And Bully's special prize!

I've been out spending time on small rivers and streams of late trying to catch my first bullhead. I've not managed to catch one but I think I spotted one which is slightly encouraging. My sessions have been quite enjoyable and have produced some nice bonus fish. I visited Lochore Meadows Country Park in Fife with my new workmate Brett before a bullhead session on a nearby river. We had fun targeting perch on assorted soft plastics using ultra light tackle and caught a few of them as well as a few tiny pike. I also got lucky and caught a rainbow trout which was a bit of an ugly brute so I didn't bother to photograph it.

One of my perch.  Caught on a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad, one of my all time favourite drop shot lures. Not that perch are very fussy mind.

These tiny little pike would follow our lures and attack them right at our feet. One that Brett put back attacked his rod tip which was lying in the water. Very funny. 

In the afternoon Brett had a driving lesson so after we parted company I visited a nearby river. Another workmate of mine Robert has caught bullheads from it this year and had kindly shown me a couple of the spots where he caught them. I've had a few sessions on it since and there is one particularly nice pool that has produced some really nice bonus fish on float fished maggot trotted down the swim. On the way to this pool I've also seen a few large red dragonflies which was pretty cool. 

Dragonflies are strange yet beautiful insects. 

As well as some pristine roach and small perch I've caught some nice brown trout from the small river.

I was quite surprised to catch this bigger brownie from such a small river. A rather lovely reward for my efforts. 

I've also had a couple of sessions on the Water of Leith ledgering small pieces of worm which again produced some nice bonus brown trout and also a very plump little minnow. I've also had the privilege of seeing the electric blue streak of kingfishers as they fly up and down the Water of Leith during both trips which is always a real treat.

A nice Water of Leith brown trout.

I thought I had caught a bullhead when I hooked this little bloater.

Given that bullheads are gobies I'm pretty sure that if I put a chunk of worm anywhere near one it wouldn't be hard to catch. Having had another quick read of my copy of the excellent "The Little Book of Little Fishes" I note that bullheads breed in springtime so I suspect that I may be better off waiting until next year to try and catch one when they might be more active before spawning. However, I've enjoyed my bullheadless bullhead trips of late with lots of nice bonus catches and colourful insects and birds to keep me interested in targeting them so I might have a few more attempts and maybe I'll try after dark a few times.

Tight lines, Scott.

Ruffe justice.

After getting back from my trip down south with Martin last weekend I was keen to get out again and hopefully enjoy some slightly more fruitful fishing. I checked the forecast on Monday afternoon and decided to spend Tuesday feeder fishing at Loch Lomond to resume my ruffe hunting after a short self imposed break. My mate Keith text me later that evening to see what I was up to the following day and when I told him about my plans he decided to join me. On Tuesday morning after a brief stop at Angling Active for a pint of maggots, we were soon setting up on the partially submerged and mist shrouded metal walkway of Balmaha Pier.

Let me in!

A misty start to the morning. 

We both set up swim feeders on running ledgers to #20 hooks. I also had a new faster tip for my feeder rod to hopefully show very delicate bites. I decided to fish exclusively with maggots in the feeder too as on previous occasions I've loaded it with maggots and hemp. Things were slow to start with and Keith was first in with a couple of roach before I caught one too. They are lovely looking fish indeed.

I admire a nice Loch Lomond roach. 

Things remained quite slow so we both rigged up some lures and fished a second rod to try for perch. After catching a few small ones drop shotting a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad the tip of my feeder rod started twitching away but I didn't react quickly enough and missed the bite so I put the lure rod away and started focusing on the feeder fishing again. Casting out regularly to hopefully draw a few more fish into my swim including hopefully some of my target fish. Reeling in to put a fresh maggot on the hook and fill the black cap feeder I felt a little extra weight and my rod tip gently twitched a few times signalling the presence of a small fish. Low and behold despite not seeing the bite I was delighted to discover it was my first ever ruffe!

Finally I caught one of the little buggers!

I was over the moon and my obvious elation drew a few strange looks from some passers by who were clearly puzzled as to why I was so happy about catching a small fish.

Pressure off I was in a great mood now and the arrival of some quite loud and obnoxious tourists who ruined the peace and quiet we had been enjoying all morning couldn't dampen my high spirits. Keith then caught a small perch and then things went quiet for a bit before he too caught his first ever ruffe followed shortly afterwards by a second.

Keith gets a small spiky fish but it's the ruffe's cousin, the perch.

Keith gets his first ruffe. Very decent of him to let me get mine first.

By now it was a quite stunning day and a steady stream of people were coming and going from the pier. It is a beautiful spot and it's easy to see why it attracts so many visitors.

With the mist all gone and the sun shining the view towards the highlands was spectacular. 

By late afternoon things had slowed right down on the fishing front and neither of our rod tips had moved for a while. I suggested that we fish for another thirty minutes and if we got no more bites during that time we should call it a day. With a minute or so to go I saw a very slight flicker on my rod tip and lifted the rod, reeling in I felt the weight of another small fish and my second ruffe was soon swung up to my hand.

Rather cute little fish. Being an invasive species they are not supposed to be returned but Keith and I were a bit clumsy and dropped all of ours and they made good thier escape. Oops.

We fished for a further fifteen minutes with no more action before packing up. Well, it was a long time coming and I was so happy to finally catch a ruffe. It just goes to show that even when you carefully select a venue and choose tactics wisely luck sometimes still plays a huge part in fishing. I've tried numerous times yet Keith managed to catch them on his first attempt! I was also glad to catch them because soon the level of tourist activity around the pier and the resumption of the local ferry service from it will make it difficult and sometimes rather unpleasant to fish. It also means I can move on to targeting other species as well although I'll always have a little soft spot for them!

Tight lines, Scott.

We'll meet again.

Last Wednesday night I met up with my new Ukrainian fishing friend Valentyn again up at Loch Lubnaig as he was staying at nearby Killin for the second stage of his Scottish holiday. It was a very nice evening and my mate Naz came along too. The session got off to a good start when Valentyn hooked and landed his first Scottish perch on his third cast.

I didn't take Valentyn long to catch a perch from the weedy area in front of us.

As we slowly worked our way along the shore I was next to land a fish after Valentyn pointed to a spot where he'd just had a bite and insisted I have a cast there.

Another lovely Lubnaig perch.

Naz meanwhile was obviously quite stunned by the scenery and was taking lots of photos including this one of me fishing.

Basking in the evening sun.

When we got closer to the point where Jake and I normally fish we spotted three guys camping next to the stream there who were also fishing. They were using float tactics and when I asked them if they'd had any luck they told me they hadn't caught anything. I found this quite hard to believe as they were fishing a spot that normally holds a few perch. I began fishing and on my second cast a perch took my Lake Fork Live Baby Shad and was soon landed.

Another nice fish.

This sparked some interest from the campers and I showed them the lure I was using. A few casts later I caught another perch. I thought we would all soon start catching more as the sun began to get lower in the sky but after this there was not much action until some time later when Valentyn caught a second perch after changing to a small hard lure. Naz meanwhile had tried a few different lures, was having no luck and was still pausing to take lots of pictures.

At one point the wind disappeared and the water was like a mirror. Note the grass hanging from the top of the picture!

The fish seemed to vanish along with the sun.

Darkness soon fell and with no fish biting for a while we headed back to our cars. Valentyn was heading further north to Inverness for the third stage of his Scottish holiday. He was planning to fish a few highland lochs and I'm looking forward to hearing about how he does. It was nice fishing with him again and I don't think it's the last time we'll fish together either. There's something else I'm pretty sure will happen again too. Naz will be back to get aLoch Lubnaig perch and next time I'll confiscate his camera!

Tight lines, Scott.

A quick perch pick me up.

Work has been pretty dull since I returned from my ten day trip down south and whilst I've certainly been enjoying the hot weather during the day when I'm not there the last few nights it's been awfully hard trying to get to sleep. This meant I was in two minds about going fishing yesterday evening with my mate Jake as I had a few things to do as well as feeling pretty tired. Despite this I decided to go anyway and after picking up Jake and driving west we were soon on the shore of Loch Lubnaig, our favourite perch venue and perhaps one of my favourite places to fish due to the stunning surroundings. We fished for a few hours and had a great time as usual catching lots of beautiful perch in the process.

I had a couple of perch from the weeds in front of these rocks on my go to Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in Golden Shiner fished on a 3.5g #4 jighead.

Jake was fishing a bigger Lunker City Swimmin Ribster on a 10g #2/0 football jighead in the hope of singling out some larger specimens. He also brought an unhooking mat. We talked about using them more often, even for saltwater species, as we believe fish care is important if you practice catch and release.

With the unhooking mat beneath me I figured out a good way to present my catch to the camera safe in the knowledge that should the fish fall it wasn't landing on rocks. Another good reason to use one.

Jake admires another beautiful Loch Lubnaig perch.

I prepare to land another feisty fish.

I figure out a one handed way to hold a perch to show it off in all its glory.

We released a few of our fish via a small stream that ran into the loch. This gave us the opportunity to take some cool "Jaws" shots. This one shows the power of the fish as with one swish of its tail it creates a wake and heads at speed back towards the loch.

Jake managed to resist the temptation to go smaller and lighter for a change.

No need really as the perch were loving his Lunker City Swimmin Ribster.

When he wasn't looking I stole a Fish Arrow Flash J lure in Black Gold out of Jake's bag. Cool lures that look like minnows and sit horizontally when fished on a drop shot rig due to an air pocket inside. That's exactly how I caught this perch.

Drop shotting a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in Sun Perch also proved irresistable. You can just about see it in the back of this perch's mouth!

Catching a load of these pristine perch is hard to beat and to be honest we weren't even really trying that hard!

Jake got the heaviest catch of the night after bullying this lump up from the depths.

I caught this little chap on a Live Baby Shad in Pink & Pearl, again stolen from Jake, and whilst experimenting with a retrieve twitching pattern I'm calling "The Pink Panther". He bought these pink ones due to all the fish he's had with his Jackson Cymo in pink. The success of my new twitching pattern caused me to go a bit "Kenneth Williams".

As darkness fell and the moon shone in the sky we reluctantly headed home rather pleased with the evenings exploits.

It was really good to fish with Jake again as apart from briefly meeting up for an hour or two down in Cornwall it's been a over a month since we have fished together and I must say I had a nice relaxing time fishing, enjoyed a good chat about what we'd both been up to recently and it was just what I needed really. I was glad I'd made the choice to go.

Tight lines, Scott.

Who fishes wins.

On Tuesday this week I met up with two of my mates, Keith and Mark, for a trip to the Trossachs to fish a new venue for perch and pike. Keith's new job as a bus driver/tour guide has taken him past many stunning places that he is now desperate to go and fish. Before picking Mark up at about noon, Keith and I headed down the coast to Dunbar to mess about for an hour or so. We started off in the harbour and while the large spring low meant most of it was dry and the rest was covered by only maybe a foot of water or less experience told me there may still be fish there. As predicted a few tiny flatfish were around but something else caught my eye, lots of sand gobies in certain spots. Alas I didn't have any of my smaller hooks with me and despite trying for a while couldn't hook any of them on my #8 jighead, the smallest I had available. Having made a mental note of the areas where they were most plentiful for a return visit the next day we headed over the back of the harbour to explore the exposed rockpools. Dropping  small sections of Isome mounted on jigheads into them saw us catch a few long spined seas scorpions and time flew by as we enjoyed the sunshine and hopped around the rocks looking for the little aggressive fish. So much so that we lost track of time and were late leaving to go and pick up Mark.

Loads of attitude for such a small species.

A short drive up to Haddington later and with Mark ready to go and quickly loading his gear into the car were soon back on the road. As we were soon pretty much on one of the routes Keith takes people on guided tours he inevitably slipped into guide mode and told us some interesting historical facts related to the various battles and key events that had taken place at certain spots as we were passing them which I found very interesting. He also told us about some of the stupid questions that people ask him as well. When we passed the David Stirling Memorial after leaving the M9 I decided to stop so I could have a quick break from driving and also having passed it a couple of times before I thought it would be nice to take a closer look.

The David Stirling Memorial stands on the Hill of Row near Doune.

David Stirling. Founder of the Special Air Service. Also a keen angler.

Don't believe me? Here is the proof.

Back on the road again we stopped in Callander to acquire our permits and then headed further west up and over a large hill on some quite windy roads before reaching Aberfoyle after which the road was single track with passing places and we passed some absolutely stunning lochs at the side of the road as we went, soon arriving at Keith's chosen one, Loch Chon. Parking the car in a large passing place we tackled up and headed down to the waters edge. At this point we decided to split up. Keith headed towards the head of the loch whilst Mark and I worked our way down the eastern shore.

Some sections of the eastern shore were quite lovely.

Whilst the scenery was stunning, Mark and I had covered a fair amount of the shore without so much as a nibble and I was beginning to think that it was going to be one of those days when Mark called out that he had hooked a fish but just as I looked over it splashed in front of him and came off. Mark thought it was a small pike that had taken his Savage Gear Cannibal Shad and was quite gutted to have lost what would have been his first pike. Slightly encouraged however by at least finding out there were some fish around we continued working our way along the shore but no further action came our way. I began trying different lures and after a while I decided to throw caution to the wind and switched to a rather large 19cm Savage Gear 4Play in a rainbow trout pattern in the hope of tempting a big pike. The loch was still fairly shallow in front of us and I waded out a bit until I could see the drop off but it didn't look terribly deep beyond it and generally speaking the area we had covered had been rather featureless so we decided to head further along the shore to a spot where a small stream flowed in and there seemed to be a deeper drop off closer in. Casting out past this and slowly working the lure back, letting it sink down until I thought it was close to the bottom before cranking the reel's handle a few times, after about four or five retrieves the lure had come up over the drop off and had almost reached my rod tip when a pike suddenly appeared up over the drop off and lurched upwards grabbing the middle two sections of the lure before turning and charging off striping line from my reel as it went. Having waited so long for a bite I didn't want to lose the fish so I didn't put too much pressure on it and after a few small runs my first fish from Loch Chon was landed. I called to Mark and he came over to take a photo of me with it.

Obviously a tasty trout was irresistible.

Having seen the lure the pike had taken Mark quickly switched to a Savage Gear 4Play he had in the rather garish orange and yellow with black stripes "Golden Ambulance" pattern and we carried on fishing where I had caught the pike for a while before moving on. We then reached a large bay that was very shallow. I decided to have a break whilst Mark, who wasn't wearing waders, hopped out onto some rocks to get a bit of extra distance on his casts.

Mark gets ready to cast out his Savage Gear 4Play in "Golden Ambulance".

We were quite far down the loch by this point and I could no longer see Keithand with no signal on our mobile phones we couldn't get in touch with him to find out where he was or how he had been getting on. After speaking to Mark we decided to head back up the loch to see if we could see him on the opposite shore and I thought I could but wasn't sure so I decided to shout to see if he could hear me and respond.  He did and we soon had a conversation going although the rather large delayed echos of my voice were very strange. I asked what he had caught. "Perch and pike." was the reply. He asked what we had caught. "One pike." I shouted back. Mark and I decided at this point to walk back up and around to where he was and were soon past the point where we had all started before splitting up. As soon as we got near the head of the loch it quickly became apparent that there were a lot more fish holding features and when we saw some nice big weed beds we decided to pause and have a quick cast over the back of them. I went with a Relax Kopyto Shad and after a few casts using a slow steady retrieve I felt a solid take near the edge of a weed bed to my left and struck into a fish.

My second pike of the day was soon landed. Slightly smaller than my first.

Mark obviously was still keen to catch his first pike so we stayed at that spot for a little while but he had no luck. We then started working our way around towards Keith who had now started working his way back around towards us as well. Fishing as we went I hooked a third pike, much smaller then the previous two. Just after releasing it Keith arrived and when we explained what a relatively tough time we'd been having he was quite surprised. He'd obviously not heard me shouting "One pike." and instead told us he thought I had shouted "Lost count."! He explained that he had caught fish pretty much as soon as he had left us and had caught over thirty perch and four pike around the head of the loch, all taken on Lake Fork Live Baby Shads.

One of Keith's perch.

A nice jack too.

Basically his choice of heading to the top end of the loch had been a much better one than our decision to head down the eastern shore. There were much more fish holding features, large bays, deeper water and lots of weed beds. Luck of the draw really I suppose. He then went into guide mode again, fishing this time, giving Mark and I a tour of the spots where he'd caught the most perch, his pike and also told us that whilst he had been reeling in two of his perch they had been attacked by pike. With this most informative insight into the areas best fish holding locations Mark and I were soon into our first perch of the day and whilst Mark was after a pike I think by this point he was just glad to bust the blank!

Like the inhabitants of Loch Lubnaig, the Loch Chon perch were in pristine condition (apart from those who had been mauled by pike that is!).

How long have you had this perch? This isn't the predator you're looking for.

Keith's mini tour of predator hot spots continued and we made our way down the western side of the loch. On the way we had to cross a small stream which posed a problem for waderless Mark so Keith and I helped out.

With no waders Keith and I took turns to help Mark get across this small stream flowing into the head of the loch.

After catching a few more perch, by this point it was getting quite late so we started to make our way back around to the starting point. Mark was obviously still keen on getting himself a pike though so carried on having the odd cast as we went. By this point the midges were out in force and the nets were on.

Mark uses his "Golden Ambulance" 4Play to search for fishy patients.

As we got close to our starting point Keith hooked a pike on a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad and after carefully playing it, allowing it to run a few times as the jighead he was using can bend out sometimes under pressure, I waded in and after a few aborted attempts lifted it out for him. The small #4 jighead was barely hooked in the outside of its mouth and if he had tried to bully it I'm pretty sure it would have thrown the hook with a violent thrash.

Keith's fifth pike of the day was long and lean with a few battle scars.

A nice way to end the day for Keith.

Mark was still trying to catch one but despite a few casts at the nice weedy spot where I'd caught my second pike he still had no luck and parked the "Golden Ambulance" before we headed back to the car. Whilst it was a shame that Mark had hooked and lost his first pike, all in all it was a very successful first trip to a new water with fifty five perch and eight pike landed. The decision to split up obviously paid off too even if Mark and I had spent a lot of time fishing with little reward whilst Keith enjoyed constant action. The lack of mobile phone reception meant that the text Keith had sent early in the afternoon to say he had found some fish didn't reach my phone until we were well on the way home! I wish I had thought of shouting up the loch to him a bit earlier than I did or perhaps I can pick up some cheap radios from somewhere so that on future trips to new venues we can get regular updates from each other should we decide to split up again to cover more ground. Anyway another nice freshwater venue to visit in future and some of the other waters we passed on the way will need to be explored too which I'm looking forward to as well.

Tight lines, Scott.