Blogging again.

So, it's been a while. Over two years in fact have passed since my last post on the blog. I've still been fishing with varying regularity during that time but just haven't felt inclined to write about it. As well as catching a few fish I also manged to catch Covid recently too, not a pleasant experience but I'm almost back to normal now. Over the summer I achieved a personal fishing milestone that I'm quite proud of so I've decided to start rambling on here again and will be posting a few reports covering a few trips I've done in the last two years and also sessions working towards the goal I reached. My trumpet isn't going to blow itself and I figure some fellow anglers out there may even like to see some photos of my captures or read about my exploits perhaps. Anyway, I'll get started...

At the end of August last year I headed to the west coast of Scotland with my mate Nick for a few day's relaxation, camping and fishing. We based ourselves in Auchindarroch Touring Park and headed out each day to various different spots to see how many species we could catch. We fished various styles, everything from jigs on light tackle to big baits on heavy ground beachcasters and it didn't take us long to start racking the species up. During the daytime we caught lots of fish, all five main UK wrasse species, most members of the cod family and various mini species. Those who know me or read this blog will already be aware that I love mini species!

A short session at Ganavan Sands beach saw us catching lots of sand gobies using a simple split shot rig, tiny hooks and tiny pieces of raw prawn.

Sticking with the small hooks and little chunks of raw prawn the next day, I caught this stunning rook cook wrasse when we visited Lochaline West Pier.

Lochaline West Pier is one of the best spots I know to catch an incredibly wide variety of mini species. Nick caught this leopard spotted goby while we fished there.

I also caught this large butterfish which was also tempted by some raw prawn on a small hook.

Heading out after dark a few times also saw us adding to our species hunt tally. I was hopeful that I might catch a three bearded rockling, a species I've caught before but never in Scotland. Unfortunately our night time sessions weren't as productive as our daylight ones. I caught a three bearded rockling sized ling which I briefly thought was a three bearded rockling when it surfaced but my excitement didn't last long when I realised what it actually was. Nick landed a couple of dogfish and he then caught a tadpole fish which he was over the moon about.

We were on the rocks, set up and fishing at close range into deep kelpy ground by sunset. Who needs a tripod?

Not Nick's first tadpole fish but still a great catch nonetheless. Probably the coolest fish of the trip.

All too soon though the day arrived when we had to get up, pack the tents away and make the drive home. The species hunting had been very enjoyable and we ended up catching just over twenty species between the two of us. On our way back to the east coast we stopped off at Loch Lubnaig for a couple of hours for a spot of ultralight sport targeting it's pristine perch.

Pink has always been a successful colour choice for me to dropshot for these lovely Loch Lubnaig perch.

It was also good to discover that the three big hairy beasts that live by the loch were still around. They must be getting on a bit now.

All in all it was a very enjoyable, much needed short break in good company in a beautiful part of Scotland, even if the pesky three bearded rockling had eluded me yet again. I was determined to add new species to my Scottish tally so I'd return again earlier this year to have another crack at catching one.

Tight lines, Scott.

If you can think of a better title let minnow.

With a day off on Tuesday and all the preparations done before I headed to Zakynthos the following day for a week long holiday I decided to relax and what better way to relax is there than, you guessed it, a spot of fishing? After a lie in I jumped in the car and drove west, my first stop being the River Forth near Stirling where my target species was the humble minnow. Fishing a sensitive waggler in the margin I had soon caught a dozen of them and a few small dace too. 

Minnows are quite pretty little fish if you take a moment to admire them. 

Pleased to have added another species to this years tally I headed off to Loch Lubnaig to try and catch an Arctic char. As they are a fish normally found in deep water I decided to fish using a swim feeder. Casting out every ten minutes or so I patiently watched the tip of my rod waiting for it to hopefully pull round. In a bit of a trance I suddenly felt something on my hand. Looking down a strange looking insect had landed on me. After looking at it briefly and popping it on the ground I looked up to see my rod tip gently nodding away and soon landed the culprit, a small brown trout. 

Not sure what kind of insect this is. A beetle of some description I think*.

Not the salmonoid I was after. A beautiful fish all the same and my first brown trout of the year too. 

After a while with no more action I moved further down the loch and started fishing the waggler again. Casting out just beyond a row of weed and catapulting a few maggots in around my float after a while it went under and I caught a second brown trout. Again, the trout was followed by a period of inactivity so I started fishing in the margins for minnows again, discovered there were large shoals of them and was soon catching a small fish almost every cast. 

A lovely day on Loch Lubnaig. One of my favourite places to fish. 

The Loch Lubnaig minnows had a much more defined dark stripe down their flanks. 

By the early evening I had caught over fifty minnows and with the sun shining it had been a most pleasant way to spend a day. That was the first time I've fished both these venues this year and I think I'll return to both soon. I'd like to use my centrepin reel to trot maggots for the River Forth's dace and I have to return to Loch Lubnaig with some lures to catch and admire some of its pristine perch. 

Tight lines, Scott.

*I've been informed by my mate Nick that the insect above is in fact a red legged shield bug. 

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.

Fisherman's Friends.

No, this post has nothing to do with the brand of strong menthol lozenges produced by Lofthouse company in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England that no self respecting skipper will leave port without. It's me being soft and reflecting upon how lucky I am to have met many people I now consider friends through my love of fishing. I suppose this is true when you indulge in any hobby but for me my rather obsessive love of fishing has led me to meet some fantastic people who all to some degree also have an angling addiction problem too.

Can you even still buy these?

This week on my two days off and also after work on Thursday I went fishing with three of my fishing pals, meeting up with a different one each day. Unfortunately my best fishing friend of all Jake couldn't make any of these trips. He was supposed to be coming along on one of them but unfortunately his van broke down whilst he was working that day which meant he couldn't make it. We'll catch up soon enough though no doubt!

On Tuesday I headed down to St Abbs Head to meet up with local rockhopping angler Richie to try our luck from the rocks beneath the lighthouse up there. Before meeting him however I popped into Dunbar on my way down the coast and enjoyed an hour or so messing about in the rockpools and in the harbour at "flattie corner". There were plenty of long spined sea scorpions around. Dangling chunks of Isome on a 0.9g #10  Ecogear Shirasu Fine jighead in likely looking spots I had in no time at all racked up ten of them and a solitary blenny. A few casts over the clean sandy bottom of the harbour soon had loads of little flat fish in pursuit of my lure and two of them were soon hooked and landed. I was hoping for a plaice as last year Dunbar harbour was full of them but both of them were flounders.

I caught these two oddly coloured long spined sea scorpions from the same hiding place.

Blennies are ace. If you don't like them there's something wrong with you.

Small but perfectly formed, these little flounder are pretty cool too. Watching groups of them chase your lure and fight over it is great fun.

Quite pleased with my fish filled start to the evening I jumped back in the car and drove down to meet up with Richie hoping to catch some bigger fish. After a short drive up to the car park next to the lighthouse we were soon making our way down a fairly well worn path to the rocks below. The climb down to the mark was fairly easy.

The lighthouse and fog horn on the cliff top high up above us.

Once down there we were met by the hundreds of sea birds who are resident on some of the cliff faces down there. The gully in front of us was almost like a busy airport with birds flying out to sea and returning with small baitfish in their mouths before swooping up and perching on tiny ledges closely huddled together. Some of the birds also flew down and landed in the water fairly close in. Some of the landing were not very graceful to say the least and a few were so bad they had me in fits of laughter. Setting up our gear Richie headed to the point and fishing a small metal with a piece of red Gulp! Sandworm attached had soon caught a few coalfish and a couple of pollock. I was keen on fishing the gully with a Lunker City Swimmin Ribster on a weedless jighead smeared in Captain Mike's Sardine scent and was twitching it along the bottom in front of me. I had just had a couple of bites that I was sure was a wrasse when Richie hooked a nice fish, his rod bent right over and the fish started stripping line from his reel.

Richie puts his ultra light rod and his reel's drag through their paces.

After a few power dives the fish was played out and came to the surface. Landing it would be tricky from our elevated position but I scrambled down the rocks as far as I could and handlined the fish up for Richie. It was a cracking pollock and Richie was very pleased.

Richie's best pollock so far this year.

After Richie had returned the fish I went back to where I had been fishing and cast back to the spot where I had registered the bites. I didn't get anymore though so I joined Richie at the point and switched to a new style of jighead I've bought to try, a 3g #6 AquaWave Rock Bait, and threaded on a long section of red Gulp! Sandworm. Richie was on a bit of a roll by now and had caught a few more nice coalfish but for some reason I just wasn't having any joy so I switched to a small metal and finally caught a coalfish too. I then hooked a decent coalfish that went ballistic just as it got close but it managed to throw the hook just as I was about to try and lift it up. Richie then hooked another nice fish, its headshakes led him to believe it was a cod but unfortunately he lost it. We carried on fishing for a while and I caught a few more coalfish and a single pollock whilst Richie tried fishing in the gully where I had been earlier but before we knew it the sun had begun to dip over the horizon and we decided to call it a night and climb back up to the top while it was still light.

Time to climb back up before it gets dark.

On the way back up we spotted a few gullies that had some nice big boulders in them that look like they'll be great for wrasse so I'd like to figure out how to access those spots. I really enjoy fishing in places like that. Rockpooling and messing around in harbours is great fun but there's something special about fishing from secluded rock marks surrounded by cliffs that I really love. I really want to spend a lot more time up St Abbs Head this summer as I feel it has massive potential for both lure and bait fishing especially if you are prepared to try different tactics than those normally employed by others who fish that type of mark. It's the type of place you could spend a lifetime exploring and still only barely scratch the surface. I'm sure Richie will be up for a few more trips up there to explore it with me. So my first fishing trip to St Abbs over, I drove Richie back to his van and we both headed home.

On Wednesday afternoon I met up with Mark, one of the lads I've been going up to Applecross with in Aug the last few years. This years fishing trip isn't looking likely so instead we've agreed to meet up a few times and go fishing for the day. Wednesday was the first time this year we've met up and we decided to go for a spot of lure fishing for freshwater predators and hopefully get Mark his first ever pike and perch. First stop was the Falkirk Wheel section of the Forth & Clyde Canal but when we got there the sun was shining, a fairly constant wind was blowing straight along the canal and the water was quite coloured up too, all of which made me think we might struggle a bit.

Lovely day but not ideal conditions for catching pike.

My concerns were soon justified and after an hour or so of working our way along the canal trying different lures we decided to move to another stretch about eight miles further west that had a few more natural water features and shady spots that I hoped would hold some fish.

I was hopeful that some pike would be lurking under the lily pads or in the reeds and shade provided by overhanging trees on the opposite bank.

Arriving there we spoke to another angler who told us that he hadn't caught anything. Not the news we wanted but with a few more clouds now overhead and the wind dying down slightly I was hopeful we would get some interest in our lures. Working our way along it was a while before I finally spotted some fish, a few roach and called along to Mark to let him know there were some signs of life at last. Finishing my next retrieve I was just about to lift my lure out when a small jack quickly appeared from the middle of the canal and had a rather half hearted go at it before hovering next to it. Letting it drop to the bottom I gave it a few tiny twitches and the little pike had a second and then a third more aggressive go at it. Not sure if it had the hook in its mouth or not I gently struck and succeeded in hooking it. Soon landed, it was a little bit of encouragement that perhaps there were a few pike around that were active after all, so we decided to continue fishing the canal for a bit longer to try and get Mark a pike too.

A small jack but a most welcome one.

We continued heading along towards a large basin with quite a lot of lily pads and reed beds on the far side. Mark then hooked a fish and his rod tip started nodding away. I told him to take his time and just as I got the net ready it came to the surface and we were both quite surprised to see an eel! Instead of waiting for the net Mark just lifted it out onto the bank. Having caught one recently I knew how difficult they can be to handle but Mark told me he knew how to calm them down. What happened next had me in stitches. Mark placed the eel on its back and began rubbing it from head to tail. This had the desired effect rather quickly and the fish was soon rather limp and easy to handle. After a quick photo of the "Eel Stroker" with his victim, the eel was popped back and quickly came around before it slowly slithered off through the rocks and other debris on the bottom.

Mark the eel stroker with a fairly limp easy to handle eel. I wish I had known about this technique when I caught one the other week!

Shortly afterwards I had a small pike nipping at my lure again and let Mark have a go in the spot where I thought it was. He had no luck trying to tempt it though so we started heading back to the car. I had one more small jack follow my lure and again Mark had a few casts in the vicinity without reward so we decided to head to our next venue, Loch Lubnaig, to try and get Mark his first perch. Having been there recently with Jake and caught over twenty between us I was very confident getting Mark one would be easier than the search for pike had turned out to be. Having learnt an itchy lesson during that visit I had brought both of us midge nets ready for the little buggers should they appear and we were quickly fishing at my favourite spot. My rod was already set up and I cockily told Mark I'd probably have a perch by the time he had set up his. Pretty soon Mark was fishing next to me though and the lack of bites was quite worrying at first until I felt a few taps and then the weight of a fish. I smiled over at Mark who was concentrating on his own fishing and hadn't noticed the bend in my rod. With the fish at my feet I was just about to lift it out of the water when it spat the jighead out of its mouth and shot off back into the weeds in front of us. Bugger. I was hopeful it would be the first of a few but after a while with no more bites we decided to move along the shore to the small peninsula at the bend in the loch. Once there we carried on searching and after a while Mark called over to me that he was in. I didn't want a second perch to escape so I quickly reeled in and ran over with the net and Mark soon had his first ever perch safely in it.

Mark was very pleased with his first perch. I was quite relieved.

Another lovely Loch Lubnaig perch. Mark caught it on a Savage Gear Cannibal Shad.

Mark thought the perch was a lovely looking fish and was now keen to catch some more. I just wanted to catch my first one of the evening so we both kept searching the area. After deciding to try some metal lures I finally found a weedy area that held some fish and caught one on Jake's favourite lure for the venue, a Jackson Cymo, and soon after followed it up with a second perch after switching to my favourite lure for perch, the Lake Fork Live Baby Shad in golden shiner.

I continue working my lure through the weeds.

Finally I land a perch. Again a small but most welcome catch.

Shortly afterwards I caught a third small perch and by now the wind had dropped right off and the surface of the loch was like a sheet of glass, so much so we could see loads of trout rising all around us. Checking the time though it was getting quite late and I was just about to tell Mark it was probably time to call it a night and head home when his rod hooped over into another fish. He could tell it was a good one and after landing it he brought it over and we popped it in the net and kept it in the water while Mark got his camera to take a photo of it.

As light fades and the midges appear Mark dons his net and keeps trying for a second perch.

A much bigger specimen than his first he was over the moon. Just reward for his efforts.

Dusk over Lubnaig. What a backdrop to fish in front of.

Popping his perch back and watching it quickly shoot of over the drop off in front of us Mark was quite pleased and we both agreed it was the perfect way to end the session so we packed up and headed back to the car. The fishing may have been quite hard going but it was great to catch up with Mark again and whilst it's a shame that we probably won't be going to Applecross for our annual week long break the prospect of a day trip here and there is quite exciting and will allow me to take Mark to some more nice venues that will see him enjoying his fishing and hopefully catching a few more new species too.

After work on Thursday afternoon I met up with Keith, who I haven't fished with for a while as he's just started a new job, for a totally stress free evening drowning maggots at Eliburn Reservoir. Upon arrival we were shocked to find that we had the entire venue to ourselves and so we picked the newly refurbished and very comfortable double peg on the western side at the bottom end. With trees behind us providing some shade and hardly any wind the conditions were absolutely ideal for a spot of waggler fishing. The action was immediate and fishing about a rod length out and feeding maggots constantly kept the fish coming at a steady rate. Perch in particular were out in force and after a few of them, a roach each and an ide for me, Keith landed a rather nice rudd, the first I've seen caught from the venue.

Eliburn Rudd. Lovely.

Keith with his nice golden nugget.

After this we caught a load more perch, it didn't seem to matter what we did they kept coming and it seems they have almost reached plague proportions in the venue. They were all a fairly consistent small size until I caught one that was a bit of a bruiser by comparison.

A monster perch by Eliburn standards though as I've said before I'm sure there are bigger perch lurking in there waiting to be caught.

At this point a fleet of ducklings swam through our swim and gobbled up some of the maggots we were tossing in. We didn't mind and tossed them a few more handfuls which they greedily gobbled up as their mother watched from a distance.

How cute.

A few young lads turned up and set up opposite us. After a while it became apparent that they weren't catching anything. Keith and I have discussed this before and we still cannot work out how people struggle to catch fish there, especially when there are so many perch in it at the moment! Keith then caught an ide, I had a roach/bream hybrid and we both caught a load more perch with the odd roach managing to beat the little rampant spiky predators to our baits. When we had just about run out of maggots we started to pack up our gear and I had one last cast. Packing up the last few pieces of my gear into my seatbox I saw my float disappear out of the corner of my eye and gently lifted into a nice fish which turned out to be a roach.

A plump Eliburn roach. A nice way to end the session.

It was good to catch up with Keith again and whilst the bulk of the fish we caught were small perch, over fifty between us, with a few other species in amongst them the relaxing session was exactly what I had been looking for and I'm looking forward to meeting up with him again soon for a trip to Magiscroft to try for some carp. I'm also looking forward to fishing some new freshwater destinations with him because his new job has taken him to some potentially great places to fish where he has been doing a bit of reconnaissance and gathering information by speaking to the locals. More trips to the Trossachs and the Highlands await!

So three quite different sessions with three good friends. I'm looking forward to fishing with these three guys again soon, also with some of my other fisherman's friends in the future as well and hopefully meeting some new ones to go fishing with too.

Tight lines, Scott.