Tough fishing and ruffe fishing.

Earlier this week I visited Parkview Coarse Fishery for yet another attempt at catching my first Scottish barbel. The fishing was incredibly tough and after over eight hours of staring at the tip of my float all I was rewarded with were six tiny perch and a solitary roach. A very frustrating day’s fishing. I think I’ll take a break from fishing for barbel until the autumn.

Staring at a float can be both relaxing or infuriating. I guess which depends on how many times it moves!

The next day, I headed to Balmaha on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, a place I haven’t visited for many years. After parking the car and unloading my gear, I made my way along to the old pier, where I spent what remained of the morning and the best part of the afternoon feeder fishing. With my 2023 species hunt in mind, I was hoping to catch ruffe or maybe even powan. To begin with, all I caught were roach, but they were lovely fish, and it was a pleasure to briefly admire each one before slipping them back and watching them swim off.

Out in front of the old pier lies Inchcailloch, the Isle of the old woman.

All the roach I caught were in wonderful condition.

After a short break to eat my lunch, things slowed down a bit, but every now and then the tip of my rod would pull round and I’d lift into another roach or a perch. Eventually I hooked something very small and was over the moon when a ruffe came up to the surface.

If you ask me these little unwanted invaders are quite adorable, cheeky little fish.

The area behind me was very busy with tourists waiting for the ferry to arrive. Thankfully, almost all the ferries operating on the loch now use this new pontoon to the right of the old pier.

I carried on fishing until about 16:30 by which point I had almost run out of maggots. I'd caught a few more roach, but sadly no powan had been tempted by my colourful choice of presentation!

Red, white and blue. How very British!

With only a few dozen maggots left I headed back around to the car park and dropped off most of my tackle. I then grabbed my tanago gear and headed down to the boatyard where I spent an hour or so trying to locate nine spined stickleback, a species that is supposed to be found in Loch Lomond. There were certainly lots of small fish around but upon catching a few I discovered they were perch, roach and ruffe! After catching about half a dozen small ruffe I also caught a few larger specimens.

The smallest ruffe ever caught on hook and line? Possibly!

This one put a little bend in my tanago rod!

The micro fishing was good fun, and on a positive note I've now got a much more reliable spot to catch ruffe for future species hunts! The downside though, was that there was no sign of any stickleback at all, so I may have to try different venues for those. Before leaving, I visited the Tom Weir statue near the boatyard. I’m not sure if it was there the last time I visited. I remember watching “Weir’s Way” when I was young, the TV series where he explored Scotland, speaking to locals wherever he went. 

A very good likeness of Tom, wearing his trademark woolly bobble hat. 

So, over the two days I had managed to add one species to my 2023 species hunt tally taking it to one hundred and seventy. I think for my next session I’ll head down to Dumfries and Galloway to have another attempt at catching my first Scottish nine spined stickleback.

Tight lines, Scott.

Making a fresh start.

On Wednesday the weather forecast looked good with the wind in particular dropping away to virtually nothing so I headed west to Balmaha to fish for some of Loch Lomond's pristine roach. Unfortunately when I got there the pier was already taken by a couple of anglers who had made themselves comfortable and were fishing about half a dozen rods so I set up my mini seatbox on the rocks a little bit along to the right of the pier. It really was a lovely morning and as forecast there was hardly any wind at all. Maybe not ideal fishing conditions but sometimes fishing isn't just about catching fish and given the weather so far this year I wasn't complaining.

The surface of the loch was like a mirror and there was still a little bit of early morning mist over the water, hiding the mountains to the north. What a view!

Fishing a swim feeder of maggots with single maggot on my #18 hook it took a while to get a few little touches but I was quite content enjoying the peace and quiet. It was so quiet apart from the rhythmic noise of a woodpecker over on the small island opposite me hammering away and a couple of mallards diving around in front of me after any maggots that fell out of my swim feeder on the cast. There was also a small plane overhead lazily doing acrobatic manoeuvres, the pitch of its engine rising and falling slowly as it did. All very hypnotic, a bit like staring at my light feeder rod tip meaning I was sat there in a soothing trance like state. When the first decent bite eventually came my rod tip went over, I quickly lifted my rod and felt a good fish was on. My senses fully awakened again the fish was scraping away and I suspected it was a trout so kept my rod low to try and tire the fish before it got to the surface. Sure enough a silvery sea trout soon came into view and was out of the water twice doing its best to do an aerial display of its own but my soft rod cushioned these attempts to throw my barbless hook and after a few short bursts I slipped the fish into my net.

What a stunning way to open my 2015 freshwater tally.

Heart still pumping I released the fish and settled down again. The next hour or so was pretty quiet and I had returned to my chilled out state when my feeder rod tip pulled round quickly twice and I lifted into another nice fish. It fought a bit differently and I was confident it wasn't another trout but wasn't sure what it was. When another long silvery fish appeared from the depths I realised it was a powan.

Another beautiful silvery fish. One of the rarest freshwater species in the U.K. too so it always feels a little special when I catch one. 

Again quickly releasing the fish I settled down again to watch my rod tip and enjoy the warm sun on my face. There wasn't much happening for the next three hours however but I was quite happy just relaxing, enjoying the view and watching the wildlife around me.

Bright yellow flowers on the spiky gorse bushes.

A maggot drowning session wouldn't be complete without a little red breasted thief appearing and getting up to some stealthy tricks to try and steal maggots.

Things remained slow but pleasurable and I was pleased at catching two beautiful fish on such a nice day. I was just about to pack up when my rod tip went round again though and I soon landed a lovely roach. This encouraged me to have a few more casts but I called it a day shortly afterwards.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in fine condition. 

The anglers on the pier had already left and some geese then headed off as well. I'd soon follow.

What a great day, it had been almost therapeutic. Balmaha pier is one of my favourite places to go fishing. I might try and get back before the ferry starts up again and the peace and quiet is spoilt by the never ending hordes of tourists that the summer brings. I'd like to catch a ruffe again and perhaps do some lure fishing for pike and perch. Now that I think about it I might return in the summer too actually as hiring a boat for the day is always an option to avoid the crowds and enjoy a day fishing in relative peace and quiet or I could always explore other spots around the shore too to seek a bit of tranquility and maybe some lovely Loch Lomond fish to disrupt it. 

Tight lines, Scott.

If you can think of a better title let minnow.

With a day off on Tuesday and all the preparations done before I headed to Zakynthos the following day for a week long holiday I decided to relax and what better way to relax is there than, you guessed it, a spot of fishing? After a lie in I jumped in the car and drove west, my first stop being the River Forth near Stirling where my target species was the humble minnow. Fishing a sensitive waggler in the margin I had soon caught a dozen of them and a few small dace too. 

Minnows are quite pretty little fish if you take a moment to admire them. 

Pleased to have added another species to this years tally I headed off to Loch Lubnaig to try and catch an Arctic char. As they are a fish normally found in deep water I decided to fish using a swim feeder. Casting out every ten minutes or so I patiently watched the tip of my rod waiting for it to hopefully pull round. In a bit of a trance I suddenly felt something on my hand. Looking down a strange looking insect had landed on me. After looking at it briefly and popping it on the ground I looked up to see my rod tip gently nodding away and soon landed the culprit, a small brown trout. 

Not sure what kind of insect this is. A beetle of some description I think*.

Not the salmonoid I was after. A beautiful fish all the same and my first brown trout of the year too. 

After a while with no more action I moved further down the loch and started fishing the waggler again. Casting out just beyond a row of weed and catapulting a few maggots in around my float after a while it went under and I caught a second brown trout. Again, the trout was followed by a period of inactivity so I started fishing in the margins for minnows again, discovered there were large shoals of them and was soon catching a small fish almost every cast. 

A lovely day on Loch Lubnaig. One of my favourite places to fish. 

The Loch Lubnaig minnows had a much more defined dark stripe down their flanks. 

By the early evening I had caught over fifty minnows and with the sun shining it had been a most pleasant way to spend a day. That was the first time I've fished both these venues this year and I think I'll return to both soon. I'd like to use my centrepin reel to trot maggots for the River Forth's dace and I have to return to Loch Lubnaig with some lures to catch and admire some of its pristine perch. 

Tight lines, Scott.

*I've been informed by my mate Nick that the insect above is in fact a red legged shield bug. 

Ruffe justice.

After getting back from my trip down south with Martin last weekend I was keen to get out again and hopefully enjoy some slightly more fruitful fishing. I checked the forecast on Monday afternoon and decided to spend Tuesday feeder fishing at Loch Lomond to resume my ruffe hunting after a short self imposed break. My mate Keith text me later that evening to see what I was up to the following day and when I told him about my plans he decided to join me. On Tuesday morning after a brief stop at Angling Active for a pint of maggots, we were soon setting up on the partially submerged and mist shrouded metal walkway of Balmaha Pier.

Let me in!

A misty start to the morning. 

We both set up swim feeders on running ledgers to #20 hooks. I also had a new faster tip for my feeder rod to hopefully show very delicate bites. I decided to fish exclusively with maggots in the feeder too as on previous occasions I've loaded it with maggots and hemp. Things were slow to start with and Keith was first in with a couple of roach before I caught one too. They are lovely looking fish indeed.

I admire a nice Loch Lomond roach. 

Things remained quite slow so we both rigged up some lures and fished a second rod to try for perch. After catching a few small ones drop shotting a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad the tip of my feeder rod started twitching away but I didn't react quickly enough and missed the bite so I put the lure rod away and started focusing on the feeder fishing again. Casting out regularly to hopefully draw a few more fish into my swim including hopefully some of my target fish. Reeling in to put a fresh maggot on the hook and fill the black cap feeder I felt a little extra weight and my rod tip gently twitched a few times signalling the presence of a small fish. Low and behold despite not seeing the bite I was delighted to discover it was my first ever ruffe!

Finally I caught one of the little buggers!

I was over the moon and my obvious elation drew a few strange looks from some passers by who were clearly puzzled as to why I was so happy about catching a small fish.

Pressure off I was in a great mood now and the arrival of some quite loud and obnoxious tourists who ruined the peace and quiet we had been enjoying all morning couldn't dampen my high spirits. Keith then caught a small perch and then things went quiet for a bit before he too caught his first ever ruffe followed shortly afterwards by a second.

Keith gets a small spiky fish but it's the ruffe's cousin, the perch.

Keith gets his first ruffe. Very decent of him to let me get mine first.

By now it was a quite stunning day and a steady stream of people were coming and going from the pier. It is a beautiful spot and it's easy to see why it attracts so many visitors.

With the mist all gone and the sun shining the view towards the highlands was spectacular. 

By late afternoon things had slowed right down on the fishing front and neither of our rod tips had moved for a while. I suggested that we fish for another thirty minutes and if we got no more bites during that time we should call it a day. With a minute or so to go I saw a very slight flicker on my rod tip and lifted the rod, reeling in I felt the weight of another small fish and my second ruffe was soon swung up to my hand.

Rather cute little fish. Being an invasive species they are not supposed to be returned but Keith and I were a bit clumsy and dropped all of ours and they made good thier escape. Oops.

We fished for a further fifteen minutes with no more action before packing up. Well, it was a long time coming and I was so happy to finally catch a ruffe. It just goes to show that even when you carefully select a venue and choose tactics wisely luck sometimes still plays a huge part in fishing. I've tried numerous times yet Keith managed to catch them on his first attempt! I was also glad to catch them because soon the level of tourist activity around the pier and the resumption of the local ferry service from it will make it difficult and sometimes rather unpleasant to fish. It also means I can move on to targeting other species as well although I'll always have a little soft spot for them!

Tight lines, Scott.

Diamonds in the ruffe.

Thinking of cheesy post titles for my ruffe hunting catch reports will soon be getting almost as difficult as catching the little brown spiky buggers! I headed to Balmaha Pier again on Wednesday with my mate Jake to have another go at catching one. When we got there just after daybreak we found a camper van parked at the pier. There was a landing net outside it so I quickly got my gear onto the pier and secured the spot I wanted before the angler inside emerged. When he did appear it turned out to be someone who had been in touch with me at the end of last year to chat about lures for perch after reading a report I posted on a forum, he recognised me and introduced himself. It's a small world. After a short while one of his mates arrived and the four of us started fishing. 

Whilst the other lads opted to spend the majority of the day fishing lures for perch and lobbing out a couple of deadbaits for pike I had decided to fish a feeder rod for my small elusive target. For the first time I had spooled my feeder reel up with some Berkley Fireline Crystal to aid bite detection at range and after my last visit I decided to try experimenting with multiple hook rigs too, starting off fishing a swim feeder at the bottom of a three #18 hook paternoster. Hemp and maggots were loaded into the feeder, single maggot on the hooks produced a roach on the first and second cast and this set the tone for the first hour or two with a few more roach being caught.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in wonderful condition. Bright orange eyes and scales gleaming in shades of blue and silver in the sun.

After a few more roach I switched to chopped worm on the hooks but this just resulted in hardly any bites. As the day went on it was soon becoming apparent that most of my fish were coming on the bottom hook of my rig. I reasoned that perhaps this was due to the depth of water I was fishing in resulting in the other two baits being presented up off the bottom when I tightened down to the feeder so I switched to a one up one down rig to try and present two baits on the deck.

As the day progressed I continued to catch roach with a single bream/roach hybrid breaking the pattern. By early afternoon none of the others had managed to tempt any of the resident fish until Jake's persistance finally paid off when he hooked a fish fairly close to the end of the pier. It turned out to be a small pike instead of a perch though.

A nice looking fish.

After a bit of a lull I then had a quite small indication on my rod tip which I struck into only to feel the weight of a decent fish. Obviously it wasn't a ruffe and as the fight progressed I suspected it was either a perch or maybe a powan as it gave a few thumping headshakes. It turned out to be the latter and my second rare and beautiful powan was soon landed before being quickly unhooked, photographed and returned.

I admire my second silvery powan from Loch Lomond in two trips. Lovely.

Powan are a really stunning species with lots of subtle colours becoming visible as you view them from different angles. Hard to capture in a photograph.  Beautiful indeed.

After carefully popping it back and watching it swim off strongly we all laughed about the fact I'd caught possibly the rarest fish in the loch twice in two trips but couldn't catch what is allegedly the most common! Things then slowed down for a while but I managed to catch a few more roach. I fished into darkness to see if what I'd read about the nocturnal feeding habits of ruffe had any truth in it but alas a single roach was the only reward for my speculative effort. None of the others managed to catch anything further either. 

So despite enjoying a decent days fishing it was yet another failure on the ruffe front! I'm sure the method I'm using is fine and I know that they have been caught recently at the pier too but repeated trips without success has me questioning things. Perhaps I should use even smaller hooks? Order some pinkies or squats? Maybe a change of ground bait might attract them into my swim? Perhaps a lighter or faster tip for my rod would show up bites I'm missing? Perhaps another mark at Loch Lomond or perhaps elsewhere holds more of them and an attempt there would see me land my target? I think I shall have a little break from them, target other things and ponder some of these questions and make a few decisions before I have another go for that will hopefully make the difference. I know one thing for sure, when I finally catch one it'll be "ruffe justice"!

Tight lines, Scott.

Taking the ruffe with the smooth.

Last week I went fishing with my mate Nick down at the Ghegan Rock again. It was a pretty poor night's fishing and we both blanked. He told me it was his third blank in a row, something he considers to be a bit of a disaster. No angler likes blanking but it's just part of fishing and you have to take the rough with the smooth. On Sunday afternoon I fished at Balmaha Pier on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond for a few hours to try and catch a ruffe. I must have tried there about a dozen times now and the little fish that's supposed to be the most prevalent in the loch is proving very elusive indeed. I ended up blanking for the second consecutive time but I did see two ruffe being caught by another angler so I was at least encouraged to know that they were actually there to be caught! Interestingly he also caught two powan, another species I've never caught. I was planning on a visit to Portpatrick Harbour to try for a three bearded rockling on Tuesday but instead opted for another trip west to have a crack at ruffe again and if I accidentally caught a powan I certainly wouldn't complain. Arriving just before sunrise I had the place to myself, set up my feeder rod and began fishing. Loading my 30g black cap with hemp and maggots I fished a single maggot on my #18 barbless hook on a simple running ledger arrangement. It was a damp misty morning and luckily it didn't take too long for me to catch my first freshwater species of 2014 dispelling in the process any concerns I had in the back of my mind about reaching Nick's milestone of three blanks in a row. Two is bad enough!

Of to a good start with this lovely little pristine roach.

Shortly after this as more light flooded through the mist I suddenly realised that I wasn't alone after all and would be sharing my swim with another angler. I knew straight away that just like on Sunday I'd be out fished by him. The simple fact being he's much more proficient than I'll ever be at catching fish. It was nice watching him do his thing and he'd soon overtaken my tally.

A real fishing expert.

Undeterred by being second best I continued fishing and caught a few more roach before catching what I initially thought was a small bream but upon closer inspection I realised it was in fact a bream/roach hybrid.

I've yet to catch a bream in Scottish water. At least I know there must be some bream in Loch Lomond I suppose!

Just after I put the hybrid back and cast out again the feeder hardly had a chance to settle when the tip arched right over. Grabbing the rod and lifting into it I could feel the weight of a decent fish. I took my time playing it and when it came into view I realised it was a rather nice powan. I've read that they are fragile fish and do not like being kept in nets so after landing it I took a couple of quick photos before carefully putting it back, cradling the fish until it swam off.

The powan is only found in a few Scottish waters and numbers have dropped in Loch Lomond due to egg predation by my target species the ruffe.

They have a very odd looking mouth. Somewhat like that of a herring.

I was quite pleased to catch my first new species of the year but I carried on fishing hoping a much smaller spiky fish would be next to take my bait becoming my second new species of the year in the process. After a few more roach however I decided to change from maggot to a small section of chopped worm on the hook. This resulted in fewer bites but when I finally connected with a good one I knew what had taken it was far too large to be a ruffe and had soon landed a  perch.

Ruffe love worms allegedly but so does their cousin.

A nice looking fish and whilst it was certainly a bit more colourful than the last ones I caught form the Grand Union Canal it wasn't a patch on a Loch Lubnaig perch. Those really are hard to beat in the appearance stakes and I'm looking forward to fishing there again at some point this year. Anyway, longing for stunning Lubnaig perch aside, I fished on until the light began to fade and caught a few more roach but alas the little blighter I was after yet again failed to fall foul of my efforts.

A rather nice roach to end the session with. He doesn't seem to happy about it though.

So despite another failure on the ruffe front it was still a pleasurable day's fishing, I was certainly glad not to reach the dreaded three blanks in a row and it was very nice to catch a fairly rare new species. In a way it felt like my ruffe hunting efforts had finally been rewarded, even if not with a ruffe! I'll certainly be back to Balmaha Pier to try again but may have to start thinking outside the box. I may try fishing into darkness next time as I've read that ruffe will feed nocturnally. I might also try some rigs that have multiple hooks. This is something I've been thinking about for a little while. It's quite odd that in coarse fishing almost all rigs are designed around a single hook. I'm not sure why this is and over a clean snag free bottom I don't really see why this wouldn't produce more fish without any other issues preventing it doing so. Purist coarse anglers might very well be horrified by this suggestion but if it increases my chances of catching my first ruffe I don't care!

Tight lines, Scott.

A bit of ruffe would be nice.

With another day of glorious sunshine forecast on Tuesday I arranged to meet up with fellow angler Keith for a trip to Balmaha for another attempt at catching the small cousin of the perch, the ruffe. Unfortunately by the time I got to the point where I was to pick him up he had text me to say he had slept in and just to go without him. Disappointed as I've not seen him for a while and I was looking forward to catching up I headed off on my own. My first stop was Angling Active near Stirling to get some maggots. Driving along the M9 I realised I was going to arrive before the shop opened so I made a slight detour and had a quick hour at the Forth & Clyde Canal. The result of which was a couple of small jacks. One took a Kopyto Shad and the other a small Soft 4Play. Both were being lazy and took the lures worked very slowly but soon woke up when hooked, suddenly feeling rather energetic and putting up some acrobatic resistance to being landed. A third threw the hook doing exactly the same.

You smell that? Do you smell that? Pike, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of pike in the morning.

Quite pleased with the start to the day and with my hands smelling of CK Croc I headed to Angling Active and bought a pint of maggots as well as some new Savage Gear Soft 4Plays in Dirty Roach, my favourite pike lure, as the ones I have are slightly chewed up now. I also picked up a few small delicate insert wagglers as on the way west I planned to stop off at the river I fished recently for dace.

A nice new Drennan float with a very thin insert tip for maximum sensitivity.

I was soon on the bank and whilst setting up my float and fine tuning the shotting in the margin I spotted some small fish that I assumed were minnows so I put a tiny maggot on and lowered it in. Several of the little fish started attacking it and I soon hooked one. Hoisting it up I realised that it wasn't a minnow but was actually a small salmon parr.

My first ever salmon. How cute. Carefully unhooked and quickly returned to provide future sport when a bit bigger!

If it just looks like a brown trout to you here's how to tell them apart. Salmon parr top and brown trout below. Salmon parr have (a) a sharper snout, (b) a smaller mouth, (c) only one to four spots on the gill cover with often one larger one, (d) a longer pectoral fin, (e) highly defined "parr marks" and no spots below the lateral line, (f) plainly coloured adipose, pelvic and anal fins and finally (g) a deeper pointed tail.

Sure that some of the small fish were minnows I carried on messing about close to the bank and eventually I got through the very aggressive juvenile salmon and a few small brownies as well and caught my first minnows of this years species hunt.

Some of the small fish I thought were minnows were actually minnows!

Quite pleased with adding two species to my tally and catching my first salmon I remembered what I had come for and whilst the dace didn't seem to be present in quite the same numbers as during my last visit I still caught eight of them in a fairly short time.

When I finally got round to catching some dace they were in nice condition.

Jumping back in the car I had soon made the final leg of my journey and arrived in Balmaha on the east side of Loch Lomond. Heading straight to the pier I found it rather busy which is to be expected at this time of year I suppose. I therefore opted to try fishing around the boatyard. I chose to fish from the wooden viewing platform and the plan was to fish around the moored boats and in close to some water features to my left, setting my float so my maggot would just touch the bottom. Before doing so though I applied a generous amount of sun protection cream.

Greased up and ready for a bit of ruffe.

A likely fish holding spot in front of those reeds.

Flicking my float over a dark patch of wood debris on the bottom I soon had a bite and connected with the fish. Reeling it in I could make out a small dark fish and as it got closer I could make out a spiky fin too. Could I have caught my target species with my first cast?! No.

Ruffe sized perch. How infuriating!

This perch set the tone for the next couple of hours. I caught fifteen of them all about this size so every time I hooked one I thought it just might be a ruffe only to be disappointed. Being on the platform also meant a steady stream of tourists asking question. Two Japanese girls were very bemused to see me returning the little fish. Perhaps they fancied trying some perch sashimi! They also wanted a photograph of me with one of them and a perch so I duly obliged. Two Dutch guys also showed a real interest too especially when I explained that I was trying to catch Ruffe. They quickly Googled the fish and told me the Dutch name for them is "pos" and that they had caught one or two of them in the past from canals. Next up some kids asking questions about the maggots in my tub as they prodded them whilst screwing up their faces. All these interruptions and the endless stream of small perch meant a change of spot was in order so I headed along the shore a bit. I spoke to another couple of anglers as I went who told me that the ruffe population seemed to be in decline backing up this claim by  informing me they hadn't caught any for quite some time. Undeterred I carried on past the pier and found a quiet spot.

A lovely unspoilt view.

The water here was much deeper so I switched over to a swim feeder set up. Reeling it in and recasting regularly to build up a baited area I didn't get any bites and when someone arrived on a jet ski and started fooling around in front if me I decided to call it a day. Perhaps this part of the Loch isn't such a great choice during the summer.

So, the supposedly massive ruffe population of Loch Lomond had eluded capture once again, it was still an enjoyable days fishing though! Next time I may avoid the crowds though and might try fishing for ruffe on the River Endrick which flows into Loch Lomond to the south of Balmaha. I've also been told about a basin on the Forth & Clyde Canal that holds them too so I may try there as well soon.

Tight lines, Scott.