The Environment Agency are aware.

When I saw a post on Instagram recently of a topmouth gudgeon caught in the UK, I’ll be honest, I was quite excited. They’re a pretty nasty little invasive species that have found their way into several waters in England and Wales since the Eighties. They breed four times a year and eat the eggs of native fish, so they’re not a welcome addition to any body of water. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to catch one, so I quickly made some enquiries. Before too long I’d started a conversation with a fellow species hunter named Donny who told me that the Environment Agency are aware of their presence, that the angling association responsible for the water were still permitted to fish the venue, but were no longer allowed to fish matches or use keepnets. Day tickets were available, so we arranged to meet up last Wednesday to go and catch some. As an added unexpected bonus Donny told me that the pond also contained a population of motherless minnow, also known as sunbleak, another non-native species, but one I have caught previously, many years ago.

After driving south on Tuesday night, we visited a local tackle shop the following morning to buy our permits. A short drive later, we arrived at the pond and set about catching some diminutive invaders. It didn’t take us long to start catching lots of them. 

A tiny piece of pinkie on a tanago hook was the presentation of choice, fished under a tiny float. Perfect for small fish with small mouths. 

The topmouth gudgeon seemed to prefer hanging out under floating debris. 

Donny focuses on his tiny float, looking for any sign of movement. Sometimes the float didn’t go under but slowly moved sideways, indicating a fish had taken the bait. 

Before too long, I'd caught my first ever topmouth gudgeon! Also known as the stone moroko.

It was soon followed by a few more. They seem to come in two colourations. One, like my first, with green and purple hues with a lovely pearlescent sheen. The second has silver scales with a black edge, like the one above in my little photo tank.

We fished for a few hours before Donny had to head off, and I fished on for another hour before I called it a day. As well as a few dozen topmouth gudgeon, I also caught a few small rudd, perch and about a dozen motherless minnow.

My first rudd of 2024.

The biggest motherless minnow of the session. I last caught one of these about ten years ago!

I caught my largest topmouth gudgeon of my session shortly after Donny left.

I really enjoyed meeting Donny and fishing together, I was very happy with the way the session had gone, and pleased to have met another tanago rod owner too!

Later in the day, I set off across England in preparation for a visit to a coarse fishery in Lincolnshire the following day. Whilst talking with Donny before the trip, he had mentioned to me there were populations of Prussian carp in a few fisheries there. Yet another non-native species, also known as the Gibel carp and a close relative of both the crucian and the goldfish. The Environment Agency are aware of their presence in the venue I was going to fish, and have also studied specimens gathered from it, confirming their identity. The venue in question is a members only water, but when I spoke to their committee they generously agreed to allow me a one-off visit to target their stock of Prussian carp.

When I arrived last Thursday morning, I was welcomed warmly, told a bit about the history of the venue, taken to a peg that regularly produces Prussian carp, and given a few pointers to help me catch them. I started off fishing maggots on the bottom under a waggler. This produced a few roach, rudd, perch and gudgeon. I love catching gudgeon!

The swim in front of peg nine. Up the left was where I was told to fish.

Plain old gudgeon. Still one of my favourite little fish.

After about three hours it started raining, and I was feeling quite hungry, so I had a break, sitting in the car whilst I ate some lunch. Returning to the peg, I decided to switch over to fishing colourful wafters on a method feeder with 2mm pellets. 

Yummy. Who doesn't like banoffee?

Hair rigged on a bait band. Simple but very effective.

There's something satisfying about a nicely loaded feeder.

Any second now...

I was expecting to have to build up a bed of groundbait before I drew some fish into the area, but on only the second cast, my rod tip twitched a couple of times before being pulled round. A short scrap later, I netted the culprit and began carefully examining it. 

Large scales? Check.
29–33 scales along the lateral line? I counted 31. Check.

Stubby nose? Check.
No barbules? Check.
Silver halo around the pupil? Check.

First ray strongly serrated? Check.
Almost straight or slightly concave dorsal fin. Check.

Anal fin has five and a half soft rays. Check.

A deeply forked tail. Check.

I’d caught my first Prussian carp! Over the next few hours, I caught a few more and a solitary common carp that did its best to get into the vegetation to my left, but I managed to turn it away from them a few times before drawing it over my waiting net. 

A golden common carp.

After catching my twelfth Prussian carp, things went very quiet. I persevered for a while but with a third long drive to do in as many days to get back up the road, I packed up, thanked the guys at the fishery for allowing me the opportunity to fish at their lovely venue for the day, and hit the road. I’m on a bit of a roll at the moment. Adding a Siberian sturgeon to my Scottish Species Tally is my next objective. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Hunting new UK species whilst on "staycation" in England and Wales.

At the beginning of September, Lillian packed a case, I packed some fishing tackle and we jumped in the car and headed south on a two week long "staycation", a tour of various locations around England and Wales. While we were away, as well as doing a lot of sightseeing, I took the opportunity to try and catch a few new UK species and also meet up with some of my fishing mates along the way to wet a line.

After visiting Whitby, York, Leamington Spa and Warwick we made our way further south to Nottingham where I made my first attempt at catching a new species from the River Trent, a water that has a healthy population of spined loach, cousin of the stone loach.

The spined loach, a tiny fish that many anglers have probably never heard of, let alone caught. It is only found in five river systems in the east of England.

Armed with my tanago setup, my approach was quite simple, fishing in the margins ledgering small chunks of pinky maggot on the bottom in silty areas fairly close to the edge. Loach are normally nocturnal, but as I discovered recently, when I caught my first stone loach, they can be tempted to feed during daylight hours. The problem with that tactic however, is that most other species in the river also feed during the day. Quite predictably, my bait didn't stay on the bottom very long before being eaten by other small fish instead of my target.

Minimalist tackle means you can be very mobile, so we wandered along the river, enjoying the scenery and I tried numerous spots with my tiny tanago rod.

As well as lots of roach and perch, I caught a few dace...

...and some nice rudd too, but as I pretty much expected, no spined loach.

After a few hours, we walked back to the car and headed further southeast, so I could have another go at catching a spined loach from the Nene washes. They are a system of large ditches that act as a flood storage reservoir for the River Nene. They also supposedly have high concentrations of spined loach in them. Sadly, I had no luck there either, instead catching lots of roach and a couple of small perch. Having enjoyed catching a fair amount of fish at both venues I wasn't too disappointed, besides, I knew that catching a spined loach was a long shot, especially during the day. I might have to revisit these venues on my own for some nighttime sessions next year during the summer.

The next destination on our itinerary was the market town of Sudbury, where we'd pay my mate Lee a visit. It was nice to see him again and also to meet his new girlfriend for the first time. We had dinner in the evening and the next day we headed out for a few hours to target chub on the River Stour. Lee has caught some cracking chub on various small lures on very light tackle over the last few years since he moved back to Sudbury, and he was confident we would catch some.

Lee with a nice lure caught chub.

As it turned out the fishing was quite tough, but I was happy enough when I eventually caught my first chub from a river, having only ever caught them from coarse fishery ponds.

My first River Stour chub. Not a new species for me, but still a first, so I was chuffed to catch it on a freelined carp pellet. Much smaller than some of the fish we spooked and failed to tempt, but I didn't care.

In the evening, after another tasty meal, we headed out again to Ely, where we spent a few hours trying to catch zander on lures from the River Ouse at a well known spot that's popular with lure anglers. Again, Lee had caught a few nice ones there, so hopes were high, and again whilst I've caught them before it had been a while, so I was keen to catch one again.

They only come out at night.

The session got off to a good start when I caught a nice pike and then we both caught a few perch as the sun began to set. After dark we were sure the zeds would come out to play, but unfortunately we failed to get any interest at all from them. Still, it was an enjoyable session in good company. 

Leaving Lee early the following morning, we drove southwest to our next English city, Portsmouth. On the way we stopped for an hour or so and joined the crowds to have a walk around Stonehenge, and then we stopped in Romsey, so I could try to catch another new species, the topmouth gudgeon. An ornamental fish farm near Romsey is believed to have been the entry point into the UK for this invasive species in the early 80s. From there it spread around England and Wales in the mouths of other coarse fish. The Environment Agency has been trying to eradicate them for years and have been quite successful in achieving this I believe, although a few isolated populations still remain.

It was very busy when we visited the ancient stones. Very difficult to get a photo with no other tourists in it.

Perched on a tree stump watching a tiny pole float I was quite content.

This is what a topmouth gudgeon looks like. A small, but extremely naughty little fish.

Fishing with my tanago setup again, this time armed with some squat maggots, I had lots of fun catching endless roach, perch, rudd, dace, minnows and gudgeon but failed to get "lucky" with the destructive invasive species, so I didn't have to contact the Environment Agency to let them know I had found a population.

We continued on to Portsmouth, which was only on our tour because my mate Adam had promised me he would take me out on his boat there to his secret brill mark. He also caught a few butterfly blennies earlier this year and if I'm honest that was the inspiration for the entire trip!

Adam with a chunky ballan wrasse.

A brill Adam caught with its dorsal frill on show.

The totally awesome butterfly blenny Adam also caught.

The trip was actually in doubt due to the conditions over the days leading up to it, but they calmed down enough on the day, allowing us to go out. It was actually a lovely day and I had to apply some sun cream to stop myself being burned. It turned out to be a very tough session though. Adam caught a couple of bass and a dogfish from the small bank we were fishing over and all I managed to catch was a solitary black bream. Despite this, I enjoyed Adam's company and several interesting conversations we had about fish and catching them. I don't think Adam will mind me saying he's a bit of a nerd like me when it comes to these topics! I'd love to go back down next year for another go at catching a brill and if possible I'll time it to coincide with the arrival of the butterfly blennies in the summer.

Back to port and back to the brill drawing board.

The next morning we headed west to fish inside Brixham harbour. My target there was a ringneck blenny, a species I've caught before in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, but never in the UK. Using ragworm as bait in an area swarming with wrasse probably wasn't the best choice, but I thought it would also give me the best chance of catching one, so I used it anyway. After about four hours of endless corkwing, ballan, cuckoo and goldsinny wrasse, as well as fair numbers of pouting and the odd tompot blenny, juvenile pollock and rock goby I finally caught my target.

Good quality ragworm. Wrasse and mini species love it!

The first successful session of the entire trip produced my first ever ringneck blenny in the UK.

It has two rings going around its neck hence the name.

No reason to hang about any longer I quickly packed up and we jumped back into the car. We then drove all the way to Rhossli in South West Wales where we'd stay in the Worm's Head Hotel for three nights. The area was stunning, with high cliffs and beautiful long sandy beaches. Whilst in the area I had two sessions on Mumbles Pier attempting to catch my first ever grey triggerfish, but the conditions had just began to settle down after a windy period and the fishing was extremely challenging. Over the two sessions I only managed to catch two fish, a tiny black bream and a corkwing wrasse. Other anglers fishing did confirm that plenty of triggerfish had been caught over the previous months so I'll just have to return next summer I guess to try again.

The highlight of two difficult sessions fishing on Mumbles Pier.

The last place we visited was Bangor in North Wales which we used as a base to visit Snowdonia National Park and Anglesey. I only had two short sessions here and no new species were targeted. The first session was from the rocks on the northern side of Trearddur Bay. Sections of ragworm fished on my ultra light setup produced some great sport from the resident wrasse.

This ballan was the biggest fish of the trip and put a nice bend in my Rock Rover.

Fishing over a sandy area further into the bay also produced a few sand goby. Fun too, they just require a different set of skills to catch.

Whilst in the area we met up with my mate Ross for a spot of lunch with his new girlfriend in a small eatery in Menai Bridge. Afterwards we drove up to Amlwch Harbour where we did a spot of mini species hunting. Just relaxing fun really and whilst we did rack up a few species it was more about catching up with Ross for a few hours than catching fish. His job means he spends a fair amount of time out of the country guiding in Norway and other exotic desinations. Now he's bought a house in Wales and settled down a bit, finding time to meet up might get even tougher, so it was great to see him again.

Ross guides in Norway, where he also catches a few fish like this impressive halibut.

He also guides in more exotic destinations. This giant trevally was caught on Rodrigues Island, a territory of Maritius.

The end of our "staycation" had almost arrived and it was time to drive back up the road to Edinburgh. We planned in two stops to break up the journey. First we stopped at Kingsdown Flash in Abram so I could catch a few bitterling on my tanago rod. Not targeting a new species, just having a bit of fun. My approach being more refined than previous visits I caught dozens of the diminutive fish, pretty much one every cast at every peg I fished from as we wandered around the small venue.

Good eyesight is required to put a tiny piece of a pinky maggot on a tango hook.

This is actually a very large bitterling. Most of them I caught were much smaller. They're very pretty fish that photos don't do justice to sadly.

Our next stop saw us taking a slight detour into the Lake District so that Lillian could visit The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction close to Lake Windermere. I didn't read the books when I was a child but appreciated anglers being represented in one of the scenes.

Mr Jeremy Fisher playing a fish. Not sure which species.

I enjoyed our "staycation". The weather had played a part in making some of the fishing tough but I was happy that I'd added a species to my all time UK tally. Really it was nice to spend time with Lillian in some nice places we'd never visited before and also catch up with some of the good friends I've met through my fishing adventures over the years. There are still several species I've never caught in the UK before, particularly on the south coast of England, so I'll be back down there again soon. Adam tells me the butterfly blennies appear in July, so perhaps I'll do a little trip down then.

Tight lines, Scott.

Strictly no fishing!

This is Edinburgh Park, a large business park in the South Gyle area of the capital. In front of it there is a long pond called Loch Ross. I was reliably informed it contained fish.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to visit armed with my tanago rod, a chianti float rig and a pocket full of maggots. After half an hour or so sight fishing for the three spined sticklebacks and some lovely rudd that were in the pond I was approached by one of the site's security guards who politely informed me that there is to be strictly no fishing in the ponds. Pity, I love rudd.

Letting the fish out of the bag.

When I think of goldfish I recall seeing them when I visited fairgrounds, hanging up in plastic bags full of water for people to try and win by playing a game and if successful to take home and keep as a pet. The owner of Forest Lane Fishery near York has found another use for these pretty fish and has stocked his ponds with them instead of F1 carp. Like F1 carp they feed all year round, by all accounts the goldfish have flourished at the fishery and are regularly caught too so I headed down the A1 early last Friday morning to see if I could catch one myself.

A nice orange goldfish, just like the ones I remember from my childhood visits to fairgrounds, welcomes anglers to the fishery. 

After speaking to the fishery's owners in its on site cafe I made my way around and set up my seat box on peg three of "The Oaklands" pond. I got my gear ready and began fishing single maggot on a #18 hook under an insert waggler about a rod length out. It didn't take long to get a few bites and I was soon catching a few perch, roach, rudd and small bream. I had been fishing for an hour or so when a white and orange goldfish appeared just below the surface right in front of me and cruised around for a while before disappearing again. It was almost as if the fish was taunting me but I took it as an encouraging sign that they were present in my swim and reasoned that a bit of persistence would hopefully see me catch one of them. After a few more small fish something bigger took my float under and striking into it the fish charged off taking some line. Initially I thought it was a carp as it stayed deep but when it finally came to the surface I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had caught a barbel, a species I've never caught before. 

A very nice looking fish and my first new freshwater species of the year. I was impressed by its stamina, they are a very muscular fish. 

Another angler very kindly took this photo of me with the fish. 

Tired from its exertions in the fight I held the fish upright at the edge to let it recover before it swam off. 

The angler who took the photo was fishing a couple of pegs along from me with a pole, catching mostly carp and tench and we got talking. I asked what bait he was using and he told me it was cooked prawns which he very kindly gave me a handful of. I use raw prawns a lot in my saltwater fishing but I've never used cooked prawns so I was curious to try them. I scaled up to a #14 hook, put a small chunk on and the results were impressive. I caught a carp on the first cast and several more afterwards. A few more barbel took the cooked prawn and I also caught a few tench on it.

The cooked prawns chunks worked a treat and also totally eliminated the small silver fish and perch from my catches. 

One of the lovely tench that fell to the cooked prawn. I'll certainly be using them again for sure. 

The fish kept on coming and I was really enjoying myself. So much so that I had almost forgotten why I had made the journey, until that is I caught a fish that at first I thought was a small common carp but upon closer inspection once landed I realised was my first goldfish.

A fairly drab example of the species but I was very happy to have caught my target. 

Carp, barbel and tench kept coming and after a while I caught a second goldfish. It was a much prettier fish with an elongated tail, beautiful violet and orange tones and scattered golden scales. I'd later discover that this variety of goldfish is called a shubunkin. 

Goldfish come in a vast array of colours and with different fins shapes. Some varieties even have a double tail fin. 

The shubunkin has a long tail and is partially scaled like a mirror carp. A very pretty fish indeed. 

Eventually I used up my pile of cooked prawns and decided to try something else on my hook. I had a small jar of Japanese bait manufacturer Marukyu's JPZ hooking pellets in my seat box that I bought some time ago and had never used so I gave them a go. 

These pellets are made of a soft jelly and are strongly scented. 

I went for a "sweetcornesque" presentation of two jelly pellets on the hook. 

To be honest I was a bit sceptical about how effective they'd be but I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were. The fish loved them and again using them eliminated the smaller silver fish and perch from my catches. 

Another nice little mirror carp. 

I love tench. 

I caught a few common carp too. 

Before I knew it the time came to start packing up as the fishery closes at 18:00. While doing so I kept fishing and as I didn't have an eye on my float all of the time I loosened the drag off on my reel. A small chub was first to interrupt me cleaning down my gear. This was followed by a nice barbel that picked up my bait and charged off towards the far corner of the pond. Despite my drag being loose it still managed to pull my rod out of its rest and almost into the water. I just managed to lunge forward and grab the butt before it went in. After landing the fish, which was the biggest of the day, I thought it was a nice one to end the day on and broke my rod down. 

Catching this solitary chub meant I had caught all the species that were present in the pond. 

This is the barbel that almost pulled my rod in. 

I had really enjoyed a fantastic day's fishing at a lovely and quite unique fishery. I think the decision to stock the ponds with goldfish instead of F1 carp makes it a little different and gives it a unique appeal and for me it was certainly well worth making the drive down. I was also surprised by the strength of barbel too. I knew they were a hard fighting fish but they really give a good account of themselves. I caught quite a lot of them and even the small ones were great fun. I'm determined to target them in a river now with the eventual goal of catching one from the River Clyde. Using the cooked prawns and jelly pellets during the session also served as a reminder that whilst maggots are a convenient bait that most fish will take, other baits allow you to single out other species or to avoid catching smaller fish. The next time I go coarse fishing I might try flavouring up some prawns or meat. I might also have a break from float fishing and do some feeder fishing too. Before I do either though I fancy a session targeting perch and pike on lures. 

Tight lines, Scott.