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.

The grass is always greener...

I visited Parkview Coarse Fishery again earlier this week to have another attempt at catching my first Scottish barbel. Maggots, hard on the deck, under a waggler float was the approach taken, fished over some halibut and hot tuna ground bait. 

My bait of choice for the session. 

The fishing was very slow. To be fair, I was prewarned it would be when I paid for my day ticket. The only fish that seemed interested in my wriggling hookbait were tiny perch and the odd blue orfe. After several hours I finally hooked something a bit bigger in the shape of a small common carp. It may have been relatively small, but it actually put up a decent little scrap on my 10ft float rod.

Another nice looking carp from the venue. 

Just after returning the carp, the owner of the venue came around and asked me how the fishing had been. I told him it had been tough going and that I was after a barbel. He quickly checked some records on his phone and told me that eighty seven had been stocked into the pond in total, of various different sizes. He also happened to mentioned that some grass carp had also been stocked into the venue as well. I thought he might have been somehow mistaken about that, but didn’t say anything. A few hours later I was pleasantly surprised when I caught, you guessed it, a juvenile grass carp! 

Small but perfectly formed. My first ever grass carp!

Not the fish I was after but a most unexpected and welcome addition to my Scottish species list nevertheless, edging me one closer to my target of one hundred! Also, it was my 100th new species of 2023 so that target, set at the start of the year, has successfully been reached with several months to spare! I ended the session not long after catching the grass carp. The fishing might have been difficult, but I’ll be no doubt be back again soon for yet another session targeting barbel. 

Tight lines, Scott.

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.

...because it doesn't last long!

 You have to love the Scottish summer. It lasted about a week before normal service was resumed. Despite the weather I headed to Eliburn again on Tuesday afternoon for yet another session fishing the waggler.

Things were very slow and I only caught two fish. A small roach and this slimy bream. Despite the miserable wet conditions and the lack of action I still enjoyed the session. I had the place all to myself and I also had the privilege of seeing a kingfisher.

Enjoying the sunshine...

I've been really enjoying my trips to Eliburn Reservoir of late. The waggler is such a simple and relaxing way too fish. The weather has been really nice too which always makes for a more pleasurable day out. During a session last Wednesday I decided to fish a shallow area where I could see lots of fish fairly high up in the water including a few carp. To try and maximise my chances of tempting the sun bathing fish I bulked all my shot under my float so my maggot would fall slowly through the water column. With most of the fish suspended motionless or slowly cruising around just below the surface, lazily enjoying the sunhine no doubt, bites didn't exactly come thick and fast but when the float did go under I caught some nice fish.

An ide in nice condition. It put up a good scrap. 

I caught these two rudd one after another. It's the first time I've caught rudd from the venue. As is typical of the species they took the maggot high up in the water column. 

Eliburn is stuffed full of these little perfect perch and if my bait sat in the bottom for long enough I'd usually catch one eventually. 

How adorable is this little tench? This was my last fish of the session and put a big smile on my face. 

I must say I'm really enjoying my coarse fishing at the moment. The nice weather didn't last long unfortunately and it is very poor at the moment. The next day off I have with a reasonable forecast I'll probably make the drive south Forest Lane Fishery to have a go for my first goldfish. I can see myself carrying on coarse fishing over the coming weeks and I might have a go fishing "the method", another approach I quite enjoy.

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. 

A fresh start.

 I finally opened my 2016 freshwater account last week, spending a day fishing the waggler at Eliburn Reservoir with my mate Nick. Small perch were out in force but I also caught a few roach.

A couple of ide also took my single maggot giving quite a good account of themselves. One even leapt out of the the water in its attempts to throw my barbless #18 hook. All good fun. 

F1 Sunday.

The conditions on Sunday meant that I decided to head away from the coast for a few hours for my fishy fix. I perhaps would have preferred to visit one of west Scotland's sea lochs but to be honest as I didn't have company I decided to stay closer to home and made the one hour drive to Magiscroft to drown maggots instead. Not being too fussy about what I would catch when I was told that lots of F1 carp had been stocked into the Woodside Pond I decided to head to that and was soon setting up. There were lots of other anglers fishing already but not many fish were being caught and I also found things quite slow to start but fishing the bottom with single maggot on a #22 hook to 2lb nylon I eventually caught a few small roach before a slightly bigger fish took my bait. It was no match for my 13ft waggler rod but it put up a spirited little fight. 

I really like these little hybrids. They scrap quite well for their size.

The small roach kept coming along with a few more of the bullish little fish. I really wished that I had taken a much lighter rod though to get the best out of their little charges. I then caught my first perch of the year. 

Perfection in miniature. 

For the last hour of my session I moved over to the Birch Ponds to try and catch some gudgeon, another diminutive favourite of mine, but instead managed a steady procession of small roach. I think they dump all the silvers caught in the main pond matches into it as it is rather full of them. All in all a pretty chilled out day and the little perch has got me thinking about catching some more freshwater predators soon. I might have to go down south so I can have a crack at Zander as well.  I really like Zander and I know someone who is also fond of them too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Avoiding a duck.

On Tuesday I headed to the Forth & Clyde Canal to target pike and perch on soft plastics. Things were tough to say the least and despite trying four different stretches I did not encounter any fish. When I got home I had a text from my mate Keith, whom I haven't seen for quite some time, asking me if I was free the following day so we could meet up and wet a line. I told him about my towpath blank, that I was indeed free but that I was unsure where we should go fishing. In the end we decided to spend the day at Orchill Coarse Fishery.

Driving up the M9 the next morning we soon arrived and set up a couple of rods each on Alex's Pond. Keith went with a ledgered worm on one and maggots under a small waggler on the other. I opted to fish a single maggot on the bottom under a waggler and double sweetcorn fished with a method feeder. Things were very slow and it took a while before the first fish was landed.

I was in the middle of loading my method feeder when my float rod started shaking in its holder. I'd not seen the float go under so I was lucky that this chub had hooked itself. 

After that things remained painfully slow for a while. The conversation centred around matters fishy for a bit, then we discussed last year's Scottish independence referendum result and Keith brought to my attention a conspiracy theory regarding postal voting statistical anomalies and potential illegal activities that might have caused them. All very interesting but I subscribe to the view that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Anyway, Keith and I both voted differently last September and we still get along fine.

The fish were clearly not in the mood. Keith gets comfortable and his fairly minimalist approach to fishing means he doesn't need an expensive seat box to do so.

The next thing hooked was a mallard that quickly scooted over the surface of the pond and grabbed my maggot when I cast in my waggler. Chaos then ensued as I attempt to "land it" as it tried its best to fly off. Having hooked a few birds in the past an successfully done so, unhooked and released them unharmed I was confident I could do so again and managed to get it out of the air and back in the pond. I slowly reeled it in and Keith was just about to net it when it took off again snapping my hook off in the process. Needless to say the punked up duck with its new #18 piercing and its mates were all a little bit more reluctant to go crashing about in our swims trying to steal our maggots after that.

Back to catching things that have fins instead of wings and shortly afterwards I got caught out again by another fish, baiting a maggot on one hook whilst it was busy on the bottom eating the sweetcorn on my other. Keith soon pointed this out to me, I quickly dropped my waggler rod, grabbed my feeder rod and my second fish of the day was soon being played out.

I was busy baiting the hook on my float rig when my feeder rod tip was pulled around. A short scrap later and this lovely bronze common carp was on the bank.

After this the action dried up again for quite some time. Another angler who was fishing a few pegs to our left wasn't having much luck either although he eventually caught a couple of carp. Keith, now getting a bit frustrated at not getting any bites, decided to head to the far end of the pond and soon reported that he was getting some interest so I headed round to join him. He wasn't having much joy converting the bites into hooked fish though and much to his annoyance a small F1 carp was soon pulling my feeder rod tip right over as it got hooked and charged off.

Keith found the fish but couldn't connect. I caught one of the culprits, a feisty little hybrid.

Much to his relief though, Keith then caught his first fish of the day, a chub, after switching to a method feeder. This was soon was followed by an F1 carp but only after it pulled his rod in. We just managed to grab it as it slowly got pulled out of the margin and out of sight. It was a close call but having successfully averted disaster we both laughed about it and agreed that had his rod gone all the way in then the fish would have been much bigger and would have probably grown in size the more he retold the story.

As well as angling in his spare time Keith is also keen on cricket so he was gald to catch a couple of fish and unlike me, successfully avoid a duck.

I then switched from a flat bed feeder to an in-line bait ball style feeder and this soon paid off when again a fish did its best to try and pull my rod out of the rest and into the pond.

What carp could resist a big tasty ball of groundbait, a few free offerings and most importantly, my hair rigged double sweetcorn hook bait?

Not this one, another common carp in fine condition. It ended up being the last fish of the session and was also the largest so I took my time playing it before Keith netted it for me.

So, typical of the time of year it was another slow but enjoyable session. I may have only caught four fish but I was glad as it was four more than my session the day before had produced. It was good to catch up with Keith again and I really enjoy our chats too, whether they be about fishing or exciting topics like politics and alleged electoral fraud on a national scale involving shady governmental agencies. Unfortunately Keith's job means he works a lot over the summer but I hope we can meet up and fish together more often than we did last year. The weather will soon be warming up a bit more and the coarse fishing should start to improve with it. Hopefully I won't be scoring any more ducks when I next visit a fishery or the canal, or catching them either for that matter.

Tight lines, Scott.

A first time for everything.

With the weather not looking suitable for my preferred choice of a session targeting pollock last Sunday I headed instead to Orchill coarse fishery with a couple of mates. Nick and Stewart had never fished a commercial fishery before so it was something new to them but they were both looking forward to trying a new style of fishing. After paying for our day tickets we headed up to Alex's pond. As I set up a float rod for Nick and a feeder rod for Stewart I talked them through the end tackle, quickly explained the fairly simple principles involved and before too long they were both fishing.

Before I had finished setting myself up a float rod Nick was getting bites and after missing some and losing a fish he caught a roach, his first ever. When I started fishing I also caught a few roach. Nick then caught a gudgeon, again his first ever. Stewart's rod tip was soon pulled around by a small carp which he played for a few minutes but sadly it came off as it came near the net. Things were pretty slow after that though but we heard a fair amount of splashing over the other side of the middle island so we moved around to the area where the activity was. Most of the surface activity was fairly tight to the centre island so we started fishing as close to it as we could. It didn't take long for us all to start catching chub and then Nick started landing a few F1 and common carp, another couple of new species for him. I soon caught a few too.

This chub was Stewart's first ever coarse fish.

I really like F1 carp. They are chunky fish and put up a spirited fight for their size.

Stewart wasn't getting as many bites as Nick and I so I switched him over from a black cap swim feeder to a method feeder and made up some halibut and hemp feeder mix with a few pieces of sweetcorn added. On the hair rig went double sweetcorn and this produced three carp on three consecutive casts proving how effective a tactic the method feeder is.

Stewart caught this rather nice mirror carp. You've guessed it, his first.

We had the pond to ourselves so when we weren't chatting away it was fairly quiet apart from the squawking of flocks of geese flying south overhead in formation. As the day progressed several helicopters also passed above us. It was the final day of the Ryder Cup so we surmised these were taking players to and from the golf. As Nick was using my seatbox I had taken his small fold down canvas stool. The next noise to break the relative silence was this suddenly breaking, giving way beneath me and me ending up on my back on the ground. Stewart found this quite hilarious. My accident and Stewart laughing away didn't seem to distract Nick who was by now into a bit of a rhythm and found that firing in a few casters around his waggler was attracting plenty of fish into his swim.

Nick's biggest carp of the session and his first mirror carp.

Stewart and I had a few more carp and chub too before it was time to pack up and head home. It had been a nice relaxing day, we had a good laugh and both Nick and Stewart are keen to do it again so whilst it may have been their first time it certainly won't be their last.

Tight lines, Scott.