21/02/2013 - Torness

Lunar landscape

Time - 1515-1715
Weather - Windy, grey, increasingly chilly
Water - Choppy, cloudy
Method - LRF and lure
Total - 1
Species - Blenny

While we've not had as severe a winter as the last couple of years, nevertheless it's been pretty dreich. Due to a mixture of uninviting weather and other commitments I'd taken a relatively lengthy sabbatical from my piscine pursuits but as we entered February the compunction to get out and amongst the fish was growing to really itchy proportions.

Fishing on the moon

As the weather wasn't very welcoming, conditions and therefore prospects at this time of the year are not so good. If I was to venture out I'd want to also do my best to guarantee a fish. This left me with three options as far as I could see. The first one was ruled out on a time basis. I'd back myself to succeed at Eliburn but prefer to spend at least a half day there. Today I only had a couple of hours at best in the run up to darkness. That left either Torness/Dunbar to pursue any little blighters like Blennies, Gobies or Sea Scorpions (or indeed anything else willing to chomp my hook), or Pumpherston Pond where I have a decent record with the Perch.

Rock pool

I opted for Torness as the tide would be out allowing me access to the usual tried and tested pools, gaps and holes where the alluringly aggressive little fish frequent.

On arrival I couldn't believe my situation. Thinking I had both my main fishing bag, which generally holds all my kit and my carry bag which I fill with trip specific stuff, I found I'd left the latter at home. All my rockpool kit (hooks, Isome, weights etc) were miles away. I had all my lures and offshore kit and scrabbled through it all working out what to do.

'Patterned' barnacles

I managed to find a solitary hook small enough, three split shot weights (2 required) and then had to fashion a piece of Isome/Gulp type wormy lure from the tail of one of lures I did have. Well I was good until the first line break then I'd have to be content with an almost inevitable blank chucking lures out into the sea itself.

There is always the anticipation when approaching rock pools that there might be a one-off inhabitant, whether it be a flatfish or something a bit more 'exotic'. Alas I tried all the pools at the inflow and couldn't even tempt a show of interest, never mind spot something more exciting.

Random barnacles

After a while of zero action I became distracted with the rocks themselves and some of the life and characteristics I'd noticed on previous visits. A better camera than my phone would have done things more justice, not to mention a more skilled photographer. Some of the rock, which I expect has been eaten away by the limpets and barnacles and suchlike looks almost lunar in it's appearance.

But you don't catch many fish when your line isn't in the water. Very aware I was yet to get off the mark for 2013 I made for the outflow area a bit further along the coast.

Yellow lichen on black rocks

This time I had more success. There were some shows of interest which assured me that, as I suspected, my makeshift approach was still more than sufficient. I have to say the attitude of these wee fish when something is dropped into their vicinity is most endearing. It's as if anything entering their domain is showing the most disrespectful gall just dropping into their patch. If they are there, they're out like a shot. Sometimes stopping short of the lure/bait for a quick inspection before engulfing it, sometimes not even pausing before they gulp it down.

Limpet & Barnacles

Winkles

The first fish of the year soon arrived in the shape of a half decent Blenny. It's colouration shows up quite nicely in the photo (considering the general grimness of the day).

A keen eye will see my improvised 'worm'. I'm still without my polarised specs, so am not able to see under the water as easily as in the past, plus the late-ish hour meant it was getting increasingly difficult to watch the lure under the water and/or see any approaches from the defenders of the rocky crevices. Also, as it was an improvised lure, I could hardly see it once it submerged.

I explored around most of the exposed reef before setting up a lure and chucking a few casts into the outflow in the hope of something bigger. But the swell was quite large, dusk was drawing in as was the cold and as I was on my own, the safety situation wasn't exactly improving and so I called it a day.

First fish of the year

06/12/2012 - Torness

Blenny #1

With the weather holding up for the time of year I was able to get down to Torness again for a pop at it's various possibilities.

Floor of the reef next to the outflow, covered at high tide

The tide was out allowing me to explore all the usual holes and pools for any Blennies, Scorpions or Gobies.

Blenny #2

It also allowed me a bit of a recce of terrain at the whole outflow mark.

Blenny #2

I couldn't connect with anything in the sea itself but managed to extract a couple of blennies on the Isome dropshot set-up.

23/10/2012 - Torness

A numbers game

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For the second night in a row we headed to Torness. H was still in hot pursuit of a Conger whilst I'm still at the stage I'd be quite happy to get bothered by a crab.

On the way to the mark we were treated to the sight of a Barn Owl hunting on the open ground between the sea and the power station. The last time I was in the Holyrood Park Rangers office getting a permit for Duddingston Loch I'd noticed a pile of postcards which were for people to record owl sightings on and send them off so that relevant ornithologists could do whatever they do with the information. On return I looked up the website and duly reported our sighting. Well worth checking out at http://www.barnowl.co.uk/page24.asp .

With a similar rod approach to the previous evening, I'd topped up my Mackerel bait with some squid this time (Both H & J are like a combination of walking tackle & bait shops) whilst H scaled down from full-on Mackerel flappers to slightly less ambitious sized Mackerel baits.

I'd also purchased some small bell bite indicators which meant the requirement to keep a close eye on the bait rods for movement was much less of an issue. As we began lobbing our lures about hoping for another 6lb Pollock, one of H's rods immediately began tinkling.

More prepared than the previous evening, H had brought a drop net and before long I helped him land another surprise (not a Conger or Cod anyway) in the form of a Lesser Spotted Dogfish (photos through link at end of report).

Whilst that was the sum of all catches on the bait rods, I was in hot pursuit of the shoal of Coalfish that could often be seen passing in pursuit of a shoal of sand eels. Using a dropshot/Isome combo I was having some success whilst for once H couldn't quite get the hang of it. With my Coalfish record haul standing at 6 I powered on until I reached double figures taking my total for both evenings to 11. A quick totting up of H's total's made the final score 12-11 to him although two of them were a muckle Pollock and a doggie. Still, better to catch something rather than nothing. I suspect we'll be back in pursuit of Cod 7 Conger soon enough.

H's account of the session and some better photos accessible here.

22/10/2012 - Torness

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H informed me he had three evening sessions in a row planned over at Torness in a bid to break his Conger duck and I was welcome to tag along. We would be fishing at the same spot I'd seen a Cod landed a day or two before so I was more than happy to exponentially increase my very limited sea/bait knowledge.

En route we stopped into Dunbar Harbour to wet our lines and hopefully see the as yet unidentified fish I'd watched on previous outings allowing Hutch to get a proper ID on them.

The shrimp boats were not long in and unloading, creating a bit of a hubbub. As well as plenty of scavenging gulls there were 5 seals in the harbour helping themselves to any unwanted catch.

Before long H was howking out Coalfish, banking 4 in no time whilst I could only explore the infinite variety of ways of missing fish. A bit frustrated it wasn't long before I had him back in the motor and heading to the intended destination.

I was set up with a pennel rig and a Mackerel bait on one rod whilst I'd use a variety of lures on my second rod. H set himself up with two bait rods using Mackerel flappers in a bid to entice a Conger. He also had a lure rod to keep active in between bait takes.

Very soon H was into a fish which turned into a Pollock I estimated at about 6-6.5lb (later weighed in at 5lb 12oz). We were quite high above the water level, but fortunately the fish tired quite soon and muggins was able to scramble down the rocks and lift it out as the waves threatened to sook it down the side of the breakwater blocks. An incredible and very unexpected start to the evening. He followed this up with another slightly above average (for here) Pollock and another couple a bit smaller to finish with 8 fish in total. Despite doing little wrong and even taking his rod and fishing from the same spot as him, I couldn't connect with even a piece of seaweed before eventually coaxing a small Coalfish ashore to avoid the granny.

The bait rods failed to do their job but we did have a couple of taps, H (typically) getting the biggest tickle but finding nothing on the end when he struck.

Whilst I didn't exactly have a great session myself, I was still pleased for H and delighted to see such a braw Pollock making the journey more than worthwhile.

H's account of this session and the one that followed can be viewed here.

20/10/2012 - Torness & Dunbar Harbour

View towards Torness Outflow

Time - 1600-2130
Weather - Lovely
Water - High tide at 1830
Method - Isome jigged & various lures
Total - 5
Species - Coalfish

A free afternoon transpired out of nowhere and I soon decided on a spot of sea fishing. My recent sortie in Dunbar Harbour had intrigued me with a couple of unidentified fish whilst the attendance of small Coalfish would nicely stave off a blank.

A quick text to inform H & J of my intentions with the offer of a lift met with the almost perfect response that they were already at the Torness Outflow if I wanted to join them for a pop at some Bass.

I parked at Skateraw and ignorantly made my way to the Inflow. A quick exchange of texts put me on the right course and I continued along the shore past Torness. A couple of guys were fishing next to the promontory at the power station and reported a Ballan Wrasse on the first cast and nothing since.

On arrival at the outflow there were a good dozen or so anglers having a go. J had already taken a few Bass whilst H had been distracted as usual by the rock pools and their various inhabitants. I set up a rod for each with a small weight and a barbless size 16 with some Isome for the rock pools and a borrowed lure and jighead from J to target a maiden Bass. As they were leaving at 1630 I was left to it against the incoming high tide. It wasn't too long before I snagged the Bass rig and lost it (after a couple of near misses, snags not fish). I had another go with a similar set up using my own tackle but with no success.

The tide was flooding more of the rock pools now and I had a wee explore around them. H had told me they were hoaching with blennies as well as loads of other tiddlers whilst also educating me in the difference between small fish and their equally sized prawns. I found a nice run with the current running gently through it where almost a swarm of little fish congregated in an attempt to get my size 18 in their gob. Only one managed to do so but was off as soon as I lifted it out of the water. Their identities remain unknown.

Codling (not mine)

With the tide almost at its peak and not much space to manoeuvre between the hungry Bass hunters I decided to head back up and have a pop at the Inflow prior to heading to Dunbar Harbour for an evening session. I spoke to the two Anglers at the promontory again who'd had no further success. However as I was there one of their rods started tinkling (they had bell bite indicators attached). The nephew struck and was immediately snagged. However a couple of lusty pulls freed his gear and the fish was still on. It turned out to be a Codling (see pic) taken on a strip of Mackerel.

I left them and had a stab at both sides of the Inflow, as often without success and headed back to the car and onto Dunbar Harbour hoping to investigate these mystery fish from my previous visit.

The bridge in the harbour was still up meaning it would be the town side again, but this was fine. I headed for the harbour mouth and tried Isome along the bottom and a lure on my second rod. With nothing doing I was able to get moving along the harbour wall in pursuit of my mystery fish. While there wasn't a repeat of my 'Wrasse attack', there were plenty of wee Coalies about and the drop/lift method was invoking chases and flashes at the Isome, but few actual takes. Soon enough I had one on the dock. A prawn boat came in and began the process of chucking away it's unwanted take to the waiting seals. Soon a couple of small flatties appeared dozily swimming about in the surface. H informs me these are often thrown back by the prawn boats, hence their surface bewilderment. As before, they didn't show any interest in the Isome.

I was delighted to see the re-appearance of my viparous blenny/gurnard/squid/monster of the deep unidentified fish. Watching the way it propelled itself, although I'm sure it was a fish, J's seemingly leftfield suggestion that it might be a squid was quite startling. It didn't seem to use it's thin tapering tail at all using it's large pectoral fins at the bulkier head end to slowly glide its way around much like you see squid doing.

Although the short film footage isn't great (from a harbour wall at night), I think it gives at least a decent impression of the style of the fish. I've attached it at the end of this post.

As time progressed I fished round towards the drawbridge again finding some interest here and there from small Coalies with most attention coming at the drawbridge wall.

Once the tide turned and there was a visible flow out of the old harbour a massive shoal of small coalies (as it turned out) appeared seemingly chomping their way through any edible detritus exiting through the channel. Lifting and dropping a small shad lure through them provoked loads of interest and I ultimately managed to bank 5 for a personal Coalfish record tally.

07/10/2012 - Torness & Dunbar Harbour

Work of art or Carbuncle?

Time - 1500-2030
Weather - Clear blue skies, slight breeze, temp dropped in evening
Water - A bit of a chop, a bit cloudy
Method - Isome & spoon
Total - 5
Species - Long Spined Sea Scorpion (3), Coalfish (2)

After a week that saw me catch my smallest and biggest rod caught fish, the latter seemingly loosening a newly fitted end eye on one of my spinning rods, then breaking my other spinning rod on Friday, I had a wee rake in my 'rod corner' and decided to press into action a small telescopic rod I'd never used.

Beautiful or just pug ugly?

Straiton Pond was my first consideration, but my leftover maggots didn't look in the best of shape, so I decided to head to the coast where I was recently introduced to LRF rock pool fishing by H using Isome as bait.

Copying a scaling down technique that H uses, instead of using a jighead hook, the only ones I have just now are quite big, I simply tied on a barbless size 16 and attached a weight right at the end of the line. With hardly any casting involved, this allows you to drop the Isome exactly where you want to and makes it easier to 'walk' the worm about in the rock pools as the smaller hook is less likely to snag.

Looking up the coast towards Dunbar

Still without my shades it was difficult to get a good view into some of the spots. Initially all I could see were some really tiny fish, some may even have been prawns, but it wasn't long before the angry little fish appeared. The first one took at the end of my range of vision in a cloudy crevice pool, but left me in no doubt when it basically went off on a run. With my duck broken I was delighted and continued to extract another couple of fish before the incoming tide made things less friendly.

First fish of the day

I decided to have a pop at the Wrasse J has been somewhat obsessed by recently. Still a virgin with this species it was a bit hit and hope as I threw out the same rig I'd used for the rock pools with a couple of extra weights attached. Due to the swell of the tide the line loosens and tightens quite a lot aided by my light set-up which wouldn't be too stationary on the bottom. A couple of times I thought I'd been tapped, but it was too difficult to say for sure whether it was fish or simply the current.

And another

With nothing doing I had a few chucks with a spoon to try and tempt any Mackerel or suchlike, but met no success. As it neared 6pm (high tide around 7pm) I decided to head up to Dunbar Harbour for the last half hour of light to see if I could connect with one of the many flatties I've been reliably informed come into the harbour.

The drawbridge was up stopping me being able to get to the outer side of the harbour so I began right there casting out the Isome and slowly retrieving it to try and entice anything on the bottom.

Just about a perfect day

With no success I opted to go round to the harbour mouth. There was a fishing boat recently in and the crew were dealing with whatever they'd caught. Not long after getting to the harbour mouth, another boat returned and this continued until half a dozen boats were back in the dock. One boat which appeared to be shelling the prawns they'd caught and discarding the shells into the harbour had two or three seals in attendance. Also, since the harbour was 'working', it meant there were a few decent lights on which allowed me to continue for a while longer if required.

At the harbour mouth I began as I'd ended at the drawbridge, casting out the Isome and bringing it slowly back along the bottom to try and find a flatfish. I  began lifting and dropping along the wall when what I expected were wee Coalfish being the culprits I began to feel some interest. They seemed to be taking more on the lift and after a while honing the speed and height and suchlike I managed to bank my first Coalie of the session. In between trying to get another one or two I was distracted by a wee flatfish swimming around the surface obviously feeding on something. I couldn't provoke any interest and when one of my casts proved too accurate it dove down and I didn't see it again. At least there were some about.

Dunbar Harbour at sunset

After a while I began working back around the harbour wall. Just before the 'main' side of the harbour there was a covering of seaweed floating at the high tide mark which provided a canopy that looked perfect for fish to hide beneath. As I dropped the Isome into the water it was immediately hit by a fish of around 12 inches or so that darted from under the weed. I struck, missed and it darted under the seaweed again. With my limited knowledge of the fishes of the sea, I strongly suspected it to be a pretty decent Wrasse. It was bigger than the standard harbour Coalfish and behaved quite differently. As you'd expect I kept at it tempting it out for a tap or a look a few more times, but frustratingly couldn't connect to discover it's identity. Whilst it began by taking as the Isome hit the water, or on the drop, it also had a couple of goes on the lift, and, as the rig left the water altogether. Coalies seem to be most likely to bite only on the lift (using a lift and drop method). This plus my visual id still makes me tend to think it was indeed a Wrasse of some sort, however my much more experienced sounding boards (Schogsky & Hutch) are quite understandably doubtful. And the way a Wrasse is normally felt to bite doesn't quite correlate with my visual experience. All very intriguing.

Continuing into the corner there were Coalies showing an interest using the lift and drop method at a depth out of sight. I clocked another couple of flatties swimming about in the surface steadfastly refusing to show even a flicker of interest in my Isome. I also watched another fish in the surface whose identity is beyond my knowledge. Viewed only from above it roughly resembled the shape of a sea scorpion, around 4-5 inches in length and with most of its bulk at its head, tapering off into a thin tail. It's means of propulsion wasn't its tail, but two large pectoral fins fanning out and easing it through the water in a smooth and constant fashion. After trying to describe this to J & H, the former suggested a gurnard or even a squid whilst H suspected a Viviparous Blenny. I presently have absolutely no idea.

I continued back around the harbour dropping the Isome and drop/lifting it. Every now and again I'd find a hotspot of Coalies and induce plenty of taps, but they seem just a little reluctant to actually hook themselves. I need either bigger or smaller hooks, but will hone my approach in time.

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..