The grass is always greener...

I visited Parkview Coarse Fishery again earlier this week to have another attempt at catching my first Scottish barbel. Maggots, hard on the deck, under a waggler float was the approach taken, fished over some halibut and hot tuna ground bait. 

My bait of choice for the session. 

The fishing was very slow. To be fair, I was prewarned it would be when I paid for my day ticket. The only fish that seemed interested in my wriggling hookbait were tiny perch and the odd blue orfe. After several hours I finally hooked something a bit bigger in the shape of a small common carp. It may have been relatively small, but it actually put up a decent little scrap on my 10ft float rod.

Another nice looking carp from the venue. 

Just after returning the carp, the owner of the venue came around and asked me how the fishing had been. I told him it had been tough going and that I was after a barbel. He quickly checked some records on his phone and told me that eighty seven had been stocked into the pond in total, of various different sizes. He also happened to mentioned that some grass carp had also been stocked into the venue as well. I thought he might have been somehow mistaken about that, but didn’t say anything. A few hours later I was pleasantly surprised when I caught, you guessed it, a juvenile grass carp! 

Small but perfectly formed. My first ever grass carp!

Not the fish I was after but a most unexpected and welcome addition to my Scottish species list nevertheless, edging me one closer to my target of one hundred! Also, it was my 100th new species of 2023 so that target, set at the start of the year, has successfully been reached with several months to spare! I ended the session not long after catching the grass carp. The fishing might have been difficult, but I’ll be no doubt be back again soon for yet another session targeting barbel. 

Tight lines, Scott.