Ye olde street fishing.

Scott and I had a few hours to spare on Tuesday afternoon so we grabbed the opportunity and our rods and headed off to fish the Water of Leith. We had received some interesting new jig heads from the far east called "Crazyg Wave HD" made by Ocean Ruler and we were keen to see how they performed. We were joined by Scott's mate Naz who is also a keen angler and has spent a lot of time fishing in and around Edinburgh. We started off in Leith but the flood prevention works had turned the water into mud so we elected to head up stream and began fishing again at Stockbridge and worked our way further up a really beautiful stretch of the river with many nice pools and fast flowing runs ending up on the section of the river that runs through the idyllic Dean Village.

Dean Village. A little hamlet tucked away in the middle of town.

I rigged up with a red Gulp 1" fish Fry on a 1.4g Crazyg Wave HD jig head and we began exploring the pools. As they are designed to, we noticed that the jig heads gave the lures a little more "wiggle " than conventional jig heads, especially in a current. We fished up the river hopping from pool to pool and it wasn't long before I was into a fish. I was working the lure across current with little twitches and just as it began to swing around a trout seized the lure. He gave a surprisingly good account for himself in the strong flow but was soon brought to hand. This brown trout had a slightly deformed mouth but never the less apart from the usual wear and tear on it's fins an otherwise very healthy looking fish.

Our first stockie from the Water of Leith.

Bit of a David Coulthard look about him.

I slipped him back and he swam off upstream in a huff! Naz led us upstream to a large weir which looked very nice indeed. 

Simply stunning and right in the heart of Edinburgh.

An absolute pleasure fishing here.

Naz has had some good fish from this weir pool in the past and we were keen to try it! We couldn't access much of it due to the high water level so after 15 Minutes of trying we headed up stream. Seeing the water hammering down the weir got us talking about whether sea trout could scale it. We were still discussing this as we were crossing a bridge overlooking the pool above the weir. The pool looked so inviting we had to have a shot. We were high up above the water but we are used to fishing from heights due to our harbour fishing experiences. I stuck with my lure choice and Scott rigged up with a red 2" Ecogear Strawtail on an AGM 2g #6 finesse jig head combo. I fished up stream and Scott took the down stream stretch. My lure had barely touched the water when I heard Naz say "Brownie!". Scott was in! Then off! A big brown trout had grabbed the lure but thrown the hook in a flash of gold. Scott cast again and began working the lure very slowly up stream whilst constantly twitching the lure.The great thing about being so high above the river was that we could see the lure working. We could also see a flash of silver followed by Scott's rod hooping over. Fish on and question answered as another Water of Leith sea trout fell to Scott's rod!

Amazing, Scott's second sea trout in as many weeks!

Scott and myself had both caught and it was Naz who was in next. Although not really the intended species as he wrestled a pair of chest waders up the bridge!

Heaviest catch of the day.

They were a bit damaged, possibly from ascending the weir on their way to spawn, but otherwise in quite good condition. That was the last action for the day but a successful little recce further up river and it's somewhere we must visit again soon.

Tight Lines, Schogsky.

Sunshine on Leith

Time is at a premium for me at the moment, so in a brief lull between work and more work I found myself with half an hour to spare. Luckily I had my LRF kit in the van so I headed to the Water of Leith. Yesterday while Scott broke his brown trout duck I didn't even manage a bite. I was a bit disappointed as even though I only fished for an hour conditions looked perfect. Today I was determined to winkle out another fish.

I only had time to fish one pool so headed to the spot that was fishing well for Scott the day before. I decided to rig up with a 2.3g #8 Shirasu Fine jighead and a Gulp! 1" Fish Fry in red. This particular pool can't really be approached from downstream so keeping low I crept into position at the head of the pool. I began by casting across stream and slowly reeling whilst twitching the lure across the current. After a couple of casts I moved down stream a yard and repeated the same pattern. On the fifth cast I saw a flash of gold in the sunlight and the tip of the rod hooped over. Fish on! I quickly landed another fine Brown trout and feeling immensely satisfied I released her back into the pool.

Dappled in sunlight with gunmetal hues. Marvelous!

Another beautiful Water of Leith brown trout falls to a lure.

I sat back and took in the sun dappled water and watched a kingfisher fly past before returning back to the van. A perfect 20 minutes. As I headed back I started to whistle this tune...

Who would of thought we could find such peaceful, natural fishing in the centre of Edinburgh? 

Thanks Water of Leith, I'm sorry I doubted you!

Tight Lines, Schogsky.

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.