06/09/2012 - Torness

Anyone for some camouflage?

Time - 1230 - 1600
Water - Clear, Low tide rising
Weather - Late teens, nice, but very blustery
Method - Isome
Total - 6
Species - Long-Spined Sea Scorpion, Blenny

With a woeful sea fishing resume I met up with Shogsky & Hutch to sharpen up my sea fishing knowledge and hopefully get ticking off some new species. Their full time shift had began well before I arrived at Dunbar Harbour where a few Pollock had been taken. Being a pretty windy day there were a few unfishable spots so the experts decided to head down to Torness. Jake has his sights set on a specimen Corkwing Wrasse whilst Hutch would introduce me to as many Blennies, Gobys and Sea Scorpions as possible in the rock pools as low tide was around 12.30.

Long Spined Sea Scorpion

In essence, Hutch set-up my tackle, took me to the fish and showed me how to catch them. Can't ask for much more than that. With such expert tutelage I could hardly fail. Quite soon I'd dropped the Isome into a small pool deep under the breakwater rocks. A Long Spined Sea Scorpion (LSSS) immediately took offence at the intruder near its lair, shot out from under its rock and I had a new species under my belt. While these wee rascals look like fully armoured prehistoric throwbacks, they're actually perfectly handleable, although it's going to take me a wee bit of getting used to.

As I increasingly got the hang of things I managed to extract another 5 LSSS, all of much the same size. One was weighed at 24.1g and I'd guess measured between 4-5 inches (I'd left my trusty measuring tape in the car).

Plenty pretty colours underneath

Whilst introducing myself to the LSSS, a few Blennies had also been showing an interest. However I wasn't able to hook any of the blighters despite having as many as 3 at a time showing an interest. When Hutch appeared, dropped his own slightly different set-up (I had a jig head, he had a small hook under a single weight) onto my mini shoal, he lifted out two Blennies in two casts and I demanded we swap rods. A short time later I also extracted a Blenny and had another new species to tick-off.

Blenny

The tide was working its way in now filling up the rock pools and gullies, so we made our way across to where Jake was hunting for his Corkwing Wrasse, so far without success. Myself and Hutch decided to see if there were any Mackerel about and began throwing some lures long. Hutch soon connected with and lost a probable Mackerel before Jake hooked and lost what he suspected was a very nice Wrasse.

Hutch needed to be back in town for 5 so we ended the session at 4 and returned to Edinburgh. After dropping him off and with high tide due at 7, I fancied giving somewhere else a go and headed to the Granton Breakwater. Although still very windy, it was blowing pretty much West to East and so aided casting from the breakwater. However it was getting gloomier with the odd speck of drizzle about.

Caveman painting

With a big silvery blue toby I fished from reasonably close to shore all the way out past the elbow. But without success. There were 3 or 4 other anglers about, but they didn't seem to be successful either. It is a bit late in the season for Granton Mackerel, but you've got to be in it to win it.

I noticed this rather smart piece of art on my return to shore. Just a pity a Mackerel must have been wasted to do it unless the artist has a predilection for the taste of spray paint..

10/08/2012 - Port Seton Harbour

Harbour view on departure

Water - As previous night
Weather - Lovely
Where - East wall
Time - 2030-2130
Method - See text
Total - 0

The weather and tides were similar to the previous evening (tide later, sunset earlier of course) although the breeze was up and the sea had more of a chop about it.

There were three anglers where I'd been on Thursday although the adjacent (east) platform was free so I headed across there. As I arrived I caught up with a local gent who was thinking about setting up too, though he wasn't keen when he heard how scant the offerings had been the previous evening. After a bit of encouragement he attached a silver lure to his rod and immediately hooked into a Mackerel which he returned. He declared early it was from a "shoal of one" and so it turned out.

I employed a new tactic I've been meaning to put into practice for a while. Instead of anchoring Mackerel lures to the bottom with a heavy weight (increasing the chances of a snag), I suspended them (four silver flashed hooks) under a bubble float and weighted them with some plasticene which allows an easy adjustment of the weight should I be able to add bait (Pollock/Mackerel strips etc) to the lures in due course. It also has the added 'bite indication' bonus of using a float.

The other rod used the toby from the previous evening although this was eventually lost low and close in on a sub-surface harbour reinforcement. So I switched to a Flying C which is surely as good a lure as any.

For the last half hour I noticed plenty of small fish close in on the outside of the harbour as well as in through the entrance. Although I couldn't get a good look, they appeared to be feeding, occasionally flashing their sides as they changed angles in the water. I obviously dragged my lure through them a few times, although I seemed to be getting attention, they refused to become hooked.

The fish didn't agree and shunned both tactics. In mitigation, I barely spent an hour at the harbour. I was over half way there when I realised I'd left all my sea rigs at home and cut a good 50 minutes out of my fishing time returning to get them before setting off again.

09/08/2012 - Port Seton Harbour

Port Seton Harbour on arrival

Water - Darkish cloudy
Weather - Lovely, very light breeze
Where - Harbour wall (west)
Time - 1930-2130
Method - Silver flashed hooks, toby and Pollock live & dead bait
Total - 4
Species - Pollock

On my first sortie to the shore in this neck of the woods I didn't get quite as far along the coast as Port Seton Harbour. However a mate who'd fished it previously informed me that the water off the harbour wall is deeper here and therefore makes it more likely to be able to reach fish. He'd previously taken Mackerel without bait.

Looking up the Forth Estuary to Inchkeith Island

The weather (including forecast) was excellent and high tide was about 2040. With aforementioned buddy working til 1730 this made the conditions and availability fit nicely.

The sea was almost flat calm as we could see on the drive down. On arrival there was one dude fishing off the other (east) harbour wall, leaving the west wall to ourselves.

Cockenzie under the clouds

I began with weighted lures (silver foil flashes) chucked as far as I could having been reassured they catch fish here (they don't, in my experience, at Granton). I put a toby on my second rod to 'double' my chances.

Quite early there had been a couple of splashes in the harbour entrance, most likely of some fish breaking the surface. By the time I had my spinner set up, my mate had been at his for a while although he kept connecting with seaweed. I resorted to jigging my toby off the side and soon began getting a little bit of interest from what turned out to be small Pollock. After a while I decided to use these as bait and attached them to the lure rod and chucked them out again.

Not much bigger than plankton

A Pollock with chunks out of it

The newly baited rod attracted some attention. A couple of pulls and plenty of little bounces, but no fish if/when I struck. The Pollock bait was taking a hit though with the usual cartoon bites taken out (The photo isn't the best as I had the rod in one hand, the camera in the other and the fish/bait was spinning and swinging in and out of shot). I'll need to devise a more intricate hook set up to increase hooking chances I think.

Quite late on, there was a flurry of fish breaking the surface in front of us with around 10-12 fish appearing from nowhere in maybe a 20-30 second spell. In this mini-frenzy, my buddy connected with a Mackerel but despite rapid relocating of my rods, they were away almost as soon as they appeared.

His fish was quite thin, but at 15.5 inches was almost as long as my four tiddlers put together.

Sun setting over the Forth

Nothing else was landed, but we left reasonably chuffed. It's always good to get off the mark at a new venue.

Arthurs Seat to the left

In the first sunset photo you can see a small rowing boat (dark blob), this had left the harbour and was doing some fishing a wee bit further out. I'll definitely have to get further down the road to getting myself some sort of fish seeking craft.

Solitary Mackerel (not mine)

19/02/2012 - Cockenzie

Elaborate & brooding wind break

Time - 15.30-16.45
Water - Halfway between high & low tide
Where - Warm water outflow & North Harbour wall
Weather - Breezy and not too warm
Method - Spoon
Total - 0 (zilch)

A quickish hour or so on a mainly investigatory expedition. A couple of boys on the sea side of the bridge over the outflow appeared to be bait fishing with set lines. Another dude on my side using a rubber sandeel under a float on lightish tackle and my good self with a blue/silver spoon. All without success.

Cockenzie Harbour

There was a cormorant coming and going suggesting the presence of something worthwhile. The guy I spoke to had only restarted fishing last year but had been told that the odd bass is taken when they come near to the warm water in the power station outflow.

Otherwise, in June-July a bit of orthodox Mackerel bashing can provide a bit of fun.

With no success at the outflow, I tried the harbour entrance for 10 minutes but the tide was well on it's way out and nothing registered.