Terry is chocolate orange!

I had a free afternoon last week and I managed to get down to St Abbs for a four hour session. I was hoping to target some flounders on LRF gear but as I would be arriving at high water it wouldn't be the best tide state to catch them, they seem to feed better in the early flood. Still I can't pick and choose when I go at the moment so I have to just take advantage of any free time I can get! 

I arrived to find the harbour bathed in sunshine although there was still a gusty easterly wind which made it pretty chilly in the shade. The wind  and depth of water meant I would have to use drop shot tactics in order to keep the lure down close to the sea bed. So it was out with my LRF gear and I quickly rigged up a drop shot rig with a #8 offset worm hook and a 7g weight. My lure of choice was Gulp! Sandworm in natural colour and I rigged a two inch section onto the hook. I cast out and allowed the lure to sink to the sea bed, a slow retrieve with little hops and jerks caused the lure to wriggle seductively a foot above the sea bed. This yielded pretty much instant results in the form of a nice coalie and with a good depth of water it put up a good scrap, making a couple of powerful dives before being landed.

26cm, The coalfish are getting bigger!

The next hour was fun as small shoals of coalies came and went and I managed to catch a further eight or so. Allthough I was happy to sacrifice my precious Gulp! to the coalies I was still really hoping for a flounder and as the time passed the bites dried up. I began to move about a bit and started making some long casts over to the sandy patches hoping for flounder. I managed to pick up a couple more coalies doing this but I was starting to give up on catching a flattie when I felt the characteristic plucking at the lure. On feeling this I dropped the rod tip, reeling ever so slightly to maintain contact with the lure, this gives the fish a little slack helping it suck the worm in. A flick of the wrist sets the hook and the flounder bore down trying to get back into the sand. The LRF rod arched over nicely as it stopped the fish which then headed at top speed out of the harbour! It still suprises me the speed and power of flounders on ultra light gear as they can really motor off quickly. As I brought the fish up from the depths I could see it was too big to swing in so it was out with my 3.2m landing net and I managed to guide the fish in to it.

A nice flounder safely in the net. Brilliant!

35cm of prime flounder, we shall call him Terry due to his colouration.

A nice fishy handful!

I have to say that flounder are one of my favourite species to catch and this one was a beauty, measuring just over 35cm on The Lure Forum ruler. It also had lots of nice orange coloured highlights which resembled the orange sandstone found in the area and it certainly is the most strangely coloured one I have caught! I took a few pictures before I released the fish and while I was removing the hook it spat out a large king ragworm, confirming our suspicions as to why the flounder get so chunky in the harbour.

I carried on fishing for another hour or so but couldn't manage to winkle anything else out before I had to set off back home. I was really pleased to get the flounder though, they really are a prize catch for me and I know there are bigger ones to be had as well which I hope to find soon!

Tight lines, Schogsky.