Sunday 18 March 2012

08/03/2012 - Humbie Quarry

Rods looking towards west bank
Time - 1530 - 1700
Water - Cold, dark
Method - Sweetcorn, maggots, lure
Where - South bank
Weather - Windy elsewhere, but nicely sheltered on the bankside
Total - 0

Looking to try somewhere new, we settled on Humbie Quarry between Kirkliston and Winchburgh. Various online snippets were encouraging. Species apparently include pike, tench, roach, perch and maybe one or two others. As is usually the case, a realistic attitude on approach due to time of year and ignorance of the venue treated this as much as a learning experience rather than having any real prospect of catching a fish.

View of north bank from south
We arrived on the west side. This is elevated considerably above the water level and there appeared to only be a couple of spots to access the bank. The water appeared to be pretty deep too. We worked round to the south bank and found a couple of much more likely spots and set up at the biggest one. As is too often the case, the bank was littered with all sorts of rubbish, but who cares eh, its only the countryside.

I chucked out a pile of sweetcorn not too far in front in water that appeared to be about 6-9 ft in depth. An online tip stated that a frequenter of Humbie Quarry 'always set up first with sweetcorn for Tench'. Can't do much more than follow the best advice available, however there was absolutely zero interest on that rod.
North westerly view from south

I also chucked out some maggots, starting quite high in the water, progressively going deeper, but again, absolutely nothing. Finally I tried my big pike lure but still with no joy.



Definitely worth another try and a good place to go on a windy day as its super sheltered and appears to have serious potential.

13 comments:

  1. Hi!I fished this quarry as a lad narly 50 years ago. Itheld some large roach and at least one big pike which we saw jump. A few years ago I revisited and it was drained, exposing big beds of freshwater mussels. I returned on Aug 1st this year and the quarry was full but all green algae.
    The pond just down the road was once a grand roach fishery wirh angling platforms along its north bank. We had great times there, but some folk netted the roach a number of years ago and turned it into a trout fishery. It didn't look like one this august and I wonder if there're roach back there. Some bright sparks also turned "Paddy Higgin's Pond" nearer Winchburgh into a game fishery. I fished there free for many years and once caught an old roach well over 2 and a half pounds.

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  2. Hi, I hope to have a go and scuba diving this quarry this summer. Hopefully we see some life in there.

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  3. Hi im currently started a campaign on there but got a feeling fish populations nosedived due to mink scourge and recent bluegreen algae probs.hope to see you there as id be intrested to see or hear any fish sightings ..graham .edinburgh

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    1. Attempted to fish it early this year with lures and worms. Not a touch. just 6-8 years back you would get a perch a cast and I'm pretty sure there were some very big perch (hooked one of a live bait). Would be interesting to hear of anybody catching there recently.

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  4. Hi me again aftet recent visits was disappointed to see the quarry covered in algae 'soup'.not even signs of birdlife .think those mink have done bit of damage.

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  5. Fished it not even a week ago spent two hours spinning on lures had one bite but other than that nothing could do with a good clean slot of rubbish and tires

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  6. I used to fish this regularly in the mid 90s to the mid 00s. Always used to catch large amounts of perch, biggest I got was about 3/4 of a pound but I’ve heard of some significantly bigger coming off.
    Sadly, from what I hear from local friends it appears to have gone way downhill and algae has affected it badly. Shame because it was a great place to spend a day

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  7. Anyone know if there's still Tench in humbie reservoir?

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    1. Yes mate go very deep with stick flout with sweet corn git a few in 2020

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  8. Hi,looking to try the clayhole at winchburgh. Anyone been there lately.

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    1. Had a few pike out their mate and a good few perch aswell

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  9. Hi,Thinking of giving this a wee bash.Anybody fished it lately.

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