Fun with Scorpions.

After what seems like an age my time off work finally coincided with some settled weather and I managed to get to the coast to take advantage of it. The past few weeks has provided meagre pickings and we have suffered a few blanks whilst hunting the canals, so I was just really keen to catch something. With this in mind I headed down to East Lothian to a scorpion and blenny hotspot. I was keen to continue my searching of the deep rock pools and gulleys at this mark as it can hold a surprise or two! It was low tide, calm and sunny  when I arrived I started fishing a Slug-Go mounted on a football jighead and began to jig it alongside the kelp. I was hoping to find some pollock lurking but after half an hour I decided to target the rock pools in the hope of some scorpions. I broke out my LRF kit, 7'10" Graphiteleader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000SFC reel, 6lb Sunline Super PE, 2' fluorocarbon leader and on the business end a 1.5g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead with a small tail section of pink Isome. I bounced the Isome along side the big boulders and crevices in the rocks and within minutes a long spined sea scorpion had dashed out and engulfed the lure. It was promptly landed and after a bit of spiky defiance it was released after a quick photo.

The first long spined sea scorpion of the day

It was great to get off the mark and with the sun on my back it was actually quite warm! I carried on searching the gulley and managed to tempt a succession of scorpions to attack my Isome section and with the weather so pleasant it was the perfect chance to play with my camera . A polarized lens filter got rid of the surface glare which allowed me to see down into the rockpools and I managed to get some nice photos of the fish in the water.

The polarized filter really helped see into the clear rockpools.

Such stunning colours on this fish, I would love a guitar painted in scorpion purple!

A close up of the little devil.

What a marvelous little fish!

Another scorpion seizes the lure, a real red finned beauty.

I love the gold highlights on this scorpion.

As I worked my way down the gulley I saw a fish about 8" in length gently cruising round the pool. At first I thought it was a small pollack but as I stalked it I could see it was actually a little ling! The smallest one I have ever seen and it was with fevered anticipation that I gently lowered my Isome into its lair. The fish turned around and came over to inspect the lure as it was gently twitching on the bottom, where upon it spied me and just totally disappeared into the rock strewn pool. It was a bit frustrating but exciting none the less as it was another unusual fish the mark has thrown up.

I then decided to move further down the coast to see if there were any bass about, this turned out as fruitless as my earlier pollock hunting and again after about an hour of working the slug go I turned my attention to the local blenny population.

The blennys were as obliging as ever and I had soon racked up a dozen or so on the Isome / jighead combo before I called it a day and headed back to Edinburgh.

Blennys, they always seem to have such a cheeky look about them!

Raaaahhhh! Watch your fingers!

It was great to be back fishing the sea again and even better to catch such wonderfully coloured fish , proving that they don't have to be big to be fun. As always I can't wait to get out again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

East Lothian : Two quick sessions.

With Scott away up at Applecross and a busy week for me work wise, I managed to squeeze a couple of very short sessions in last week. The first quick session I decided to pop down to Dunbar to try for wrasse around the back of the harbour. Conditions weren't great though, with a brisk wind blowing onshore making working light jig heads a real pain! The wrasse however were conspicuous by there absence and the mark only yielded a few small coalies and three small pollock, one of which leapt clear of the water to get the lure, before I had to leave. The pollock were fun on the light tackle though and put a good bend in the rod, which kept me grinning all the way up the A1 as I headed back.

This little coalfish has a most excellent "Arkansas Shiner" colour scheme.

The fight of small pollock on LRF gear is great fun and highly addictive!

On Thursday I had a few hours to spare in the afternoon, so I grabbed my bass gear and headed down the coast to my usual bass mark. Conditions were bright and calm and I arrived just as the tide had finished its flood. My tackle consisted of my 9'6" Wright and McGill medium drifter rod, Shimano Aernos reel loaded with 20lb Sunline Momentum braid, a 4' leader of 12lb Flurocarbon and on the business end a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 Lunker City football jighead. I began to work the lure by casting out and allowing the lure to sink before gently bouncing it back along the bottom, bouncing it over the rocks and kelp with little lifts and twitches of the rod. I always try to picture what my lure is doing in the water and I was trying to create the look of a small injured blenny or sandeel, panicking and fleeing from rock to rock. I was obviously doing something right when after about ten minutes of fishing I felt a thump, then the wonderful feeling of weight on the line as the fish grabbed the lure and shot off with the tide. The fish put up a good fight for its size but was soon landed.

The only Bass of the session fell for a Lunker City Ribster, one of my new favourite lures!

At this point I bumped into fellow The Lure Forum member Paul Mouat and his mate. Paul had manged two bass earlier but it had gone very quiet. The reason for this lack of action became obvious when we discovered a large gill net covering the bay. This had literally killed off the fishing and it was quite hard to bear the sight of the guys emptying all sorts of fish from the net, before they reset it. I fished on for a bit but decided just to call it a day for the bass and headed back to the car. Seeing the net being used was a not a pleasant sight. The mark is very heavily pressured from anglers anyway and now nets, there has to be a limit to how much fishing it can sustain. Even though I fish catch and release I think I'll have a break from the bass fishing there for a bit and concentrate a bit more on some other species.

Tight lines, Schogsky.