21/11/2013 - Pumpherston Pond

Splendid

At the end of a fine day I was tempted to try a quick evening session at Pumpherston Pond.

While the good weather is nice, it increases the chances of golfers on the adjacent course and I've no intention of getting in their way. However I was pleased to find I had the place to myself.

Swans

The wee pond was still fairly choked with weed and finding a large enough channel to drop my bait was a bit of a challenge. I settled on the likeliest looking gap. Fishing my usual straightforward Pumphy set-up, maggots on a small hook under a float at varying depths, I adjusted my depth to try to avoid the weed problem and probed around the channel a bit more.

My patience was ultimately rewarded, taking four nice Perch up to 8 inches.

15/11/2012 - Eliburn Reservoir

Having seen the potential, H was keen to get back to Eliburn to get some more species ticked off. He arrived before me and set up opposite where we'd been situated on our previous visit. Being a complete addict, in the time since the last session he'd been reading up on method feeding tactics and couldn't resist getting a new waggler rod. His report is here.

Still recovering from the previous nights excesses I received a text saying he'd caught a Tench with his first cast on the method. Another new species for him. Then on the road another text said he thought he had an Ide as well which he'd keep in the net til I arrived. Top stuff.

On arrival one of the permit guys had been unable to identify the 'Ide'. At first I suspected it was a small Bream, but on reflection it is most likely one of the Hybrid's (Roach/Bream) I've seen caught there. Not content with one, he managed to snaffle another one not too long after. Still no Ide somehow.

So I set myself up as usual with maggots under a float at varying depths til I found some fish and another rod on the bottom. I'll usually use cubes of luncheon meat but today used sweetcorn squeezed into a ball of H's groundbait. As the latter rod is then put in a rest whilst the float rod demands more attention, I contrived to miss a few rattles on the sweetcorn rod (new bell indicator in action). However the maggot rod was proving slow and I was having to alter my depth a lot in a bid to find fish. Surprisingly, as it was a bit chilly, I had most success up in the water although these were proving to be what I call 'phantoms'. The float disappears, you strike and there's nothing, no resistance whatsoever. The fish has taken and spat the bait before you can strike. It never ceases to amaze me how quick they are able to do this. Sometimes after a missed strike, if you don't reel in, another 'phantom' bites, you strike and miss and this can repeat 3 or 4 times in the same cast. It gets to the point I occasionally do pre-emptive strikes hoping a fish has taken the bait but not yet pulled the float under. A tactic which hasn't yet worked.

Unfortunately the rest of this report is missing. After starting it, too much time elapsed before I recorded anything else and my memories have faded. Plenty more good info on Eliburn in my other reports if required.

19/11/2011 - Pumpherston Pond

South Bank looking East

Time - 14.00 - 15.30

Water - Quite clear, very weedy
Where - All accessible points

Weather - Mild, slight breeze

Methods - Maggots, float
Total - 1
Species - Perch
Size - 7 inch

The recent advent of full time employment combined with the time of year and reducing hours of light have contributed to limited (no) opportunities to wet a hook resulting in about six weeks of frustration. Finally I was able to grab a wee sesh at Pumpherston Pond, having considered trying the F&C canal at Kilsyth or Falkirk. Best chance of avoiding a blank tipped me towards Pumphy where the Perch are usually most accommodating and there is always the chance of the odd surprise.


On arrival I was pleased that the weather was pleasant enough without too much wind, as Pumphy is reasonably open. First inspections though showed the pond to be choking with weed (too much weed, what an unusual complaint). This seemed to be the case for as far as I could see out before the reflection took over even around to the golf green which had no such problem this time last year. Will need to bring a rake and a rope the next time to dig out a swim.


There was the usual amount of litter for this venue. This wee pond has bags of potential yet seems to be used as a litter bin by many of the locals. And as is so often the case, a lot of the litter was from Anglers. I suppose one good thing about the litter of other anglers is at least you can get an insight into their methods and quarry as there was an empty pack of Sprats, so obviously, someone must have been after Esox Lucius at some point recently. While I was setting up and absorbing this, I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the woods behind me, alas, it was too shy to let me get a photo, but a bonus sighting nevertheless.

Fish of the month so far (from a shortlist of 1)

So I dropped some mag's into a hole in the weed off the brick 'pier'. No action. So I scouted around the bank a bit more. It was apparent I was going to have my work cut out due to the profusion of aquatic growth.


On the bridge next to the green, there was an open channel of water out through the weed and I noticed around half a dozen fish gliding away from me, most probably Perca. The golf course has big scary signs up now prohibiting fishing. So, applying common sense, seeing that there were no golfers on that or any adjacent holes and being unable to fish anywhere else, I chucked my hooked mags and a sprinkling more out into the channel. Nothing for 2 or 3 casts. I then inadvertently used the 'Perch Inducement Method' that seems to work on the tiddlers in Eliburn. I'd cast out, but due to discrepancy between where the float & bait hit the water, the float was over the channel, but the mag's would fall onto weed. So after I'd cast and the mag's had had time to drop, I suspected they may not have fallen to their intended suspended depth and gave a little pull to dislodge them. If maggots are suspended and there are Perch about, often a small tug, imparting a little 'artificial' movement to the mags seems to angry up the Perch and induce a take. As soon as I'd adjusted the bait, the float went under and I was delighted to be in to my first fish of the day/month.
However, there were two sets of golfers coming into range so I made sure I was well out their way and this meant leaving what appeared to be about the only fishable bit of the pond. I had a dip along the south bank casting as far as my set-up would allow hoping to get past the weed I could see, but I was generally getting entangled and so the sesh petered out to an inevitable end.


With some daylight left I decided to have a wee look at the weir on the Almond at East Calder. I've seen prolific amounts of fish trying to clear the weir here before, although in early October if my memory serves me correctly. There hadn't been much in the way of rain or high water recently, so I wasn't really expecting any migratories, but you never know.

The weir at East Calder.

The river was at normal enough height, not low, not high. Before too long there had been a few jumpers. Most if not all were Brownies, mostly about 8 inches with one or two being no bigger than 12 inches. It is quite likely that I was viewing repeat jumpers, so if I say I saw 25 jumps, I reckon half of those were the same fish on more than one occasion. Although not paying full attention, most jumps were taking place in my wee corner. I only noticed one fish jump at the far side of the fish ladder. I'll include some video I took below once on my pc.