very talented angler and I like the fact that he just likes catching fish and is happy using any method he thinks will get him his target species, a bit like myself. I think he was quite glad to see the back of me though and was looking forward to getting a rest as he'd been working and fishing pretty much non stop since we arrived. Fishathons are great but they are tiring especially when you have to work too! My fishathon over, I enjoyed another turbulance free flight and made the drive back up the road to a wet and windy Scotland.

It had been an awesome trip overall and over the eleven days I had managed to catch thirty species including two new ones, adding twenty one to this year's tally too.

Here's a summary of everything I caught.

1. Ballan Wrasse x 74
2. Black Goby x 3
3. Black Seabream x 10
4. Blue Shark x 1
5. Cod x 2
6. Common Blenny x 6
7. Common Dragonet x 4
8. Corkwing Wrasse x 87
9. Cuckoo Wrasse x 1
10. Garfish x 1
11. Giant Goby x 4
12. Goldsinny Wrasse x 1
13. Greater Sandeel (Launce) x 4
14. Haddock x 1
15. Leopard Spotted Goby x 3
16. Lesser Weever x 8
17. Long Spined Sea Scorpion x 2
18. Mackerel x 30
19. Montagu's Blenny x 1
20. Pollock x 21
21. Poor Cod x 1
22. Pouting x 1
23. Red Gurnard x 1
24. Rock Cook Wrasse x 1
25. Rock Goby x 3
26. Sand Smelt x 7
27. Shore Rockling x 1
28. Tompot Blenny x 9
29. Tub Gurnard x 1
30. Whiting x 2

I'm looking forward to next year's fishathon already!

Tight lines, Scott.