Slimey surprise.

With Scott away to the mull of Galloway on a boat trip, I headed down to St Abbs again hoping to find the resident wrasse. I had had a couple of brief forays there after my PB wrasse session but the wrasse hadn't been around, although the coalies, codling, flounders and scorpions had been in abundance. Ritchie had had his cast removed so I picked up the newly footed Ritchie and we headed down to the harbour hoping to fish the ebb. The tide was a neap which wasn't ideal for targeting the wrasse but the joys of LRF meant there were plenty of other fish to target. I rigged my LRF gear with a simple dropshot rig, I rigged the #8 hook with a gulp sandworm and clipped a lead on a mere 2" from the hook. This presentation keeps the lure very close to the bottom and it would seem the wrasse like this set up.

The Coalfish were everywhere!

The coalies were everywhere as usual and I was soon into double figures while searching the fringes of the kelp. While I was working the lure I had noticed some dark shapes moving through the kelp, wrasse! I concentrated my efforts where the fish had been and it wasn't long before I was into a proper fish. As soon as it was hooked the fish tried to dive between a rope and the wall. I managed to turn it and  then let the rod soak up its dives for cover. It soon tired and I guided it into the waiting dropnet, bingo first wrasse of the session, target achieved!

Another fine Scottish ballan wrasse

I released the fish and began to target the flatties which was quite hard as the scorpions were really on the feed and we had loads of them! Ritchie was busy hunting for wrasse when I noticed a cod carcass moving about in the clear water. The carcass was jerking and twitching as three eels writhed around it. There were two dark ones and a pale big one, I presumed that the pale one was a small conger. I cast over the top of the carcass and gently twitched the lure over where they were feeding, I saw a dark eel snake up and grab the lure. I struck and quickly got it up off the bottom whereby the eel hit reverse and hung snaking in the water. A bit more pressure and it was quickly swung up into my eager hands. Brilliant, a common eel on a lure for the second year in a row and sight fished too! After wrestling with the eel to get a photo I released it back to the harbour.

For the second year in a row I managed to bag a common eel on a lure.

It wouldn't behave for its photograph though!

I tried back for the conger but it had spooked when the eel had been hooked. We kept seeing it though and soon I manged to get a lure in front of it. I was twitching the rod gently causing the sandworm to flutter invitingly above the fish. I saw the eel slowly come up off the bottom and approach the lure. My heart was in my mouth as it got closer suddenly a small scorpion tore on front of the eel, gobbled up the lure and dived back into the kelp. Argggh, to make matters worse the wee thing would not open its little mouth and was biting down on the hook shank. It must have taken at least a couple of minutes before it actually opened its gob for long enough to unhook it and by the time I dropped the fish back the eel had disappeared.

The tide had dropped quite considerably so I moved back to some deeper water. Fishing right alongside the kelp a felt a couple of electric taps instantly recognisable as wrasse bites. I let the tapping develop and when I noticed the line move I struck and manged to bully another lovely wrasse out from its kelpy lair.

I love catching wrasse on LRF gear, even a modest size fish puts up a great fight.

I love the colours too!

We then concentrated on some more flatties and had a few, one out of the kelp itself! Ritchie manged to get a wee pollock and another nice wee wrasse from the kelp before bagging a really fat flounder that must of weighed well over a pound .

St Abbs produces some great flounders!

Wrasse and flounder in the same session, brilliant!

Ritchie displays one of the many flounder he  had caught.

A jig head and large Isome lured this handsome flounder

I have never seen as many codling as this year, winter should be fun!

My last flounder of the session.

That signalled the end of the session as I had to get back for the kids tea time, so we packed up and headed back. Both of us were really chuffed the action had been constant and the bonus eel added extra excitement. Not only had we managed to catch wrasse and flatties but we had sight fished the majority of fish, which just made the whole experience even more intense. It won't be long now before the wrasse become dormant for the winter, however with the vast amount of tiny codling about I can only surmise that winter may well provide a lot of sport with them. Here's hoping!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Goal achieved : PB's all round!

Following a couple of trips to find wrasse with Ritchie, both of which saw us catch plenty of flounders, coalies, codling, and the ever present sea scorpion, we finally got back on them last week. Ritchie, who's leg was still bound in plaster, had taken a taxi to the harbour and I would meet him there. I wouldn't be able to get to the harbour until about 4pm and I was concerned that the light levels would be too dim for the wrasse. As I drove down the A1 which was shrouded in a dense sea mist Richie sent me a text to say he had his first wrasse around the pound mark. Filled with the hope of wrasse I arrived at the harbour to find it weirdly atmospheric the fog was thick but with a hot sun and blue skies above it lit up the mist and made a strange light cover the harbour. It was so thick that the dive boats couldn't get out and the harbour was pretty quiet with boat traffic. I parked up and quickly made my way to to meet the busily fishing Ritchie. He said that he had had the first wrasse fairly quickly but the action had tailed off so he was concentrating on floundering till it stepped up a bit. The water was clear and when I looked down the edge it was like fish soup, with masses of coalies and codling shoaling right in front of me

Fish soup!

I rigged up a dropshot rig with a section of Gulp! Sandworm and with a slight change to how I normally rig I clipped the 7g weight only 3" from the lure. It looked more like a stretched "Jika" rig, the wrasse were patrolling very close to the sea bed last time and I hoped this would encourage them to be more confident in attacking the lure. Getting the lure through the mass of coalies was a bit problematic as they kept grabbing it. When I did get through them I began by hopping and shaking the lure along the border of the kelp and sand. It only took about five minutes before I felt those characteristic plucks at the lure. I allowed the taps to develop and struck into a nice fish. I bullied it up from the bottom and the fish did its best to crash dive into the thick kelp. This caused me to have to play the fish with the rod above my head to counteract the bend in the rod and soon the fish was on the surface gently waving its pectorals at me. Ritchie was quickly on hand with the dropnet and we quickly guided it in and hoisted it up to my eager hands. What a stroke of luck, I had only been there five minutes and had manged to bag a beautifully coloured wrasse. It was a good size too and with my favourite colour variation on its face, a gorgeous strawberry red and white with emerald highlights, simply stunning.

Drop shotted Gulp! Sandworm did for this pretty ballan wrasse.

Brilliant! Five minutes fishing and I bag this gorgeous wrasse.

Incredible colours and a hard fighter, I love wrasse!

See ya!

I released the fish and began to search the same area with the lure which seemed to have become infested with scorpion fish. While I was dealing with yet another brazen scorpion Ritchie gave a shout and I looked over to see his rod bent into a fish. The fish was pulling hard for the kelp but he soon had it beaten and I was on hand with the landing net. Ritchie was really pleased for there in the net lay a new PB ballan wrasse, one of the best cures for a broken foot!

Ritchie's PB lays in the net.

Fantastic, a proud Ritchie holds his new PB wrasse.

Beautiful colours, it didn't half munch the jig head!

The next couple of hours were spent happily catching flounders, coalies, codling and the ever present scorpions. Being the weekend there was a fairly constant stream of tourists and I took great delight in showing some of the curious ones various fish as they were caught.

I managed another small wrasse, this one had rather distinctive green and orange colouration.

The ever present scorpions were keen on the Gulp! too.

As were the micro codling!

I was in the process of showing a dad and his son how to catch coalies when I felt a sharp plucking at the lure. "It's a wrasse!" I proclaimed to the watchers. The tapping at the lure continued and when I saw the line move I struck. Wham! The fish took off for the kelp with a powerful dive and I had to raise the rod above my head to curtail its run. The rod bent alarmingly as the fish powered down and to the side as it again tried to get onto the kelp and it almost made it as I could feel the line bouncing off the kelp fronds. I kept the rod high and kept the pressure on, this turned the fish and it began to slowly come up. As the fish rose up I could see it was a good one and my heart was in my mouth as I played the fish out. I had to hand the rod to Ritchie at this point and climb down the ladder so I could net it and Ritchie carefully guided it towards the waiting net. Yes! The fish was a belter and measured 41cm and weighed in at 2lb 7oz a new P.B. ballan wrasse. I was extremely pleased, it may or may not have been the leviathan we saw on our previous visits but to do my PB on LRF gear was doubly satisfying. We took some glory shots and let the fish recover in the net before release and when it was let go it went back very strongly.

My new PB lays safely in the net.

41cm of rock pig.

2lb 7oz wrasse on LRF gear, no wonder I am grinning!

Pigtastic!

I carried on fishing in a happy daze and although there were no more wrasse there were plenty of nice flounders landed. Ritchie managed the best one and it wasn't exactly flat as it was an inch and a half thick!

Ritchie displays a chunk of a flounder.

My biggest flounder went just over 28cm.

This was my smallest flounder.

St Abbs shrouded in mist.

When it was time to leave we left with big grins, both of us having beaten our wrasse P.B's and having had countless other fish flinging themselves at us it was truly a session to remember. As I made the short drive home I felt a great sense of achievement. Not just because I had caught some beautiful wrasse on LRF gear, but because I had caught my PB from my local area, a doubly satisfying experience.

Tight lines, Jake.

They only come out at night.

Jake and I headed down to St Abbs on Tuesday night and met up with our fishing pal Richie to have a go for flounders, coalfish and anything else that was silly enough to swim and take our lures. Fishing was slow to say the least and some divers I spoke to as they came out of the water confirmed what we already knew, there was hardly any fish around. Undeterred we worked our way around the harbour using a variety of methods and lures and finally spotted a fish which Jake promptly caught.

Ever obliging. Greedy little buggers.

Richie and I carry on searching both in the harbour and in the kelp beds below the outer wall.

After reaching the end of the outer harbour we decided to try our luck from the rocks over the kelp beds. After a bit of rockhopping I spotted a few small fish as they came up from the kelp to have a go at my 10cm Savage Gear Sandeel Slug but they weren't much bigger than it and when I switched to a 2" Reins Rockvibe they lost interest. Jake and Richie came over and joined me and tried to tempt them but had no luck either. We all went over onto the rocks at the very mouth of the harbour and carried on the search. As light faded Richie hooked and landed a small coalfish and I switched to a small metal opting for a pink/luminous 5g Quantum Sea Mahi jig. After a few casts I felt a couple of bumps before striking the third, hooked a fish and quickly landed it before heading over to where Jake was so he could take a few photos.

Sunset over St Abbs.

My first coalfish of 2013.

Thanks Quantum Sea Mahi Jig!

Fish popped back we all started fishing at the mouth of the harbour and as the light continued to fade we started spotting coalfish swimming around below us and started targeting them. Before long I had a second and Jake and Richie also caught a few. Nothing big but good fun on the light gear we were all using.

One of Jake's fish caught on a drop shot rig.

Pretty soon it was getting quite late so we called it a night. Despite the slow start it was a pleasant evening spent in good company and no doubt we'll be back again soon for another night time session.

Tight lines, Hutch.

Fun with Scorpions.

After what seems like an age my time off work finally coincided with some settled weather and I managed to get to the coast to take advantage of it. The past few weeks has provided meagre pickings and we have suffered a few blanks whilst hunting the canals, so I was just really keen to catch something. With this in mind I headed down to East Lothian to a scorpion and blenny hotspot. I was keen to continue my searching of the deep rock pools and gulleys at this mark as it can hold a surprise or two! It was low tide, calm and sunny  when I arrived I started fishing a Slug-Go mounted on a football jighead and began to jig it alongside the kelp. I was hoping to find some pollock lurking but after half an hour I decided to target the rock pools in the hope of some scorpions. I broke out my LRF kit, 7'10" Graphiteleader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000SFC reel, 6lb Sunline Super PE, 2' fluorocarbon leader and on the business end a 1.5g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead with a small tail section of pink Isome. I bounced the Isome along side the big boulders and crevices in the rocks and within minutes a long spined sea scorpion had dashed out and engulfed the lure. It was promptly landed and after a bit of spiky defiance it was released after a quick photo.

The first long spined sea scorpion of the day

It was great to get off the mark and with the sun on my back it was actually quite warm! I carried on searching the gulley and managed to tempt a succession of scorpions to attack my Isome section and with the weather so pleasant it was the perfect chance to play with my camera . A polarized lens filter got rid of the surface glare which allowed me to see down into the rockpools and I managed to get some nice photos of the fish in the water.

The polarized filter really helped see into the clear rockpools.

Such stunning colours on this fish, I would love a guitar painted in scorpion purple!

A close up of the little devil.

What a marvelous little fish!

Another scorpion seizes the lure, a real red finned beauty.

I love the gold highlights on this scorpion.

As I worked my way down the gulley I saw a fish about 8" in length gently cruising round the pool. At first I thought it was a small pollack but as I stalked it I could see it was actually a little ling! The smallest one I have ever seen and it was with fevered anticipation that I gently lowered my Isome into its lair. The fish turned around and came over to inspect the lure as it was gently twitching on the bottom, where upon it spied me and just totally disappeared into the rock strewn pool. It was a bit frustrating but exciting none the less as it was another unusual fish the mark has thrown up.

I then decided to move further down the coast to see if there were any bass about, this turned out as fruitless as my earlier pollock hunting and again after about an hour of working the slug go I turned my attention to the local blenny population.

The blennys were as obliging as ever and I had soon racked up a dozen or so on the Isome / jighead combo before I called it a day and headed back to Edinburgh.

Blennys, they always seem to have such a cheeky look about them!

Raaaahhhh! Watch your fingers!

It was great to be back fishing the sea again and even better to catch such wonderfully coloured fish , proving that they don't have to be big to be fun. As always I can't wait to get out again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

First session of 2013

Following a couple of weeks with no fishing and lots of family time, it was time to get back out there and start 2013 as we mean to go on. I picked up Scott and we headed down into East Lothian in the hope of targeting some mullet again, as well as having a search about to see what else was lurking about. I had my GraphiteLeader Corto Ex for this and Scott had his "Beast Tamer"! After a brief drive we arrived to find the sea calm but with a cold and strong offshore wind. With the tide in the last hour of the ebb we decided to forgo the mullet until later and had a look around the rock pools and low water hidey holes. We were both keen to get this years species hunt underway and our first target was one of our favourite fish, the common blenny. I went with a #10 1/16oz Decoy Rocket jighead with a Gulp! 1" Fish Fry in red and Scott went with a chunk of Isome on a #12 hook and split shot rig.

The blennys were in a feisty mood and soon had us in fits of laughter watching them dash out from under the boulders to fight each other to get at the lure. We caught a handful each and then moved over the reef to look for long spined sea scorpions.

Scott gets the first fish of 2013!

I quickly follow suit.

Rather pleasingly they were also easy to find and Scott was in first with an unusual grey and pink specimen.

This long spined sea scorpion had some lovely pink hues.

A beauty and the "Beast Tamer"

He then moved off to go and add a goby or two to this years species count. I managed to find a sea scorpion too, while bouncing the lure alongside a large boulder it wasted no time dashing out and seizing the lure. It was a nice dark red one and I popped it back after a couple of photos.

Caught to order, this long spined sea scorpion was exactly where I expected it to be!

I love the variety in colouration of sea scorpions and their attitude too!

I then went over to the "goby hole" to find Scott had caught a common goby and was busy hunting for two spotted gobys.

Scotts first common goby of 2013

I joined him after quickly rigging up one of Scott's #26 hooks to 1lb nylon New Zealand dropper style on my jighead. This was rigged with a tiny chunk of Gulp! Sandworm and it wasn't long before a little two spotted goby was hooked and landed! Scott followed suit shortly after I got mine before moving off to explore the rock pools.

Another species for my 2013 tally!

Scotts first two spotted goby of 2013

It took a little longer for me to get a common goby as they were being quite shy, but eventually one plucked up the courage to grab the lure and he was quickly landed and checked off the list!

My forth species in about an hour. Not bad going!

With the tide still too low for the resident mullet I went off in search of bass. I rigged up my go to lure; 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 football jig head. I worked the reef for a couple of hours but there was nothing doing at all. The cold offshore wind was getting stronger and when I rejoined Scott we tried putting out some bread to tempt the mullet. This ended up very quickly heading out to sea with the wind and was quickly out of casting range. The mullet were just not about and if they were they weren't interested in our wind assisted bread mix! With the light dimming we decided to call it a day and Scott finally left the blennys alone after racking up fifty of them while I had been chasing bass.

All in all a great little session and I love the fact that we were able to grab four species and have fun doing so in the depths of winter. I cant wait to get out again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.