A spot of maggot drowning.

I popped down to East Lothian earlier this month for a short session at the lifeboat station at Torness Power Station. It had been quite windy for a while and the sea was fairly coloured up as a result. I had almost a full pint of maggots left over from my stickleback hunting a few days earlier, so decided to fish with those. They’re a fantastic bait for targeting mini species, believe it or not! Three hours only produced a few nibbles, and apart from a few velvet swimmer crab, one fish was my only reward for being persistent. 

My first leopard spotted goby of the year. Caught on double maggot!

On the way back up the A1, I visited the Biel Water, to see if I could catch a minnow. The river was down to its bare bones. Hardly surprising, given how little we’ve had, but I was still shocked by how incredibly low the water level was and struggled to locate any of my preferred target. Slowly approaching a deep pool, I spotted a few small brown trout, so I got as low as I could and crept closer to the bank, hiding as best I could behind some long grass. There were three small trout moving around and also a single larger specimen, about twice the size of the others.  Flicking a single maggot upstream, the bigger fish immediately surged forwards and took it. After a short scrap, I landed my second spotty species of the day. 

A nice looking little brown trout, also my first of the year. 

All the commotion it made spooked the other trout in the pool and they quickly shot off upstream. I spent a little longer trying to locate some minnow, but didn’t manage to find any sadly. I still had plenty of maggots left though, and decided to visit the Water of Leith a couple of days later to try and catch some there as well as perhaps some bullhead.  

Tight lines, Scott.

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.