Six spines short.

I popped out at the end of October to visit a drainage pond in Dunfermline to see if I could catch my first Scottish nine spined stickleback. My tactics for the day were simple, fish a tiny chunk of a pinkie on a tanago hook under a pole float. This produced dozens of sticklebacks over a two hour period that were all carefully inspected before being placed in a "keep bucket" before being returned when I left.

Tiny hook! Tiny bait!

This concrete overflow at the edge of the reed filled pond area was packed full of fish!

So was my "keep bucket"! Sadly, every single one of them were six spines short!

Back to the drawing board with catching this species in Scotland I think, although I suspect a burn that runs past the pond may warrant a session or two as it may contain them. I may also be barking up the wrong tree completely, because the information I have on their exact location is patchy at best, so I may be trying in the wrong place completely! As a result, I've subsequently done a bit more research so that I can formulate an alternative plan of attack. Googling away, I stumbled upon a scientific paper entitled "The evolutionary ecology of dwarfism in three-spined sticklebacks.". It contains a useful table detailing the population density of nine spined stickleback in several lochs on North Uist. A long way to travel but maybe I could combine a few sessions fishing for nine spined sticklebacks there with sessions targeting other species found in the Outer Hebrides whilst I'm there. I hear three bearded rocklings are sometimes caught around Harris!

Tight lines, Scott.