The end of the rainbow?

Last month, the day before I flew out to Singapore, my luggage was all packed, so I headed out for a couple of hours to fish the Biel Water. Many years ago I caught some small rainbow trout there, escapees from a fish farm that used to sit next to the small East Lothian river. I wasn’t sure if the farm was still operational but thought I’d try my luck anyway. When I arrived, I slowly crept down to the water's edge and quickly set about freelining single maggots. I soon discovered there were lots of minnow and the odd three spined stickleback in the first pool I tried.

I've caught quite a lot of minnows this year,...

...and a fair amount of three spined stickleback too!

As I fished away, there were lots of insects hatching and a kingfisher flew upstream in a streak of electric blue. At one point a mayfly landed on my rod a couple of times. Raising my rod up towards myself, I carefully cupped my hand over it and then picked it up for closer inspection. 

I'd never seen a mayfly so close before. Insects are strange looking things!

Suddenly I realised that I was having so much fun catching lots of diminutive fish that I'd forgotten the reason for my visit! Refocussing, I headed upstream to try another pool. Almost immediately, I caught a small trout from under some overhanging tree branches, but it wasn't the species I was after.

Not the trout I was after.

I fished on for a couple of hours, catching more minnows and another two small brown trout. I didn’t catch any rainbow trout, as I've already said, I’m not even sure the fish farm is still operating and if not any escapees might be long gone. I'll just have to visit a trout fishery later in the year to catch a rainbow trout I suppose. Not my favourite places to frequent but at least there’s also the chance to catch a brook trout too while I'm there.

Tight lines, Scott.