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.

Metal Rocks!

Yesterday, after a night of being shouted at by my nine month old daughter Eva, I found myself in the car at 7am clutching a mug of tea with one thought on my mind, bass! After scraping the ice off the windscreen I had another thought on my mind, gloves, or rather my inability to locate a pair when I needed them. Heaters on full I headed down the A1 blasting myself awake with some nice, loud Fishbone and by the time I arrived at the mark my tiredness had been overtaken by the anxious excitement I always feel before I fish. I loaded my self up with my bass gear and my LRF gear and forgoing an extra jacket headed down to the mark.

It was cold but calm with a slight offshore wind and I went straight for my go to lure, a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 Football jighead. I began working the lure around the reef, bouncing  it along the sea bed as well as jigging and twitching it through open water. After about 45 minutes I swapped over to my LRF kit and rigged up a Lunker City Swimmin' Ribster on a 3g #2/0 jighead, to see if the added vibration of the paddle tail would illicit a response. I spent about half an hour working the lure through the current, allowing it to sink nose down waggling its tail before jigging it back up again to repeat the process, I had a couple of tentative bumps but nothing I could actually strike into. I then decided to try at range with a 30g Bombarda with an eight foot trace, rigged with a tiny pearl redgill. This was launched out a considerable distance then really slowly retrieved allowing the little weightless eel to flutter provocatively in the tide. I worked this set up for a while before I switched over to a silver Toby to see if some flash would work on the bass. Sure enough as I worked the lure back in the surface layers with a medium retrieve a bass hit the lure hard and everything went solid. The fish fought well for its size and kited about a bit as well as doing the usual bass surface splashing before it was landed! I was pleased with this bass as it had been frankly quite hard work to catch, especially as all my usual methods weren't doing the job.

Old school lures still rock!

A quick picture and I slipped the 41cm of silver back to the sea. I noticed that when it was landed it coughed up a tiny sandeeel of about 1" which would be perfectly matched by a Gulp! 1" Minnow.  I quickly reached into the rod holdall to grab the LRF gear in order to cash in on the feeding bass. It was at this point that disaster struck, in my haste to get the rod I had forgotten that it still had a lure attached and as I lifted it quickly out the hook found a juice box in the bag. I watched in a sort of dumb horror as the tip folded double then with a sad little crack parted company with the rest of the rod.

Bugger!

After 5 minutes of mourning I packed up and headed back as I was keen to order another tip section from Ben at Art of Fishing, which I hope will arrive soon as I am keen to get back to some LRF bass!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

More micro fishing for gobies.

A few weeks ago Jake and I went to Ravensheugh beach to target turbot. When we got to beach Jake saw some small fish in a rockpool. After a while we agreed they were gobies and tried to catch a few. Jake almost managed to get one but it fell of his #20 hook as he was lifting it up. After a fruitless hour or so searching for turbot on the beach at the mouth of a small stream I returned to the rockpool and after a lot of perseverance I managed to catch one of them. At this point I realised I didn't have my camera with me so I popped it into my empty water bottle. I then caught a second and then I caught a tiny dragonet. Jake then returned having worked his way along the beach a fair bit and back along again.

I worked the stream whilst Jake wandered along the beach.

We popped the tiny fish into a small rockpool to look at them and I took a couple of pictures using Jake's camera. Still unsure about the exact species of goby I had caught we headed off as Jake wanted to try for bass at Torness Power Station outflow.

At the time I thought they may be painted gobies due to the saddle markings. But it turns out they were two spotted gobies. You can just make out the spots.

Still not sure quite how I hooked this dragonet. It was about the size of my thumbnail!

A short walk back to the car and a drive down the coast and we were at the outflow. Once there Jake soon caught a few bass, first of all using a Hansen Pilgrim spoon and then, after losing that, on a Lunker City Ribster fished on a jighead.

One of a few bass Jake caught, much to the annoyance of others who weren't catching that many.

I meanwhile had been exploring and had spotted some more gobies in a large sandy bottomed rockpool and when we left I told Jake I'd like to get some smaller hooks and return to find out what they were. Jake visited twice in the last week and had managed to catch some two spotted gobies confirming the identity of the two I had caught and had also caught a small goby that we were pretty sure was a common goby.

Jake and I were reasonably certain he'd caught his first common goby and would later have this confirmed.

On Monday some new Gamakatsu 6315 #26 hooks to nylon arrived so yesterday we headed down again to catch a few more and get confirmation. Upon arrival I headed straight to the rockpool to get started. Jake went to try for a bass. The only rod I had with me was the "beast tamer". I was focused on goby hunting and nothing else!

My Ron Thompson Ice Fishing Pimple Lux 60cm Medium. 2 foot of goby stopping power!

Weapons of micro destruction!

Ultra fine wire hooks to increase my chances of hooking the tiny fish.

Tiny pieces of Power Isome and Gulp! Sandworm were the lures of choice. Split shot was placed a few inches above to help keep it down as it was fairly windy.

It took me a while to get them interested in my tiny chunks of Power Isome and Gulp! Sandworm but just after Jake came over to see how I was doing I managed to catch a two spotted goby, my 29th saltwater species on lures this year. Jake hadn't managed any bass but he then spotted a small flounder in the rockpool and soon had it hooked on a pink Ecogear Minnow SS. That's the first time I've seen one caught in a rockpool! I then moved along a bit to a spot where Jake had whipped the gobies up into a frenzy by jigging his brightly coloured lure around. After jigging my Isome around lightly amongst them I managed to catch a small goby. Careful examination would confirm it as being a common goby. A new species for me and my 30th saltwater species on lures this year. I was over the moon having reached my goal for the year.

Isn't he cute.

Rockpool flounder caught on the Rockfish UL.

Ecogear Minnow SS proved to tempting for this stranded flounder.

My first ever common goby.

Nine soft ray fins in the second dorsal fin along with other features confirms this as a common goby. Sand gobies have at least ten.

I had a small clear plastic tank with me that gave us an opportunity to study the gobies closely. We examined them carefully admiring their markings and subtle colourations before we both took turns with the "beast tamer" catching some more. Both of us ending up with one two spotted goby and three common gobies each.

Viewing gobies like this lets you see every detail.

Note the pale blue markings on this common gobies

The examination tank. This enabled us to take our time and confirm that all the gobies we'd caught were two spotted gobies or common gobies.

A few of the bass anglers took an interest in what we were doing too and had a look at our catches before I released them all again. Micro fishing is great fun and it's strange to think that it's taken us so long to investigate the gobies as we've spotted them there before. We just assumed they were sand gobies I suppose. In future we'll be investigating any gobies we spot as there are quite a few more species in the U.K. for us still to catch!

Tight lines, Hutch.

Back to bass.

Last Friday I decided to go and have some fun hunting for bass down in East Lothian. The plan was to try dropshotting along the reef in the hope of maybe picking up bonus species as well as the local bass. I arrived at the mark at slack water just as it was beginning to flood and the conditions were quite calm although the sea was still very grey and cloudy.

I rigged up my LRF gear with a dropshot rig. This consisted of a three foot length of fluorocarbon leader, half way up I attached a #6 decoy mini offset hook via a palomar knot. This leaves a tag end of about 1.5' to which I attached a 7g dropshot lead. I rigged it with a whole medium pink Isome and began to cast around the reef, little jigs on the rod would have the lure hopping across the sea bed. This was interspersed with pauses whilst shaking the rod tip causing the Isome to wriggle and writhe in the current. I carried on fishing in this manner for at least a couple of hours but it was very quiet indeed! I began to fish rather mechanically and when I had a sudden single bite I wasn't ready for it and the culprit ripped the Isome of the hook and made off with it. I quickly re-baited and began to search the area, my senses much keener after some fish activity. A couple of casts later again the same thing happened, a very sharp quick bite resulting in the Isome being stolen. This happened a couple more times and try as I might I could not connect with the culprit, I have a feeling it could have been bream as the bites were so sharp and they really didn't feel like bass or wrasse. With the fishing so slow I decided to amuse myself in amongst the huge boulders by catching blennys, a dozen of the little blighters later I was ready to get back to searching for bass.

I decided to change tactics and rigged up my 9'6" Major Craft Crostage 15-42g rod with a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner, mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 AGM football jighead. By now the tide had covered the reef so I began bouncing and twitching the lure back across the freshly submerged rock. It was about half an hour before I got a couple of bites but again I had fallen into the mechanical stupor again and missed it. I cast back to the same spot and again there was a couple of bumps on the lure before the fish grabbed it proper and this time I could set the hooks! It felt good to have a fish on at last and after a couple of little runs as the fish tried to make for deeper water it was quickly landed. It was a good fish about 43cm and I quickly released it. I then realised I had forgotten to take a picture, which was pretty annoying as it taken so long to catch. Oh well it was good to get off the mark and with that I carried on fishing the same area where the bass had come from. About ten minutes later another bass engulfed the lure and I had that happy feeling of a fish on the line. Another nice bass this one going to 42cm on The Lure Forum ruler.

The Lunker City Ribster claims yet another fish.

That fish signalled the end of the session and it was great to get back into some bass after a break away from them. Although there were no fish landed whilst dropshotting, the strange bites I was receiving have really got me thinking and I hope to discover what the culprits were soon!

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.

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.

East Lothian : Fresh and Salt.

I had the afternoon free last Monday so I decided to head down the coast in search of bass. As I was driving I decided to pop into a small burn I used to fish when I was a kid. When I arrived it was a lot smaller than I remembered! The water was crystal clear, the sun was high and it was nice and warm which made fishing very pleasant. I began by wading in and casting up stream, with the rod tip held high I retrieved the lure just a bit faster than the current with a twitchy retrieve. The lure of choice was a Berkley Gulp! 1" Fish Fry in red, mounted on a 1.4g #10 Shirasu fine jighead. Stealth tactics were a necessity keeping low against the bank, I worked the pool above me. After a few casts I had a little bite and then a little trout began leaping madly about! As I brought the fish towards me it looked a little different, quite silver with darker bars down its flanks and by the time I brought its cavorting under control I realised it was a little rainbow. My smallest ever and it looked really pretty in the warm summer sun. I held the fish in one hand and began to fumble around looking for my camera, randomly patting parts of my body. After about a minutes worth of frankly pathetic searching the fish, by now fully recovered, gave a little head shake and gleefully threw the hooks! I watched the fish speed away downstream, at least I had found my camera all be it too late in this case.

No more bites from the pool up stream I began to work the pool down stream. Casting down and across the current I allowed the lure to swing back around below me, allowing me to retrieve it alongside an overhanging tree. As I twitched the lure passed the tree another little trout dashed out from the shadows and seized the lure. Again after much head shaking the little trout was brought to hand. Another tiny rainbow and this time I was ready with my camera, or not as it turned out! I made my way to the bank, holding the leader and keeping the fish in the water, looking for a shallow spot to take a photo. I got to the margins and instantly forgot which pocket my camera was in. Thus began more fevered, one handed fumbling as I searched. The trout sensing an idiot was in control took its chance, threw the hooks and disappeared. With my photographic plans foiled, I made sure my camera was to hand and began to fish a small culvert where a even smaller stream joined the burn. I got within about 6' of the flow and crouched behind some reeds and began just flicking the lure upstream. The technique was very similar to fishing Czech nymphs for grayling. Just bouncing the lure downstream along the bottom with the current, hardly reeling and just letting the rod control the lure. Second pass through a little brownie grabbed it and was quickly landed and this time photographed!

Finally a fish got photographed!

I carried on working my way upstream hoping for another rainbow. A few pools later I felt the tiniest of fish on the lure and reeled in to find a minnow had foul hooked itself!

Kamikaze minnow.

I must have gone half a mile up the river before I had another fish. I had cast upstream, the lure landing just below some rapids at the head of the pool. A couple of turns on the handle and I saw a golden flash in the water and felt a trout take hold of the lure. I gave a little flick of the wrist to set the hook and the trout went instantly airborne and with a frantic head shake threw the hook. I recast to the same spot and the lure was seized the instant it hit the water. The rod hooped over as the fish stayed deep and shot into the main channel easily stripping line from my lightly set drag. I manged to play the fish towards me where I caught sight of it kiting through the water. A beautifully marked brownie and a good sized one too. I played the fish downstream to where I could beach it all the time marvelling at the sight of it in the clear water. Heart thumping and hands shaking I manged to beach it and there before me lay my biggest brownie this year!

Nicely marked wild brown trout.

Recovering in the shallows.

Released, it swam strongly back up into the main channel.

Now I was really buzzing and decided to head back down towards the car, hoping to pick up another rainbow. I came to a pool where I could see a fish rising. Here the river narrowed to about 12' and a bank side bush overhung it. I began to stalk the trout slowly edging my way down until I was crouched in the river under the bush. With my rod poking out from the branches I lobbed the lure 6' away from me to where the fish was rising. As soon as the lure had plopped into the water the fish was on it and after a brief tussle it was landed.

Another lovely fish.

Marvelling at its very green colouration and feeling immensely satisfied at my stalking approach the fish was released and I headed back to the car to head off bassing! A brief drive later and I was at the mark, which as it turned out was incredibly rough! An onshore wind and an ebbing tide had really got a big swell up and lots of smashed weed and kelp was suspended in the water. I rigged up a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner on a 10.5g Lunker City football jighead. Fishing was downright dangerous at times with big waves breaking up onto the reef. This meant I couldn't really fish my usual points so I began to move around the reef. The weed was really proving to be a pain with every couple of casts picking up the floating weed. I had been fishing for about an hour when I finally had a bite. This took me a bit by surprise as it was only about 10 yards out and I had all but given up hope! The fish made a bee line for deeper water and tried to head out with the surf. It gave a good scrap but was soon landed.

A nice little bass.

Reward for my perseverance.

Mission accomplished I decided not to bother trying for anymore as it was just too rough, so with the promise to myself that I would be back when it calms, I headed home grinning like a Cheshire cat! 

Tight lines, Schogsky.

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 6: Portpatrick LRF and Port Logan rock hopping.

Last Saturday the three of us headed down to the Mull of Galloway to continue our week of fishing with a spot of harbour LRF, a spot of rock hopping and also a boat based species hunt. Three and a half hours later, after stopping at the Glasgow Angling Centre to get some tackle rigs for our boat trip, we arrived at our first mark, Portpatrick harbour. It was RNLI lifeboat day and the harbour was very busy with lots of people enjoying the warm weather and entertainments. Avoiding the hordes of wetsuited kids flinging themselves into the harbour we tackled up and started to fish. Scott went to the end of the harbour wall, Ross positioned himself at the foot of some steps and I fished a gap between a pontoon and the harbour wall. I rigged up a 1.8g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead with a small pink Power Isome. I cast out next to the pontoon and the lure was instantly seized by a little coalfish. I seem to be magnetically attracted to coalfish and it was quickly landed and released. A few more casts around the pontoon resulted in a couple more coalfish so I switched my attention to the harbour wall. Scott meanwhile had already started catching a string of different mini species.

Scott's first fish of the day, a long spined sea scorpion.

Followed quickly by a few rock gobies.

Scott and Ross were both fishing tiny sections of Power Isome on #14 hooks and split shot setups. Scott caught a few more long spined sea scorpions and rock gobies and then started catching poor cod higher up in the water column. Ross was busy concentrating on the bottom of the steps and was getting a lot of attention from blennies. I too was enjoying a bit of a blenny bashing and lost count of how many I had! Scott quickly caught one, his 250th he would later discover, then moved round the harbour to a sandy bay to hunt for flatfish so I moved to where he had been getting the poor cod. Ross and Scott were both definitely getting more bites on the smaller hooks. I joined them and attached #16 hook to nylon to the eye of my jighead. This was rigged with a little section of power Isome whilst the jighead had a red Gulp 1" fry. As soon as I had dropped it down I was getting little bites and quickly hooked the culprit all be it on the jighead!

A poor cod. My 20th species on lures this year!

I caught and released a few more and also picked up a couple of mini pollock. Ross meanwhile had seen a tiny fish and was absolutely intent on catching it. Some time later he managed it, a small sand goby on a #20 hook and split shot rig. I moved over to where Scott was and he had been catching sand gobies too. I joined in and quickly had one too!

One of Scott's many sand gobies.

I get in on the act with a specimen sand goby.

We carried on around the rock that form the northern side of the harbour mouth, but apart from a long spined sea scorpion for Ross the bites dried up and there was not much action. We then decided to head south to Port Logan to fish off the rocks at the back of the harbour. Deeper water and heavier ground meant that we switched to our standard pollock and wrasse gear. I rigged up a Lunker City Ribster on a 10.5g #2/0 Lunker City Football jighead and began to fish around the rock fingers and gullies. Ten minutes later I had a take and felt the unmistakable pull of a pollock. The fish ran towards me and tried to dive under a ledge, luckily I managed to bully it up over it and a nice 2lb pollock was landed!

Pollock love Ribsters!

I began to work my way over the rocks with Scott and Ross also starting to move around exploring the area. I found a deep gully and cast out into it and began working the Ribster down the gully. After a couple of casts I saw a small pollock chasing the lure only to turn away at the last minute. I dropped the lure straight down and began jigging it a bit in the hope of attracting the fish back. I felt a couple of pecks at the lure then a better bite, then everything went solid as the fish took my lure under the ledge! Annoyingly I lost the lure to the fish so on went another Ribster. Again I dropped it straight down and the fish was still interested, a couple of taps then an almighty bite. I struck but didn't hook up and lifted the lure to find the tail section missing! This could only be one thing, wrasse! I called Scott over and as he made his way I hooked and lost another fish. Scott arrived to show me how it was done and no sooner had he dropped his lure down he was getting interest. I carried on trying to winkle out a wrasse. Suddenly Scott's rod arched over and began bucking about. Scott found this very amusing and in a fit of laughter quickly landed a nice little ballan which had fought well above its weight!

This small ballan put up quite a fight after aggressively taking Scott's watermelon Ribster.

Scott then moved off to explore some other areas, whilst I carried on trying for the wrasse at my feet. I sacrificed a couple more Ribsters to the wrasse who bit them clean in half without getting hooked, before I got fed up of them abusing my precious Ribsters and changed over to a Keitech Sexy Impact mounted on a 7g AGM Football jighead. I dropped it down and tapped it on the sea bed, a couple of pecks then bang! Fish on! With the drag locked up the fish bent the rod right over as it made a powerful dive for the kelp. I held on and lifted into the fish, it made a couple more lunges and then came to the surface. I managed to land it with the help of a wave and there lay my prize! I was extremely pleased as wrasse on lures is still quite an exotic experience for me.

Keitech Sexy Impact does the damage.

At 36cm and 2lb this beat my previous PB ballan wrasse by 1cm and a few ounces.

Wrasse are beautiful fish and the variation in colouration and markings is mind boggling. Lovely eyes too!

I thanked the fish for being such a good sport and then carefully released it, pleased when it disappeared at top speed back down into the kelp below. With time up I made my way back over the rocks to see what Ross and Scott had been up to. Both had been getting bites with a wrasse destroying a couple of Scott's lures but avoiding capture and Ross had hooked and lost a small pollock. My wrasse however was to be the final fish from Port Logan and with that we made our way to the Clashwhannon caravan site where we would be spending the night.

Tight lines, Schogsky.