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.

26/02/2013 - Pumpherston Pond

In all it's glory

Time - 1615-1745
Weather - A balmy 5 or 6 degrees, no wind
Water - Clear, still
Method - Worm & maggot
Total - 1
Species - Perch, 8.75 inch

Having swithered between Pumphy and Torness for my previous soiree, I took advantage of the improvement in the weather to check out the 2013 version of Pumpherston Pond.

Waiting on a bite

Half of it's bank is effectively the adjacent golf course and there is no doubt what takes priority. Needless to say its not the anglers. But I hoped the time of year might mean the course was quiet enough for me to be able to fish as much as possible and that's how it turned out.

I chucked out two floats, one suspending some maggots which have taken some half decent (for me) Perch in the past and a worm on the other rod.

I'm led to believe that if Perch are present, a worm is almost cheating, but I've yet to catch anything at all ever on a worm. Can only persevere.

This shows how pleasant Pumphy Pond can and should be

About this time last year I tried Pumphy, but the water was clogged with weed and difficult to fish. On arrival I was delighted to see that this wasn't the case this year, further, the water was as clear as I've seen it. The only problem with this, is the amount of litter and detritus that the good people of Pumpherston feel they must scatter here, is on full display. For an amenity with such potential, and doing not bad despite its current level of disrepair, it is obviously very undervalued and left to fend for itself. I can't help think the golf club miss a trick here (I understand it's on their land).

A right fatty

Although smaller than the nearby Eliburn, this venue would benefit from a good clear out and the construction of a few pegs/marks to fish from. They could easily be shielded from incoming golf balls and the greenkeeping staff could surely act as bailiffs and go round a couple of times a day taking a fiver from the fishers just like the members do at Eliburn in a system that seems to work fine. With a little bit of stocking, say some Roach, Gudgeon, Bream or Rudd to compliment the Perch, Pike and Tench already there I think it would be a nice little top up of funds for the golf club in a time when every penny is a prisoner. But what do I know, all I'm suggesting is the owners maintain it to somewhere near it's full potential, maximise it's profit, and provide an excellent little venue for locals to walk, fish, spot some wildlife or just feed the ducks. That said, I am not blind to the litter that some less enlightened anglers discard doing themselves and those of us who obey the country code a great disservice.

Straying back to fishing it turned out to be one of those unusual days that seem to happen more than they should, namely one bite - one fish. After a good half hour of nothing at all, a couple of yoof arrived and began fishing on the brick pier. Claiming past Pike and Tench to 4lb kept my optimism afloat. Whilst semi-expecting a Perch, there is also the hope of a rogue Tench picking up my bait. As always, can only but try.

Bait and prey

After about an hour, having cast around a lot more than usual, my maggot float finally began to show signs of interest before disappearing altogether. A nice tubby Perch was soon hauled onto the bank. Although I couldn't quite make it stretch to 9 inches, it was still most welcome.

I kept on until dusk before packing up and heading back to the car. By the time I did it must have been getting back down to zero and I was delighted to get a heat back in me.

18/01/2012 - Pumpherston Pond

Not the kind of fish I was after, good value though

Time - 14.45 - 16.15
Water - Quite clear
Where - Golf course bank
Weather - 7 degrees or so, OK, a bit of a breeze
Method - Beard of maggots under a float
Total - 0 (zero)



Itching to get off the mark for the year and with a limited window of time (snow forecast tomorrow) I opted for Pumphy Pond instead of Eliburn . Usually a Perch or two will greedily oblige. However nothing at all was forthcoming, not even a bite or a sighting. At least I was able to distribute the maggots I'd bought for last weeks aborted Eliburn venture (hungover).

The golf course is using its winter greens so I was able to fish round the lip of the 16th green. There was a lot less weed about than in November, but still a bit about to inhibit proceedings now and again.

A victim of the recent gales

I took my rake for the first time, anticipating a similar weedfest to the last time and having to 'rake a swim', however it wasn't really necessary. I did manage to rake out, ironically enough, another rake. Obviously chucked into the pond by a local rapscallion who'd half-inched it from a bunker on the golf course. A couple of greenkeepers were re-laying the approach to the 16th, so I was able to trade it for some brownie points. I later also extracted a 'tee peg', the ones they plant on a tee to denote medal/female etc and boosted my brownie point account still further.

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.