Hard to spot a two spot.

Here's an easy report to make ,all be it from a few weeks ago!

I popped down to corkwing corner hoping to search it out for pollock and codling. I thrashed the area with a variety of lures but there were no larger fish on the prowl. After a couple of hours I decided to have a scout about the rockpools to see what I could find.

The first thing I noticed was how they had changed since the storms,large car sized boulders now covered what were once deep pools. I rigged up a #12 -1 gram jighead with a section of EcogearAqua  Aji straight and began to search around the boulders. Normally I would have expected Long spined sea scorpions and blennies but the pools were barren. As I worked my way along the shore I found a deep pool and my eye was quickly drawn to a uniform line of diamond shapes on the sea bed. It looked like it could be a goby of some sort all be it about 3" long. I was curios as to what it was so I rigged a #22 hook New Zealand dropper style  with another tiny sliver of the Aji straight and let it flutter enticingly down towards the fish.

The fish caught sight of it and scooted away under the rock!

Not put off I persisted in jigging it around the boulder, sure enough the fish came out again 20 minutes later and pounced on the twitching sliver.

I quickly swung it to hand and was surprised to see it was a huge two spotted goby, with stunning pronounced markings.

The pretty diamond markings were so uniform that the fish stuck out like a sore thumb!

Most certainly my biggest two spot so far and the most colourful.

I grabbed a picture ,released the fish and continued making my way along the stretch of rocky fore shore. No more fish made an appearance and I wandered back to the car thoroughly hating winter!

Ahh well at least its spring now and the fishing will most certainly pick up.

Tight Lines

Jake

First session of 2013

Following a couple of weeks with no fishing and lots of family time, it was time to get back out there and start 2013 as we mean to go on. I picked up Scott and we headed down into East Lothian in the hope of targeting some mullet again, as well as having a search about to see what else was lurking about. I had my GraphiteLeader Corto Ex for this and Scott had his "Beast Tamer"! After a brief drive we arrived to find the sea calm but with a cold and strong offshore wind. With the tide in the last hour of the ebb we decided to forgo the mullet until later and had a look around the rock pools and low water hidey holes. We were both keen to get this years species hunt underway and our first target was one of our favourite fish, the common blenny. I went with a #10 1/16oz Decoy Rocket jighead with a Gulp! 1" Fish Fry in red and Scott went with a chunk of Isome on a #12 hook and split shot rig.

The blennys were in a feisty mood and soon had us in fits of laughter watching them dash out from under the boulders to fight each other to get at the lure. We caught a handful each and then moved over the reef to look for long spined sea scorpions.

Scott gets the first fish of 2013!

I quickly follow suit.

Rather pleasingly they were also easy to find and Scott was in first with an unusual grey and pink specimen.

This long spined sea scorpion had some lovely pink hues.

A beauty and the "Beast Tamer"

He then moved off to go and add a goby or two to this years species count. I managed to find a sea scorpion too, while bouncing the lure alongside a large boulder it wasted no time dashing out and seizing the lure. It was a nice dark red one and I popped it back after a couple of photos.

Caught to order, this long spined sea scorpion was exactly where I expected it to be!

I love the variety in colouration of sea scorpions and their attitude too!

I then went over to the "goby hole" to find Scott had caught a common goby and was busy hunting for two spotted gobys.

Scotts first common goby of 2013

I joined him after quickly rigging up one of Scott's #26 hooks to 1lb nylon New Zealand dropper style on my jighead. This was rigged with a tiny chunk of Gulp! Sandworm and it wasn't long before a little two spotted goby was hooked and landed! Scott followed suit shortly after I got mine before moving off to explore the rock pools.

Another species for my 2013 tally!

Scotts first two spotted goby of 2013

It took a little longer for me to get a common goby as they were being quite shy, but eventually one plucked up the courage to grab the lure and he was quickly landed and checked off the list!

My forth species in about an hour. Not bad going!

With the tide still too low for the resident mullet I went off in search of bass. I rigged up my go to lure; 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 football jig head. I worked the reef for a couple of hours but there was nothing doing at all. The cold offshore wind was getting stronger and when I rejoined Scott we tried putting out some bread to tempt the mullet. This ended up very quickly heading out to sea with the wind and was quickly out of casting range. The mullet were just not about and if they were they weren't interested in our wind assisted bread mix! With the light dimming we decided to call it a day and Scott finally left the blennys alone after racking up fifty of them while I had been chasing bass.

All in all a great little session and I love the fact that we were able to grab four species and have fun doing so in the depths of winter. I cant wait to get out again!

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.

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.