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.