Its all the rag!

At the weekend myself and Brian went to St. Abbs to see if the wrasse would show up. There was quite a cold breeze blowing and i dont know if it was a factor , but it was a no show on the wrasse front. But the sea scorpions and the flounders were there and they kept us busy through out the day. A visit to Ebbscar cafe on the harbour was great to get out the cold wind and fill our bellies, next time we will make sure we get there before 11am just to get the full English breakfast!

Yesterday i had a visit to Burntisland with the sun shining brightly an a warm day it looked like a great day to sit by the Fife coast.

First place to visit was the Bakers shop , where i got myself a scotch pie and a baked bean and potato one of the same variety .

Stomach contented i set up for a afternoon  in the harbour , the target once again wrasse.
I drop shotted angle worms,  gulp sandworms  and isome had the odd pluck but no real commitment in the bites . Then a gent offered me some rag worms , using a small sections the bites came fast and furious and i began to pick up wrasse steadily through out the day , all ballans , nothing big but beautifully coloured , and great fighters, i also had a small pollock a few tiny coalfish and a blenny, surprisingly no goldsinnys today .

As high tide approached and the ebb began , the bites slowed so i called it a day a little burnt from the sun  , next time ill also have to remember my sun screen and ill be sure to dig a few  Rag for back up.

A Crack at the Bass

This weekend we were hoping for a shot at the bass , watching the forecast just to make sure the winds were favourable. So with gusty south westerly blowing we fancied our chances of it being in good fishable condition, and on our way down from the roadside there wasn't a whitehorse in sight, and sure enough it looked perfect when we arrived at midday at the venue tackled up and ready to take on the waves.
First though before the tide got really moving we decided to have a bash at the blennies, it was great fun lowering our power isome along side rocks had the wee blighters sticking there heads out and pouncing on our hooks, most came adrift on the strike but a few stuck.

After half an hour we decided to get our heads down to try and tackle the bass, hours went buy as we thrashed the sea in various corners with our clousers , to no avail, still we kept our heads up and carried on. Then a splash caught my eye followed by a fish clearing the water, I immediately thought seatrout, Brian reckoned bass.

Anyway it gave us renewed enthusiasm and after a move brian hooked into a bass, it was really good to see, he had his second and third before I managed my first, but they kept coming steady for an hour or so, nothing big just typical school bass but great fun, it feels like boom or bust type fishing at times.

The sport then began to subside as the offshore wind gathered pace , and we decided to call it a day fairly contented with our days fishing. It was nice just to catch some bass as Brian pointed out it had been over a year since we last did so.

Like a coat of arms

a night at the Prawns

Went to Burntisland on Friday  to try my new sabpolo hooks and i also as well as the power isome i had some raw prawn to try for bait.

Unforunately there was a bit colour in the water , and i feel my intented target , wrasse dont seem to feed as well in such conditions. I stsrted round the front on the breakwater but it got windy and uncomfortable in the strenghthening easterly , so i headed for the harbour where ive had wrasse as well. First drop down with the prawn i had a few nice fat coalies.

this was followed buy some smaller coalies and loads of tiny codling  .

Then the extras from  sponge bob square pants started making an appearance.

common blenny

butter fish

goldsinny

long spined sea scorpion

so that was my lot, decided to pack in when the rain came on . lots of fun on light gear ,was hoping for a Ballan wrasse , maybe ill get one next trip just hope for clearer  seas.

thats my boy!

With the Mackerel being about in large numbers the weekend before I thought it would be fun for the young lad to have a go, so of we went on Saturday morning hoping that they would still be around in numbers. When we got there the first thing I realised was that i had forgotten my heavier 7-35 gram rod which I had intended to use, so we would be using the wee tronix just to make it more interesting! To begin with I set up with a drop shot rig and a bit of isome  and we got a few nibbles from wee coalies but clearly the macks weren't in like the week before. In a bid to keep Jamie's interest going I switched the column  lead over to a small wedge spoon to see if there were any a bit further out and a few casts later a mackerel was on, I passed the buckled over tronix to Jamie to play the fish, what a laugh!

  another mackerel and a plump coalfish followed before we went to another spot where I was intending to have a go for Mullet.

it was quite windy here and I would have had to have been wearing waders to get into the right position to fish for the mullet, perhaps not the type of fish to go for anyway with the young lad to keep amused. The bread I had didn't go to waste though, Jamie was helping himself to the odd slice as he was now feeling hungry and the aggressive blennie population seemed only to happy to compete over a bit of it too, amusing watching them appear from nowhere to grab hold. A good fun morning and pleasingly Jamie wants to come out fishing again soon.       

    

 

Going Green in Fife

Could not decide what to fish for this evening, but the mackeral was definitely off the list as i  now have enough for bait etc.  . so i checked my ammount of dropshot leads left , and decided i may have enough for a LRF  session.

wrasse corner

I started in "wrasse corner" , but was then joined by another angler , i say angler loosely as he sported a can of budweiser in the other hand , and generally came across as a bit thick.

I couldn't be bothered with him so i moved to a quieter area where i picked up some wee coalfish and tiny pollack on various colours of isome, not least my new purchase green, which i thought may go down well with the local wrasse, as watermelon (green) seems a real popular colour amongst LRF/ HRF anglers for wrasse.

Wrasse corner was vacant again so i gave it some attention, I eventually picked up a Goldsinny followed by a common blenny. But it wasnt exactly great fishing mostly  just the odd coalie pecking away.

I then decided to try the open sea side of the harbour. First chuck another goldsinny.

Another goldsinny

This was followed by more coalfish .

Then i found the sweet spot, and it was wrasse after wrasse , 5 in all a wee under arm lob 20 yards out then tap tap tap then wallop,  nothing  big but they put a great bend in my little tronix rockfish UL  , also had yet another goldsinny thats 6 now in 3 visits, seems to be quite a good head of these wee fellaes in the vicinity.

Red eye

"mmm.. i likes the green isome very much  thankyou please!"

I then ran out of column  weights which i find seems to make drop shotting amongst snags so much easier (less snaggy), so called it a night.   Green isome , dont leave home without it.

A Pinch of Salt

Today we headed to a bass mark, for 12pm low tide. On arrival we decided to have a shot in the rock pools with the LRF gear , and we had fun catching blennies although we are really hoping for other species such as sea scorpions to put in a appearance, though Brian thinks he may have moved one. plenty of small stuff in the pools but don't know if these are just other blennies or gobies of some sort?
here's a few captures, pink and red isome was the bait of choice.

 Between LRF ing we had a good shot for the bass the conditions looked ideal but unfortunately apart from a take we never got any action, it was though a nice day to be out casting in the salt.

Bashful Blennies

Today  we headed out with multiple saltwater species on our mind. Only one method produced the goods  though Lrf for mini species in the rockpools, it was a opportunity to try out our new LRF outfits and what fun it was pretty sure all the fish we caught were all common blennies some tiny some a little larger but for a few hours before the tide moved us on we had addictive fun catching them on what is to us  new ground.

     Over the months we hope to indulge in  more LRF and hopefully we can increase our species range, the wrasses in particular are on that most wanted list .

a few days in Orkney

We headed up to Orkney for a few days to visit my mum, the weather up north has been a lot nicer than down here, and it was a lovely evening for the crossing to St Margerets hope, Clyde seemed to enjoy his first ferry journey too.

 Inbetween tidying my mums garden and doing family stuff i concentrated any angling efforts to the sea rather than my usual trout fishing. Not that i did particularly well blanking often than not. First fish was a new one to me, a sea scorpion i think?  on float fished lug from one of the churchill barriers,  can't say i'm in a big hurry to catch another one!

  Had an afternoon fishing a local cliff mark where again the fishing was slow but inbetween loosing loads of tackle i did get a nice coalfish and a Pollack for my efforts, also lost a bigger Pollack which did the usual running into the kelp!

I spent a wee bit of time trying for flounders from some likely looking beaches but failed to register so much as a bite, not even a crab! back to the drawing board there i think.

Only other fish i encountered was when Jamie and i were searching some rock pools, first one is a butterfish i think

not sure what this one is? but it has a face only a mother could love! 

 All to soon our holiday was over, another smooth crossing on the ferry last night with clear sky's and sunshine, it wasn't until we got down to near Edinburgh again that the rain started, back to normal i guess.