Twilight at St Abbs

Last Sunday we headed down to St Abbs to meet up with our friend and local angler Ritchie, who has been having a lot of success down there fishing into twilight. We arrived at the mark at 7.30pm after a scramble and a climb over the rocks. Ritchie and I had both brought ultra light gear and light spinning gear, Scott had just brought his light set up and was hoping to get some pollock practise in before his forthcoming Applecross trip. We would only have about an hour and a half of light till sunset, so I tackled up with the LRF gear and went to search for late evening wrasse. Scott was targeting the bigger pollock, but it was Ritchie who was first in with a chunky 1.5lb coalie on a Gulp! Sandworm rigged on a Berkley 5g #4 jighead. I watched his Savage Gear Troutizmo rod bend with envy as coalies are great sport! He released that and a couple of casts later caught a jumbo mackerel, the biggest I have seen this year at about 1.5lb, which again put up a great fight before he landed and released it. Ritchie then announced he was going to try for flatties and using the same set up started casting and slowly bouncing and twitching the lure along the sea bed. I decided to join Ritchie in targeting the flatties, so I rigged up a small Pink Power Isome on a 3.5g #8 Cultiva Mebaru Shot jighead and began to search the area. Ritchie was soon into a nice flounder but as it surfaced we realised it was just holding onto the lure below the hook! Unfortunately for us it also realised this and promptly let go of the lure! I then had a couple of little bites followed by a feeling of weight as a flounder grabbed the lure. This one was hooked nicely and after a fun fight it was landed, photographed and released.

As most of my Flounder come from harbours, this open coast rock mark flounder was most pleasing!

Ritchie then manged to land a good sized flounder as well before switching tackle to fish for large pollock. I kept searching the area and was soon rewarded with a feisty little pollock.

I love the copper coloured honeycomb markings on this pollock.

I had just released the fish when I heard a shout from Scott and watched his rod bend into a good fish. He had hooked it at distance and had got it half way in before it started making powerful dives to get under the rock ledge in front of him. Scott had a real tussle with the fish before he managed to land it with it making a couple of attempts to get into the kelp in front of him. A fine pollock of 4.5lb which Scott decided not to bother photographing the fish as he wanted to get it back in the water. I swapped over to my heavier gear and rigged up a Lunker City Ribster on a 10.5g #2/0 football jighead. I worked the lure in a sink and draw pattern, bouncing it over the top of the kelp. I had a bite and struck into a fish that tried to dive back into the kelp before coming up in the water to reveal itself. Bright orange, at first I thought it was a wrasse then as it broke the surface I saw it was a chunky red codling! Marvellous! I love cod and to get one on the Ribster was great fun as they do fight well on light gear. I quickly landed photographed and released it and carried on working the Ribster over the twilight kelp.

The Ribster claims another species in this lovely orange codling.

Richie then caught another couple of nice size coalies and capped it with a lovely 3lb cod of his own again a stunning orange colour. Scott had another pollock before I got my last fish of the session, which turned out to be another jumbo mackerel, again on the Ribster, this one came home with me and was very tasty indeed! 

That was about it for the session as it had got dark and we had to make our way carefully over the rocks to get back. The journey back took a while and was quite challenging, clambering and climbing over the rocks in the dark. Aided by Ritchie's guiding skills and our torches we eventually found ourselves back at the car. We all agreed it was an excellent session with five species being caught and some good sized fish thrown in. I can't wait to get back down there again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 8 : Species hunt aboard "Go West".

Last Sunday morning and we headed up to Port Logan again to meet up with local skipper Spike whose services and boat "Go West" we had chartered for a days species hunting. We were keen to see how we would do on lures and had taken a wide selection with us to try although Ross and I had also smuggled aboard some ragworm to use should the lures not be as effective as we were hoping. We would also be targeting tope in the afternoon so first up we fished for mackerel to use for bait for them. After a few drifts we soon found a shoal of two and soon had enough in the bait box so we headed to a pollock mark. Spike dropped the anchor and we were soon casting out various soft plastics. Jake of coarse stuck with his beloved Slug-Go whilst Ross and I tried a few different lures. We were all soon into pollock and enjoying catching them on our light gear. Jake was catching the most fish and got the best pollock at 6lb 4oz but unfortunately the skipper threw it back after weighing it before we could get a photo of Jake with it.

Best pollock of the day. Worst photo.

Before we left this mark we tried for wrasse. Bites on the Power Isome and Gulp! Sandworm tipped Sabiki rigs were few and far between although after a while Ross managed a female cuckoo wrasse. After a while I gave in and tipped half of my Sabiki hooks with small pieces of ragworm. Quite quickly I had a few bites and when I hooked a fish I was willing it to be on the soft lure tipped hooks but it was on one of the ragworm pieces.

A female cuckoo wrasse took Power Isome on a sabiki rig.

Soon I repeated the feat but on a small section of ragworm.

It went a bit quiet after that and Spike suggested a move, so we headed north and tried a few drifts over a sand bank to target flatfish and gurnards. We caught a few fish here starting with a grey gurnard on Gulp! Sandworm tipped Sabiki for Jake followed by one for me on Power Isome tipped Sabiki.

Another new lure caught species for Jake.

A smaller one for me too to add to my 2012 tally.

We also picked up a few fish on bait too, I had a nice coalfish and a ballan wrasse. No sign of any flatfish though which we probably would have had if we had fished a running ledger setup close to the bottom. We then headed out into the bay to target tope. Rubby dubby made up, dropped down with the anchor and our mackerel head sections ledgered down tide, the waiting game began. Whilst we waited for runs we fished the bottom for other species. Ross managed a few more grey gurnards and then caught a red gurnard.

A lovely brightly coloured red gurnard. The only one of the day.

Ross had a tope pick up his bait and go on a short run before dropping it again. I managed to hook a whiting on a set of unbaited Hokkai but as I was lifting it into the boat it shook itself free. With no further action on the tope rods despite regular fresh bait offerings we decided to end the day with a few cod species. We headed further out to sea and drifted over some ground that holds a few. It wasn't long before we were catching whiting, haddock, cod, grey gurnards and a few lesser spotted dogfish.

After dropping one on lures this one took a small strip of mackerel on a Hokkai rig.

A double hook up with the whiting. This dogfish also took a mackerel strip.

Some angler hate them. I like them. Lovable little rogues!

Ross gets a grey gurnard on a sabiki rig tipped with Power Isome.

Ross catches his first ever haddock on a mackerel strip.

Time was up and we headed back to port. Eleven species in total caught and whilst some of them had been taken on bait the lures had accounted for a few of them too with all three of us also ticking a few new species off our 2012 wanted list! Jake had to head home at this point so Ross and I bid him a safe journey home before he headed up the road and we headed back to the caravan. We did intend heading out again at night but all the fishing had caught up with us. Having a generously portioned meal in the Clashwhannon Pub was lovely but just made us even more tired and we were falling asleep watching TV in the caravan so we had an early night so we could be re-energized for the following day as it was my birthday and I fancied a spot of wrassing to celebrate before Ross and I would head home too.

Tight lines, Hutch.