THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

specimens seem to come when fishing baits over heavy ground in maybe twenty to fifty feet of water
from around Whitby, right up the North Sea to the very northern most tip of eastern Scotland.
The last big one I saw was while bait fishing for cod over the inshore reefs around Coquet Island out
from Amble where they call them granny fish.
I've no doubt many of the deep water rock marks, and certainly some of the large concrete piers up and
down the east coast borders region also regularly produce a few, particularly to LRF tactics on account
of their quite predatory nature and the size of their mouth. An amazingly beautiful though slightly
bizarre looking fish.
LONG SPINED SEA SCORPION Taurulus bubalis
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At a glance, a very much smaller but
quite similarly coloured and patterned
fish to its near relative the short spined
sea scorpion above, the main
distinguishing feature being the gill
cover membranes under the chin, which
in this case are joined to the throat
leaving a slight gap between them.
Those of the short spined sea scorpion
do actually meet forming a very obvious
flap.
A fish barely able to achieve six inches
in length with a nationwide distribution
found very close to the shore over mixed to heavy ground. But because of the size of the mouth, a small
fish which can and will readily take most small to medium sized baits, and which no doubt would also
respond to LRF, providing the lures are small enough.
Any rock mark could potentially turn one up. That said, the best concentrations I have seen have come
from the base of bouldery weedy harbour walls where kids tend to drop their baits. There is however
one particular encounter that sticks very clearly in my mind.
I caught a cod of several pounds off Rossall one winter, which immediately before taking my bait had
also eaten a long spined sea scorpion that had in true fashion flared out its gills and got itself lodged in
a stalemate position at the back of the cod's throat.
So I pulled it out, and as it was clearly still alive, put it back in the water and watched it swim away.
One very lucky little fish delivered quite literally from the jaws of death.
BLACKFISH Centrolophus niger
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In terms of body profile, this is quite an elongate fish with a blunt rounded face. The dorsal fin, which
begins further back than the origin of the pectoral fin below it, starts off low in height, building quickly
before losing height again more gradually in its single quite long run towards the back of the fish.
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