These aren't the cyprinid you're looking for.

My mate Callum caught a small barbel recently at Parkview Coarse Fishery near Cupar in Fife. It's a fairly new venue and on Tuesday last week I headed there to try and get one myself. It would have been a new addition to my Scottish life list, but unfortunately I didn't manage to catch one. Fishing maggots under a waggler for the majority of the day I did catch lots of small perch and a few roach. I also caught ide and their ornamental variants, blue and golden orfe.

My first Scottish golden orfe that didn't involve fishing in a corporate headquarter's ponds.

Likewise, the blue orfe I caught were my first from an actual fishery in Scotland.

The backs of the blue orfe had a lovely deep blue colour to them.

I also fished double sweetcorn and 2mm pellets on a small method feeder for a few hours but surprisingly this only produced one small common carp.

A lovely pristine little fish.

Speaking to one of the guys who works at the fishery shortly before I left, he told me that fifty barbel have been stocked into it. I'll certainly be returning soon for another go at catching my first Scottish barbel.

Tight lines, Scott.

Good heavens!

After the fairly disappointing fishing of the first half of my south coast adventure I drove west to Devon to do a bit of coarse fishing. I headed to Angler's Paradise to try and catch my first koi carp and golden rudd. I say Angler's Paradise but really I didn't fish the specimen lakes around the main complex as they are for residents of the holiday homes situated there only. As I was staying in a campsite down the road I was limited to fishing the day ticket waters that are situated nearby and over four days I fished two lakes in Angler's Eldorado and one in Angler's Shangri La. My visit got off to a great start and within the first few hours fishing I'd caught both my targets from the "Koi lake". The novelty of catching golden rudd quickly wore off however as the Koi lake is absolutely full of them.

Not technically a new species but still my first golden rudd.

My first ever koi carp was caught on single maggot fished on the bottom under a waggler.

Freelining maggots to cruising fish worked very well too. I simply cast onto a lily pad and slowly pulled it off into the water as a cruising carp approached.

Sight fishing was great fun and my third koi carp also fell to freelined maggots.

Things went a bit quiet on the Koi lake after my third koi carp so I moved to the neighbouring Tench and Orfe pond. Starting with single maggot under a waggler I quickly discovered that it was full of lots of small... 

...tench and...

...orfe.

Over the remaining days of my trip I switched to fishing a method feeder and had an enjoyable time. Fishing hair rigged double corn produced plenty of nice carp and I was pleasantly surprised that there were koi carp in all three of the lakes I fished.

I mainly fished down the margins to various water features.

Nothing fancy just double corn and micro pellets.

It usually didn't take too long for my rod tip to pull round.

All the fish were in great condition including this nice common carp.

In amongst the mirror carp I caught this stunning looking fully scaled fish.

I caught the odd small tench too including this lovely golden one.

I'm pretty sure I caught more koi carp than common carp and mirror carp put together.

With their colourful patterns they are beautiful looking fish.

I caught quite a few of these orange and black ones.

Before I knew it another south coast adventure had come to an end and I was heading back up the road. I must say I was very impressed with both the Angler's Eldorado and Angler's Shangri La day ticket waters and as I fancy a few sessions targeting the catfish and specimen carp in the two ponds I didn't fish in the Angler's Eldorado complex I may be back down there again next year at some point.

Tight lines, Scott.

The art of fishing.

Passing a corporate office building's concrete pond the other day, where I have done a spot of stealth angling in the past, I spotted a type of ornamental fish I've never caught before. The last time I visited this pond with tackle I also had a brush with Scotland's finest so to avoid incriminating myself by giving away the exact location I've used a couple of nice art filters on the photos in this post.

The solitary blue orfe stood out like a sore thumb amongst his golden shoal mates.

I managed to last just over twenty four hours before returning to the pond with a spool of line, swan shot, hooks and a small tub of maggots. When I arrived I couldn't believe my luck when my pale target was at one end of the pond on its own away from his more colourful mates. Lowering my hook baited with double maggot down the pond's sloping wall I slowly coaxed the fish over towards my trap by tossing in a constant supply of single maggots. A bit of patience and good aiming eventually paid off when the fish reached my simple rig and my hook bait disappeared into its greedy mouth. After a bit of thrashing around the fish was quickly hoisted up, unhooked, photographed and returned.

My first blue orfe.

My heart was pounding and happy to have caught something new I didn't hang around, making a quick escape into the night. Fishing doesn't get any simpler really and having a session where your not supposed to can be exciting as well. I think I'll up the ante next time. If my memory serves me correctly there are koi carp in Edinburgh's Botanical Gardens...

Tight lines, Scott.

"Street Fishing"...

...is not something I'm particularly a fan off. Popular in France in the Parisian canal system, a key requirement seems to be that you look cool whilst fishing and have all the latest gear. I'm not cool and never have been. Besides, for me, fishing should not be about what you are wearing and how flashy your tackle is. Rant over. That being said I think "street fishing" is a perfect way to describe this mornings efforts which I think more than qualify for the application of the term. Sneaking about in the centre of Edinburgh at dawn wearing black clothes like a ninja, brandishing a £19.99 rod and reel combo and free lining bread crust in the pond of a large financial services company's head office may not be cool but it was certainly very effective. First chuck and I was into a fish.

A golden orfe. Briefly borrowed so I could admire it before returning it to its concrete pond.

I was on edge the whole time I was there and have to say I found the ten minute session quite bizarre, particularly as it was ended by Police Scotland's finest who arrived just as I was unhooking my third golden orfe. They told me they were just passing and had stopped to see what I was up to but admitted they weren't sure that I was breaking any laws. I was honest, told them I probably was and that I'd pop the fish back and be on my way which they seemed to agree was a reasonable solution to my minor breach of the peace. However, I may have to return as I think I spotted a few goldfish in there too as well as a blue orfe amongst the golden ones! I'm starting to question my sanity.

Tight lines, Scott.