A silver thread in a ribbon of green.

Keen to catch a few more freshwater species, I popped out in the evening earlier this month to target a couple on the Water of Leith. The river which runs all the way through Edinburgh, used to be badly polluted, but these days it’s in much better condition. Such is the transformation, it’s been described as “a silver thread in a ribbon of green”. Most anglers who fish the river target brown trout, but more often than not, when I visit, it’s to target some of the venues smaller inhabitants. With exactly this in mind, I'd arranged to meet up with my mate Ryan to help him catch his first bullhead, but arriving early, I decided to see if I could catch a few minnow before it got dark. The water level was very low, and I didn't get many bites, but eventually I caught my target species from a deeper area at the water’s edge.

The humble minnow. Another species added to this year's tally.

As light faded, I headed downstream to meet up with Ryan at my favourite bullhead spot. Once it got dark, they began to appear from underneath rocks, their daytime hiding spots, and dropping a single maggot down in front of their faces, we were soon catching a few of them.

The bullhead is present in large numbers in the Water of Leith. 

Catching them isn't exactly difficult, so I usually try to hunt for larger specimens. Shining my headtorch around, searching for a monster, I spotted a small common eel poking its head out from underneath a boulder. Dropping my bait in its vicinity had the desired result, but the slippery fish quickly swam backwards into its hole. I didn't think I'd be able to successfully extract it, but to my surprise, a bit of gentle pressure did the trick.

The smallest common eel I've ever caught.

As the eel quickly destroyed my running ledger, tying it in knots, and we'd caught plenty of bullhead, we called an end to what had been a very productive evening after I unhooked the slippery rig wrecker and returning it to the river.

Tight lines, Scott.

In the mood for micros.

I’ve been out enjoying a few short freshwater micro fishing sessions over the last few days. I just got the urge to go out and do it, I’m not sure why. Maybe I’ve been fishing in saltwater too much lately! Anyway, fishing locally, it’s been good fun and a relaxing way to spend an hour. The first target species was the humble minnow. I caught a few of them from the Water of Leith, fishing small chunks of maggot on a tanago hook under a pole float.

 Minnow are one of my favourite UK freshwater mini species. 

A few days later, I visited Inverleith Pond. As far as I’m aware, there is only one species of fish present in this small, semicircular body of water in Inverleith Park. I’m not sure if fishing is even permitted, but there are no signs saying it’s not, so until I’m told otherwise I’ll continue to visit it once every few years when I get the urge to! Again, a tiny piece of maggot was fished under a pole float to try and tempt some of the pond’s three spined stickleback. Plenty of interest was registered on my tiny float, but I struggled to connect with most of the bites. I guess the average size was pretty minuscule!

I only managed to catch five three spined stickleback. Still, it was an enjoyable little session. 

After dark the same day, I popped out again. This time armed with my headtorch to go hunt some bullhead in the rocky shallows of the Water of Leith. Catching them is ridiculously easy. Just scan your headtorch over the gaps in the rocks until you spot one on the bottom, and slowly lower a maggot down in front of their face. No need to chop a small piece of maggot off, they have relatively large mouths for a small fish! A little patience is required, because their response isn’t always instantaneous, sometimes they sit motionless ignoring the wriggling bait for a short time. Eventually though, they give in to temptation and lurch forward, greedily guzzling it down. 

Experts at hiding during the day. After dark, no so clever. 

So, micro fishing has added another three species to this year’s tally. I don’t really have a species target in mind for this year. My focus has instead been shifted towards trying to catch new species. This doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy catching much more familiar species, even the small ones!

Tight lines, Scott.

A Canadian species hunter in Scotland.

Back in July I received an email from a Canadian species hunter named Brad. He told me he was coming to Scotland in September, asked if I could help him out with some advice and also if I would like to meet up with him, if I was free. He wanted to focus on freshwater fish, so I told him that I’d be happy to give him some info on places to fish for a few different species, but sadly I’d only be able to meet up with him for one short evening session, as I’d be flying off to Crete shortly after he arrived here.

We met up on the Sunday evening before I went on holiday, just as light was about to begin fading. Our targets from the Water of Leith were minnow and bullhead. I arrived a little while before Brad did and caught a minnow almost straight away.

Bingo! A small piece of a maggot on a tanago hook fished simply with a single split shot proving to be an effective combination.

Once Brad arrived he quickly set up his rod, we fished away and chatted about fishing, in particular species hunting, something we’re both passionate about. It didn’t take Brad too long to catch his first ever minnow, so we headed downstream to my top secret bullhead spot, the one I take everyone to. Once it got dark they began appearing from out underneath their rocky hiding places in good numbers. They find maggots right in front of their faces pretty irresistible, and we had both caught quite a few of them in no time at all. I mentioned it was possible to catch the same fish a few times if you watched where it went when you returned it. This challenge was quickly accepted, and Brad managed to catch the same fish four times. Each time he released the ravenous little fish, it just swam down onto the nearest small rock right at our feet and sat still. Dropped his maggot in front of it again, it gobbled it again. Four times!

The bullhead certainly isn't the brightest of fish, or maybe they just have a very short memory!

I enjoyed our brief session together and the next day Brad popped into my work to get some fishing tackle before heading off to continue his Scottish adventure. It would have been nice to have fished with him again, but he had left Scotland before I returned from Crete. Whilst I was away, and he was species hunting around Scotland, we kept in touch and exchanged updates about the species we had both been catching. Some of the information I gave played a part in some of his successes and that was pleasing. I think Brad is maybe the fourth person who I’ve successfully taken minnow and bullhead fishing this year. I like helping out other anglers regardless of the target. Perhaps I should start advertising my services as a multi species guide!?

Tight lines, Scott.

The end of the rainbow?

Last month, the day before I flew out to Singapore, my luggage was all packed, so I headed out for a couple of hours to fish the Biel Water. Many years ago I caught some small rainbow trout there, escapees from a fish farm that used to sit next to the small East Lothian river. I wasn’t sure if the farm was still operational but thought I’d try my luck anyway. When I arrived, I slowly crept down to the water's edge and quickly set about freelining single maggots. I soon discovered there were lots of minnow and the odd three spined stickleback in the first pool I tried.

I've caught quite a lot of minnows this year,...

...and a fair amount of three spined stickleback too!

As I fished away, there were lots of insects hatching and a kingfisher flew upstream in a streak of electric blue. At one point a mayfly landed on my rod a couple of times. Raising my rod up towards myself, I carefully cupped my hand over it and then picked it up for closer inspection. 

I'd never seen a mayfly so close before. Insects are strange looking things!

Suddenly I realised that I was having so much fun catching lots of diminutive fish that I'd forgotten the reason for my visit! Refocussing, I headed upstream to try another pool. Almost immediately, I caught a small trout from under some overhanging tree branches, but it wasn't the species I was after.

Not the trout I was after.

I fished on for a couple of hours, catching more minnows and another two small brown trout. I didn’t catch any rainbow trout, as I've already said, I’m not even sure the fish farm is still operating and if not any escapees might be long gone. I'll just have to visit a trout fishery later in the year to catch a rainbow trout I suppose. Not my favourite places to frequent but at least there’s also the chance to catch a brook trout too while I'm there.

Tight lines, Scott.

An American species hunter in Scotland.

At the start of May I received an email from a young American species hunter by the name of Brandon. One of the things I really like about writing the blog is that it occasionally brings myself and other like minded anglers together. In his email he explained he enjoyed my blog, would be visiting Scotland at the end of May and was keen to meet up, so we could do some fishing together. I told him that I would meet up with him when he was in Edinburgh, and I'd help him catch a few new species for his life list. After I finished work last Sunday I picked him up from his Airbnb, and we visited the Water of Leith, as Brandon was keen to catch his first bullhead. Waiting for it to get dark, we targeted minnows for an hour or so. They weren't particularly active however, although I did manage to catch one. It was an opportunity to try out a small "photo tank" that I recently bought to take to Singapore with me.

My new photo tank works quite well I think.

Once it got dark we headed to my favourite bullhead spot and began searching the shallows with our head torches. The bullheads were out in numbers, and as usual, couldn't resist a maggot on a small hook dropped right in front of their relatively large mouths. Before long we’d lost count of how many we'd caught. Whilst Brandon took lots of photos of bullheads I began scouring the bottom for bigger specimens. A monster bullhead soon appeared, out from underneath an overhanging section of the bank. A new personal best bullhead was soon in my photo tank!

Brandon photographs the latest addition to his life list.

My new PB bullhead. Possibly. I didn't weigh it.

Our mission accomplished, we headed back to the car. After dropping Brandon off, I headed home, satisfied with a successful guiding effort. I was working in the morning, but we arranged to meet up the following evening again.

Whilst I was working on Monday, Brandon was out fishing on Granton Breakwater. He wanted to catch some wrasse and I told him that this was a good spot to try. The wind had a made it a pretty tough session, but he caught his first ever ballan wrasse, so he was happy with that. I managed to get away from work thirty minutes early and headed down there to pick him up. Off we went to Dunbar Harbour for a session targeting, to begin with, flounder and plaice. We arrived a little too early but as the tide flooded and the depth of water over the sandy corner we were fishing in increased, we eventually spotted some flat fish chasing our ragworm sections as we slowly twitched them along the bottom. My first fish of the evening was a small plaice, which was my first of the year. Plaice make up a small percentage of the flatfish I've caught in Dunbar Harbour of the years. so it was a slice of luck to catch one straight away. It was followed fairly quickly by a small flounder.

A small plaice. Another species added to my 2023 tally.

A flounder soon followed.

Soon afterwards Brandon also got lucky and caught his first ever plaice. After the sun had set and light begun to fade I hooked a big flounder that unfortunately came off just as it was coming to the surface. A short time later, Brandon hooked a big one too. Perhaps it was the fish I'd lost. It was certainly too big to swing up, so I grabbed my 5.9m landing net from the car and netted it for him.

A tiny plaice. Size doesn't matter to species hunters. They all count.

Brandon uses a Tupperware tub full of water to photograph his fish. This is a great tool for identification purposes and shows most of the fishes features very well.

A big flounder. Size doesn't matter to species hunters. They all count.

Once it was dark we spent a couple of hours fishing into some mixed ground at the back of the harbour. We were hoping that shore rockling, five bearded rockling or viviparous blenny might take our worm baits, but it wasn't to be and at midnight we packed up and headed back up the A1. The following day I was off work and Brandon had to be back in Edinburgh by 19:00, so we decided to make an early start to a day of species hunting.

After getting about three and a half hours sleep, I jumped in the car and picked Brandon up at 06:00. We drove west to East India Harbour in Greenock where we had a small list of species that I thought Brandon and I could catch around there. A common dragonet was our first target. Rigging up running ledger rigs and baiting small hooks with a little section of ragworm, we cast out as far as we could and slowly wound in. On my second cast I felt a bite and stopped winding. Waiting a second or two before lifting, I felt the weight of a fish and reeled it in. When a stunning male common dragonet appeared on the surface I was absolutely delighted!

I’ve wanted to catch one of these for years! Absolutely stunning! Just look at those colours.

Brandon caught his first common dragonet shortly afterwards too, so our session had got off to the perfect start. After a few more common dragonet and some dab from further out we began fishing over the rocky, weedy ground closer in, but surprisingly this didn't produce anything, so Brandon suggested we try fishing inside the harbour instead.

Dab are another species you can catch at range from East India Harbour.

This suggestion proved to be a great one. In the past I've never had much joy fishing inside the harbour but as soon as we took a look we spotted lots of wrasse moving around over the rocky bottom, including some pretty big rock cook wrasse. One hook paternoster rigs were dropped down and quite a few wrasse were soon being caught. Mainly rock cook wrasse and corkwing wrasse, but we also had some goldsinny wrasse and a ballan wrasse too. The rock cook wrasse and goldsinny wrasse were firsts for Brandon. He'd caught corkwing wrasse in the Mediterranean before but one of his was the most turquise coloured example I've ever seen!

Another very colourful UK wrasse species, the rock cook is probably my favourite.

Brandon caught this bright turquoise corkwing wrasse.

The Tupperware tub put to good use again. Look at those colours!

We didn't catch as many goldsinny wrasse as I was expecting. They normally make up the bulk of catches over the rough ground close in.

As the sun got a little higher in the sky, things really slowed down. We watched as all the wrasse that had been cruising around headed down into the gaps in between the boulders to seek shade. A few shoals of sand smelt turned up at this point, and we caught a few of those, another new species for Brandon. Before we began fishing on the outside again, Brandon caught a rock goby, a black goby and a two spotted goby. The last two being new to him.

The Tupperware tub is great for capturing the detail of fish's fins like those of this sand smelt.

Switching back to fishing the outside of the harbour the bites dried up almost completely, and I only caught three fish in a couple of hours, a common dragonet, a goldsinny wrasse and a black goby.

I'd have preferred to catch a rock goby as I'd already caught a few black goby this year.

It was the early afternoon by this point, and as the fishing had slowed to a crawl, we decided to switch to freshwater targets and headed back east to Magiscroft Coarse Fishery. Brandon wanted to catch his first gudgeon and it's probably the best place to catch them that I know. On the way we hit heavy traffic as we approached the middle of Glasgow. Brandon took the opportunity to have a nap.

A tired species hunter.

Before long the traffic started moving again and we soon arrived at Magiscroft. It didn't take us too long to set up some puddle chucker floats and catch a few gudgeon from a shallow peg on the venue's main loch. All mine were pretty average in size, but Brandon managed to catch a couple that were pretty chunky!

An average gudgeon. Size doesn't matter to species hunters. They all count.

A large gudgeon. Size doesn't matter to species hunters. They all count.

Having caught what we came for, as well as a few roach and perch, we then jumped back in the car and headed to the River Forth so we could spend an hour or so trying to catch dace. I thought it might be tough as the water levels were very low due to the lack of rain recently and this proved to be the case. We trotted maggots down the faster flowing water but all we caught were lots of minnow and the odd salmon parr.

An Atlantic salmon parr in my photo tank. Another species towards this year's challenge.

Soon it was time to go, so we packed up and headed back to the capital where I dropped Brandon off at his Airbnb. It was great to meet him and I really enjoyed both our fishing and our conversations about fish, fishing and species hunting. I hope our paths cross again in the future, and we'll hopefully keep in touch in the meantime.  I enjoyed helping him add ten species to his life list whilst we were together and also gave him advice that helped him add two more in the shape of the ballan wrasse he caught from Granton Breakwater and I also gave him information that led to him catching his first bitterling a couple of days after he left Edinburgh on his way to Manchester. Furthermore, whilst playing at being a guide, I'd also added another two species to my 2023 species hunting challenge, catching my first plaice and Atlantic salmon of the year. The large male common dragonet was probably my own highlight of our time together and is a capture I won't forget.

Tight lines, Scott.

Mystery fish?

I was told recently by a workmate that there were strange fish swimming about in big shoals in the Water of Leith. He’d seen them a few times and assured me they were “Definitely not minnows! 100%!”. So, after work on Wednesday evening, I went down to the spot where he’d seen them and freelined small maggots on a size 18 hook. You’ll never guess what I caught! Dozens of minnow!

Mystery solved!

I also caught a three spined stickleback. 

I wasn’t really that surprised to be honest. I mean, what else could it have been? Anyway, it was a fun way to spend an hour, so I can’t complain about the lack of strange fish too much! 

Tight lines, Scott.

Making good progress.

I popped out last night for a couple of hours to try and catch a minnow and a bullhead from the Water of Leith. Lillian came along to keep me company, get some fresh air and ended up taking a few photos for me as I accidentally left my phone in the flat. The session got off to a good start. Ledgering small maggots on a size 18 hook tied to a 2lb hook length at the first spot in the hope of catching a minnow, my first cast instead produced a small brown trout.

A very welcome bonus capture.

Things were slow after that, with my rod tip only twitching a few times ever so slightly. Possibly small fish having a go, but I suspect it may have been debris heading downstream bumping into my line, as none of the knocks developed into repeated rod tip movement. Once it got dark, I got my head torch out and began scanning the bottom close in for bullheads. They hide under rocks during the day, but once the sun goes down they come out into the open and are easy to spot despite their relatively good camouflage. The light reflecting from their eyes giving their position away. In the Water of Leith, as I’ve discovered over the last few years, there are lots of them. I saw dozens in the one small section I searched.

Sitting motionless on the bottom, even the full beam of my head torch doesn't spook them!

Catching them is very simple. You just have to lower a maggot in front of their faces and they usually eagerly snaffle it in one go!

There were plenty of small bullhead around, but I selectively targeted the bigger ones.

This was the biggest one I caught.

They are pretty greedy, aggressive little fish when presented with a wriggling maggot.

Just before we left, I spotted a fish that looked a little different. Suspecting it was perhaps a stone loach, I set about catching it. The fish wasn't too interested in my bait, but after a bit of persistence it eventually ate it. It turned out to be a minnow.

Resting in the shallow water, this minnow exhibited colours and tubercles on its head associated with spawning.

So, an enjoyable little session, and I’d successfully caught the two species I was after during it. Species caught whilst I'm on holiday this year will no doubt make up the majority of my 2023 tally, but if I’m to reach my goal of two hundred I’ll have to keep adding UK ones fairly regularly too. I’ve caught twenty eight here so far and think seventy is probably where I should be aiming for in UK species, so a third of the way into 2023 I’m probably on target to achieve that.

Tight lines, Scott.

Yet another rod added to my collection.

Last year after spending a day catching sticklebacks I decided to get myself a new rod for sessions targeting such small fish. After a bit of research online I treated myself to the smallest Shimotsuke Kiyotaki in the range, at only 180cm in length and weighing in at an incredible 15g I thought it was just what I was after for close range micro fishing. I think I'm correct when I say that technically it is actually a tenkara rod for use targeting small trout in small streams but to begin with I'll be using it to fish a variety of delicate bait presentations for little fish. This week I finally decided to do just that and have had several short sessions. My first was in Forthquarter Park behind the Edinburgh College's Granton campus. 

A lovely little pond in a nice park. Not sure if fishing is permitted.

The following evening after work I went out again with two of my mates, Gordon and Tomasz, to see if Inverleith Pond had any sticklebacks in it. Fishing the same float rig I managed a few including a few males resplendent in their full breeding livery.

The ambition of most Japanese tanago anglers is to catch a tanago (bitterling) that fits on a one yen coin. Completely wrong species of course but the smallest fish I caught almost fit on mine.

The following evening after work I went out again with two of my mates, Gordon and Tomasz, to see if Inverleith Pond had any sticklebacks in it. Fishing the same float rig I managed a few including a few males resplendent in their full breeding livery.

Lovely turquiose colour to this horny little stickleback's eyes and a bright red chin too. Mating season in full swing.

After an hour or so we walked to a nearby stretch of the Water of Leith where we found a pool to fish. I managed to pull out a few sticklebacks and a couple of small minnows. Tomasz was keen to try and tempt a brown trout so I let him borrow my "Bonito Basher". He set up a running ledger, was soon getting bites and before long he'd caught a fish. It was his first ever minnow and a fairly big one at that so a photograph was in order.

This greedy minnow took a #12 hook baited with double maggot.

Catching sticklebacks and minnows is fun but I wanted to see how my rod would handle some bigger fish so I headed to Eliburn Reservoir in Livingston on Wednesday evening. I've not fished there for a while and walking around it trying to find a peg to fish was tricky as there was a lot of weed around the margins. To be frank the venue's pegs could use a good raking out and all the weed made fishing tough. I ended up having to try and fish out beyond the weed and this meant I was fishing further out and deeper than was comfortable using the rod. Things were quite slow but eventually I managed a couple of perch.

Lots of these in Eliburn.

The rod handled these no problem at all and I'm still left curious just what it can handle. It was good to be out fishing again even if the sessions were very short. I'll be using the new rod again soon and will be targeting slightly bigger fish on it. I also have a strange desire to catch some gudgeon so it will be put to good use targeting them as well.

Tight lines, Scott.

Birds do it, bees do it...

I visited Eliburn reservoir again last week for another session fishing the waggler. I took some groundbait I found in my freezer with me and as well as some maggots I also took a tin of corn. Tossing in a few small balls of groundbait and feeding a few maggots saw lots of small perch greedily gobbling up my single maggot hookbait which kept me fairly busy. It was a lovely day and it was quite relaxing just sitting there watching my float as the sun beat down. After a while the little perch stopped biting and I reasoned that perhaps some bigger fish had moved into my swim. To try and see if I was right I switched to a bigger hook and fished corn. This didn't tempt any fish though so I tried three maggots on my hook instead. Eventually my float went quickly under and lifting my rod the fish was on but after a few seconds it managed to throw the hook. Shortly afterwards however I hooked another fish that felt about the same size as the escapee. It stayed on this time and after a few head shakes gave up fighting. A bream came to the surface where it lay motionless on its side, as they usually do once they give up. It was quickly drawn over my net and was unhooked on my mat. 

...even reservoir bream do it. The fish's forehead was covered with spawning tubercles.

A very nice looking fish indeed. Not a scale was out of place and every fin was perfect. Lovely.

Shortly afterwards a couple more much smaller bream were landed and a few roach too. In the afternoon heat things went very quiet though. As my float wasn't doing much my gaze wandered a bit and I spotted a three spined stickleback in the shallow water directly in front of my peg. I reeled in my rig and spent five minutes trying to catch it. Sticklebacks do it as well and he was far to preoccupied tending to his nest under a submerged broken branch to be interested in half a maggot dangled in his vicinity. Casting my float back out bites remained few and far between so I decided to pack up and head to the River Forth near Stirling to see if there were any dace around. Upon arrival I couldn't resist dropping a maggot down the side and pulling out a few humble minnows first though.

The minnow is a nice looking little fish If you ask me. 

Getting down to business I started firing maggots upstream and letting my float run down through an area in front of me between some reed beds. The river was very low and bites were hard to come by but after catching a few tiny salmon parr and a small brown trout I finally managed to catch a dace. 

Evidence that some salmon have been doing it as well.

A nice little brown trout. 

Small but perfectly formed. A nice reward for my persistence but sadly it would be the only dace caught.

Having had a lot of fun catching a variety of freshwater species I decided to call an end to what had been both a relaxing and enjoyable day's fishing. I can see myself doing more float fishing over the summer and maybe I'll venture down south to try and catch some of the U.K.'s freshwater species that I've never caught before. Goldfish would be an nice species to catch and Forest Lane Fishery near York seems to be the closest commercial that has a few of them in its ponds.

Tight lines, Scott.