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.

Ritchie's Fishio Therapy

After my bout of perch fever I decided it was time to hit the coast again and in doing so also call in on my mate Ritchie Bewsey. Ritchie recently broke his foot and had been stuck in his house for a month without any fishing. As our summer is so short it has been maddening for him to be unable to fish during peak season so it was only right for me to pick him up and head out to some easy access harbour fishing. LRF was called for and I picked him up then dropped him close to the harbour mouth and while he set off on his crutches I went and parked the car and got my gear together. By the time I got back to Ritchie he had already caught a few small coalies and I quickly joined in the fun! I had a few on a dropshot rig then decided to try some new vertical jigging spoons I had got a hold of. The spoons are designed for vertical jigging under ice and they were deadly, with coalfish flinging themselves at them. The spoons are weighted towards the hook and get down quickly with a nice flutter as they're jigged back up.

I was surprised at how savagely the coalies attacked the jigging spoon.

I found it easy to keep it close to the bottom and after a stream of coalies I saw a flounder chasing along the bottom to intercept it. I kept the lure fluttering close to the sea bed and the flounder drew ever nearer. However, a small fish darted out of the kelp and nailed the spoon before the flattie could get near enough. This was quickly hoisted out to my hands and it turned out to be possibly the smallest codling I have ever caught! The codling although tiny was a new species for 2013 and was very cute and brightly coloured so that put a big grin on my face.

My first codling of 2013, tiny but very welcome.

Ritchie meanwhile had been working a jighead/Isome combo, bouncing it across the sandy patches and he managed to hook and land a nice sized flounder. Inspired by Ritchie's success I wasted no time in rigging up a dropshot rig again with some Gulp! Sandworm and I too began to cast out and work it back over the sandy patches. My technique is simple, cast then allow the weight to hit the seabed, then I retrieve very slowly while constantly giving the rod little jerks. Results were instant and I felt a couple of plucks at the lure before a nice chunky flounder grabbed hold. Flounders always put a nice bend in my LRF rod especially as you have to get them up off the bottom, they also invariably take a couple of dives when they hit the surface as well and provide a lot of fun on my light gear.

Ritchie was first in to the flounders.

I bagged one soon after.

I landed the fish and took a couple of pics before releasing it, quickly recasting to my flounder gully. I was staring down into the water as I retrieved when I noticed the unmistakable chubby shape of a wrasse lurking in the kelp. I quickly retrieved the rig shouting over to Ritchie to tell him the wrasse were here and dropped the rig right under the rod tip in front of the fish. Keeping the lead hard on the bottom a few tiny twitches of the rod caused the lure to wriggle about and this drew the wrasse out of his kelpy lair. I watched the fish come out to investigate, it circled the lure and gave a couple of sharp plucks at the red Isome before grabbing it and turning back to the weed. I struck then had to raise the rod above my head to stop the fish from getting into the kelp. It didn't take long to get it into the dropnet after its initial dive and soon it was on the mat getting its photo taken. I was really chuffed as I love catching wrasse on lures and to see it all happen was a real treat. I quickly released the fish and dropped my Isome back down in the same area.

The first wrasse of the session and my first from St Abbs this year.

Ritchie had joined me and as we worked our lures along the edges of the kelp we could see a couple of nice wrasse weaving in and out of the weed. While we were watching the wrasse we saw a huge wrasse come out of the kelp to investigate our lures, before turning away. The fish must have been around the 4lb mark and the sighting caused us to double our efforts. Ritchie was next in when a wrasse grabbed his lure on the drop. The fish was quickly landed and Ritchie was soon proudly displaying his first ballan wrasse of 2013, the perfect tonic for his broken foot!

Ritchie followed suit and landed his first wrasse of 2013.

We released the fish and I swapped lures to a natural coloured Gulp! Sandworm. This soon did the job as I felt the electric pecks on the lure of a wrasse before I struck into a much better fish. This did its best to get back into the kelp but I quickly bullied it up and soon was holding another fine wrasse.

The next wrasse was much beefier.

He got purdy lips.

It went quiet for a while and we turned our attention back to the flatties with both of us bagging a few more as well as a stream of scorpions, coalies and codling. I was concentrating on the wrasse again when Ritchie gave a shout and I looked over to see his rod absolutely buckled into a fish. The fish stayed deep and it started stripping line. Ritchie Couldn't get it up off the bottom at all and when the fish decided to head out to sea, ripping line off the drag in powerful bursts there was nothing Ritchie could do to stop the hook pulling. We weren't sure if it was the big wrasse we had seen earlier as it didn't behave how we would have expected, choosing to fight close to the bottom in open water instead of bolting for the kelp.

Scorpions abound at St Abbs.

A new "personal worst " this has to be the smallest codling I have ever caught.

No wonder I'm grinning this coalie nearly took the rod out of my hand such was the ferocity of its take.

One of the many fat flounders that were caught

Another wrasse falls for the Gulp sandworm!

Little red rock piglet!

We were disappointed but it both spurred us on again to see if we could get some more wrasse. Ritchie did indeed manage another small wrasse as did I and my last fish turned out to be the fattest of the day and gave me a nice scrap on my light gear.

Brilliant, this chunky wrasse was the last wrasse of the session.

Ritchie also bagged this pretty pollock.

Ritchie displays another sea scorpion.

We had to go after four hours fishing as Ritchie's leg was starting to play up a bit and the tide was getting pretty low. On the way back we talked of the one that got away and we could not decide if it was the beast of a wrasse or some other denizen of the deep. There was only one way to find out, we would have to come back and try to hook it again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Back home, back to business!

After the Cornish Lure Festival I had a couple of days of no fishing before I had to get out again! My youngest son Isaac had been asking to go fishing so we headed off to the Water of Leith to try and find some minnows for his fish tank. I rigged up a #16 hook to nylon, 1g split shot and rigged up a small section of pink Isome. We messed about for half an hour and soon we had three fat minnows swimming around in his jam jar. These were quickly taken home and put into Isaac's fish tank where they are now doing very well indeed. It was a lovely way to spend an hour but it didn't quite cure my fishing desire!

An Isome caught Water of Leith minnow.

That's ma boy!

I completed my fatherly duties for the afternoon and I had a couple of hours before the kids bedtime, just enough time to fish the high tide at Corkwing corner. It didn't take long to get down to the mark and I quickly rigged up my LRF gear with a dropshot rig, #8 offset worm hook tied via a palomar knot and a 7g dropshot weight clipped on a foot from the hook. This was rigged with a small section of bloody Gulp! Sandworm and dropped straight down beneath my feet. I started to twitch and shake the lure and very soon I could see some fish swimming over the white rock below me. As I watched I could see some pretty big pollock cruising around as well as some smaller fish that I hoped were wrasse. I kept gently twitching the lure and noticed the silhouette of a fish approach the lure. It made a couple of electric pecks at the lure alerting me to the fact it was a wrasse, before it grabbed it and tried to get into the kelp beds. I struck and quickly manged to steer it away from them and as it rose up through the clear water my heart skipped a beat, if it was a corkwing it was huge! I quickly swung the fish up and it quickly became apparent that it was a small ballan, not the target species but a lovely fish none the less.

Not the corkwing I was after but a great fish none the less.

I quickly took a photo, unhooked it and released the fish before rigging another section of Gulp! and dropping it back down again. As the rig dropped down through the clear water a big pollock came up and intercepted my dropshot lead, grabbing it with a sharp tug before spitting it out! My heart was in my mouth and it came back for a second go at the gulp before turning lazily away. To be honest I was slightly relieved as it was a good size and due to my high vantage point it would have been a real pain to land. I carried on dropshotting my corkwing hotspot but I could see there were another couple of big pollock patrolling the area. I thought there wouldn't be much chance of the little corkwings being about as they would probably be keeping a low profile with the big pollock on the feed. I quickly rigged up a Lunker City Swimmin Ribster on a #2/0 10g football jighead, cast out and began to work the lure back with a jigged retrieve. Pretty much straight away a pollock rose up and grabbed the lure, but when I struck I pulled the lure right out of its mouth! I should have waited till I felt the fish but I got over excited. I tried again and it made a couple of half hearted attempts but I couldn't persuade it to take a second time. I decided to spend the last half hour looking for mackerel so I rigged up a 12g Savage Gear Fat Pencil Prey and began casting out and working it back towards me using a sink and draw retrieve. It didn't take long to hit and soon there was a nice big mackerel charging about on the end of my line.

First mackerel this year!

This was to be eaten for tea so it was promptly dispatched and I carried on fishing. I managed to hook and lose another before I hooked a half decent coalie. This was landed and returned and then it was time to head back.

It was a fun couple of hours but slightly disappointing to find the mark populated with big pollock, the ballan wrasse was a nice find though and I hope to get back soon to see if those big corkwings have returned!

The next day I had some time in the morning so I popped down the coast hoping for a crack at the bass. I was at the mark by 08:30 and for once I had it to myself, the conditions looked good with a slight swell running and a slowly flooding tide. I rigged up a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner on a #2/0 10g jighead and began working the lure in the channel. Things were very slow for the first hour and it was hard to work the lure back without it picking up loads of suspended weed. As the tide began to flood stronger the weed began to clear and I was soon into a small bass which took the lure very close in. A brief fight and it was quickly landed, photographed and released and I quickly followed it up with another around the 40cm mark.

First bass of the session fell to a Lunker City Ribster...

...as did the second!

The fishing went quiet again for another hour and I swapped rods to my shimano Yasei dropshot rod as I was keen to experiment with it to see how sensitive it was. While my savage gear dropshot is definitely more sensitive I could still feel the lure working as I bounced it back along the sea bed. I was then joined by another angler who on his first cast manged to hook my lure, both of us got annoyed and we argued over whose fault it was. After a while we resolved our differences and had a chat about the fishing, John said he had found one of my lost Slug-Gos complete with jighead, he had tried using it but hadn't had any joy so he gave it back to me which was a nice gesture. I rigged it up and cast it out while saying to john that my biggest bass had fallen to a Slug-Go here. I then got a tip wrap and had to put the rod down while I released the line from the tip ring and when it was freed I picked up the rod and a bass grabbed the lure. This accidental dead sticking of the lure had done the business and a nice bass of 45cm was landed after a good fight. This fish was taken for the table and with that I called it a day and said cheerio to John and headed back to town.

A long lost reclaimed Slug-Go worked its magic on this 45cm bass.

The fishing may have been quite slow to start with but it was great to get some bass again, I just wish they had made an appearance during the Cornish Lure Festival!

Tight lines, Schogsky.