They only come out at night.

Jake and I headed down to St Abbs on Tuesday night and met up with our fishing pal Richie to have a go for flounders, coalfish and anything else that was silly enough to swim and take our lures. Fishing was slow to say the least and some divers I spoke to as they came out of the water confirmed what we already knew, there was hardly any fish around. Undeterred we worked our way around the harbour using a variety of methods and lures and finally spotted a fish which Jake promptly caught.

Ever obliging. Greedy little buggers.

Richie and I carry on searching both in the harbour and in the kelp beds below the outer wall.

After reaching the end of the outer harbour we decided to try our luck from the rocks over the kelp beds. After a bit of rockhopping I spotted a few small fish as they came up from the kelp to have a go at my 10cm Savage Gear Sandeel Slug but they weren't much bigger than it and when I switched to a 2" Reins Rockvibe they lost interest. Jake and Richie came over and joined me and tried to tempt them but had no luck either. We all went over onto the rocks at the very mouth of the harbour and carried on the search. As light faded Richie hooked and landed a small coalfish and I switched to a small metal opting for a pink/luminous 5g Quantum Sea Mahi jig. After a few casts I felt a couple of bumps before striking the third, hooked a fish and quickly landed it before heading over to where Jake was so he could take a few photos.

Sunset over St Abbs.

My first coalfish of 2013.

Thanks Quantum Sea Mahi Jig!

Fish popped back we all started fishing at the mouth of the harbour and as the light continued to fade we started spotting coalfish swimming around below us and started targeting them. Before long I had a second and Jake and Richie also caught a few. Nothing big but good fun on the light gear we were all using.

One of Jake's fish caught on a drop shot rig.

Pretty soon it was getting quite late so we called it a night. Despite the slow start it was a pleasant evening spent in good company and no doubt we'll be back again soon for another night time session.

Tight lines, Hutch.

East Lothian Easter Monday meet up.

Jake and I headed down to Torness Power Station outflow yesterday. Jake's friend Paul joined us and we were meeting up with Paul's mate Richie down there and also three fellow The Lure Forum members, Martin who had travelled across country from Ayrshire and Richie and Jase who had come up all the way from Sunderland.

Richie and Jase were first to arrive on the rocks and when we arrived they reported that fishing had been very slow. So much so that they had done a spot of rockpooling and not for fish!

Whilst waiting for the bass to turn up the David Attenborough came out in Jase and Richie took this nice photo of a sea urchin, uncovered by the spring tide.

I had a quick crack at the bass and setup with an 8g bombarda and a Kiddy Sidewinder Brill Bait. Meanwhile Jake did a spot of LRF in a kelp filled gully connected to the sea. It wasn't long before he was into a fish.

Jake manages to catch something other than a blenny or bass at Torness Power Station outflow. Lovely brown, orange and yellow colouration on this long spined sea scorpion.

Isn't he cute?

The bass were clearly not around and whilst the rest of the group carried on in the hope they would arrive I disappeared with "The Beast Tamer" in search of a blenny that would steal Jake's Scottish Record crown.

There is a rod in my hand honest!

I spotted a couple of large specimens in one fairly small rockpool and after a bit of vertical jigging one grabbed the Gulp! 1" Fish Fry and was quickly plucked from his salty residence!

"The Beast Tamer" strikes again.

Jake just happened to be on the move at this point, so I called him over so I could weigh my specimen blenny on his electronic mini species scales. Luckily for Jake whilst mine was slightly longer than his record breaker, mines wasn't quite as plump so his title was still safe, for the time being!

At 18.5cm this is a lunker as far as blennies go!

Are you lookin' at me?

I carried on in search of the prize winning fish but couldn't locate one anywhere near the proportions required. I caught 20 in the process. This also gave me the opportunity to test my new Nories rod and whilst I could feel the tiny bites I prefer the extra sensitivity my Diaflash offers for this style of close range vertical jigging. Some of the smaller blennies were particularly aggressive.

This one had a bit of an attitude. Vicious little bugger!

At this point I headed back down to see if any bass were in and at long range some activity could be seen with some surface disturbance and a couple of seals patrolling in the distance we hoped that the shoal would be moving within casting range soon.

Martin retrieves his lure. Note the beautiful Scottish weather.

Martin was first into a fish. Taken at long range this would signal the start of some further action for the others.

Martin lands the first bass of the day.

Richie's rod bends into a bass.

Richie took this bass on a Yokozuna Flamingo deep diving plug.

Richie's latest hard lure does the business.

The classic white eel and controller float setup took a few bass.

I got into the action too. After trying a few small hard lures I switched to a soft one. A few casts into the outflow and using a steady retrieve with a few little jerks it wasn't too long before I hooked a schoolie.

Savage Gear Sandeel Slug on a 6g 2/0 jighead was nailed by this bass.

Only a puppy but lovely all the same.

Again the Nories coped easily. I'm starting to realise that the real quality in this rod is in the way it handles fish once hooked. It really is a joy the way it absorbs the headshakes and feels so smooth during the fight, although like Jake's Graphiteleader Corto EX, we'd still like to test them on something a bit bigger that will fight dirty! With this in mind myself, Jake, Paul and Richie decided it was time to head down to the cliffs at Eyemouth to target Pollock and Coalfish. Richie fishes the area quite frequently and has had pollock to 8.5lb so we were hoping to give our light gear a real workout.

Quick group shot before some of us headed down to Eyemouth.

The first mark we fished is known locally as "The Cannons" this is because it is directly below two large cannons that are on top of the cliff.

Two large cannons facing seawards give the mark below it's name.

After a following the narrow winding path round the side of the cliff, passing under an overhang and hopping over some rocks we arrived on a large flat platform.

"The Cannons". Nice deep water with lots of kelp. Perfect for pollock and wrasse.

The view to the north west towards St Abbs Head.

We tried a variety of lures and worked our way around the area, Jake even tried a spot of LRF down the edges and in some shallower water with some light jigheads and Power Isome but sadly none of us caught anything. We decided to try at another mark and made the climb back up to the cliff top.

The path required to access the mark is narrow and dangerous and not for the faint hearted. Richie and Paul lead the way.

I hold up this huge boulder so Jake can make his escape!

Don't look down!

Once on the cliff top again we made our way round towards the next peninsula, a much more rocky affair, the tip of which is cut off as the tide floods and is known locally as "Hairy Ness".

"The Cannons" from a distance.

We began our descent to the mark. Just as dangerous as the last but for completely different reasons. Instead of being faced with the risk of falling a great distance should we lose our footing we had to do a fair bit of scrambling over rocks to reach the mark with the prospect of hard, jaggy landing should we slip. Again not for the faint hearted. Taking time and care was the order of the day. Not a mark to try and access in bad weather or when a swell is running.

The climb down the the second mark. "Hairy Ness" is the furthest point.

"Hairy Ness" cut off by the tide.

We only fished here for about 30 minutes but unfortunately we drew a blank again. A real shame as it looked just as promising as the first mark. Richie was understandably disappointed too as he regularly catches pollock and coalfish from both marks. We'll certainly be returning to these marks in the months to come.

All in all a great day was had by everyone and it was good to meet up with friends and make a few new ones.

Tight lines, Hutch.