Making the most of it

This weekend i thought i would have another try for the wrasse whilst conditions still allow, Col reckoned sea temperatures were still good and with low wind speeds over the last few days i hoped that water clarity would be ok too. Fishing was slow to begin with but in one area inside the harbour i was getting regular bites, eventually hooking one of the little critters, a first for me, a Sand Goby!

 out front i caught a tiny Cod and a coalfish but still no sign of the wrasse, i resorted to casting the dropshot rig out a little and twitching it back slowly, this resulted in two or three welcome Pollack to help make up for the lack of wrasse activity .

 eventually i started to get the familiar tap tap bites from the wrasse with the tide half way up

  the fishing got better and better up to high tide, with both Ballan's and another first for me the pretty little corkwing wrasse

sea scorpions put in an appearance too, there not very cooperative when it comes to having the hook removed, they lock their mouths shut and vibrate in your hand!

only downside on Saturday was when i hooked a real cracker of a Ballan, i had him played out and estimated him to be around the three pound mark, i had to hand line him up the sea wall and you guessed it, we parted company, i was a bit gutted! think i need to look into getting a drop net. Still it was a great fun day with some nice fish landed.

Today i was back for more, again it was slow to get going but i occupied myself  fishing for the sand gobys for a while

once the tide was well in i started to get the familiar taps from the wrasse including this little goldsinny

managed a couple of codling today as well, good fun on the light gear

and this, think its a yarrels blennie like the ones Col and Scott caught? another uncooperative fish for unhooking i found out.

a nice ballan  

  

an enjoyable couple of days fishing, don't know how much longer we'll get before the wrasse go off the feed but its great fun whilst it lasts.

Catching up on the last few weeks and a few days in and around St. Abbs

Since starting a new job , time to go fishing has been difficult at times, though there has been a few opportunities for short trips. I had   a visit to my local  trout water just to keep my hand in .

There has also been a trip to Burntisland to try and get my first wrasse of the year . The Goldsinnys  were as keen as ever to take my dropshotted  power isome and I ended up with a brace of them .

Edinburgh from Fife

First Goldsinny of 2014

no 2

I tried hard for my first Ballan wrasse of the year twice i thought i had cracked it but on both occasions they ended up being  a couple of "kelp" codling still great scrappers on the light gear  .

On saturday afternoon me and Brian had a trip to a pike loch , the water was a wee bit low but we gave it our best shot and it very nearly payed off . i played a good double for a good few minutes then it made a final run andi lost it, moments later Brian also connected only to lose it. We continued to flog away , but our efforts went un rewarded.

The hard work had payed it's toll on our appetite so a visit to the chippy was called for.

On Sunday i had to work a train  but that involved a trip to Oban with 4 hours to kill so i took the rod . First visit was to the North pier . It was like groundhog day , Goldsinnys and codling !

Oban from the North Pier

one from the west 

Rooting about i found a really nice spot to try next time I'm up , which maybe this coming Sunday?

On Monday afternoon  myself the missus and the dog  headed down to St Abbs for a few days . I headed out on the first evening for low tide and fished hard going for one of the many flounders that inhabit the harbour , but they just didnt seem to be in the mood so i tried hard for a wrasse , but the inevitable little coalfish would grab my Gulp sandworm.

The residents

On two ocassions i thought i'd finally got my ballan wrasse , only to find a couple of codling attached .

 After that i got caught out in a heavy downpour which sent me home a bit drookit.
The next day i a couple of short sessions in between sight seeing . It was this day i learnt of a migration with the tide of the flounder to the innermost part of the harbour and once the tide went out a bit they went on the feed before departing this part of the harbour  . It was mainly sight fishing , putting a piece of gulp in there path only for them to hunt it down, great fun .

flounders galore

A pretty one

Once they went of the boil  i tried to locate them further out the harbour , but got a wee long spined  sea scorpion.

Just after that something caught my eye in the kelp i instantly knew what it was , a ballan ! So i dropped my gulp in the area and watched him tap away before the wee rod bent over ! My first Ballan of 2014!

Well ghillied Alfie!

I managed another similar sized Ballan later on just out of the blue.

After that we headed into Eyemouth for a bite to eat , Oblo's was the place where we shared the sea food platter, of langoustine , mussels , lobster and fish, delicious!

Next morning i woke up at 4am and headed down but nothing doing , so went back to bed. I went down again at 7;30am the tide almost fully out , i then peered down the harbour wall only to see a few big ballans weaving through the kelp and a handful of small wrasse , The ballans were spooky but the wee wrasse were quite obliging. I was over the moon to discover they were infact corkwing wrasse i took a brace before they disappeared along with the ballans  with the tide.

a female corwing

The male

With the wrasse leaving i too finally left for a shower and to get packed up to return home, but whats the rush ! I returned an hourlater with the incoming tide hoping the wrasse would make a appearance again , i couldnt see them this time but after a hour or so , i got that familiar tap, tap then the wee tronix rockfish UL rod almost exploded as a good ballan tried to burry it's head in the kelp ! 

A good fish to end the trip on. I planned a fly fishing trip for pollock but realised  forgot my fly box after walking out to the mark,maybe one to do in the future.

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.

Fife Wrasse thrash

Today me and Brian headed for a Fife wrasse mark we fished last year. We were really looking forward to it the sun was out and hardly a breath of wind, it was a shorts and t-shirt day.  On the way we missed a turn off , so went the long  way round , not perfect as we had in mind a beach to dig some lug worm, so we had to improvise and choose another beach, which we did , lug though on this beach were not numerous though we managed enough (or so we thought) , as in any case we planned mainly to use the LRF gear and use the bait as back up for float fishing.
Fishing was really slow to start with so we wondered around a bit trying both piers either side of us but no fish were forth coming . We were not sure what to do and were contemplating upping sticks all together and moving to another mark then we decided just to try the mark we stated on again with the tide now much further in. We ditched the LRF rods altogether and concentrated on the float fishing.

And it wasnt long till i found myself connected to a little green wrasse.

Just the confidence booster we needed .
Not long after Brian dropped a bite, and then i hooked another little wrasse similar in colouration to my first.

Things were picking up with Brian also hooking up this stunning  green one.

With our bait dwindling away , the sport continued i dropped a fish then hooked up again this time a nice red codling.

nice to see another species, i then rebaited and cast again and the bait couldnt have been in for 10 seconds when the float again went under. This time a red coloured wrasse.

With our best bait totally gone now we decided to call it a day as the sport dried up, think we would have had more if we had more bait  ,but  in anycase we had out stayed our welcome and was  cut off with the tide. Looking forward to a return trip , next time though we will be armed  with a load of big juicy lug worms.