Since deciding to try and hunt down all of the butterfly species of the UK, I've visited the north of England a couple of times and also spent an afternoon wandering around Grafton Wood on my way back from fishing with Ben down in Pembrokeshire. In the process, I've manged to see another seven species of butterfly and photographed six of them. My first brown hairstreak didn't want to be…
Loads of anglers have been a great help to me over the years. I always try and help others when I can as it's always good to give something back to the community. It's also nice when someone tells me that they enjoy reading my fishing related ramblings and if it's helped them get more out of their own fishing then that's even more satisfying. Welsh angler Ben Price is an acomplished match angler…
Last month, I visited Lawers Dam in the Grampian Mountians with my mate Nick, for a day stomping around a boggy hillside hunting for mountain ringlet, a species of butterfly that's only found high up above an altitude of 350m in the Scottish highlands and also down south in the Lake District. Having managed to find the remaining thirty three species of butterfly found in Scotland, the mountain…
Last month, I drove all the way to Taynish National Nature Reserve on the west coast of Scotland to look for the marsh fritillary butterfly. I didn’t see one sadly, so about two weeks later, I returned with my mate Nick for another attempt. Staying overnight, the first day we wandered around the reservse for hours, but didn’t have any luck. After dinner and a pint or two in the Tayvallich Inn that…
Torness Power Station is coming towards the end of its lifespan. In the next few years it will be decommissioned. I’ve caught a good variety of species from both the area where water is drawn in to cool the reactors and where it returns to the sea in a much hotter condition. The fishing can however be very mixed. Like the water around the station it can be hot or cold! I’ve had a few amazing…
Last month, another of the UK’s globe trotting species hunters came up to Scotland to try to add a few more species to his already impressive tally. Having overtaken my own tally during a recent trip to the US, and closing in on six hundred species at the time, I met up with my mate Donny at St Abbs harbour where he hoped to catch a few “Scottish” species that are much more common up here. I…
At the end of last month, I set off on a road trip up to the highlands to try and see two species of butterfly for the first time. My first stop was the Allt Mhuic Butterfly Reserve, situated on the northern shore of Loch Arkaig in Lochaber. It’s a great place to see the chequered skipper, a rare butterfly that is only found within a thirty mile radius of Fort William. After a four hour drive, it…
I made the most of some nice weather last week, heading down to St Abbs Harbour for a session with fellow species hunter Luke. We set ourselves a target of ten species just after we started fishing and ended up catching nine. Some juvenile pollock were the first species of the day. Working a small piece of ragworm over the bottom produced a few long spined sea scorpion. Dropping my rig close to…
As catching new species of fish in Scotland has now become very difficult, last year I decided to feed my addiction with a butterfly hunting side quest. I've been out and about on sunny days this year and I've managed to find sixteen species so far around Scotland, including my first green hairsteak and pearl-bordered fritillary. This takes my overall tally to twenty four. Last year I posted…
The weather so far in May has been pretty poor, and as a result, a couple of planned trips to East Lothian to target wrasse have been cancelled. Earlier this week, I did manage to get out for a few hours between rain showers to fish on the Water of Leith with Luca and Luke again. We spent a few hours targeting various species using several different methods. I had caught forty eight species this…
I’ve not been out much recently, but last week I had a very enjoyable session with two local lads who have caught the species hunting bug, Luca and Luke. They were both keen to visit a couple of my favourite spots to target two freshwater micro species. Meeting up about an hour before sunset, we headed to the pond in Inverleith Park to kick things of by catching a load of three spined stickleback.…
Keen to catch at least one new species during the holiday, I’d been discussing opportunities with local angler Jesús on Instagram prior to the trip and had arranged to meet up with him to try and locate and then hopefully catch a sailfin blenny. Arriving in Punta de Gáldar in the morning, we met up with Jesús and the three of us made our way along a cliff top path before carefully making our way…
The following day, we visited Palmitos Park where we watched a bird of prey show, then spent a few hours seeing various other birds, animals, butterflies and fish. I felt the entrance price was a little on the expensive side, but overall we enjoyed the time we spent there. Who doesn't love a meerkat? This green aracari, with it massive bill, was very cool. In the afternoon, we headed to the easten…
On day three of our holiday, we visited a few spots up the east coast to the north of where we were staying. Our first stop was the pier at the northern end of Playa de Melanura, to see the statue of Neptune that is located on a submerged rock out in the sea. I also planned on doing some fishing there, but it was completely closed off for repairs unfortuntately. April must be small pier repair…
Last month I flew down to the Canary Islands for the second time this year after Lillian and I decided a couple of months ago to have a holiday on Gran Canaria. I’ve visited the island for fishing trips with my mates three times over the years, but for Lillian it was her first time visiting Gran Canaria. Our accommodation in the small fishing village of Castillo del Romeral was next to the sea and…
The fishing is usually pretty tough locally at this time of year and the weather so far in 2026 has been nothing short of dreadful, especially the wind. As a result, I've not been out that much. Before my mate Ben came up to Scotland at the end of last month, I had a second session at Newhaven Harbour. One of his target species whilst up here was a viviparous blenny and after catching a small cod,…
I popped out with my mate Ryan on Sunday evening, for a couple of hours’ fishing at Newhaven Harbour. Ryan had never caught a viviparous blenny before, so that was our main target for the session. I also had another motive for trying to catch my second viviparous blenny of the week. My species hunting mate Ben is heading up to Scotland soon, and a viviparous blenny is high on his list of targets,…
Over the years, I've met quite a lot of other species hunting anglers, and many of them have helped me out enormously. As a result my fishing knowledge has improved greatly and my success as a species hunter too. I now try my best to give back to this branch of fishing whenever I can. Knowing that I'm still keen to add more species to my Scottish and UK life lists, fellow Scottish and UK species…
Keen to catch some different species, we decided to visit the small concrete pier located at the northern end of Playa de Fañabé, a long artificial beach in Costa Adeje made from golden sand imported from Africa. Armed with a few loaves of bread, a couple of cans of sardines and a mop bucket and a large metal spoon borrowed from our accommodation, the plan was to freeline and float fish bread to…
On day three of our holiday, we drove up the east coast of Tenerife towards its capital Santa Cruz and then headed up to the north coast. The swell forecast wasn’t great for those parts of the island, but we wanted to see for ourselves just how bad it was, and it was also an opportunity to check out some new spots that we could return to later in the week if the wind dropped off as was predicted.…
At the end of last year, I booked a trip to the Canary Island of Tenerife for myself and two mates, Nick and Ryan. It's always good to get some winter sun and the weather conditions here in the UK over the last couple of months have been absolutely dreadful, so when we headed to Edinburgh Airport earlier this month we were really looking forward to getting away! Also, it had been just over ten…
I had a short session on Sunday evening with my mate Ryan, scratching about at Newhaven Harbour. Rockling were the target species again, but for the majority of the night the resident whiting had other ideas. They were straight onto our black lug baits as soon as they hit the bottom, sometimes before they got there! We caught plenty of small whiting, but it wasn't exactly exciting. There was very…
Another year has begun, and for us species hunters, it's time to reset our annual species tallies. Last year, I caught one hundred and ninety one different species of fish, including forty three new ones. Not too shabby, all things considered! On Saturday evening, I headed back down to Cove Harbour with my mate Ryan to spend a few hours in the freezing cold targeting rockling. A bit of a swell was…
Last month I was still suffering from post Japan trip depression, and I hadn’t been fishing for a while. Between Christmas and Hogmanay, I headed down to East Lothian to meet up with wildlife cameraman, author and fellow fishing fanatic Jack Perks. We only had a few hours together and Jack was keen to catch a flounder and a shore rockling, so we started the session off at Belhaven Bay. Crossing…
The following morning, we caught our last shinkansen of the trip and headed back to Tokyo, where we'd spend the last couple of days before flying home. On the way there, we passed the magnificent Mount Fuji. Taking dozens of photos as we sped by, I managed to capture one or two that did not have a blurred object in the foreground. No mean feat when you're travelling at such incredible speed! Ryan…