Not a new nemesis after all.

I visited Drumtassie Coarse Fishery on Thursday to try my luck at catching a Siberian sturgeon again. I've had a few attempts now and was beginning to think it might take me a long time to eventually get one. A potential new nemesis. Having chatted to a customer in work who had caught them during a recent session, I arrived very early to ensure that I got a peg in the area he had been fishing. During my last visit, I had fished in fairly shallow water, whilst he had caught them from the deepest part of the pond. I quickly got set up, and was soon catching a few fish using a pretty straight forward approach.

Nothing fancy, just a couple of pieces of chopped worm, ledgered on the bottom using a light feeder rod.

After four hours, I’d caught several common, mirror and F1 carp, a few tench, an ide, and a perch. After a short break for a bite to eat, I started fishing again. In my head I'd imagined how a sturgeon might fight, in some strange way given it looks so different to other freshwater fish, so when I hooked a fish that didn’t fight in any way unusually, I thought nothing of it. When it came close to the surface however, and I got a brief glimpse of a shark like tail fin, my heart rate instantly increased quite dramatically! I’d hooked my target!

Don’t come off. Don’t come off. Don’t. Come. Off!

Playing the fish carefully, trying not to bully it too much in case I pulled the hook, it eventually tired, came to the surface, and was drawn into my waiting net!

A juvenile Siberian sturgeon. My first sturgeon of any kind!

A small but perfectly formed, if somewhat odd looking, freshwater fish.

Its head was hard and bony, with a quartet of barbules.

They also have a protrusible mouth, that reminded me of the mouth of a saltwater ray.

I was ecstatic, and even better, soon followed it up with a second shortly afterwards. I'm not sure how many of them have been stocked, but I think they must be swimming around the pond in groups. Anyway, it was another species mission successfully accomplished! It's very satisfying to catch what you are after, and another species had been added to my Scottish lifetime list, edging me a little closer to my goal of one hundred, leaving me with only four to go! 

For the remainder of the afternoon, I decided to move to the smaller of the two coarse ponds at the fishery. There, I wanted to try and catch one of the very colourful koi carp, that have been recently stocked into it. I changed my tactics and switched over to a method feeder, fishing a bright purple 5mm wafter on a bait band. 

Wowsers "Hi Vis" wafters in bright purple.

A nice contrast against my 2mm feeder pellets.

The move proved to be a good choice, as I enjoyed fairly steady sport for the remainder of the session. Each time I hooked something, I was hopeful that a brightly coloured koi would appear, but it wasn’t to be. I can't complain though, as I caught plenty of nice fish and the sun even came out for a while.

I caught several bream,…

…lots of F1 carp,…

…a few small tench,…

…and few carp, including this nice mirror.

So, having caught my ninety-sixth species from Scottish venues, what’s next? Well, I’ve got a few ideas around what species I can target, but I think things are really going to get very tough now. I’ll probably be doing a lot of travelling over to the west coast of Scotland over the coming months, and the weather will no doubt play a massive part in how many trips I can do. Fingers crossed the summer gives us better weather than what we've had so far in 2024.

Tight lines, Scott.

A new nemesis?

I had another session at Drumtassie Coarse Fishery on Wednesday, targeting the small Siberian sturgeon that are in their coarse pond again. Chopped worm was the bait of choice, and this was fished over a bed of 2mm halibut pellets. Fishing with two rods for ten hours, I was fairly optimistic I’d catch what I was after, my first ever sturgeon, and coincidently my 96th fish species in Scotland. Things were pretty lively to begin with, when a few small F1 carp and a common carp picked up my bait and got hooked.  

There were quite a few of these little F1 carp in my swim,…

…and this nice common carp too. 

In the afternoon, things went very quiet for a few hours. There were two other anglers fishing and they both packed up and left. Eventually a few fish started biting again, and I caught a couple of bream and a few more F1 carp. 

Mid-flip. This bream didn’t want to lay still for a photo. 

Happy to pose. Some of the F1 carp I caught had a lovely golden colouration.

Just before I used up the last of my bait, I caught another couple of fish. Both were the same species, but sadly not the one I was after. 

The last two fish of the day were both ide. 

The second ide ate my last section of lob worm about thirty minutes before the fishery closed. So, I didn’t end up catching a Siberian sturgeon, and will just have to keep trying until I do. They have been getting caught recently, so I’m sure eventually I’ll get lucky and get one myself. There’s also a solitary large Siberian sturgeon, called Maisie, up in the fishery’s specimen pond that I might have a go at catching. Either way, I won’t be giving up until I catch one!

Tight lines, Scott.

F1 Sunday.

The conditions on Sunday meant that I decided to head away from the coast for a few hours for my fishy fix. I perhaps would have preferred to visit one of west Scotland's sea lochs but to be honest as I didn't have company I decided to stay closer to home and made the one hour drive to Magiscroft to drown maggots instead. Not being too fussy about what I would catch when I was told that lots of F1 carp had been stocked into the Woodside Pond I decided to head to that and was soon setting up. There were lots of other anglers fishing already but not many fish were being caught and I also found things quite slow to start but fishing the bottom with single maggot on a #22 hook to 2lb nylon I eventually caught a few small roach before a slightly bigger fish took my bait. It was no match for my 13ft waggler rod but it put up a spirited little fight. 

I really like these little hybrids. They scrap quite well for their size.

The small roach kept coming along with a few more of the bullish little fish. I really wished that I had taken a much lighter rod though to get the best out of their little charges. I then caught my first perch of the year. 

Perfection in miniature. 

For the last hour of my session I moved over to the Birch Ponds to try and catch some gudgeon, another diminutive favourite of mine, but instead managed a steady procession of small roach. I think they dump all the silvers caught in the main pond matches into it as it is rather full of them. All in all a pretty chilled out day and the little perch has got me thinking about catching some more freshwater predators soon. I might have to go down south so I can have a crack at Zander as well.  I really like Zander and I know someone who is also fond of them too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Avoiding a duck.

On Tuesday I headed to the Forth & Clyde Canal to target pike and perch on soft plastics. Things were tough to say the least and despite trying four different stretches I did not encounter any fish. When I got home I had a text from my mate Keith, whom I haven't seen for quite some time, asking me if I was free the following day so we could meet up and wet a line. I told him about my towpath blank, that I was indeed free but that I was unsure where we should go fishing. In the end we decided to spend the day at Orchill Coarse Fishery.

Driving up the M9 the next morning we soon arrived and set up a couple of rods each on Alex's Pond. Keith went with a ledgered worm on one and maggots under a small waggler on the other. I opted to fish a single maggot on the bottom under a waggler and double sweetcorn fished with a method feeder. Things were very slow and it took a while before the first fish was landed.

I was in the middle of loading my method feeder when my float rod started shaking in its holder. I'd not seen the float go under so I was lucky that this chub had hooked itself. 

After that things remained painfully slow for a while. The conversation centred around matters fishy for a bit, then we discussed last year's Scottish independence referendum result and Keith brought to my attention a conspiracy theory regarding postal voting statistical anomalies and potential illegal activities that might have caused them. All very interesting but I subscribe to the view that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Anyway, Keith and I both voted differently last September and we still get along fine.

The fish were clearly not in the mood. Keith gets comfortable and his fairly minimalist approach to fishing means he doesn't need an expensive seat box to do so.

The next thing hooked was a mallard that quickly scooted over the surface of the pond and grabbed my maggot when I cast in my waggler. Chaos then ensued as I attempt to "land it" as it tried its best to fly off. Having hooked a few birds in the past an successfully done so, unhooked and released them unharmed I was confident I could do so again and managed to get it out of the air and back in the pond. I slowly reeled it in and Keith was just about to net it when it took off again snapping my hook off in the process. Needless to say the punked up duck with its new #18 piercing and its mates were all a little bit more reluctant to go crashing about in our swims trying to steal our maggots after that.

Back to catching things that have fins instead of wings and shortly afterwards I got caught out again by another fish, baiting a maggot on one hook whilst it was busy on the bottom eating the sweetcorn on my other. Keith soon pointed this out to me, I quickly dropped my waggler rod, grabbed my feeder rod and my second fish of the day was soon being played out.

I was busy baiting the hook on my float rig when my feeder rod tip was pulled around. A short scrap later and this lovely bronze common carp was on the bank.

After this the action dried up again for quite some time. Another angler who was fishing a few pegs to our left wasn't having much luck either although he eventually caught a couple of carp. Keith, now getting a bit frustrated at not getting any bites, decided to head to the far end of the pond and soon reported that he was getting some interest so I headed round to join him. He wasn't having much joy converting the bites into hooked fish though and much to his annoyance a small F1 carp was soon pulling my feeder rod tip right over as it got hooked and charged off.

Keith found the fish but couldn't connect. I caught one of the culprits, a feisty little hybrid.

Much to his relief though, Keith then caught his first fish of the day, a chub, after switching to a method feeder. This was soon was followed by an F1 carp but only after it pulled his rod in. We just managed to grab it as it slowly got pulled out of the margin and out of sight. It was a close call but having successfully averted disaster we both laughed about it and agreed that had his rod gone all the way in then the fish would have been much bigger and would have probably grown in size the more he retold the story.

As well as angling in his spare time Keith is also keen on cricket so he was gald to catch a couple of fish and unlike me, successfully avoid a duck.

I then switched from a flat bed feeder to an in-line bait ball style feeder and this soon paid off when again a fish did its best to try and pull my rod out of the rest and into the pond.

What carp could resist a big tasty ball of groundbait, a few free offerings and most importantly, my hair rigged double sweetcorn hook bait?

Not this one, another common carp in fine condition. It ended up being the last fish of the session and was also the largest so I took my time playing it before Keith netted it for me.

So, typical of the time of year it was another slow but enjoyable session. I may have only caught four fish but I was glad as it was four more than my session the day before had produced. It was good to catch up with Keith again and I really enjoy our chats too, whether they be about fishing or exciting topics like politics and alleged electoral fraud on a national scale involving shady governmental agencies. Unfortunately Keith's job means he works a lot over the summer but I hope we can meet up and fish together more often than we did last year. The weather will soon be warming up a bit more and the coarse fishing should start to improve with it. Hopefully I won't be scoring any more ducks when I next visit a fishery or the canal, or catching them either for that matter.

Tight lines, Scott.

A first time for everything.

With the weather not looking suitable for my preferred choice of a session targeting pollock last Sunday I headed instead to Orchill coarse fishery with a couple of mates. Nick and Stewart had never fished a commercial fishery before so it was something new to them but they were both looking forward to trying a new style of fishing. After paying for our day tickets we headed up to Alex's pond. As I set up a float rod for Nick and a feeder rod for Stewart I talked them through the end tackle, quickly explained the fairly simple principles involved and before too long they were both fishing.

Before I had finished setting myself up a float rod Nick was getting bites and after missing some and losing a fish he caught a roach, his first ever. When I started fishing I also caught a few roach. Nick then caught a gudgeon, again his first ever. Stewart's rod tip was soon pulled around by a small carp which he played for a few minutes but sadly it came off as it came near the net. Things were pretty slow after that though but we heard a fair amount of splashing over the other side of the middle island so we moved around to the area where the activity was. Most of the surface activity was fairly tight to the centre island so we started fishing as close to it as we could. It didn't take long for us all to start catching chub and then Nick started landing a few F1 and common carp, another couple of new species for him. I soon caught a few too.

This chub was Stewart's first ever coarse fish.

I really like F1 carp. They are chunky fish and put up a spirited fight for their size.

Stewart wasn't getting as many bites as Nick and I so I switched him over from a black cap swim feeder to a method feeder and made up some halibut and hemp feeder mix with a few pieces of sweetcorn added. On the hair rig went double sweetcorn and this produced three carp on three consecutive casts proving how effective a tactic the method feeder is.

Stewart caught this rather nice mirror carp. You've guessed it, his first.

We had the pond to ourselves so when we weren't chatting away it was fairly quiet apart from the squawking of flocks of geese flying south overhead in formation. As the day progressed several helicopters also passed above us. It was the final day of the Ryder Cup so we surmised these were taking players to and from the golf. As Nick was using my seatbox I had taken his small fold down canvas stool. The next noise to break the relative silence was this suddenly breaking, giving way beneath me and me ending up on my back on the ground. Stewart found this quite hilarious. My accident and Stewart laughing away didn't seem to distract Nick who was by now into a bit of a rhythm and found that firing in a few casters around his waggler was attracting plenty of fish into his swim.

Nick's biggest carp of the session and his first mirror carp.

Stewart and I had a few more carp and chub too before it was time to pack up and head home. It had been a nice relaxing day, we had a good laugh and both Nick and Stewart are keen to do it again so whilst it may have been their first time it certainly won't be their last.

Tight lines, Scott.

A stick to beat someone with.

My mate Keith and I visited Magiscroft on Wednesday. It was a dry but very windy day so we once again sought shelter at the southern side of the fishery on one of the Birch Ponds. We decided to have one of our friendly competitions and settled on a highest combined carp length competition. As usual I set up and fished the same swim all day whilst Keith roamed around trying various spots. I began by chucking in a few balls of halibut crush groundbait containing some maggots and flavoured sweetcorn and fished double maggot on a #14 hook on the bottom using a float ledger rig. Keith opted to fish a single maggot on a #20 hook using a standard waggler setup. This soon saw him catch a load of roach before he hooked and lost a carp. I on the other hand wasn't getting many bites so after a while I decided to switch to a #18 hook and fish single maggot. This saw me start catching roach too and a skimmer. 

My second small bream from the Birch Ponds. 

By this point Keith was working his way around the pond and before long had hooked his second carp of the day. I headed over to where he was and after he carefully played the fiesty fish I netted it for him. 

Keith opens his account with a 13 1/2 inch common carp.

A few dozen roach later Keith caught a second common carp adding another 14 1/2 inches to his tally. The pressure was on and I was just starting to think I might end the day on zero inches when I finally hooked my first decent fish of the day and it was Keith's turn to net a carp for me.

I get back into the challenge with a 12 3/4 inch fish.

A chunky little F1 carp. 

Things went quiet for a while so I switched to a standard waggle setup and Keith headed off to try his luck on the Railway Pond. I persevered at my chosen peg but after a couple of gudgeon and my seventieth roach I decided to change to a piece of flavoured sweetcorn on the hook. Bites immeadiately dried up but having had my fill of roach I didn't mind and after adding a bit more groundbait my patience paid off when my float slowly slid under and I caught a second F1. Keith had the measuring tape though so I improvised, laying a stick next to it and taking a photo for later measurement but I knew it wasn't long enough to give me the lead. I new I was in with a shout when though when I caught a third F1 about fifteen minutes later. It was smaller than my second so I bent the stick I had used on my second carp and took another photo as proof of its length.

A third F1 but had it given me victory or had Keith caught anymore?

Not long after popping it back it was time to pack up and after doing so I headed around to meet up with Keith who had moved onto the main pond. When I caught up with him I asked if he had caught any more carp. No was the answer, just loads more roach, so I gleefully broke the news of my second and third carp to him, showed him the photos and got him to measure my stick. Victory was mine!

My total carp length : 39 1/4 inches.
Keith's total carp length : 28 inches.

So it's now 2 - 0 to me in the 2014 "not very serious course fishing competition" world series. I think next time we're having a smallest perch challenge. Should be fun and may come down to a few millimetres!

Tight lines, Scott.

Gudge match.

I popped to Magiscroft last Wednesday with my mate Keith for a friendly gudgeon catching competition. It was quite a blustery day but the Birch Ponds where the challenge was to take place were quite well sheltered. Fishing pinkies and maggots on #22 hooks under very sensitive wagglers it didn't take long for us both to catch a few gudgeon but Keith seemed to locate a shoal of tiny perch that were beating everything else to his bait so I took an early lead.

My first fish out was a roach. A few gudgeon soon followed.

By the afternoon I had built up a fairly comfortable gudgeon cushion and whilst I was happy to fish close to a small island feature in front of my peg, Keith decided to move around the pond and try chucking his float into a few different swims. This soon produced a nice bonus fish for him.

I stayed put all day, clipped up and fished close to the small island.

A nice common carp.

This would turn out to be the first of three carp and while I continued catching lots of gudgeon and extended my lead Keith seemed to have forgotten about our little competition and was happily exploring. His efforts were soon rewarded again when he caught a rather nice perch.

Keith surveys a rather plump perch in very good condition. A new PB in fact at 13.5 inches and probably about 1.5lb. 

Having by this point racked up what I considered to be an unassailable advantage in the gudgeon match I decided to scale up my hook lengths and fish double maggots to try and land myself a carp or a nice perch. Alas this change of tactics only resulted in less small roach and gudgeon being caught. I did however land what I'm pretty sure was a juvenile bream. 

A quick count of rays in its anal fin led me to believe this small fish was my first bream from a Scottish water.

It was soon time to pack up and the results were as follows...

My gudgeon tally : 58
Keith's gudgeon tally : 17

...a pretty comprehensive victory!

A trio of my match winning gudgeon. 

Regardless of the result we both enjoyed a good days fishing and I'm sure the gudgeon match would have been closer had Keith decided to focus on catching them but I think he was fairly pleased to catch a few carp and the nice chunky PB perch. All just a bit of fun anyway and I'm looking forward to more not very serious course fishing competitions with Keith over the summer months.

Tight lines, Scott.

The weather forecast is a load of carp!

After being soaked twice whilst fishing over the last few days on Monday night I checked the weather forecast for Tuesday, my first day off work for over a week. It didn't look good with rain forecast all day so I decided just to have a lie in. When I got up though just before noon and looked out of the window the weather looked quite nice so I thought I'd go and take a look at a small burn I plan to fish at some point in the future.

A short drive later and I was enjoying the sunshine, had a nice walk along the burn and with just a solitary very light shower I thought sod it, I'm going fishing! I headed home, grabbed my gear and headed to Orchill Coarse Fishery in Perthshire. My target for the evening was crucian carp. It took me just over a hour to get there. Upon arrival just after 16:00 I got my permit, a pint of maggots, a can of sweetcorn and drove up to one of the ponds I was told contained my target and picked a peg. Being able to park right next to my peg was unexpected but great as it meant that if the rain was going to appear I could jump in it and keep dry. In the pond there were lots of fish cruising around and there was plenty of surface activity going on with fish splashing around feeding. As a result I started fishing fairly shallow and was soon catching plenty of small chub a rod length out in front of me. Whilst I fished away I fed up a swim in the margin to my left. I switched to that after about ten chub, plumbed up and started fishing on the bottom. This saw me catch a few fiesty little F1 carp.

F1 carp are pretty cool little fish. Little scappers too. They look a bit like small commons but an easy way to tell they aren't is a lack of barbules.

After three or four of these I hooked a bigger carp which tore off to my right. I took my time playing it, letting it take line when it wanted and it was on for about five minutes when the hook suddenly pulled. I was quite dissapointed but at the same time hopeful I could get another. I carried on fishing catching a few more F1 carp in the process. After a quiet spell I decided to switch from a standard waggler setup to a float ledger rig. This saw me catch even more F1 carp and then my float shot under, the fish hooking itself against my rod tip as it swung around to my left, I quickly picked up the rod and I had another nice fish on. It didn't feel as big as the one I lost earlier and after a few minutes and a few short runs I brought it to the surface. I could see it was a common carp and after a few nervous moments it was safely in my net. The angler along from me very kindly came along and took a photo for me with the fish which was in very good condition.

Chuffed to bits. My first common carp. It gave a good account of itself on my float rod.

I got chatting to the angler who told me he had been fishing a method feeder and asked me what I was using so I showed him my set up. I cast it back in and tightened down until my float was just under the surface. As I told him a little more about the technique, explained how I'd just started experimenting with it and so far was very pleased with the results my float shot off again and I quickly lifted my rod which by that point already had a nice bend in it. A nice mirror carp was the culprit and after a short fight and with a bit of assistance from the angler who netted it for me it was soon being photographed before being returned.

Float ledgered double maggot takes another carp in nice condition.

I then switched to sweetcorn on the hook and caught a few more F1 carp and a very small mirror carp. The owner of the venue then came around walking his dogs and asked me how I was getting on. I told him what I'd caught and what I was after at which point he chuckled and told me there were no crucian carp in the pond I was fishing! Oops! Oh well, I had forgotten about trying to catch them to be honest, I was just enjoying the session so much. Anyway, the capture of my first common carp was my tenth new freshwater species this year which was the target I set myself so all in all a successful evenings fishing and it hadn't rained once either! Besides my mistake means that I'll have to visit a nice venue again to try for crucian carp in a pond that actually holds them which isn't a bad thing!

Tight lines, Scott.

More maggot drowning.

I used up the last of my maggots yesterday at Magiscroft coarse fishery near Cumbernauld. When I woke up in the morning and checked the weather forecast I wasn't going to bother but Lillian was keen to go so off we went. As predicted it was raining when we arrived and after paying for my day ticket and asking for advice regarding which spots had been fishing well we headed to the Birch Ponds to get started. The pond was partially covered with ice and the peg I fished last time I was there was iced over so we elected to fish the one adjacent to it. Fishing with a #18 barbless Kamasan B911 hook baited with a single maggot just touching bottom about three feet below a 2AA puddle chucker insert waggler I cast out between two islands in the middle of the pond and began feeding the swim with a few maggots every now and then but this failed to produce any bites so after about an hour we decided to move to the Island Pond. We headed for the deeper end of the pond and I quickly started fishing again.

Waiting for bites.

Casting to the island and clipping up so I could cast quickly to the same spot each time it wasn't too long before I started getting bites and the first fish was hooked, a roach. This was followed shortly afterwards by a small tench. For its size it fought rather well, using its big tail to try and power away from me a couple of times but it was soon played out and brought to the net which was being expertly handled by my trusted ghillie. 

Finally off the mark.

A lovely little tench. They don't half scrap well.

 

After that it went a bit quiet, started raining again and the wind picked up a bit making controlling my float more difficult. At this point the bailiff came around to litter pick and gave me some advice on how to best to quickly sink my line and adjust my shotting pattern to minimize the movement of my float. This immediately paid off as I hooked a second roach. Next time the float went under I struck and felt the thrashing of another tench but got quite a nice surprise when it came into view and I realised it was one of the golden variety. 

My first one and a very pretty fish indeed.

Do ornamental fish count as seperate species? Technically the answer is no but I'm going to count it as one in my tally anyway. Doesn't seem right not to somehow.

This was closely followed by another new species for me. At first I thought I had caught an ide but after a closer inspection and a quick lateral line scale count I realised it was in fact a small chub.

Chub have larger scales than ide. The number along the lateral line is 44-46 for a chub and 56+ on an ide.

By the middle of the afternoon I had also caught a little F1 Carp, a third tench and a further four roach. By this point bites were becoming much more frequent and the sun even made an appearance at one point! I hooked and lost a few tiny roach and would have liked to have fished on but had to head home to get ready for work.

My second ever F1 carp. Nice looking fish and fought well too.

Another tench in nice condition.

I must say I've really enjoyed my maggot drowning sessions this last week or so. The fishing has been quite slow at times but my effort has been rewarded with some nice fish and I think I'll be doing more coarse fishing over the summer this year for sure.

Tight lines, Scott.