Schogsky's 2012.

2012 has been an incredible year for me, from the birth of my daughter to starting the blog there has been some fantastic highlights. I have managed to get a lot of fishing in around my fatherly duties and have really grabbed every little opportunity to wet a line with both hands.

One of the highlights has been perfecting the quick opportunistic session which has resulted in some delightful discoveries and some great fish caught too. I have made some new friends along the way as well and it's been a blast to meet and fish with like minded anglers.

I didn't quite make it to 30 sea species on lures but I did manage to get the majority of species from my local area and as the kids are getting bigger I should be able to travel further afield to get them this year. I was also surprised at the fact I managed to break two Scottish records this year, common blenny and golden grey mullet. I also came very close to breaking the corkwing wrasse record and I am pretty sure that if I had weighed my first leopard spotted goby it would have broken the British record too! I also smashed a few PB's along the way and a final fish total of 836 for the year and less than five blanks, fantastic!

Lure caught fish:

• Artic Char x 1
• Ballan Wrasse x 6
• Bass x 136
• Brown Trout x 21
• Coalfish x 140
• Cod x 2
• Common Blenny x 185
• Common Eel x 1 (Sea Caught)
• Common Goby x 7
• Corkwing Wrasse x 26
• Dragonet x 1
• Flounder x 24
• Goldsinny Wrasse x 1
• Grey Gurnard x 1
• Launce x 5
• Leopard Spotted Goby x 2
• Long Spined Sea Scorpion x 56
• Mackerel x 39
• Minnow x 1
• Perch x 21
• Pike x 23
• Plaice x 10
• Pollock x 69
• Poor Cod x 7
• Pouting x 8
• Rainbow Trout x 6
• Rock Goby x 1
• Sand Goby x 3
• Sand Smelt x 1
• Sea Trout (Sea Caught) x 5
• Short Spined Sea Scorpion x 4
• Topknot x 1
• Two Spotted Goby x 7

Bait caught fish:

• Golden Grey Mullet x 4
• Haddock x 1
• Pike x 2
• Thick Lipped Grey Mullet x 5
• Whiting x 3

Its been a struggle to pick just five highlights but here's my attempt!

PB bass.

My Bass PB had stood for some years, I was overjoyed to beat it with this 59.5cm lunker!

PB flounder.

I stalked this huge flounder for ages before I manged to catch it and I still cant get over how big it was!

My first arctic char.

There aren't many fish I haven't caught but arctic char was one of them and after three gave me the slip I finally landed my first one!

Topknot.

The Cornish Lure Festival gave me my first topknot, a weird and wonderful little fish!

Fishing the Water of Leith.

The Water of Leith was my greatest discovery of 2012, free fishing, lots of brownies and only a few yards from my house!

So what does 2013 hold in store? I know I will be continuing my LRF species hunting and this year I will aim to get to 30 species and beyond. I have always been into catching specimen fish as well so I will step it up and try and bag some new specimen size fish and break some PB's too. I will also be trying to break a few more Scottish records as well to go with the two I broke this year. The photography aspect to our fishing has captured my imagination and a new camera should be on the cards for 2013 and I hope to explore this side of it a bit more. Last year wouldn't have been half as fun without my good friend and fellow blogger Scott, hopefully this year will be just as much fun! Most of all I will enjoy the fishing we have on hand locally and continue to work out our local marks as there are plenty of amazing fish just waiting to be caught!

Tight lines, Schogsky.