Striking gold.

So, throughout August, back to Drumtassie Trout Fishery I went repeatedly, to try to catch my first golden trout. As I've said before, it's probably my least favourite type of venue and style of fishing, so I was keen to try and get one quickly. Six visits later, I finally managed to catch two of the super spooky brightly coloured fish! The number that swim up to your fly and inspect it before turning away at the very last second is incredible. After dropping to 4lb tippet and giving it a going over with Fuller's Mud, a suspender buzzer and a white moth were the surface flies that finally tempted the two golden trout I caught.

The golden trout. A very colourful and very frustrating fish!

My 100th species from Scottish venues! I was over the moon reaching this milestone! There was one thing in the back of my mind though. Niggling away. Corbin's sandeel. I've caught a couple of large sandeel that I suspect may have been Corbin's sandeel during the last few years. They can be distinguished from the greater sandeel because they lack the dark spot on the side of the snout and instead have a dark chin.

I'm not 100% sure that this is a Corbin's sandeel.

This, I'm sure, is a greater sandeel.

I'm still not confident that I've got the identification correct though, and as the Corbin's sandeel was included in my Scottish species tally total of one hundred, I decided I wanted to catch one more Scottish species, so I could say with absolute certainty I'd reached my goal.

Tight lines, Scott.