Making a fresh start.

On Wednesday the weather forecast looked good with the wind in particular dropping away to virtually nothing so I headed west to Balmaha to fish for some of Loch Lomond's pristine roach. Unfortunately when I got there the pier was already taken by a couple of anglers who had made themselves comfortable and were fishing about half a dozen rods so I set up my mini seatbox on the rocks a little bit along to the right of the pier. It really was a lovely morning and as forecast there was hardly any wind at all. Maybe not ideal fishing conditions but sometimes fishing isn't just about catching fish and given the weather so far this year I wasn't complaining.

The surface of the loch was like a mirror and there was still a little bit of early morning mist over the water, hiding the mountains to the north. What a view!

Fishing a swim feeder of maggots with single maggot on my #18 hook it took a while to get a few little touches but I was quite content enjoying the peace and quiet. It was so quiet apart from the rhythmic noise of a woodpecker over on the small island opposite me hammering away and a couple of mallards diving around in front of me after any maggots that fell out of my swim feeder on the cast. There was also a small plane overhead lazily doing acrobatic manoeuvres, the pitch of its engine rising and falling slowly as it did. All very hypnotic, a bit like staring at my light feeder rod tip meaning I was sat there in a soothing trance like state. When the first decent bite eventually came my rod tip went over, I quickly lifted my rod and felt a good fish was on. My senses fully awakened again the fish was scraping away and I suspected it was a trout so kept my rod low to try and tire the fish before it got to the surface. Sure enough a silvery sea trout soon came into view and was out of the water twice doing its best to do an aerial display of its own but my soft rod cushioned these attempts to throw my barbless hook and after a few short bursts I slipped the fish into my net.

What a stunning way to open my 2015 freshwater tally.

Heart still pumping I released the fish and settled down again. The next hour or so was pretty quiet and I had returned to my chilled out state when my feeder rod tip pulled round quickly twice and I lifted into another nice fish. It fought a bit differently and I was confident it wasn't another trout but wasn't sure what it was. When another long silvery fish appeared from the depths I realised it was a powan.

Another beautiful silvery fish. One of the rarest freshwater species in the U.K. too so it always feels a little special when I catch one. 

Again quickly releasing the fish I settled down again to watch my rod tip and enjoy the warm sun on my face. There wasn't much happening for the next three hours however but I was quite happy just relaxing, enjoying the view and watching the wildlife around me.

Bright yellow flowers on the spiky gorse bushes.

A maggot drowning session wouldn't be complete without a little red breasted thief appearing and getting up to some stealthy tricks to try and steal maggots.

Things remained slow but pleasurable and I was pleased at catching two beautiful fish on such a nice day. I was just about to pack up when my rod tip went round again though and I soon landed a lovely roach. This encouraged me to have a few more casts but I called it a day shortly afterwards.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in fine condition. 

The anglers on the pier had already left and some geese then headed off as well. I'd soon follow.

What a great day, it had been almost therapeutic. Balmaha pier is one of my favourite places to go fishing. I might try and get back before the ferry starts up again and the peace and quiet is spoilt by the never ending hordes of tourists that the summer brings. I'd like to catch a ruffe again and perhaps do some lure fishing for pike and perch. Now that I think about it I might return in the summer too actually as hiring a boat for the day is always an option to avoid the crowds and enjoy a day fishing in relative peace and quiet or I could always explore other spots around the shore too to seek a bit of tranquility and maybe some lovely Loch Lomond fish to disrupt it. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Diamonds in the ruffe.

Thinking of cheesy post titles for my ruffe hunting catch reports will soon be getting almost as difficult as catching the little brown spiky buggers! I headed to Balmaha Pier again on Wednesday with my mate Jake to have another go at catching one. When we got there just after daybreak we found a camper van parked at the pier. There was a landing net outside it so I quickly got my gear onto the pier and secured the spot I wanted before the angler inside emerged. When he did appear it turned out to be someone who had been in touch with me at the end of last year to chat about lures for perch after reading a report I posted on a forum, he recognised me and introduced himself. It's a small world. After a short while one of his mates arrived and the four of us started fishing. 

Whilst the other lads opted to spend the majority of the day fishing lures for perch and lobbing out a couple of deadbaits for pike I had decided to fish a feeder rod for my small elusive target. For the first time I had spooled my feeder reel up with some Berkley Fireline Crystal to aid bite detection at range and after my last visit I decided to try experimenting with multiple hook rigs too, starting off fishing a swim feeder at the bottom of a three #18 hook paternoster. Hemp and maggots were loaded into the feeder, single maggot on the hooks produced a roach on the first and second cast and this set the tone for the first hour or two with a few more roach being caught.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in wonderful condition. Bright orange eyes and scales gleaming in shades of blue and silver in the sun.

After a few more roach I switched to chopped worm on the hooks but this just resulted in hardly any bites. As the day went on it was soon becoming apparent that most of my fish were coming on the bottom hook of my rig. I reasoned that perhaps this was due to the depth of water I was fishing in resulting in the other two baits being presented up off the bottom when I tightened down to the feeder so I switched to a one up one down rig to try and present two baits on the deck.

As the day progressed I continued to catch roach with a single bream/roach hybrid breaking the pattern. By early afternoon none of the others had managed to tempt any of the resident fish until Jake's persistance finally paid off when he hooked a fish fairly close to the end of the pier. It turned out to be a small pike instead of a perch though.

A nice looking fish.

After a bit of a lull I then had a quite small indication on my rod tip which I struck into only to feel the weight of a decent fish. Obviously it wasn't a ruffe and as the fight progressed I suspected it was either a perch or maybe a powan as it gave a few thumping headshakes. It turned out to be the latter and my second rare and beautiful powan was soon landed before being quickly unhooked, photographed and returned.

I admire my second silvery powan from Loch Lomond in two trips. Lovely.

Powan are a really stunning species with lots of subtle colours becoming visible as you view them from different angles. Hard to capture in a photograph.  Beautiful indeed.

After carefully popping it back and watching it swim off strongly we all laughed about the fact I'd caught possibly the rarest fish in the loch twice in two trips but couldn't catch what is allegedly the most common! Things then slowed down for a while but I managed to catch a few more roach. I fished into darkness to see if what I'd read about the nocturnal feeding habits of ruffe had any truth in it but alas a single roach was the only reward for my speculative effort. None of the others managed to catch anything further either. 

So despite enjoying a decent days fishing it was yet another failure on the ruffe front! I'm sure the method I'm using is fine and I know that they have been caught recently at the pier too but repeated trips without success has me questioning things. Perhaps I should use even smaller hooks? Order some pinkies or squats? Maybe a change of ground bait might attract them into my swim? Perhaps a lighter or faster tip for my rod would show up bites I'm missing? Perhaps another mark at Loch Lomond or perhaps elsewhere holds more of them and an attempt there would see me land my target? I think I shall have a little break from them, target other things and ponder some of these questions and make a few decisions before I have another go for that will hopefully make the difference. I know one thing for sure, when I finally catch one it'll be "ruffe justice"!

Tight lines, Scott.

Taking the ruffe with the smooth.

Last week I went fishing with my mate Nick down at the Ghegan Rock again. It was a pretty poor night's fishing and we both blanked. He told me it was his third blank in a row, something he considers to be a bit of a disaster. No angler likes blanking but it's just part of fishing and you have to take the rough with the smooth. On Sunday afternoon I fished at Balmaha Pier on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond for a few hours to try and catch a ruffe. I must have tried there about a dozen times now and the little fish that's supposed to be the most prevalent in the loch is proving very elusive indeed. I ended up blanking for the second consecutive time but I did see two ruffe being caught by another angler so I was at least encouraged to know that they were actually there to be caught! Interestingly he also caught two powan, another species I've never caught. I was planning on a visit to Portpatrick Harbour to try for a three bearded rockling on Tuesday but instead opted for another trip west to have a crack at ruffe again and if I accidentally caught a powan I certainly wouldn't complain. Arriving just before sunrise I had the place to myself, set up my feeder rod and began fishing. Loading my 30g black cap with hemp and maggots I fished a single maggot on my #18 barbless hook on a simple running ledger arrangement. It was a damp misty morning and luckily it didn't take too long for me to catch my first freshwater species of 2014 dispelling in the process any concerns I had in the back of my mind about reaching Nick's milestone of three blanks in a row. Two is bad enough!

Of to a good start with this lovely little pristine roach.

Shortly after this as more light flooded through the mist I suddenly realised that I wasn't alone after all and would be sharing my swim with another angler. I knew straight away that just like on Sunday I'd be out fished by him. The simple fact being he's much more proficient than I'll ever be at catching fish. It was nice watching him do his thing and he'd soon overtaken my tally.

A real fishing expert.

Undeterred by being second best I continued fishing and caught a few more roach before catching what I initially thought was a small bream but upon closer inspection I realised it was in fact a bream/roach hybrid.

I've yet to catch a bream in Scottish water. At least I know there must be some bream in Loch Lomond I suppose!

Just after I put the hybrid back and cast out again the feeder hardly had a chance to settle when the tip arched right over. Grabbing the rod and lifting into it I could feel the weight of a decent fish. I took my time playing it and when it came into view I realised it was a rather nice powan. I've read that they are fragile fish and do not like being kept in nets so after landing it I took a couple of quick photos before carefully putting it back, cradling the fish until it swam off.

The powan is only found in a few Scottish waters and numbers have dropped in Loch Lomond due to egg predation by my target species the ruffe.

They have a very odd looking mouth. Somewhat like that of a herring.

I was quite pleased to catch my first new species of the year but I carried on fishing hoping a much smaller spiky fish would be next to take my bait becoming my second new species of the year in the process. After a few more roach however I decided to change from maggot to a small section of chopped worm on the hook. This resulted in fewer bites but when I finally connected with a good one I knew what had taken it was far too large to be a ruffe and had soon landed a  perch.

Ruffe love worms allegedly but so does their cousin.

A nice looking fish and whilst it was certainly a bit more colourful than the last ones I caught form the Grand Union Canal it wasn't a patch on a Loch Lubnaig perch. Those really are hard to beat in the appearance stakes and I'm looking forward to fishing there again at some point this year. Anyway, longing for stunning Lubnaig perch aside, I fished on until the light began to fade and caught a few more roach but alas the little blighter I was after yet again failed to fall foul of my efforts.

A rather nice roach to end the session with. He doesn't seem to happy about it though.

So despite another failure on the ruffe front it was still a pleasurable day's fishing, I was certainly glad not to reach the dreaded three blanks in a row and it was very nice to catch a fairly rare new species. In a way it felt like my ruffe hunting efforts had finally been rewarded, even if not with a ruffe! I'll certainly be back to Balmaha Pier to try again but may have to start thinking outside the box. I may try fishing into darkness next time as I've read that ruffe will feed nocturnally. I might also try some rigs that have multiple hooks. This is something I've been thinking about for a little while. It's quite odd that in coarse fishing almost all rigs are designed around a single hook. I'm not sure why this is and over a clean snag free bottom I don't really see why this wouldn't produce more fish without any other issues preventing it doing so. Purist coarse anglers might very well be horrified by this suggestion but if it increases my chances of catching my first ruffe I don't care!

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : Ruffe.

With fishing being so slow at the moment and the weather and other commitments limiting our opportunities to get out I've been mulling over what I would like to catch later in the year again with a few of these species making my little list of "Most Wanted" targets. I also thought I should add a freshwater species or two as those on it so far are all saltwater species. Sticking with the theme of unusual or rarely targeted fish I thought the ruffe was an ideal choice even if it is not an indigenous species in U.K. waters. How they got here is open to debate. The most likely possibility is that they were introduced to Scottish waters by pike anglers who used them as live baits and they escaped or were thrown in at the end of the session. However, being a fish of Central European origin they were probably brought to Britain in the ballast tanks of boats. Growing to a maximum size of only about 20cm and being light green/yellow with light black spotting above the lateral line and more predominant dark black spots on the dorsal fins their colouration is in many respects similar to that of the zander. They are however a member of the perch family and have similar spiky fins and whilst they are difficult to confuse a key difference is that both a ruffe's dorsal fins are joined together whilst the perch has two separate dorsal fins.

Appears harmless enough. Looks can deceive though.

This small spiky fish is often an unwelcome guest due to the fact it is quite an aggressive species which breeds quickly and hence can quickly populate new waters where it is introduced, consuming the food supply of other fish, normally altering the ecosystem drastically and often reducing the populations of native species in the process. In Loch Lomond for example they also eat the eggs and fry of the powan, a member of the salmonoid family that resembles the grayling in shape but lacks the large dorsal fin and is silver in colour. The powan population there has declined drastically as a result, which is a grave concern as this species is only found in four Scottish waters.

The powan. One of the rarest freshwater species in the U.K.

So there are obviously plenty of ruffe in Loch Lomond. Their slightly down turned mouth being characteristic of a bottom feeding fish means a swim feeder full of maggots may be a good approach to catch one. Hopefully soon I can head west and have a first attempt. If they are indeed as prevalent as some reports suggest perhaps one trip will be enough!

Tight lines, Scott.