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.

I don't know if the mackerel are in yet!

We must have been asked if the mackerel were in about half a dozen times the other day. Fishing down the inside of Burntisland Harbour's eastern breakwater with my mate Col we just weren't that interested if they were or not. There are other fish in the sea after all! Col was after a rock cook wrasse whilst I was hoping to catch a Yarrell's blenny or a Scottish record breaking goldsinny wrasse. I decided to fish small pieces of raw prawn on a one hook paternoster whilst Col decided to fish wacky rigged Gulp and Isome on a drop shot rig. The water was slightly coloured up and things were pretty slow but we started getting the odd tap and I landed a couple of goldsinny wrasse, one of them equalling the current Scottish record of 53g. Things remained pretty slow as the tide rose but Col eventually opened his account with a corkwing wrasse. I then landed a small ballan wrasse followed by bonus butterfish that I mistook for a Yarrell's blenny as it appeared from the rocky harbour bottom. 

My first ballan wrasse of the year. 

A bonus butterfish. Col caught one the day before as well so there is obviously a healthy population of them in the harbour. 

As the tide turned and began to ebb we caught a few more wrasse but neither of us managed to catch our main target for the day or any record breakers before we decided to head off. I think in a few more weeks there will be a few more fish around and might return for another session. Maybe the mackerel will be in too. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Well hooked.

I took my mate Cammy to Eliburn Reservoir last Sunday evening for his first go at coarse fishing. He's relatively new to fishing but he seems to be well hooked and is keen to try different styles. It was a slow session but he managed to catch two roach.

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.