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.

Variety is the spice of life.

Jake picked me up at 8:45 yesterday morning, we headed down into East Lothian and to be honest we didn't decide where we were actually going until we were half way there! We parked up and walked down the path, through a small dark tunnel and arrived on the sandy shore of Cove harbour.

The sun was shining and the water was crystal clear. We started of with a spot of LRF. Exploring close in amongst the rocks and weed. There was no sign of life though and just as we were about to move I spotted a submerged large flat and dropped my Isome down the edge. I was soon getting little taps and then a more solid little bite resulted in a small blenny being hoisted out. I repeated this and was rewarded with a small long spined sea scorpion.

Jigheads? What are those?

Jake had a go at the same spot but didn't have any luck. He then waded out onto a skeer of rock and I headed round to the outer harbour wall. I managed another blenny but the lack of fish was quite surprising as it just screamed fish. Perhaps it was just too bright. Jake came around to join me and we decided to head to another spot.

On the walk back up to the car we looked over to a rocky peninsula to the north west and discussed its potential. By the time we had reached the top of the path we had decided to go and check it out. After a walk down a dirt road, hopping over a few fences, walking along the edge of a field and climbing down a grassy embankment we were finally on the rocky platform. However it was a lot shallower than we thought it would be, with boulder fields stretching out as far as we could see. Jake cast out a Ribster but lost it in a snag on his first cast. After trying Isome at close range with no reward we quickly decided to leave although I think it looked like a good mark to try for bass with surface/shallow diving plugs in the right conditions so we may be back here!

Heading back up the grassy path and back to the car we were both pretty sweaty and Jake was also a bit grumpy as well. He only had about another hour or so to fish and was facing a dreaded blank. We decided to head to the outflow at Torness Power Station to try for a bass or worst case scenario raid the rockpools for a blenny.

Arriving on the reef Jake went with his Major Craft Crostage and started lobbing his new found favourite Lunker City lure, the Ribster in Arkansas Shiner. I went with my Shimano Diaflash and half a large pink Power Isome. After 10-15 min Jake hooked a fish and had a nice bend in his rod and a big grin on his face. I looked over anticipating the fish coming to the surface as bass normally do fairly quickly but it didn't. Strange I thought then the reason became apparent when the fish finally did come up. It wasn't a bass! Jake had caught a nice ballan wrasse!

Blank busted and the grumpy angler cracks a smile!

Quite an unusual catch from this mark although Jake has caught them before many years ago but on ragworm.

Jake's last Arkansas Shiner Ribster. He would lose it shortly afterwards. Just as well he's ordered a few more packs!

We fished on for a while longer but no bass were caught and Jake had to head up the road. Blank avoided though he was a happy man. I wanted to fish some more though and got Jake to drop me off in Dunbar where I headed down to the harbour. I sent local angler and fellow The Lure Forum member Nick Aitken a text to see if he fancied joining me as he lives near the harbour. He text back to say he was on his way home from work and would pop down when he got back. To pass the time whilst waiting for Nick I headed to flattie corner and stuck with my #14 hook with two 0.8g split shot and put a tiny section of pink Isome on. Casting out I was quickly into a small flounder. Couple of casts later a second. Then a small plaice, my first from this harbour. By the time Nick arrived I had caught 5 flounders and 4 plaice. I caught another 2 flounders and gave Nick a #14 hook so he could join in the fun but whilst he was getting plenty of follows they were tormenting him and he just couldn't manage to catch one although he did hook one but it came off. Here are a few photos of the flatfish. Can you correctly identify all 7?

The correct answers are at the bottom of the report.

Next up I got a little surprise. After travelling 250 miles during the week to get a sand goby I caught one from Dunbar harbour! I couldn't believe it! Anyway, nice to know they are still in there.

Where have you been every other time I came to Dunbar harbour trying to catch you this year?!

 

At this point Nick suggested a move so we headed over the back of the harbour to target wrasse. On the way we passed some nice big rockpools that I'd never fished before and I couldn't resist! It wasn't long before one of the regular inhabitants of the rockpools at Dunbar appeared and greedily scoffed the little chunk of Isome.

Possibly the most aggressive salt water species of fish I've encountered. 9 times out of 10 they just charge out into the open and smash your lure.

After that we headed out to the end of a rock skeer and started fishing 3-4" soft plastics down the edge. It wasn't long before we were both getting bites but we couldn't get any hook ups. Shortly afterwards we spotted the culprits. Two small ballans were coming out from underneath a huge boulder and nipping away at the lures. This continued for a while and then I decided enough was enough and switched from my Shimano Speedmaster Drop Shot rod to my Diaflash and dropped down the split shot rig I had been using previously. I missed the first couple of bites but let the third one develop a bit more and the fish hooked itself. Drag locked up the Diaflash had a nice bend in it but I just raised it up to stop the wrasse getting back into its lair. Soon pulled out away from the weed it was hoisted up into my hand.

My first Scottish ballan wrasse for a while. Lovely!

I soon followed it up with a second wrasse from the same spot. 

Nice dark brown fish with a bright orange underside.

At this point Nick, who had persisted with the larger soft plastics, switched over to an Isome on a #4 aberdeen hook. After this change he was still getting bites but no hook ups. I then pulled out a third wrasse.

Chocolate and Lime. My favourite!

Seeing this Nick quickly switched over to the #14 hook I had given him earlier and carried on trying. He soon hooked a wrasse but it charged into some kelp and came off. I then went to check on our exit from the mark as the tide was flooding in behind us and would soon be cutting us off. It had a little bit to go though so I returned to close to where Nick was but decided to try dropping my Isome into a nice big gap in the kelp. I let it land on a large rock and just let it sit there. A small fish appeared and tentatively had a little nibble. I gave the Isome a little twitch. It had another nibble. I then raised it up off the bottom slightly and that did the trick nicely! I quickly lifted the fish out to discover it was a leopard spotted goby!

Looks like a black goby I hear you say.

These can look very dark and it can be vary hard to make out their markings when they are out of the water. I popped it into a small rockpool to reveal the beautiful electric blue edges on its fins.

Hard to believe it's the same fish isn't it?

I felt a bit sorry for the goby as it looked like the local wrasse had been nipping at its tail fin as it was in a bit of a ragged mess! I popped it back where I caught it from and returned to Nick. He was still patiently trying to catch a wrasse and whilst I was trying to sort out the tangled mess that the goby had made of my split shot rig he finally hooked and landed one. Nick having only really taken up fishing with soft lures this year having enjoyed many years as a successful bait fisherman had just caught his first wrasse on one and was a very happy man.

Nick's first lure caught ballan wrasse. The first of many no doubt.

At this point we had to leave the mark before we got trapped and we timed our exit to perfection really! It was about 6pm and I had to go and catch my train up the road so we called it a day. We walked up the road and Nick went home to order a few packs of #14 hooks! All in all a great days fishing. A few different marks. Two great guys to fish them with. 7 species and 23 fish caught between the three of us. Happy days!

Tight lines, Hutch.

Flatfish I.D. challenge answer.
Flounder
Plaice
Plaice
Flounder
Plaice
Flounder
Flounder

Welcome to our new blog. Allow me to bring you up to speed!

Schogsky & I met via The Lure Forum messageboard last summer and after meeting up for a spot of lure fishing we have been fishing together regularly ever since and we've had a great time getting to know each other, tried a few new things, explored new marks and caught loads of fish in the process! We've been regularly posting reports on our trips together (and our solo sessions) in the Catch Reports section of TLF and I thought a great way to start our blog would be a first post summarising what we've been up to since we first met at the start of July last year to give you a flavour of what we are all about. So make yourself comfortable, here goes...

Whilst reading Jake's first ever catch report, a successful bass session that had produced a few fish...

A Torness Power Station bass took this Rapala X-Rap.

...I noticed that he was also living in Edinburgh. Funnily enough I had been fishing too whilst he had been catching bass and had caught a nice big pollock...

Crispy Stella Artois batter bound.

...so I replied to his thread. After a few private messages were sent back and forth we arranged to meet up which we duly did for a couple of hours at a local mark. It was a good session and we both caught fish, a mackerel each and Jake also caught a small coalfish. The tackle Jake was using was pretty light and I guess this was really my introduction to two things; light rock fishing as a style and also the lure Jake was using.

Marukyu Power Isome. Deadly for many species as we would discover over the coming months!

On the way home Jake said that he'd like to catch a ballan wrasse on this gear and I told him about a local spot where they were being caught. The following day he popped down there and after a few hours exploring he hooked a wrasse but instead of a ballan it was a beautiful darkly coloured corkwing.

Granton Breakwater Corkwing plucked from what is now known as "Jake's Wrassehole"!

I took the plunge and got myself an LRF outfit and during the next few weeks we visited various marks in East Lothian together and caught a few more fish on Power Isome.

Nicely marked pollock.

Long spined sea scorpion. These are not venomous contrary to popular belief!

Another victim falls to the mighty Power Isome.
This time a nice flounder.

It was my turn to head out on a solo mission and after several fruitless hours I witnessed my first "mackerel jacuzzi" with shoals of them chasing sandeels into a few feet of water at low tide as light faded one night. My first LRF mackerel was great fun, as was my second. The third came "off the top" on a 4g floating plug!

 Mackerel taken "off the top"!

Back together again and over the next few months Jake and I were having lots of fun and catching plenty fish in the process!

A nice little Coalfish.

A common blenny.

Another long spined sea scorpion.

A small plaice can't resist the Japanese super lure either!

Long spined sea scorpions and common blennies would become common catches!

A few slightly bigger fish would put a nice bend in the LRF rods.

St Abbs Harbour coalfish for Jake.

St Abbs Harbour flounder for me.

At the end of August I went up to Applecross on the NW coast of Scotland with a couple of my mates for a fishing trip. It's a beautiful part of the country, made famous by Monty Halls in his first "Great Escape" documentary series. I had a great time, added a few species to my tally and caught most of my fish on my LRF gear whilst my mates fished baits and struggled. I myself only managed to land one lesser spotted dogfish on my bait rod.

LRF pollock in the Scottish heather. Taken on a 2" Ecogear Straw Tail.

Hated by many anglers as they steal bait intended for other species.
It's still a shark so is cool in my book!

This ballan was caught at my feet almost on an Ecogear Straw Tail again.

Poor cod. One of many caught.

A rock goby. Identifiable by the bright marking on the dorsal fin.

Shortly after returning Jake and I headed back to St Abbs and had another good session. A few fish were caught mainly by Jake but I had a new HRF setup with me and broke it in nicely with a couple of nice fish.

A nice blenny for Jake. One of many. Nice red tip to it's anal fin.

A nice flounder to christen the Shimano Speedmaster Dropshot. Took a Berkley Gulp! Lugworm fished on a weedless jighead on the drop.

Dinner caught again! This pollock took a Berkley Gulp! 6" Sandworm fished on a weedless jighead.

Next session we were off to Torness Power Station outflow again in search of bass with me yet to catch one. I failed to do so but Jake showed me how it was done and then pulled a nice big flounder out of St Abbs when we popped down there later in the day for an hour or two.

At 48cm and weighing 2lb 8oz this was the biggest bass so far in 2011 for Jake.

Another St Abbs flounder. Nice and plump too!

At the start of Sept Jake and I  decided to head a bit further afield. We took the LRF gear and the bait rods and headed west to Oban and Loch Etive. We had a great trip and landed over 100 fish. Mainly small pollock from Loch Etive but we also picked up a few new species too.

A nicely marked pollock that Jake caught.

Jake landing this lesser spotted dogfish on his bait rod.

Sand Goby. Power Isome also works in tiny chunks fished on size 18 hooks!

Sea Trout. We both caught one on an Ecogear Aji Straight lure.

A nice little codling Jake caught on you know what!

I had a quick solo session at Dunbar harbour a few week later. Jake had been down the day before and had lost a huge blenny so I was trying to land the monster. Soon after I arrived I  caught the smallest flounder I've ever seen and after a few other fish were caught I hooked the beer bellied blenny!

New "Personal Worst" flounder.
Not actually hooked just biting the very end of the lure.

The forceps are 6" long. Look at the size of his belly too! Lunker!

Now trying to rack up the species I was told about a mark where I could catch sprats. Sceptical as they are are strict zooplanktivores (thanks wikipedia!) I went down anyway and did catch a few small fish using sabiki that did resemble sprats but after some research I identified them as juvenile herring. Still a new species. I also caught a small whiting which was also a new species for me! Not bad for less than an hours effort!

Juvenile herring. Easily confused with sprats!

Bonus whiting!

A couple of weeks later and it was now mid Oct. Another trip to Torness to try and catch a bass. I went down early morning and after a few hours of no action I was starting to think it wasn't going to happen again. I tried loads of different small hard lures and then decided to try a sandeel fly fished using a sinking bombarda float.  Just as I saw Jake arriving I felt a thud and was in. After a decent scrap on my LRF rod I landed my first bass of the year!

Spiky Scottish silver. Well worth the wait!

Next up was a trip to the Mull of Galloway with my girlfrind, sister and her partner for a day out in "On Yer Marks" with skipper Ian Burrett targeting pollock first of all, then tope and finishing the day off by targeting a few wrasse. It was a fantastic trip and although I hooked a tope it bent out the hook and I lost it again. Oh well, just have to do it again this year! Here are a few pics.

Best pollock of the day was caught by my sister.

Grey Gurnard. Another new species for me.

Nice coalfish.

Tope fishing begins and the bloody pests soon show up! Love them really.

Tope on. Tope off. Gutted!

Lovely male cuckoo wrasse. Perhaps my favourite fish. Top 5 anyway!

Best ballan wrasse. Sister strikes again!

Jake and I would end October with a manic coalfish bashing night session at St Abbs and a trip to Eyemouth harbour. Over 300 coalfish caught during the night session. Every lure in the bag that we had yet to catch on was broken in and when we run out of lures we used the bit that you tear the Power Isome off of! The "Nipplepig" was born and first cast it claimed a victim!

Coalfish. When they're feeding, they're feeding!

Nipplepig. Patent Pending.

Our daytime session at Eyemouth saw me catch a load of coalfish again. Jake had a much more varied selection of fish including a short spined sea scorpion and a little codling.

Short spined sea scorpion.
Much rarer than the long spined variety at most of our marks.

Little codling. Strange colouration. Very unusual.

My next solo session, a trip to Dunbar Harbour, would turn out to be a very strange one with a sea gull nicking my lure in mid-air followed very shortly afterwards by me catching a cuckoo ray! Totally surreal. I think the ray may have been thrown into the harbour by the crew of one of the fishing boats.

A cuckoo ray. May never catch another.

Now November, the saltwater trips were becoming less productive so we turned our attention to freshwater predators with a spot of deadbaiting, some LRF and also some more conventional lure tactics being employed with a few pike being caught but perch proving rather elusive. These sessions would continue right through to Feb this year.

Union Canal LRF pike. How cute.

An Alemoor Loch jack for Jake. Taken on a smelt deadbait.

 A small Alemoor Loch jack for me too on a firetiger Rapala X-Rap.

Another Union Canal LRF pike caught by Jake. Big fat one too!

Bigger fish from Carlingwark Loch. Caught on a yellow Savage Gear Soft 4Play.

Another Union Canal pike. This time caught on a slow sinking 4" Spro BBZ-1 in roach.

Jake's first Loch Lomond "Twenty" (Ouncer!).

We have also squeezed in a few 2012 saltwater LRF sessions but they have been quite slow as fish are few and far between although we have managed a few fish between us, most of the usual LRF suspects, blennies, long spined sea scorpions (including the rather beautifully coloured specimen below), short spined sea scorpions and I also caught my first black goby and lost a nice sea trout during a trip to Greenock. Drop net has now been purchased as a result!

Lovely marking with deep shades of red and turquoise mouth membranes!

My first black goby. Caught in Greenock Marina.

We've also been fishing at Torness Power Station outflow again. Because the water temperature there is artificially high you can catch bass all year round and that's exactly what we've been doing! Along with a spot of blenny bashing when the bass aren't about smashing the Scottish record in the process!

Jake's first bass of 2012.

My first bass of 2012.

Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow. Jake loves them. So do bass!

Sidewinder brill/bombarda float took the fancy of this bass.

This one too!

Blennie bashing. Lots of fun and can get quite competitive!

They are aggressive little buggers and will happily eat fingers!

This blenny is almost twice the Scottish record weight!

Jake with his record blenny. A few more records may be broken this year!

That pretty much covers most of our exploits to date. Hope you've enjoyed reading and we'll be posting on a regular basis from now on! 

Tight lines, Hutch.