From dusk till dawn.

Jake and I headed down to Torness Power Station midweek to have a go for bass during dusk and dawn and to fish around at the inlet during darkness to see what might be around. When we arrived the tide was on its way out and there were a couple of other people fishing. There was a fair swell running and the waves were coming up over the reef. We setup, waded out a bit onto the reef and started fishing just as light started to fade, although due to heavy cloud cover and mist it was already pretty dim anyway. I opted for a bombarda and tiny Slug-Go whilst Jake went with a baby Slug-Go on a jighead. After a few casts I had a knock and then Jake hooked a bass. We both thought that this would signal the start of a period of action but it didn't. After Jake lost some end gear in the gulley he was working which was begining to empty a bit we moved for a while to another spot on the reef. This didn't produce anything after a while so we decided to head around to the inlet area.

Upon arrival we started fishing from the helicopter platform. I set up a two hook flapper rig, put on a couple of Gulp! Sandworms and lobbed it out in the hope that something maybe be moving around on the bottom under the cover of darkness. Jake meanwhile did a spot of LRF and soon caught a small pollock. We then heard splashing in the shadows directly below us and Jake was soon catching the culprits, small coalfish.

More active at night, coalfish are good fun on ultra light gear.

Whilst Jake continued having fun with the coalfish, with the odd pollock taking his green Power Isome too, I was getting a few taps on my rod and decided to reel in to check the lures. Both were bitten off up to the hook so I knew there were a few crabs around at least! I switched over to some larger red Gulp! 6" Nightcrawlers to put a bit more scent into the water and hopefully prevent the crabs from eating them so quickly. Once those were out on the bottom I decided to have a go for a coalfish with my 2' Ron Thompson Ice Fishing rod for a laugh. After a bit of perseverance I finally hooked one but it didn't really put that much of a bend into the little rod. It's obviously tougher than I thought! After a decent rattle on my rod I reeled in only to find the lures half destroyed by the crabs again so we decided to have a quick go in the rockpools where I'd caught a few long spined sea scorpions and the leopard spotted gobies earlier in the week. There was very little activity though but we did spot a few fish darting around and Jake managed to catch one sea scorpion. We then headed back around to the outflow for dawn.

With the tide almost fully out and nobody else around we were in his spirits. The sky was still overcast though and it was still pretty misty. We both started off fishing baby Slug-Gos on jigheads, casting up the current and working them back close to the bottom but neither of us had any luck. I decided to try a few hard lures and after trying a Maria Chase BW in Holo and a I decided to try a cheap lure I picked up for £5 at the North Wales bumble. I'd never used it before so was pleasantly surprised when on the third cast a small bass took it.

My first bass on a hard lure for quite some time!

I called Jake over and he quickly switched over to his favourite Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow. A few casts later and he was in too. Jake caught another two bass in fairly quick succession on it and I had a couple of knocks too but after that the action stopped again. By this point it was fairly light, although we didn't get to enjoy a nice sunrise due to all the clouds and mist! We fished on for another hour or so but by this point we were both pretty tired so we headed back up the road.

Tight lines, Hutch.

East Lothian Easter Monday meet up.

Jake and I headed down to Torness Power Station outflow yesterday. Jake's friend Paul joined us and we were meeting up with Paul's mate Richie down there and also three fellow The Lure Forum members, Martin who had travelled across country from Ayrshire and Richie and Jase who had come up all the way from Sunderland.

Richie and Jase were first to arrive on the rocks and when we arrived they reported that fishing had been very slow. So much so that they had done a spot of rockpooling and not for fish!

Whilst waiting for the bass to turn up the David Attenborough came out in Jase and Richie took this nice photo of a sea urchin, uncovered by the spring tide.

I had a quick crack at the bass and setup with an 8g bombarda and a Kiddy Sidewinder Brill Bait. Meanwhile Jake did a spot of LRF in a kelp filled gully connected to the sea. It wasn't long before he was into a fish.

Jake manages to catch something other than a blenny or bass at Torness Power Station outflow. Lovely brown, orange and yellow colouration on this long spined sea scorpion.

Isn't he cute?

The bass were clearly not around and whilst the rest of the group carried on in the hope they would arrive I disappeared with "The Beast Tamer" in search of a blenny that would steal Jake's Scottish Record crown.

There is a rod in my hand honest!

I spotted a couple of large specimens in one fairly small rockpool and after a bit of vertical jigging one grabbed the Gulp! 1" Fish Fry and was quickly plucked from his salty residence!

"The Beast Tamer" strikes again.

Jake just happened to be on the move at this point, so I called him over so I could weigh my specimen blenny on his electronic mini species scales. Luckily for Jake whilst mine was slightly longer than his record breaker, mines wasn't quite as plump so his title was still safe, for the time being!

At 18.5cm this is a lunker as far as blennies go!

Are you lookin' at me?

I carried on in search of the prize winning fish but couldn't locate one anywhere near the proportions required. I caught 20 in the process. This also gave me the opportunity to test my new Nories rod and whilst I could feel the tiny bites I prefer the extra sensitivity my Diaflash offers for this style of close range vertical jigging. Some of the smaller blennies were particularly aggressive.

This one had a bit of an attitude. Vicious little bugger!

At this point I headed back down to see if any bass were in and at long range some activity could be seen with some surface disturbance and a couple of seals patrolling in the distance we hoped that the shoal would be moving within casting range soon.

Martin retrieves his lure. Note the beautiful Scottish weather.

Martin was first into a fish. Taken at long range this would signal the start of some further action for the others.

Martin lands the first bass of the day.

Richie's rod bends into a bass.

Richie took this bass on a Yokozuna Flamingo deep diving plug.

Richie's latest hard lure does the business.

The classic white eel and controller float setup took a few bass.

I got into the action too. After trying a few small hard lures I switched to a soft one. A few casts into the outflow and using a steady retrieve with a few little jerks it wasn't too long before I hooked a schoolie.

Savage Gear Sandeel Slug on a 6g 2/0 jighead was nailed by this bass.

Only a puppy but lovely all the same.

Again the Nories coped easily. I'm starting to realise that the real quality in this rod is in the way it handles fish once hooked. It really is a joy the way it absorbs the headshakes and feels so smooth during the fight, although like Jake's Graphiteleader Corto EX, we'd still like to test them on something a bit bigger that will fight dirty! With this in mind myself, Jake, Paul and Richie decided it was time to head down to the cliffs at Eyemouth to target Pollock and Coalfish. Richie fishes the area quite frequently and has had pollock to 8.5lb so we were hoping to give our light gear a real workout.

Quick group shot before some of us headed down to Eyemouth.

The first mark we fished is known locally as "The Cannons" this is because it is directly below two large cannons that are on top of the cliff.

Two large cannons facing seawards give the mark below it's name.

After a following the narrow winding path round the side of the cliff, passing under an overhang and hopping over some rocks we arrived on a large flat platform.

"The Cannons". Nice deep water with lots of kelp. Perfect for pollock and wrasse.

The view to the north west towards St Abbs Head.

We tried a variety of lures and worked our way around the area, Jake even tried a spot of LRF down the edges and in some shallower water with some light jigheads and Power Isome but sadly none of us caught anything. We decided to try at another mark and made the climb back up to the cliff top.

The path required to access the mark is narrow and dangerous and not for the faint hearted. Richie and Paul lead the way.

I hold up this huge boulder so Jake can make his escape!

Don't look down!

Once on the cliff top again we made our way round towards the next peninsula, a much more rocky affair, the tip of which is cut off as the tide floods and is known locally as "Hairy Ness".

"The Cannons" from a distance.

We began our descent to the mark. Just as dangerous as the last but for completely different reasons. Instead of being faced with the risk of falling a great distance should we lose our footing we had to do a fair bit of scrambling over rocks to reach the mark with the prospect of hard, jaggy landing should we slip. Again not for the faint hearted. Taking time and care was the order of the day. Not a mark to try and access in bad weather or when a swell is running.

The climb down the the second mark. "Hairy Ness" is the furthest point.

"Hairy Ness" cut off by the tide.

We only fished here for about 30 minutes but unfortunately we drew a blank again. A real shame as it looked just as promising as the first mark. Richie was understandably disappointed too as he regularly catches pollock and coalfish from both marks. We'll certainly be returning to these marks in the months to come.

All in all a great day was had by everyone and it was good to meet up with friends and make a few new ones.

Tight lines, Hutch.