Scorpion Hunt.

Saturday, and whilst Scott had headed up north this weekend I was joined by a friend from down south. Jamie and I have had many adventures in pursuit of big carp but he has never tried the joys of LRF. After I had shown him the gear and a few pics of what we had been up to whilst out doing LRF, he was dead set on catching a Long Spined Sea Scorpion and of course being a gracious host I was only too happy to oblige and guide him for the day.

We headed down the coast to our Blenny hot spot with the idea of a bit of Bass fishing as well. When we got to the mark the sea was very rough indeed and was in no state to fish our usual reef for the Bass. Oh well, undistracted by silver we turned our attention to the blennys!

I rigged up with a 2.2g Crazyg HD jig head and an ever reliable Gulp! 1" Fish Fry. We began to fish some pools that were just beginning to flood with the tide. The technique is very simple; just a simple vertical jigging motion allowing the jig head to tap on the rock floor of the pool a few times, then pause for a couple of seconds and repeat till a Blenny attacks.

We found some likely looking boulders and jigged right up against them, bouncing the lure in front of the gap beneath the boulder. A couple of seconds later a blenny shot out, grabbed the lure and was promptly landed. Next it was Jamie's turn and a few seconds later he winkled out his first Blenny!

Jamie's first Blenny.

We continued catching more Blennys and then decided to go after some Scorpions, so we headed across the rocks to the shallows where the tide was flooding. We started fishing, again targeting large boulders, bouncing the lure in front of cracks and hiding holes. Jamie was first in when a small dark scorpion popped out of his lair and nailed the lure.

Giiiiizmo.

He was over the moon. "They look like gremlins!" he pronounced in his reet Yorkshire drawl. He's not wrong!

My turn next and targeting the same boulder I had a jig to see if there was anyone else at home. Indeed there was! Within seconds a plump Long Spined Sea Scorpion pounced on the lure. This one was rather pretty, with coral pink markings along his flanks. These proved to be exceptionally good camouflage as the pictures show.

In the water.

Ridiculously well camouflaged out of water too!

We had time to catch a couple more before the weather worsened and we called it a day. It was great to find where the Scorpions were on the reef as it has an amazing population of Blennies. It may hold some other species too and I hope to find out soon exactly which ones.

Tight Lines, Schogsky.