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.

Wrasse me up when September ends

The back end of the trout season has been a bit of a disappointment to be honest with the rivers and burns now down to their bones,  and with the season soon coming to an end  I doubt I'll be fishing for trout again until next year now. Not that I'm too bothered as there's plenty of other species to target in the months ahead.

The dry and mild September has been great for Col's wrasse fishing exploits on the other hand so when he suggested that we go over to Burntisland on Sunday I jumped at the chance, I've had a couple of short visits there myself this summer failing miserably on both occasions so I was keen for Col to show me the ropes. We arrived an hour before low tide and our first job to do was dig some rag worm, Col has a garden fork conveniently stashed in the undergrowth so he doesn't need to carry it on the train all the time!  after twenty minutes digging we had more than enough rag to do us the afternoon.

ain't nothing like the real thing

Once at the harbour we fished away in the inside wall for an hour or so without much interest apart from the odd tap, then Col took the first Wrasse of the day, a little Ballan in what could have only been a couple of feet of water max followed by his first Goldsinny wrasse of the day

switching between fishing on the inside and outside of the harbour wall the familiar tap tap bang bites of the wrasse became more frequent as the tide came in,

Col was broken by this one only to catch him a little while later on and get his hook back!

a goldsinny and a ballan

Col was using a size 18 hook with Corkwing wrasse in mind

no fillings required here!

on the light gear even the little wrasse put up a scrap, every now and then a bigger one would come along, and most of the time they won the fight, you really have to keep them out of the snags to have any chance of landing them.

after getting snapped on the cast before i was pleased to keep my last ballan of the afternoon out of the snags

at the back of five we had to leave to catch the train home, i can see why Col's been so addicted  to fishing for them this summer, brilliant fun on the light gear.

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.