Golden Brown.

On Friday whilst Scott was away terrorising the Dumfries and Galloway pike and perch populations I was delivering antiques in Berwick upon Tweed. Knowing that this would lead me past our favourite bass mark I also brought my fishing gear with me. As I travelled south along the A1 I could see the sea was really rough and if you can see the waves from distance it would probably be too  rough to fish. Never the less I parked up near the reef and made my way down with my bass gear and LRF kit. Even before I could see the mark I could hear the waves and sure enough when I got there it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to fish it for bass, such was its rough state.

So it was out with the LRF kit and I rigged up a Crazyg Wave HD jig head with a Berkley Gulp 1" fry. Because it was so rough fishing for the blennys was challenging. The blennys only had a couple of seconds to hunt in between waves flooding in and receding. In that tiny moment of calm they would quickly dash out and seize the lure , then head back under a boulder. Ah well I consoled myself with catching nine blennys from the flooding rock pools before heading off to finish my delivery job.

 A dark blenny with white lips tells me this one's a male.

Nom, nom, nom!

On Saturday I was still frustrated by not being able to fish properly the day before so when my wife suggested I go for a quick fish I jumped at the chance! I only had an hour so I grabbed my LRF kit and headed down to the Water of Leith. The beauty of the LRF kit is its so easy to pick up and put in the car it really is a case of "grab and go", thus making it easy to make the most of quick fishing missions. I headed down to the "cooker pool" and used the same set up that I had been using on the Blennys. I have found in the peat stained water that red lures do very well and always seem to tempt an attack. This pool is fished from a high wall above the river and seems to fish best with a twitched retrieve up stream. I started at the head of the pool, cast across current and allowed the lure to swing around below me whilst giving little twitches and a slow retrieve. Each cast I make I step down the pool in a step, cast , retrieve pattern. On the fifth cast as I was halfway down the pool I saw a good trout come out from behind a discarded cooker and nail the lure! The Rod hooped into the fish and he was on! He tried to use the fast current to his full advantage and tried to get under a ledge below my feet. I turned him and the rod soaked up his little darting runs and he was soon tired enough to "swing" in. This involved almost pointing the rod at the fish whilst gaining as much line as possible, then in one move lift and swing the fish in. Brilliant! Another fine wild brownie about 3/4 of a lb.

A lovely Water of Leith brown trout.

Lovely markings with vivid red spots.

He was soon returned and swam off fit and healthy to lurk behind his cooker again. Mission accomplished and frustration washed away by the trout I headed back home. Cant wait for the sea to calm enough to fish but while I wait its fantastic to get sport right in the middle of Edinburgh.

Tight lines, Schogsky.