Winter woes.

Well, the weather over the past couple of months has pretty much brought my species hunting for the year to a shuddering halt. I have made a couple of attempts at catching grayling on the River Clyde, but sadly I blanked on both occasions. Despite trying various stretches of the water, I just couldn't locate a shoal of fish. In addition, I have visited Drumtassie Coarse Fishery for a couple of sessions, hoping to pick up either my first Scottish barbel or my first every sturgeon. The fishing there was also very hard going. One solitary roach was all I caught on my first outing! I did slightly better during my second trip, catching a few small carp and a perch using both float ledger and method feeder tactics.

One of three common carp I caught. Not the fish I was hoping would munch my maggots and dendrobaena worms!

In amongst the common carp I also caught this little mirror carp. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to manage to add any more species to this years tally given yet another storm system is on its way. I might have another go at catching a grayling if the weather allows it, and I did also fancy a trip down south to target zander. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to squeeze that in before the end of 2023 if I'm honest. We shall see.

Tight lines, Scott.

Nothing's gonna stop me now?

Having hit my 2023 species hunting target of two hundred species whilst on holiday on Crete, and by the end of the holiday having reached two hundred and twenty one species this year, I’ve been in two minds about what I should do between now and the end of the year. Maybe I should think about taking a well-earned break? I have been fishing a lot this year and do feel ever so slightly "burnt out"! Maybe I should take my foot off the gas, just relax a bit and enjoy some fishing without focussing on adding further species to my tally. Maybe I should make a serious effort to keep trying to add more?

Last Tuesday, I decided to head to Drumtassie Trout Fishery, with a couple of mates, Brian and Ryan, to hopefully catch my first rainbow trout of 2023. Perhaps catching another species this year would give me some indication of how motivated I was to keep species hunting. Lazily fishing a nugget buzzer three feet under an indicator, and letting the surface ripples do most of the work, it didn't take me long at all to achieve that goal. I hooked five and landed three after a couple of hours.

Not a bad looking fish for a stocked rainbow trout.

I then turned my attention to catching a brook trout, another species I've not caught this year. Switching to a sinking line, I tied on my favourite Ally McCoist lure, and spent some time fishing this close to the bottom. This didn’t produce any fish, so early in the afternoon I left the lads to continue fly fishing, and headed over to Drumtassie Coarse Fishery to try and tempt a barbel or a small Siberian sturgeon from their large coarse pond. Both would have been new Scottish species for me and also additions to my 2023 species tally. By this point the cold easterly wind had started to pick up a fair bit, and it soon got very cold. The fishing was tough. Float ledgering a whole dendrobaena worm over some feed pellets for three hours only produced two small ide.    

Greedy little swine!

Before I knew it, the sun had started to set, and it was time to call it a day and head back to pick up Brian and Ryan. I'd added one species to my 2023 tally. Being honest I’m still not sure what I’m going to do between now and the end of 2023. Had I somehow managed to catch a brook trout, a barbel, a Siberian sturgeon or two or even all three of them, I may have taken that as some kind of sign to push on with a determined effort to catch a lot more species this year. There are still quite a few species that I could target that I’ve not already caught this year in both freshwater and saltwater. As it gets colder catching some of them may become more difficult. If it warms up slightly again I might revisit the two Drumtassie fisheries again. I also intend to target grayling and zander over the coming months, two species I've not caught for a few years. I think I will keep trying to catch more species this year, I can't help myself! I'll just do it in a much more relaxed, pressure free, manner, with no target number in mind!

Tight lines, Scott.

My new Scottish nemesis?

Having caught a Scottish three bearded rockling earlier this year, a species I spent many years unsuccessfully targetting around Scotland, I think I might have potentially discovered my new Scottish nemesis. The barbel. I've had a few attempts over the years to catch one at various coarse fisheries in Scotland, and have failed to catch one every single time. I recently had another attempt at Parkview Coarse Fishery in Fife and failed yet again. On the bright side, I did catch my first tench of the year, on a method feeder baited with double sweetcorn and loaded with Sonubaits' Fin Perfect 2 mm pellets.

I love tench. One of my favourite UK freshwater fish species.

I also caught several bream, some also on double sweetcorn fished on a method feeder and some on triple maggot fished on a float ledger rig. For some reason I thought I'd caught bream already this year, so I didn't take any photos of those. When I got home and checked my records, it turns out they were also my first of 2023, so in one respect it was actually a successful session. I also caught, but didn't take any pictures of, dozens of tiny perch, roach, blue orfe, ide, or a hybrid either. I did take a photo of the only carp I caught. With its chunky shape it looked a little bit like an F1 carp but upon inspection after it unhooked itself in the net, it had four barbules around its mouth which F1s lack.

Just a chunky little common carp.

Another fish with four barbules was my target.

Of course, I realise that whilst fishing at coarse fisheries that have stocked them, catching a barbel is more or less just a numbers game. Apart from fishing on the bottom it’s lucky dip really and usually the numbers are heavily stacked against you. All things considered, it’s still got to be easier than catching one from the River Clyde? Surely?

Tight lines, Scott.

Trying to find a sturgeon in a carp pond.

After hearing that a small diamond backed sturgeon had been donated to the Magiscroft coarse fishery and was now resident in its main loch I decided to head west on Wednesday to try my luck at catching it. After paying for my permit and seeking advice I headed off to the area where I was informed the fish had been caught a few times. As it was fairly windy and sturgeon are bottom feeders I elected to fish using a float ledger setup to ensure my bait was stationary and tight to the bottom. Unfortunately Magiscroft has a rule banning the use of meat so my bait of choice, a chunk of luncheon meat, was not an option and instead I fished triple maggot or double corn. Fishing this method the float can behave in a peculiar manner but when it shot away after about thirty minutes I knew a fish was hooked and a small common carp was landed about five minutes later.

Nice chunky fish.

After that I caught a succession of tiny perch and a couple of small roach, their bites indicated by the float lifting up and then staying there. This probably caused by them picking up the bait and swimming towards me dragging the small drilled bullet I was using along the bottom in the process. 

Triple maggot no problem for this greedy little chap.

Or this equally greedy roach.

Six hours of patiently watching my float for a more positive take came and went before I decided to call it a day. Obviously there is only one sturgeon in the pond and perhaps it's unrealistic to deliberately target it. That being said while it'll require a huge slice of luck I still think it is possible and I will be back to try again. Maybe a change of tactics or bait will improve my chances and trying to figure these things out is part of what I like about fishing and targeting new species.

On the way home I took an alternative route and stopped off at the latest piece of oversized art that has been installed at the side of a motorway to distract drivers. The looming metallic sculpture "The Kelpies" is inspired by the powerful Clydesdale horses that at one time worked the towpaths of Scottish canals and the fields around them. 

"The Kelpies".

The huge horse's heads now stand either side of a lock on the Forth & Clyde Canal and unlike a needle in a haystack or a single sturgeon in Magiscroft main pond they are hard to miss standing at an imposing thirty metres tall. 

Nearby in the canal there were plenty of boats, pontoons and water features for pike to hide under.

Their location on the canal was of course was my real reason for the quick stop, to check out another stretch to try another spot of lure fishing for pike. It looked quite good so I may be fishing in the shadow of the kelpies soon. 

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.

Two freshwater targets evade capture once again.

I've had a couple more attempts to catch ruffe and also crucian carp recently. Earlier this month I went to Balmaha on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond with my mate Jake. We split up and adopted two different approaches because we both wanted to catch different species. Jake was after big perch using lures and I was after the perch's little cousin the ruffe using maggots fished on a simple running ledger. I started in a small bay in the boat yard and Jake fished from one of the pontoons. Fishing was quite slow so we decided to move around to the opposite side of the bay. This didn't really improve things much and apart from some small perch, small roach and a single jack neither of us had caught what we were there for so after a while I decided to head along to the pier whilst Jake persevered in the bay.

Jake caught this jack on a Pink Candy Lake Fork Live Baby Shad fished on a drop shot rig.

When I got to the pier and dropped down my bait I got bites straight away and was soon catching lots of perch and roach. Whilst reeling one perch up a pike grabbed it and made good his escape with a free meal. I called Jake to tell him there were plenty of fish around and soon after he came along and joined me on the pier. Whilst I continued to catch plenty of fish Jake carried on fishing various lures and was having a frustrating time. This was made worse when a second much larger pike came up from the depths, attacked a roach I had hooked, missed and shot off back down to the bottom again, giving me quite a fright in the process. This prompted Jake to try and catch it and whilst he tried various different lures and retrieves without managing to tempt it I carried on catching perch and roach hoping that a ruffe might come along and take my bait instead but it didn't happen. Just before we left I caught a roach that was a bit bigger than the rest I'd had and it was in really lovely condition with bright orange eyes and fins.

I admire one of the nicest looking roaches I've ever caught.

So we headed home both quite frustrated, Jake by the lack of big perch and failing to tempt the big pike and me by the ruffe, supposedly the most common species in the loch, having eluded me once again. I shall just have to keep trying to catch the little buggers!

Today I headed up to Orchill Coarse Fishery to try for crucian again. I fished the snake pond and after making up some groundbait and tossing in a few balls in front of the reeds that line the opposite bank, I started fishing maggot over it using a float ledger setup. It wasn't too long before I started catching fish.

A lovely little mirror carp in nice condition was the first fish to take my bait. Maybe a ghost carp?

I had several small common carp too. Some of them looked like they could be ghost carp too.

I caught a few small perch, roach and bream too. This little "ghost perch" had rather odd large bug eyes!

A very dark and beautifully scaled mirror carp was the last fish of the session.

All in all I had a most enjoyable day and whilst I didn't get a crucian, which would have seen me beat last years species tally, the feisty little common and mirror carp were a lot of fun and it's a venue I'll be returning to in the future for sure.

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.

South Coast Fishathon Part 4 : East Sussex.

When planning my trip I wanted to include some freshwater fishing so after eight days of fishing in the sea I ended my south coast fishathon with a couple of days of relaxing coarse fishing at Tanyard Fishery in East Sussex. Whilst the fishing was to be slightly more relaxed, not that any of the fishing I had done had been particularly stressful, I was still hopeful of catching a few new species whilst there.

One of seven ponds at Tanyard Fisheries. A very nice fishery indeed I must say.

Arriving at the fishery early on Thursday morning I sorted out my rod licence over the phone and paid for my permit as well as a pint of maggots, some luncheon meat, a can of sweetcorn and some feed pellets. Most importantly though I sought the advice of the bailiff on the best locations to try for some of the species I hoped to catch. My top target being a pumpkinseed, I was soon heading up to "Coarse Pool 1", the smallest pond of the venues seven. Setting up opposite some overhanging trees, fishing my favourite puddle chucker waggler, I was soon catching fish. With all of my shot directly under my float bar a single No. 10 a few inches above my #18 hook I had a single red maggot falling nice and slowly through the water column and this approach was soon producing bites on the drop almost every cast resulting in a steady stream of small roach and rudd including this rather nice specimen.

A lovely rudd.

After about thirty fish I hooked another small fish and it didn't feel any different so I quickly reeled it in and just swung it up to my hand to discover it wasn't a roach or rudd. I had caught my pumpkinseed and was quite relieved it had stayed on the hook whilst I lazily neglected to use my landing net! A very nice looking little fish and one that photographs don't do justice to due to their bright blue reflective markings.

A small pumpkinseed. I was over the moon, if taken a little by surprise, to catch this beautiful little fish.
New species #6 and addition #14 to my 2013 species tally

Happy to catch a quite unusual new freshwater species I carried on fishing to see if I could catch a few more pumpkinseed but after quite a few more roach and rudd I decided to head over to the "Carp Free Pool" to try and get my first bream. Fishing luncheon meet on the bottom over feed pellets it took a little while to get any bites but I was encouraged by the fact that both the anglers to my left and right both caught bream whilst I was trickling in the pellets and waiting for my float to go.When it finally did disappear it did so rather quickly and in fact the fish nearly pulled my rod in as it went quite ballistic once it realised it was hooked, surging off breaking the surface in the process. After this initial run however it did what bream are famous for, a rather good impersonation of a wet sack, and was quickly brought into my net.

My first common bream. Went off like a rocket but gave up the fight very quickly.
New species #6 and addition #15 to my 2013 species tally.

Another angler very kindly took this photo for me.

This would be the first of many bream throughout the afternoon and each time I was taken back by the short explosive runs they made before going rather limp and surrendering. My rod was almost pulled in a second time and after that I kept one hand on it at all times! After a while I decided to switch to double maggots to see if they would take them and first cast saw me hook a nice perch followed by a few more bream. I then changed to sweetcorn on the hook and after a couple more bream I hooked a fish that I knew wasn't a bream or perch due to the way it was staying deep and putting up a spirited fight. A lovely tench was soon played out though and was on the unhooking mat being photographed.

A colourful change from all the bream!

This powerful tench put up a good fight. The biggest I've caught.

Towards the end of the first days fishing I started experimenting with the "lift method". The following day I planned on targeting crucians and this was to be the method I'd be using. I managed to catch a couple of bream using it although in both cases instead of lifting up the float slid away rather quickly as the fish bolted off! The gates at Tanyard close at 19:15 so I headed back to my B&B and watched a bit of TV before going to bed.

Up early the next day and packing all my things into the car I set of back down to the fishery to begin my final days fishing. With an eight hour drive back up the road I wanted to be home at a reasonable time so decided to leave at 16:00 so this gave me eight hours fishing time to try and catch a crucian. Again speaking to one of the bailiffs before I started fishing he told me that the "Carp Free Pool" was the best place to try and advised me to try maggot and sweetcorn tight down the margin at the side nearest the small stream the ran along behind the pond. Off I went and set up at the spot he'd described. Fishing the lift method pretty soon I was catching a steady stream of roach, rudd and perch. It was rather odd watching my float behave in a very odd manner at times but it proved to be a very successful way to catch fish from the bottom.

A nice roach. I caught lots of these over the two days.

Another spiky fish with attitude took my maggots.

After a few hours with no crucian showing up I decided to try another spot and liked the look of a corner of the pond that had some nice looking reed beds that looked like a good place to try. After quickly speaking to another angler who agreed with my evaluation and very kindly gave me a little of his groundbait to try, I began fishing sweetcorn tight into the reeds. This saw me almost lose my rod again as a brief laps of concentration allowed a bream to pick up my hookbait and tear off after realising it had been hooked!

Another nice bream. They may fight like wet sacks but their initial run when hooked can be very powerful often propelling them out of the water in spectacular style and sometimes almost pulling rods in!

The next bite I had was quite a small one but striking gently I felt something on the other end and reeling in resulted in a red signal crayfish being landed. I've heard about these non native little crustaceans before but this was the first time I'd ever seen one "in the shell". I wasn't sure what to do with it and just tossed it back in but was subsequently told that they were not to be put back as they eat the fishes eggs and small fry and obviously that's not good for the fisheries stock levels.

An unexpected catch for me and an unwelcome guest at the fishery, a red signal crayfish.

This is how they get their name. When threatened they rear up and display the underside of their claws.

A few more bream and a tench later and now into the early afternoon I had sort of resigned myself to not getting a crucian. The fishing had slowed right down as the temperature had risen and I decided to try switching out the swan shot on my lift method rig for a small drilled bullet to try another technique, float ledgering. The beauty of this method is that the fish feels almost no resistance at all and it quickly became apparent that when fishing on the bottom this method is highly effective indeed as I soon started catching a steady stream of roach and perch again. The bite sensitivity seemed to be excellent too and the only real drawback I could see is that along with the lift method you can't hold your rod so may miss some bites. I'll certainly be experimenting more with both the lift method and float ledgering in the future. The last two fish I caught before packing up were gudgeon so whilst I didn't get any new species on my final day or even add any species I've caught before to my 2013 tally it was still a cool little fish to end my trip on.

My second tench from the carp free pool.

The final fish of my trip, a gudgeon. A nice little fish to end it with.

So my ten day fishathon had come to and end and I packed up my gear and headed up the road. What an epic time I'd had. I'd fished with some great people, in some great places, caught a lot of fish including many new species and even better, caught three of my "Most Wanted" species. I thouroughly enjoyed myself in the process, so much so that I may just make this an annual pilgrimage! 

Tight lines, Scott.