All the right fish in all the right places.

Species hunting is fairly straight forward, once you know where to go hunting. Over the years, I’ve built up a good knowledge of places where certain species can reliably be caught at certain times of the year. Sometimes however, I’ll be fishing a venue that I thought I was very familiar with and be pleasantly surprised when I catch something I’ve never caught there before. This happened to me on Tuesday. Fishing at Newhaven Harbour in Edinburgh, I caught a sand goby, a species I’ve never caught there before. 

My first ever sand goby at Newhaven Harbour.

Two days later, I was fishing at the inlet area at Torness Power Station. It was very windy and things were very slow. When I finally caught a fish, it was yet another goldsinny wrasse, so I decided to go catch something else. Heading around to the outflow area, I spent thirty minutes there sight fishing for common goby from a large rockpool. There were lots of them present, and using tanago hooks baited with tiny pieces of ragworm, I soon caught a few and popped them in my photo tank. I also caught a small common blenny and popped it in the tank too, using the white push plate as a divider to keep the two species separate.

Common by name…

…common by nature.

On my way back, I took a detour and decided to try to catch a lesser weever. The eastern end of Belhaven Bay produces this small venomous fish at the end of the summer, so I headed there. Fishing a scaled down three hook flapper rig, with 4lb short snoods, small sections of ragworm baited onto #12 hooks and using a 14g lead, I cast out just past where the waves were breaking. Holding my ultra light rod in hand, I slowly wound in my rig along the sandy bottom. After a few casts, I felt a rattle and after a brief pause, wound in a small flounder. 

There must be thousands of these along the length of the beach, feeding in just a few inches of water. 

With an easterly wind blowing, it was pretty cold, but I persevered, catching two more tiny flounder before a fourth bite produced what I was after, a lesser weever. Happy enough, and not wishing to further increase my chances of being stung, I carefully unhooked and returned it, called it a day and headed home having added another species to my 2024 tally.

The lesser weever, a nice looking little fish that lives in the sand. It has a nasty sting that causes a great deal of pain should its black dorsal fin or gill plate spines puncture your skin. 

The beach is popular with people who enjoy watersports including this large group of children who were learning to surf. No doubt barefoot!  I’m surprised more people don’t step on buried weever if I’m honest. I guess when they detect nearby movement, they simply wiggle up from where they’re hiding and swim away to safety.

On Thursday afternoon, I headed to fish in a drainage pond about an hour from Edinburgh. My mate Chris caught a lovely rudd there recently and was kind enough to share the location with me. He caught it on a dry fly, but I decided to fish a maggot under a puddle chucker float. It was a cold windy day, but thankfully the small body of water was low down in a depression, so I was slightly sheltered as I stood there fishing. Feeding a small amount of maggots fairly often, and casting my float repeatedly to try and induce a take “on the drop”, I missed a few very subtle knocks but after a few hours I’d had no luck catching my target for the day. A solitary small perch being the only thing preventing a blank. A reminder that just because you know where a species can be caught, doesn’t always mean you’ll catch it! 

The blank saver. 

Summer is gone. Autumn is here. Winter will follow. A slightly depressing thought. As the temperature continues to drop, the fishing is going to get more difficult. Opportunities to get out will no doubt start to thin out too as conditions deteriorate. Anyway, on a much more positive note, the weather on Malta looks great over the next week or so, and I’m flying out there early tomorrow morning. I can’t wait for some species hunting fun in the sun! I’m also going on a three week trip to Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand in November, so I’ve still got plenty of species hunting to look forward to. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Sunny, windy, overcast, rain and hailstone showers, with a chance of barbel.

You've got to love Scottish weather. I think someone once said “If you don't like Scottish weather, wait thirty minutes, and it is likely to change.”. Well that’s pretty much what happened recently when I visited Parkview Coarse Fishery for another attempt at catching my first Scottish barbel. 

The weather didn't know what it was doing. I wish I had taken a few more photos of this view to illustrate!

Fishing two rods to maximize my chances, maggot under an insert waggler on one, and a dendrobaena worm on a running ledger on the other, I soon caught a few roach, tiny perch and a single ide.

My first UK species of 2024 was a roach.

These little perch are plentiful, and a pain in the backside, truth be told.

This small ide would turn out to be the only one of the session. 

After a lull in the action, I caught a nice little tench. By that point all the fish had been caught on my float rod, but when something finally took an interest in my ledgered worm and pulled the tip of my feeder rod round, I lifted the rod quickly and set the hook. Winding the fish in, I got a very pleasant surprise when a very small barbel appeared. I quickly drew it over my net. Success!

I love tench. Such a lovely looking fish.

Can't really say the same of the barbel. It's not much of a looker really, is it? Anyway, I was happy to have added another species to my lifetime Scottish tally.

After a brief hailstone shower, things went very quiet. In amongst the occasional roach and perch, I caught a nice little golden tench. 

It's been a while since I caught one of these colourful chaps from a Scottish venue. Even nicer looking than the standard colouration if you ask me.

Well, that's another nemesis defeated. It took me long enough, and I’ve lost count how many attempts it took. I think I'll be targeting Siberian sturgeon at Drumtassie Coarse Fishery over the summer. Before that though, I’d be making a road trip down to England to target some unusual freshwater species that I haven't caught before.

Tight lines, Scott.

Tough fishing and ruffe fishing.

Earlier this week I visited Parkview Coarse Fishery for yet another attempt at catching my first Scottish barbel. The fishing was incredibly tough and after over eight hours of staring at the tip of my float all I was rewarded with were six tiny perch and a solitary roach. A very frustrating day’s fishing. I think I’ll take a break from fishing for barbel until the autumn.

Staring at a float can be both relaxing or infuriating. I guess which depends on how many times it moves!

The next day, I headed to Balmaha on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, a place I haven’t visited for many years. After parking the car and unloading my gear, I made my way along to the old pier, where I spent what remained of the morning and the best part of the afternoon feeder fishing. With my 2023 species hunt in mind, I was hoping to catch ruffe or maybe even powan. To begin with, all I caught were roach, but they were lovely fish, and it was a pleasure to briefly admire each one before slipping them back and watching them swim off.

Out in front of the old pier lies Inchcailloch, the Isle of the old woman.

All the roach I caught were in wonderful condition.

After a short break to eat my lunch, things slowed down a bit, but every now and then the tip of my rod would pull round and I’d lift into another roach or a perch. Eventually I hooked something very small and was over the moon when a ruffe came up to the surface.

If you ask me these little unwanted invaders are quite adorable, cheeky little fish.

The area behind me was very busy with tourists waiting for the ferry to arrive. Thankfully, almost all the ferries operating on the loch now use this new pontoon to the right of the old pier.

I carried on fishing until about 16:30 by which point I had almost run out of maggots. I'd caught a few more roach, but sadly no powan had been tempted by my colourful choice of presentation!

Red, white and blue. How very British!

With only a few dozen maggots left I headed back around to the car park and dropped off most of my tackle. I then grabbed my tanago gear and headed down to the boatyard where I spent an hour or so trying to locate nine spined stickleback, a species that is supposed to be found in Loch Lomond. There were certainly lots of small fish around but upon catching a few I discovered they were perch, roach and ruffe! After catching about half a dozen small ruffe I also caught a few larger specimens.

The smallest ruffe ever caught on hook and line? Possibly!

This one put a little bend in my tanago rod!

The micro fishing was good fun, and on a positive note I've now got a much more reliable spot to catch ruffe for future species hunts! The downside though, was that there was no sign of any stickleback at all, so I may have to try different venues for those. Before leaving, I visited the Tom Weir statue near the boatyard. I’m not sure if it was there the last time I visited. I remember watching “Weir’s Way” when I was young, the TV series where he explored Scotland, speaking to locals wherever he went. 

A very good likeness of Tom, wearing his trademark woolly bobble hat. 

So, over the two days I had managed to add one species to my 2023 species hunt tally taking it to one hundred and seventy. I think for my next session I’ll head down to Dumfries and Galloway to have another attempt at catching my first Scottish nine spined stickleback.

Tight lines, Scott.

Recipe for success.

At the start of the month I was invited down into the Scottish Borders to fish Alemoor Reservoir by my Polish mate Tomasz, a passionate predator angler who has a membership for the venue. Recently, whilst looking at what species I could target in the second half of the year that would be additions to my 2023 species hunting challenge, I realised that I hadn’t caught a pike for many years, and when I told Tomasz about this embarrassing fact he was keen to help me remedy the situation. We arrived early in the morning and would be joined later in the day by two of Tomasz’s friends, Zibi and Lex, who were bringing a small inflatable boat and a float tube with them.

Tomasz and I spent the morning and early afternoon fishing from the bank and whilst conditions seemed good, things were pretty slow. Eventually I hooked a pike but lost it when the angry fish went airborne and threw the lure as I drew it closer to the edge through some marginal weed. After a few more hours, Tomasz had caught a couple of small pike, and we’d both caught a few small perch as well. In the afternoon I had a take from a large pike, but when I lifted into it the fish dropped the lure straight away. Knowing that a large pike was in the vicinity, Tomasz started fishing a pig shad jnr lure. After a while it was taken by a fish that initially he thought was a pike but to his surprise his lure had been swallowed whole by a rather greedy perch of 46cm, weighing almost 3lb.

A cracking, and very greedy perch!

By the time Zibi and Lex arrived, we hadn’t enjoyed any more action, and I was looking forward to exploring more of the venue from afloat. Tomasz, Zibi and I headed down the reservoir in the SIB and Lex popped his flippers on and headed out in the float tube. The three of us did some trolling as we headed down the reservoir and then fished a few different bays up one side of it. Tomasz caught a perch on a Rapala Skitter Pop Elite which he was over the moon about, and Zibi caught a small jack on a Salmo Slider. I'll be honest, by that point I didn't think I was going to get a pike but I kept trying regardless!

By about 20:00 I still hadn’t caught a pike despite over ten hours of trying. The lads were camping overnight, but I had work the next day and had to drive back to Edinburgh, so we decided to head back to our starting point so I could head off. Tomasz gave me a Salmo Executor to try, and we slowly headed back, trolling as we went. About half way there we were chatting away, not really paying attention, when my rod was suddenly pulled round. “Fish!” I shouted, completely taken by surprise. It felt like a good one, so I loosened my drag a little and took my time playing it. The last thing I wanted was to bring it in too quickly only for it to go crazy at the side of the boat and throw the lure. After five minutes of steady pressure, a few short runs and some underwater thrashing about, a lovely pike was netted by Tomasz and was quickly unhooked, measured, photographed and returned to fight another day. 

My first pike for several years was certainly worth the wait! At 101 cm this pike was probably a high double, but we didn’t weigh it. Certainly the biggest pike I’ve ever caught.

I’d have settled for a pike of any size at the beginning of the day, but was very happy to catch such a nice fish. I think Tomasz was even happier though. Or maybe he was just relieved? I know what it’s like when you’re trying to put other anglers onto fish and whilst he was clearly happy, I think he was also relieved that I’d caught a pike, which was my only goal for the day. The pressure “guiding” brings is sometimes matched by the "relief" that follows when the target species is caught. Anyway, if Tomasz were to take up guiding, I'd certainly recommend his services!

Tight lines, Scott.

A fresh start.

I visited Magiscroft Coarse Fishery last month with my mate Ryan to open my 2023 freshwater species account. It was a very windy day, but the fishery is located in a valley, so it was nice and sheltered. Maggots fished under a puddle chucker float were the basic tactics for the day and we both caught plenty of fish.

We both caught a some perch...

...lots of roach...

...a few small carp, including this cute little mirror...

...and finally, we also managed to catch a few gudgeon, one of my favourite small freshwater species.

Nothing complicated, it was simply a very laid back, fun day out, staring endlessly at our floats as our feet slowly froze! I'll no doubt be back over the summer to tick off a few more coarse species. Magiscoft also has a few barbel stocked, and as I've never caught one in Scotland before I'll be spending some time targeting them when I do.

Tight lines, Scott.

Golden warrior.

In June, I turned my attention to catching my first Scottish crucian. After doing a bit of research, I identified two venues that I was confident had some true crucian in them. The first being Loch Dunmore situated in Faskally Forest near Pitlochry and the second Greenhill Fishery near Dalbeattie in Dumfries & Galloway. The first venue is a member's only water, so I joined Dunmore Angling Club and drove up there to have a go. Loch Dunmore is a very picturesque water, it has many large reed and lily beds and lots of pond weed in it too, which I thought might be problematic in terms of locating a swim. When I arrived the first time, I had a walk all the way around the loch to check out the various angling platforms before deciding on one at the northern end of the water opposite the old boat house. It was fairly deep, had a large fishable gap in the aquatic flora and proved to be a good choice as it produced some nice fish. I fished three separate sessions from it over the next month or so, using a very sensitive float and a small piece of corn or single maggot on the hook.

The loch's old boathouse.

The biggest roach that I caught.

The loch has a large head of perch too. Maggot didn't even get to the bottom when a shoal moved into my swim.

The venue has been stocked with tench and I caught a lot of those too over the three sessions, mainly on small corn hook baits.

I then decided to pay Greenhill Fishery a visit, so I spoke to the owner before travelling down. He told me that the crucian had been stocked in 2013, and that it had been a few years since he'd heard of anyone catching one. He also told me that most anglers fishing the coarse pond were targeting the carp and tench on mostly method feeder tactics and would be unlikely to catch any crucian still in there. I decided to go and try my luck with tackle more suited to the shy biting fish. The day ticket Lily Pad Pool turned out to be a lovely little venue, only three-quarters of an acre in size and tucked away in a valley. After a quick walk round and listening to a bit more advice from the owner, I opted to fish a peg that had a nice bed of lily pads in the margin just to the left of it. A sensitive float rig was lowered in just out past them and I soon started catching some cracking tench on small pieces of corn that were great fun on my light float rod.

All the fish were in lovely condition.

Over the next month or so I made four trips down there and also did some feeder fishing as well for the resident carp, which I caught a few of over the sessions. The biggest one however was caught on my light float rod, which resulted in quite a lengthy battle. I had to take my time playing the fish, as applying any kind of pressure would no doubt have resulted in it breaking me off. Great sport though!

Patience was key in landing this lovely double figure common carp. It took a single maggot on a #18 hook tied to 2lb nylon!

About two hours into my fourth session, my Drennan No.1 glow tip antenna float slowly slipped under, I gently lifted into the bite and hooked the culprit. It didn't fight terribly hard and came to the surface reasonably quickly. When I got sight of what it was, I started screaming to my mate Ryan, who had joined me for the session, "Get the net! Get the net!". After a brief nervous moment, when the fish thrashed on the surface as it came towards the net, my first Scottish crucian was drawn over it.

Jackpot! A bit of an old warrior, missing a few scales, but still a beautiful fish nonetheless.

I was absolutely buzzing. It's incredibly satisfying when you set out to catch and then get a tricky target species. Especially one as elusive as a Scottish crucian! By this point, I'd already formulated a plan to get me to my goal of one hundred Scottish species. Having moved one closer, I was ready to shift my focus to a small bottom feeding fish that lives in rocky streams and only comes out to feed after dark, the stone loach.

Tight lines, Scott.

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.

Push it to the limit.

On Monday I headed west to fish two different places with my tanago rod. First stop was the River Forth where my target was the humble minnow. Normally there are lots around down the edge but for some reason there didn't seem to be any around at all. There were however a few small fish taking flies off the surface slightly further out so I decided to find out what they were. After catching and quickly returning a few small salmon parr I caught a little dace.

Dace are a lovely looking fish. I think I'll go back again soon with my float rod and centrepin to spend a day specifically targetting them.

My next stop was Magiscroft coarse fishery near Cumbernauld. Before using my tanago rod I fished maggot under an insert waggler out close to an island using a light float setup. My first two casts both quickly produced small mirror carp. Then, after a few roach and perch, I caught a few more carp which led me to believe the pond had been stocked with them recently.

Good fun on a very light float setup.

Lots of pristine roach too.

After a while I decided to switch to my tanago rod and dropped my pole float down right under its tip. With single maggot on a #26 Gamakatsu 6315 hook to 0.75lb nylon at the business end I was soon pulling out lots of small perch and the odd roach.

I employed a chop stick style grip on my 15g rod.

The main reason for my visit was to hopefully catch some gudgeon. They're a cool freshwater mini species and it had been a while since I'd caught one. Eventually, my persistance paid off when one beat the small perch and roach to my wriggling bait on the bottom. As gudgeon go it was pretty big and on my super light rod I'd go as far as to say it even put up a bit of a scrap!

A cracking gudgeon.

Keen to catch some more I carried on fishing close in but for a while all I caught was more perch and roach. Then, suddenly, my float shot under as something larger began chrging about the swim in front of me. My tiny rod was bent right over and I was worried about my hook bending out but after a few minutes playing the fish, dropping the rod to give it some line when I felt it necessary, I managed to tire out the fish and another small carp was drawn into my net.

This little fully scaled mirror really pushed my tanago rod to the limit.

I fished on for a while and caught a few more perch and roach but sadly no more gudgeon. I'm really enjoying fishing with my tanago rod at the moment. It's a very direct and fun way to fish. The small carp I caught on it has forced me to rethink what it's capable of. I'll be out using it again soon, targetting some saltwater species on a trip to Loch Etive and Oban with a few of my mates.

Tight lines, Scott.