A Granton Haiku.

Granton Breakwater,

Twenty casts with metal jig,

Mackerel for tea.

LRF mackerel. This jumbo mackerel fell for a 7g Bassday Bungee metal jig and fought brilliantly.

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.

Going tiny for two spots.

On Monday I popped down to Torness to fish with my friend Ritchie, the winds had died down and conditions looked good for a change! Our plan was to search the cold water inflow for wrasse as well as the possibility of other species as well. I popped into Mike's Tackle shop on route which I really shouldn't do if I want to get anywhere quickly and after an age fawning over lovely shiny lures managed to drag myself away after only buying a couple! I arrived late morning at the inflow and met up with Ritchie. He had already had a few small coalies and due to my lateness we only manged to fish together for about ten minutes before he had to go!

After Ritchie had gone I searched all the usual mackerel holding areas but there were no sign of them at all and even the coalfish were not playing ball. The tide was dropping to low when after a couple of hours of searching I arrived at the Helipad to find the ledge below it exposed. This provided me with a perfect platform to walk onto in order to explore the edges of the structure. With the sea being calm I could see that against the walls and pilings were groups of little fish, hugging the walls and rising for tiny organisms on the surface. These small fish appeared to be the same sort that Scott and I encountered during our recent visit to Ravensheugh beach and with the fishing being so slow I decided to devote some time in trying to bag another new lure caught species. As the tiny fish were so close to the surface I rigged a #22 hook with a tiny piece of Gulp! Sandworm and just gently rested it on the surface film. The little fish were quick to come up and start pecking at the lure but as it slowly sank they became less and less interested. It was only by gently raising the lure back up to the surface that they became interested in it again until one manged to get its tiny mouth around it and I quickly lifted him out to find out my 25th lure caught species this year was a two spotted goby!

My first ever two spotted goby and lure caught saltwater species No. 25 for 2012!

I continued messing about with the tiny fish and managed to catch a further four before I moved off in search of bigger fish. Unfortunately try as I might the next couple of hours resulted in a couple of bites but no further fish and soon it was time to head home. It was slightly disappointing not to catch anything larger than 1" but it's amazing how a tiny fish can brighten your day and it won't be long before I am back to see what else the mark has to offer!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

"Auk"ward Fishing.

With the weather and sea state so changeable of late its been hard to get to our favourite sea marks. So when finally we had a break in the weather and an afternoon free Scott and I headed down into East Lothian to Skateraw and the Torness Power Station inflow. The plan for me at least was to continue my drop shot exploration for wrasse at the inflow, Scott wanted to search amongst the shore line and boulders for different species as well as spying out likely looking conger spots. Upon arrival I headed straight for the walkway where I had been catching corkwings and quickly rigged up a drop shot rig on my LRF set up. This consisted of a #8 hook rigged with a section of Gulp! Sandworm attached to 6lb leader via a palomar knot and 30cm below that a 7g drop shot lead was clipped on. Fishing from the walkway can be pretty uncomfortable, the railings are shoulder height (for me at least) and I have to hold the rod at eye level to work the lures properly. Every ten minutes or so my arms went numb from keeping them raised and I had to reel in and get the blood flowing again. I searched through the seaweed in the hope of wrasse but there was a distinct lack of bites from the kelpy areas so I began to work along the gantry fishing the cleaner ground. Bites were much more plentiful here with fish taking the lure on the drop these turned out to be the usual coalfish which kept me entertained!

The coalfish were again present in numbers!

After catching a dozen or so coalies I had a much larger bite and struck into a much more powerful fish. The throbbing of the rod tip quickly told me the fish was a mackerel and they really do fight well on light gear!

Mackerel on light tackle are just great fun to catch, they fight hard and are tasty too!

I carried on targeting the mackerel from the gantry and within about half an hour I had manged to land a further three. I had swapped over to my heavy spinning gear and put on a 14g Hansen pilgrim lure which was doing the business. I was still concentrating on the mackerel when I had a big bite and the rod hooped over, this was followed by a rather sad "awk awk" noise and I caught sight of a guillemot who had become entangled in the line whilst chasing the lure. I gently guided it towards the shore and had to climb over the shoulder high railings to get down to free the bird. At this point Scott, fresh from his gully hunting exploits, pitched up to lend a hand and after a quick photo my little feathered friend was released, a bit ruffled but otherwise ok.

Not the wrasse I was looking for!

Scott had manged to get a few long spined sea scorpions from the gullies including one that he told me had an almost lichen like texture to its skin. He then turned his attention to the mackerel. He decided to give my new heavy major craft rod a go and was soon firing out the Hansen pilgrim in search of them. Pretty soon he had caught a brace of them including a real jumbo which put up a good scrap considering it was caught on my heavier gear!

Coming in a variety of colours this dark green specimen took a Gulp! Sandworm section.

When I saw this photo I realised what Scott had meant about its lichen like skin. Quite odd.

Scott took a shot of it in a rock pool. It shows perfectly the great camouflage the fishes colouration provides.

I meanwhile had continued to drop shot off the gantry and managed to bag a couple more mackerel and coalies before we had to call time. Although the corkwings were not present it was still a fun session with the mackerel providing great sport on the LRF and HRF gear and a tasty meal or two.

Tight lines, Schogsky.

LRF : Dropshot eel!

On Sunday I headed back to East Lothian to corkwing corner with the aim of catching a possible record breaker. High tide was at 9.30 am but it was a very weak neap tide so I was unsure how the wrasse would react. It was however nice and calm with bright sunshine which is usually good conditions to catch wrasse. Drop shotting had been working well on my past visits, so I rigged up a 2 inch section of Gulp! Sandworm on a #8 offset hook and a 6g lead and began to fish the kelp below the gantry. The water was crystal clear and I could see my lure working among the kelp fronds below me. It was really interesting to see the lure reacting  to the current. Just holding it stationary amongst the kelp would have it swaying and randomly changing direction. Dropping the rod tip ever so slightly to give the lure some slack line would allow it to fall slowly into the weed, before giving a twitch back up to bounce it out the kelp and into a new resting place. I became almost hypnotised watching the lure and 45 minutes must have passed before I realised I wasn't getting any bites! I decided to walk down the gantry a bit and see if there was anything where Scott and I had caught mackerel on our previous visits. Earlier I had noticed large shoals of sandeels swimming past and as I walked down the gantry I saw swirls and rises as a shoal of fish worked the surface. I suspected mackerel so I made a cast beyond the shoal and began a quick retrieve to jig the lure back in the top 6 foot of water. As soon as the lure entered the shoal I felt the familiar rattly bites of coalfish and straight away one grabbed the lure.

Inevitably the first fish is a coalie!

I caught a couple more before the shoal moved on and then turned my attention back to the mackerel. I was working the lure deeper letting it hit the bottom before jigging it back when everything went solid and the rod arched over. At first I thought it was a pollock as it was diving and hooping the rod over, then as the fish began to kite away from me I felt the tail shaking of a mackerel. I landed it after a good fight and promptly dispatched it as I am very partial to fresh mackerel! Realising time was passing I decided to head back along to the corkwing spot to see if they had made an appearance. It was slow again but after about 20 minutes I felt a wrasse tapping at the lure before seizing it and trying to make off with it. I set the hook and was delighted to see a good size corkwing  rising out the kelp. I landed, weighed it and at 161g it was 14g off the record, so a good sized fish indeed!

This corkwing wrasse is just 14g below the Scottish record and beautifully marked.

I carried on for another hour but no further wrasse were showing. I decided to get another couple of mackerel for tea so made my way down on to the rocks below me. I swapped the LRF gear for my 9'6" Major Craft Crostage 15 to 42 g and 14g Hansen Pilgrim spoon and began whacking it as far as I could before jigging it slowly back. Pretty soon I had located the mackerel and had three in quick succession, these I dispatched before putting in a draining rock pool to keep cool. I fished on for another ten minutes and managed to pick up another mackerel which I released. I was enjoying casting and playing with the new rod and was pleasantly surprised at how it performed with the mackerel, even for a "heavier" rod it still went into a fighting curve and the mackerel could give a good account of themselves. I was casting and retrieving the lure when I happened to glance down. There one meter away from my foot lay the dark sinuous S shape of an eel!  I watched with disbelief as it swam slowly over the submerged part of the rock where the blood from the mackerel had drained out the pool. The eel was obviously attracted by the blood from the mackerel, so I quickly grabbed my LRF rod which was still set up with my drop shot rig. The eel had just disappeared back under the boulder when I returned so I dropped the sandworm down beside the rock. I got a couple of little bites straight away so I gave a flick of the wrist to set the hook. A greedy sea scorpion had nailed it before the eel could get anywhere near it. To make matters worse he had torn the lure off the hook. I quickly unhooked and released him before feverishly fumbling in my tackle bag for another lure. This time I chose a Gulp 1" Minnow and quickly rigged it up and dropped it along the edge of the huge boulder I was standing on. I dropped the rod tip to allow the lure to flutter down in front of the gap at the bottom of the rock. After a couple of minutes I felt some little bites, followed by a gentle tugging on the line. Yet another sea scorpion had got the lure before the eel! 

This is not the eel I was looking for...

I quickly unhooked it in a state of panic, as it had been 10 minutes since my sighting of the eel and I was worried it had moved on. In order to keep the eel interested I grabbed another mackerel and quickly gutted it, before washing the blood out at the edge of the boulder. I then threw a few small pieces of gut in besides the rock, re-rigged the lure and dropped it back down. Again I dropped the rod tip to allow the dropshot rigged minnow to sink in front of the gap. The lure lay there for a very short while before the tip slowly nodded down and the line went tight as something tried to drag the lure back under the rock! I struck and pulled the lure out of the fish's mouth losing my last drop shot lead in the process. Cursing my keenness I found an old 2.3g jighead that had a broken hook. I quickly tied this on, smeared the lure with blood from the gutted mackerel and dropped it down to lay with the pieces of gut. By this point I really thought I had blown my chances as I was sure the fish had felt the hook on its last attempt and I didn't think it would take again. I was wrong though, a couple of minutes later I saw the line tightening and moving away from the rock! It was slightly confusing as I had expected the fish to take the lure back under the rock. The rod tip nodded so I struck and out of the bladder wrack rose an extremely angry eel! I managed to hold the fish up above the weed as it went into reverse, its big mouth open as it shook its head. Before the fish knew what was going on I had it on the rock beside me, where upon chaos ensued! I had hold of the leader above the fish and it quickly balled up and started to spin, rapidly tangling the line. The fish was a good sized eel about 1.5/2lb but it was very feisty as it had not been played out. Eventually I managed to get it under control and get a couple of photos before turning my attention to unhooking it.

...this is though!

Not a conger but still capable of giving a good bite!

For the first time since I got them my hPa Minigrips had a job to do. I used the grips to grab the fish by the mouth keeping my fingers free of its powerful jaws. The fish bit down on the grips, muscles bulging on its head like a pit bull before relaxing and allowing me to search for the hook.

The hPa Mini grips came into their own for helping control the fish.

It was deeply hooked at the back of its throat and try as I might I could not get at the hook without damaging the fish. I now felt incredibly guilty for hesitating when the fish took as I had to cut the line above the hook and release it with the hook still in it. It was a very light wire  hook and will corrode very quickly but I hate the fact I couldn't unhook it cleanly before release. It was a strange mix of emotions triumph, excitement and sadness that I left the hook in the fish, but overall I was really pleased to catch it. Big eels were always the stuff of childhood legends for me and to get one on a lure, all be it with the help of blood and guts, was immensely satisfying. Last year I managed to catch a Moray on a lure whilst in Crete and wondered how I could top it, this comes pretty close!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Corkwing corner revisited. Scottish record almost beaten!

With the day free on Sat Jake and I headed down to Torness Power Station to fish the inlet side. When we arrived the tide was fully out and being a big spring we had access to a lot of rockpools and gullies that are normally covered. I had a look around some rockpools whilst Jake went further down and explored a kelpy area. We made our way along to the power station but unusually there was no sign of any fish. None were found in the long gully where we've caught a lot of sea scorpions in the past and no sign of any leopard spotted gobies in the deep water between the boulders where they've been caught in the past. We climbed down to the western side of the outflow and started fishing down the side of the kelp covered drop off with drop shot rigs. Jake got snagged though and whilst he tied on a new rig I fished in front of a nice overhang. After a short time a coalfish appeared but didn't seem too interested in my Gulp! Sandworm. Then a sea scorpion popped out and gobbled my lure. I thought it was well hooked as none of the lure was visible but as I lifted it up it promptly spat the lure out and swam off back into the crack. Jake then cast out away from the drop off and as he worked his lure back it was taken by a mackerel which was quickly landed and dispatched so Jake could have it for his dinner.

Drop shotting proving to be very versatile.

I put a 7g silver Toby on and soon had a few bumps from mackerel at range but didn't get any hook ups. We then went to the opposite side and after searching the area with my Toby I soon located the mackerel shoal fairly close in and soon caught four mackerel. Two larger ones were quickly dispatched so I too could have mackerel for my dinner and the other two smaller ones were shaken off the hook with minimal contact to avoid damaging their sensitive skin. Jake caught a second mackerel so with our dinners sorted we stopped targeting them despite them being great fun on LRF gear.

If only they grew a bit bigger!

Our friend Nick Aitken has caught a couple of Yarrell's blennies from the inlet area so before the tide flooded over it Jake decided to see if he could get one. This meant getting a bit wet though but a species hunter has got to do what a species hunter has got to do!

Jake gets a quick shower whilst trying to get a new species down in the corner.

No reward for his soaking though so we headed up onto the gantry that crosses the inlet to try for corkwing wrasse as the tide flooded over the kelp covered shelf we had been standing on earlier. Jake was in first when he caught a small coalfish.

This greedy little coalfish swallowed the whole section of Gulp! Sandworm.

Shortly after returning the coalfish Jake caught his first specimen corkwing wrasse of the day. We thought it may have been a small ballan wrasse at first due to it's colouration but closer examination confirmed it as a corkwing wrasse.

The dark spots behind the eye and on the root of the tail confirms this is a female corkwing wrasse.

A big one too! Measuring 22cm and weighing 171g it's just 5g short of beating the current Scottish record!

I was finding fishing from the gantry quite uncomfortable so I climbed down onto the rocks below to fish from there. We were both quite excited about the prospect of further specimen corkwings but the action stopped completely for a while and whilst Jake persisted in his quest for a Scottish record corkwing wrasse I headed over to the sea defence boulders to try for a leopard spotted goby before the area was covered by the tide. As I clambered over there I looked up to see Jake's rod nodding away and he was soon lifting up a small pollock.

The 4th species of the session.

I began exploring in between the boulders and whilst there was no sign of any gobies I caught a blenny, my first for a while.

This blenny was almost black when I caught it. 30 seconds later it's completely changed colour.

Then as I dropped my Isome down into a gap I spotted a small fish with the unmistakable electric blue marking of a leopard spotted goby. I quickly changed from a drop shot rig to a #16 hook and some split shot and dropped a tiny section of pink Power Isome down into the hole. My plan was scuppered however when a big blenny appeared and scared it off, before turning his nose up at my offering and disappearing again. At this point Jake called down to tell me he had caught another corkwing wrasse so I headed back up to the gantry again. The wrasse seemed to be there again and after a few bites we both caught another corkwing each.

No question about the fact this is Jake's second corkwing wrasse due to its vivid markings.

I get in on the act with my first corkwing wrasse from the inlet area.

Who said punk was dead?

Jake's third corkwing of the session. A much darker fish.

Just when we thought we would see an increase in catches though yet again the action stopped for a while so I headed to try for a Yarrell's blenny from the gantry above where Jake had tried earlier. Holding my lure above the bottom I soon had a few bites and hooked a fish. Quite excited, I called along to Jake but as I hoisted the fish up I could see it wasn't my first ever Yarrell's blenny. A greedy little long spined sea scorpion was the culprit. I tried for a while longer but didn't get any more bites so I headed back along to where Jake was and he hadn't had any further action either so we called it a day, headed back to the car and drove back up the A1 to Edinburgh. When I got home I popped out and got a few ingredients and Lillian and I had the mackerel for our dinner.

Thai Spicy Mackerel Salad - Yum Pla Too. Yum indeed!

Nice varied session with six species caught and a seventh spotted. I still think the area has even more potential. Further time will be spent exploring it soon and I think it's only a matter of time before a record breaking corkwing is caught!

Tight lines, Hutch.

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.

Cornish Lure Festival : Topknots and Tantrums!

Last week on Thursday Scott and I drove almost 600 miles down to the north coast of Cornwall to take part in the Cornish Lure Festival. The festival had been arranged by Ben and Jo at Art of Fishing in St Merryn with two types of competition; a bass section and a species hunt. We were going to focus on the species hunt aspect of the competition and sample some of the truly magnificent fishing that Cornwall has to offer. After setting up our tent we decided to go down to Padstow harbour for a look. We spent the next couple of hours being tormented by big shoals of mullet and, true to form, the mullet ignored our offerings. I managed to winkle out a solitary blenny and Scott hooked three but they all came off as he lifted them up but apart from that the fishing was surprisingly hard. After a couple of hours we headed back to the campsite to get some much needed sleep. This was quite hard to come by as I had somewhat foolishly brought a million tog sleeping bag. This had the same effect as wrapping your body in clingfilm and sitting in a sauna. As I lay there I kept thinking about techniques and lures and the competition in a kind of sweaty malariaesque delirium.

It was a relief when dawn broke and we could end the humid hell and prepare for the competition proper. First stop was Art of Fishing in St Merryn where we met Ben and Jo. The shop is amazing, a mecca for all things lure fishing. It was great to see all the products in the flesh although hard to resist spending a fortune on them! Ben gave us some advice and a couple of marks to try and we headed down to St Austell to meet some fellow The Lure Forum members and sign in for the comp. We grabbed a bite to eat, met up with Rod Lugg and Steve Richardson and signed in. After meeting a few more The Lure Forum members we followed Rod and Steve to our first port of call. This involved a rather arduous decent down a steep Cornish hillside. I was wearing felt soled boots and these are exceptionally slippy in muddy conditions. With the aid of some ropes I slithered and sweated my way down to the mark, privately dreading the return journey. Finally we made it down to be greeted with a great looking mark; gullies and boulders and a crystal clear sea. Perfect!

Scott geared up his LRF gear and went exploring in the rockpools. I went straight for bass and went for a topwater lure. Within a few casts I had a swirl at the lure but then things went really quiet. Scott was first to catch anything.

Species #1 for Scott. A long spined sea scorpion.

After half an hour with sign of any bass I decided to try some rockpool exploration. Things were very slow for the next hour and every second that passed without fish put me on edge. Scott pointed out a large rockpool that had a large boulder in it where he had seen some blennies, as he wandered further along the coast and had a go for bass, I climbed down into the gully to see if I could winkle one out. What happened next will remain etched in my memory for a very long time. The boulder was big and had a large overhang which meant if I crouched down I could get the rod tip under the rock and present a lure right in amongst the fish. I mounted a 1.8g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead with a red 1" Gulp! Fish Fry and slipped the rod tip under the rock. There was no room to jig the lure with the rod so it was a question of tapping the line to make the lure tap against the bottom. I watched the lure tapping against the rock and noticed one of the rocks underneath start to move. The moving stone came into view it was flat with prominent eyes - a topknot! I have never seen one in the flesh before and with shaking hands I continued to tap the lure. The fish approached my little red fish fry and just stopped about 6" away watching it. My heart was in my mouth, contrary to my instincts I hopped the lure a little further away from the fish and it followed! This time it stopped 2 " away from my quivering lure. The fish really seemed to focus on the lure. Then, with incredible speed its mouth extended 2" and sucked the lure deep into its mouth! No need to strike the fish had hooked itself and with disbelief I quickly landed my first ever topknot. At this point I realised that getting a pic was going to prove problematic as I realised had left my camera in the car at the top of the cliff! Scott had his but he was way down the coast. I squealed like a schoolgirl until Steve took pity on me and came over to take a picture for me. Thanks Steve! Scott quietly wet himself laughing at my distant pleadings for a shot of his camera.

Species #1 for me. A topknot!

A special fish deserves a second photo!

The fishing slowed down for the next couple of hours apart from Scott having two pollock launch themselves completely out of the water to get at his Kiddy Brill Bait but missing it in the process. An hour before we were due to leave I had a large ballan tear my Slug-Go off the hook followed by Scott hooking but losing another ballan. Finally as we were making our way back I had a good bite and after a brief fight landed my first Cornish ballan wrasse.

Species #2 for me. Ballan wrasse.

Next came the slog back up the hillside to our cars after which Scott and I planned to go to a harbour. A quick breather after the climb up and we were on the road again and after a short drive we arrived. First port of call was the inner harbour where quickly spotted small wrasse grazing on the barnacles. Scott and I both rigged Isomes on a Shirasu jighead and added a 3" length of line with a #18 hook and a tiny piece of Isome. This worked a treat and we soon both had a couple more species.

Species #3 for me. Common blenny.

Species #2 for Scott. Corkwing wrasse.

Species #4 for me. Corkwing wrasse.

Species #3 for Scott. Common blenny.

We kept trying in the hope of getting a goldsinny wrasse as we were sure there were one or two there, but after a succession of corkwings and blennies we headed round to try in the corner. Scott clambered out onto a finger of rock and spotted some slightly bigger wrasse. After a bit of persistence he managed to catch one.

Species #4 for Scott. Ballan wrasse.

After this we decided to head to the outer breakwater. This proved to be a good decision as I soon added another species to my tally.

Species #5 for me. Pollock.

At this point I suddenly realised that I hadn't eaten since the morning and was finding it really hard to think! After a bit of a moan at Scott who said he wasn't that hungry and stomping off in a hunger induced grump, I managed to drive aimlessly round the town, find somewhere that was still open, beg to get some food as they were actually just closed, before heading back to pick up Scott who had managed to get himself another species in my absence.

Species #5 for Scott. Pollock.

We fished for a bit longer but then the skies opened. The rain was torrential and not wanting to try and put up a tent in it Scott quickly managed to somehow find us a caravan using his iPhone and Google! We drove for half an hour in the torrential rain and fog, conversed pleasantly and had a cup of tea with the lovely caravan owner before going into the caravan and passing out.

Saturday we headed back to the harbour again but it was very different. The inner harbour was very muddy with the overnight rain, so we headed to the outer wall. I tried with a Slug-Go and quickly caught a small pollock. I had a couple more but apart from a bass coming to have a look at the lure it was very quiet for me. Scott meanwhile had got off to a good start with a pollock and then proceeded to rack up a few more species for his tally.

Species #6 for Scott. Mackerel.

Species #7 for Scott. Goldsinny wrasse.

Species #8 for Scott. Pouting.

I swapped over to my LRF gear and after what seemed an age managed to hook and land a fish to add to my tally.

Species #6 for me. Long spined sea scorpion.

Scott then added another species to his list before I added one to mine again.

Species #9 for Scott. Dragonet.

Species #7 for me. Pouting.

We then went down to Porthleven where we would be based for the next two days. Scott had booked a weeks holiday there before he found out about the comp so his girlfriend, Lillian and his sister and her partner had driven down and we went to meet them at Rod Lugg's cottage "Tregonning" next to the harbour there. Needless to say we fished the harbour but it would only yield a few blennies and a solitary pollock for Scott, before we had to grab some food. After dinner we discussed tactics and I remembered reading reports that rocklings had been caught from Penzance marina so we headed there in the hope of finding something new. Using the same jighead with a  #18 hook teaser baited with Isome, we began searching the clear patches in between the weeds around the edges. Soon Scott had spotted some small fish attacking his lure. Gobies he declared and 10 minutes later had manged to hook a tiny one. It took about half an hour for me to recreate the feat but I managed it too. 

Species #10 for Scott. Rock goby.

Species #8 for me. Rock goby.

The relief was amazing! I felt I was really lagging behind with the numbers and it was now possible to get to 10 and beyond. We then had to help a man who had fallen down the slope into the harbour whilst relieving himself, dislocating his arm in the process. Scott and I climbed down using the ropes that the boats are tied up to and managed to haul him back up and get his girlfriend to take him to hospital. We couldn't however, include him in our species hunt as he wouldn't take a lure, and we had to resort to hauling him out by hand. We moved down to the main harbour in search of coalfish but all it yielded was a couple of new "personal worst" pollock before we called it a night. We snatched four hours kip and then it was back into the car and an hour up the road to the harbour to hunt mini species again. I was determined to get some of the species Scott had caught the day before. Sure enough when we arrived there were a few others taking part in the comp trying to do the same, all busy fishing. So it was on with the Isome and on with the fishing. I must be honest and say that up until this point I had not really been enjoying the competition. The main reason for this being that I saw everyone else as competition, which annoyed me a bit as I would liked to have fished with them rather than against them. I was also desperate to hit ten or more species and I only had a few hours to do it. I was fishing next to Luke Fox we had a chat and I began to relax and just enjoy the fishing. Twenty minutes later I felt a small bite and there was a bit of weight on the rod. It felt a bit different and with utmost care I brought the fish to the surface to see my prize.

Species #9 for me. Dragonet.

Another first for me. This was the game changer so next target was mackerel. I rigged up my bass gear with a Savage Gear Psycho Sprat that Scott had caught his Mackerel on the day before and cast the lure a country mile out to sea. I had no luck high up in the water but Scott told me I he caught his quite deep down using a very slow retrieve and it wasn't long before I was hit by a fish which started tearing around. The rod tip was juddering and when it started veering off to the side I knew what it was!

Species #10 for me. Mackerel.

Double figures finally! We carried on fishing for another hour before deciding to spend our last couple of hours trying for bass at a nearby mark. The mark was beautiful and looked like a scene from the Mediterranean bathed in sunshine with crystal clear water. We tried Patchinkos first and I had a fish come up and swirl but no takers. We also saw fish breaching the surface in pursuit of sandeels sending them scattering like silver shrapnel. Still no takers on the Patchinkos. I then tried a Megabass Vision 110 but no joy after 10 mins. Next I tried a MaxRap this time I got a couple of hits but no hook ups. This always amazes me as merely trying to get the lure out of my bag had me nearly hooked! Scott had switched to a bombarda and Kiddy Brill Bait by this point. I too had enough messing about with hard lures so on went a 4.5" Slug-Go on a 10.5g #2/0 AGM football jighead. The results were instant; first cast on the drop a feisty wee pollock! Scott then had one too. Another seven followed before we headed back along the beach. With that we pretty much had to head back to sign off at the competition.

When we arrived I was shattered, tired and grumpy and after a bit of a mix up with registering our catches and a bit of a hissy fit thrown by me (Sorry Matt!), we headed over to the prize-giving. First place in the species hunt was won with 14 fish which was great going. Can't help feeling I could have got similar if I had done a bit more research and planning and a bit less stressing out! Still, Scott and I came in at joint 4th I think with my topknot being possibly the most unusual catch over the weekend. Next came the raffle and at this point I turned to Scott and Ross Johnson (who narrowly missed out on a prize place with 11 species) and said "I may as well go sit in the car as I never win anything in raffles!". First name out of the hat was mine! I couldn't believe it! Scott and Ross laughed. I got to choose my prize so went for a 9' Major Craft Crostage sea bass travel rod despite Scott shouting "Get the booze!" when I went up to the table to pick what I wanted. I was totally stoked! There was also a free product handout at the end so Scott managed to get a few packets of interesting soft lures as well as a couple of coveted Ecogear caps. All in all we did pretty well to get 10 species from a place we have never fished before. I know I can get more next time. Many thanks to Ben and Jo and the staff at Art of Fishing for putting on such a great event.It's one that will stay with me for a long time and certainly worth the 1200 miles, sleep deprivation and one sandwich a day diet! Also many thanks to all the good people from the Lure Forum that I met, just a shame I couldn't be more social due to my competitive nature getting the better of me at times! Roll on next year when I'll hopefully be able to relax and enjoy it a bit more!

Tight lines, Schogsky.