THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

An inhabitant of rock pools, particularly
those well up the shore, and a lover of
rocky weedy shores down to around
thirty feet along suitable areas of the
south Devon and south Cornish coast,
the Scilly Isles, and the Channel Islands.
Colouration varies from dark grey to
greenish brown mottled with lighter
shades and some small darker spots or
flecks. The second dorsal and tail can
show a banded lighter edging, particularly during the breeding season. Feeds mainly on small
crustaceans and also eats green algae.
LEOPARD SPOTTED GOBY Thorogobius ephippiatus
Bucket List status – no result yet
To mark this species down as typically
round bodied goby- like with big lips,
large eyes on the top of the head, plus
rounded pectoral fins and tail might
offer some help to identification. But in
all honesty, as soon as you look at it,
colouration and markings will
immediately set it apart, not only from
the other gobies, but from most other
species too.
A fish covered in large dark spots on a
pinkish brown background which can
become silvery pink on the lower flanks
and underparts. And as if that wasn't
enough, the fins are edged in blue.
A fish fond of shallow sandy substrates with lots of cover in the form of rocks or weed fringed harbour
walls in home waters, mainly along west facing Atlantic coasts where it feeds on small crustaceans and
worms. Grows to around five inches.
THE BLENNIES
As with the gobies, a family of small, mainly coastal species, which on account of their proportionately
large mouth size have a higher probability of being caught, particularly when fishing small hooks and
baits in rocky areas for wrasse.
The ones I have listed here, despite being called blennies, are not all members of the same family. They
actually belong to four different families, with the catfish or wolf fish Anarhichas lupus being only
distantly related to the group.
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