Dunbar

Ash and I met up at Dunbar towards the end of June, aiming to make a hole in the local cod population and stock up on any mackerel that might be around. Although it’s my nearest fishing spot it’s almost a year since I last fished here, so I was a little out of touch…

Launching my Orkney was a breeze early on a beautiful, calm, sunny morning. No crowds of onlookers and Ash holding the boat whilst I headed off to park the car and trailer. If only Dunbar was always this straightforward to get afloat!

Once out past the Hurkers we sorted ourselves out and got ready for the day. Mackerel feathers produced little, so we headed out to Sicar rock and tried again. More success here, with a mix of mackerel and coalfish hitting the deck.

Further down the coast we stopped off at the River Garry and had a few drifts at this normally productive wreck. More mackerel and coalfish but little else of interest – and a miniscule drift of 0.2 to 0.3 mph definitely didn’t help! Ash did manage a nice pouting (a relatively rare catch in these parts) but pollack seemed to be on strike.

It was hard to complain though, given all my moaning about the crap weather this year! There was barely a hint of wind and the sun was definitely shining 🙂

I did eventually winkle out a couple of codling (note my outstretched arms :-)) but it was definitely time for a shift.

Back Inshore

We headed inshore towards Torness, and a rocky reef lying in about 50 feet. Here we encountered more drift but still struggled to find anything worthwhile.

With nothing much to lose, I decided to try anchoring over the rocks, something that’s worked out for me before on this mark. It’s hard to argue that much changed, but Ash did manage a ling and a couple of small codling.

Dropping a camera to the seabed revealed plenty of rocks but a dearth of actual fish. One or two wrasse appeared, and a codling moved rapidly in and out of shot, but there was very little compared to a previous video I made here.

I did eventually manage a bonus in the shape of a small wolf-fish (or catfish, if you prefer the less dramatically sounding alternative!). My smallest ever, but also my first for many years, so I was quite happy. Tasty eating too, although this little specimen went back safely to grow a bit bigger and scarier.

Thus ended the highlights! We fished on quite a while longer and picked away with limited success. However it was clear that nothing was in a feeding mood beyond scattered mackerel shoals. Still a good day out, enjoying sunshine and good company!

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