An XLNT afternoon.

The other week I made a trip to Stirling to check out Angling Active, a large tackle shop that I had never visited before. My main reason to visit was to get my hands on a new Savage Gear XLNT dropshot rod. I have grown tired of poor customer service and the lack of a warranty on Japanese rods so when I saw this rod at 9' with a casting range of 7-25g that perfectly fits my requirements for fishing soft plastics for a multitude of species I had to have one! With a reputation for quality and good customer service in the event of any problems with the rod and a bargain at £60 it represents excellent value!

I was desperate to go and play with my new toy so the following day I grabbed Scott and we headed down the coast to our usual bass mark to give it a run through. Scott also had a new rod to play with, his second in the Nories Rockfish Bottom series, this time the slightly heavier light version casting 7-15g. I tackled up with a 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner and mounted it on a 10.5g #2/0 AGM football jighead. Scott rigged up a dropshot rig with a Jackall Clone Fry and we began to work the fast current of the mark. It wasn't long before I got some interest, all be it from mullet, I watched in surprise as a small one of about a pound charged after the slug and started nipping at the tail! Scott too had been getting some attention from the mullet and we tried a multitude of different lures to tempt them. Scott came closest with a small metal tipped with a small piece of Isome which a mullet had a good bite at but he couldn't hook up.

Soon the mullet drifted away and we got back to targeting the resident bass. Sticking with the Slug-Go I began to work the lure deep, little lifts of the rod tip allowed it to hop along the bottom in the fast current. This is where the solid carbon tip was very helpful transmitting the feel of the bottom down the rod to my hand. It was brilliantly sensitive and I could differentiate between kelp and softer weed as well as feel the sharp taps as it bounced over boulders. It didn't take long before I felt a fish tapping at the lure before seizing it causing the rod to arch over into the fish. Bass on and the rod came into its own with the soft tip cushioning its head shakes and the powerful butt section allowing me to apply pressure. Soon a nice bass of 43cm was landed and the rod well and truly christened.

They don't half swallow the lure sometimes!

The fish had totally swallowed the slug with just the tip of the jighead poking out a sure sign that the soft tip also allows the fish to inhale the lure with little resistance. Quick pic and back she went to be followed a few minutes later by another  bass, again with the lure right down its mouth.

Slug-Go wielding Ninja?

It's just me with another bass!

I had just released the fish when Scott came over to try his hand. He rigged up a new 7g IMA Gun in silver and began to effortlessly cast the little metal a country mile before working it back slowly with the odd pause to let it flutter in the current. Pretty soon I watched his rod bend into a fish and soon he had played a small bass into the net. Scott had a big grin on his face and was obviously very pleased at christening his new rod and the lure as well. As he can't help himself he then headed off to the rock pools to find some other species!

Small metals are great sandeel imitations.

I stuck with the bass and had soon landed a few more all taken on the trusty Slug-Go. Scott meanwhile had managed to winkle out a few blennies and a rather chunky sea scorpion that had a partially digested small blenny in it's mouth!

Not satisfied with gobbling blennies this little brute wanted a bit of Gulp! too.

By now light was fading and we had to go and whilst it was a fairly short session it was very productive and packed full of fish, so we both left satisfied at our new rods performance and I for one can't wait to get back and try it again! We'll also be back to target the mullet too no doubt.

Tight lines, Schogsky.

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 2 : Harbour flatfish and mini species.

After Tues nights sucessful sea trout session (for Ross and Jake anyway!) we decided to take Ross down to one of our favourite and most productive East Lothian LRF marks. Ross had already caught flounder and plaice this year but wanted to get them on lures so we headed down to Dunbar harbour early to catch low water to try and get them. Jake would join us a little later in the morning. When we arrived we could see a few tiny flat fish moving around the sandy bottom as well as some small fish darting about between weed patches on the bottom and it wasn't long before I managed to catch one of them.

A long spined sea scorpion was first fish of the day.

As the tide began to flood into the harbour we started seeing a few slightly bigger flatfish moving around and were soon catching them too on #14 hooks with split shot an inch up from them. Ross and I soon had a few greedily scoffing tiny sections of pink Power Isome.

Orange markings are very faint but the bony nodules on its head confirm it's a plaice I've caught.

One of my flounders.

A lure caught flounder for Ross to add to his 2012 tally.

Followed by a lure caught plaice.

At this point Jake arrived to find us very focused on a bigger flounder and joined in the fun. He soon caught a long spined sea scorpion and then a few tiny flounders before hooking his first lure caught plaice of 2012.

We didn't manage to tempt the big one despite jigging Isome right in front of its mouth several times.

Jake quickly gets off the mark with this long spined sea scorpion.

The first of a few plaice for Jake.

Next we turned our attention to blennies and Jake and I managed a few.

This one was particularly nasty. Snapping away trying to bite Jake!

Ross meanwhile was exploring the gaps between some floating bladderwrack and called me over when he caught a small sea scorpion that he though looked a bit odd. Upon closer inspection we quickly realised it was in fact a short spined sea scorpion.

A very distinctive throat membrane is an easy way to identify the short spined variety of sea scorpion.

Next we headed around to the old harbour to try for larger flatfish and bigger blennies but we found it hard to get through the small coalfish in there, apart from Ross who somehow managed to avoid them and caught a few blennies. Soon afterwards Jake had to head off and Ross and I popped further down the coast to St Abbs but when we arrived it was raining and quite windy. We soldiered on regardless and explored various parts of the harbour trying to catch various species but there was no sign of any fish unfortunately. I had a look over the back and with a nice little swell running and the tide almost fully in I thought we could target pollock that may be using the swell as cover to hunt in. We tried a few different lures with no reward until I tried a 3" Jackall Clone Fry. It looks like a sprat and this was the first time I'd used it. I had it on a weedless jighead and was just letting the current do the work giving it the odd twitch. After a twitch it was fairly close to the surface when a pollock suddenly came up out of the kelp and had a go at it giving me quite a surprise in the process! This spurred us on to continue working the area but apart from a good knock that didn't result in a hook up for Ross we didn't get any reward for our efforts and when the rain got heavier we decided to call it a day.

A nice session, plenty of fish caught with Ross getting a more few species on lures and Jake getting his first plaice of 2012 so both of them added to their species hunt totals. Nothing new for me but the adrenaline rush the pollock gave me was probably the highlight of the session!

Tight lines, Hutch.