11/03/2014 - Loch Lomond

0855 outside the tackle shop - H on a mission

A braw change in the weather saw me and H head through to Balmaha on Loch Lomond to see what we could tempt to the bank. H has been unsuccessfully pursuing a Ruffe for a while now. While unable to get one himself, he's been in attendance as nearby anglers have had some success and was becoming increasingly frustrated. I was just happy to be out on such a lovely day and hoped to break my Lomond duck after a few short and fishless attempts.

West to Inchcailloch Island - note submerged pier

Loch Lomond is unusual for Scottish loch's in that it straddles both the highlands and lowlands. The Highland Boundary Fault line runs right through the loch right at Balmaha. To the north is your typical highland ribbon loch, long, narrow and deep, to the south it widens and shallows quite substantially. The loch which has the greatest surface area of any body of freshwater in the UK provides a diverse range of habitats and conditions for it's piscine residents. Balmaha is on the south eastern side of Lomond just at the fault line, the best places to fish there are either in the boatyard (relatively shallow) or at the pier (up to around 12 metres deep).

The problem with Loch Lomond however is that it is stunningly beautiful, and not too far from 'civilisation'. This means it is usually busy with walkers, hikers, fishermen, sailors etc and peace and quiet is unlikely to be something you'll find if the weather is at all fair.

First fish of the day, lovely little Roach

Fish on offer in Loch Lomond are many and varied. We could fairly expect to catch Roach and Perch, with Ruffe or the odd Powan caught there recently. Probably still a bit early to stumble across a trout or any of his seagoing cousins, Lomond does have the potential to produce a record British Pike.

While the morning in the east was crisp and clear as we met before 8am, by the west of Stirling we were driving into and through a heavy morning mist and this is how we found the loch. We both set-up variations of swim-feeder set-ups baited with maggots and began in good spirits. I managed to get off the mark first, landing what I'll generously call a baby Roach. H soon had a nicer Roach and kept me entertained by losing two more within millimetres of the net. H rigged a second rod and after a few taps on a drop shot rig added a Perch to his tally. Not to be outdone, I added another Roach from the swim feeder and a couple of smallish Perch on jigged isome.

Inchcailloch Island through the mist

With a variety of hikers, dog walkers, foreign exchange trip pupils, meditators and even a musician recording a music video right behind us, we were seldom alone and continually being asked what we were fishing for. I would hate to think how incessant the public must be when it's properly busy.

Into the afternoon and H, reacting to a bite and striking, began getting excited on the retrieve that he may finally have a Ruffe. Once in sight he confirmed his suspicion and rejoiced as it hit the net. While species hunting is not my thing, it's good to see his dogged pursuit of whatever it is he's after that day. And when he land's a long sought after species, you'll struggle to find a happier angler. It was also a relief of sorts. I didn't want to turn up and start bagging Ruffe on my first attempt, using half his kit before he'd gotten off the mark.

Looking south, the mist slowly lifting

Not too long after this,  I landed my first Ruffe, a lovely we fish tipping the tape at 5 3/4 inches in plump condition and fine colours. Very similar to a Perch in build and to the touch, it is browny bronze with vivid blue flashes. I soon made it two to briefly become King of the Ruffe before H bagged his second as well.

As the day wore on, the already sedentary action slowed even more and by 5pm we'd called it a day. I finished with two each of Roach, Ruffe and Perch. My Lomond blank busted and a new species to boot. A good days work.

05/03/2014 - Magiscroft

Common Carp, excellent surprise

Magiscroft near Cumbernauld is one of the most prominent commercial coarse fisheries in Scotland and it's been long overdue a visit from my good self. With the year so far being generally a bit too cold, windy and sometimes wet too, I've not been bothering the fishes too much. H had filled his boots with Roach and Gudgeon here already just a couple of weeks before, so I took the opportunity to join him and see what it was all about.

Permits are £7 which isn't too bad and there are a few ponds to choose from. First impressions were OK, although I was a bit underwhelmed at the lack of imagination in the larger ponds, essentially big rectangular troughs and with the quite small size of the smaller ponds. Maybe my expectations were a little too high?

My first F1, no barbules compared to the Common Carp

H took us to one of the smaller ponds at the back of the venue where once again I was unimpressed finding the odd empty can, tackle packaging or discarded equipment. It wasn't as if there were no bins around. It annoys me no end when people drop litter, it is also annoying when you are then charged to pay to fish amongst it. Most of it would easily be cleaned up by a round-up each night by someone with a litter picker.  Maybe not very important in the grand scheme of things, but it's these small things that can make a big difference.

Both H and myself began with maggots dangled under a float. He was soon in amongst the Gudgeon with the odd Roach, but I was having no joy at the adjacent peg. I swapped sides and began to explore a bit more and soon began connecting with Roach, Guj and some small Perch. The numbers were racking up, but H's head start meant any concerted attempt at racking up numbers was simply me keeping the deficit the same at best as H was embroiled amidst a Gudgeon frenzy.

Excellent surprise number 3

I continued my exploration around this small pond reaching the opposite side from H without anything much different appearing. Almost at the point of returning to where I could make hay with Perch and Gudgeon for the rest of the day and see what total I could rack up, I felt a much more serious fish connect with my bait as it dropped through the water. I was delighted to find a Common Carp nicely hooked in the top lip and was able to bring it into the net (hurriedly delivered by H). After a couple of photos it was sent back. Almost immediately I was into another one. My career Carp tally to this point stood at two, and here was my second inside five minutes. It turned out to be a F1 (barbule-less compared to the Common). I then lost another, landed another and lost another making it all very exciting. Once the carp seemed to quieten down a bit I was then taken by surprise once more. Leaning into another decent fish, I fully expected my fourth carp of the day only to find a PB Perch (13.5 inches) in outstanding condition taking me on. After a few photos it was returned by a very satisfied angler.

13.5 inches, a new PB

With 'my' side of the pond quietening down appreciably, I began to try my luck in the next pond along. H was shouting out his Guj as he caught them - 46...47...48 - as I entered my Roach 40's. In the new pond I quickly began landing more small Roach and got to 49 before a small impasse in bites allowed him to take his 50th Gudgeon of the session beating me to the half century.

With the gates to the fishery closing at 5pm sharp, we called it a day and headed back to the car. H totted up his fish making a total of 90. My  totals were 17 Perch, 17 Gudgeon, 3 Carp and 54 Roach making a grand total of...91.

Smile for the camera

A good days fishing, a bit of a numbers game, but it's difficult to complain when catching so many fish including new species and a PB. The fishery might scrub up a bit more nicely on a less gloomy day and the constant renovations and subsequent hammering at the pavilion should be absent the next time.

25/10/2012 - Eliburn Reservoir

A typical Eliburn Roach

Total - 12
Species - Roach & Perch

Once the trout season had finished I'd promised to get H through to Eliburn in Livingston. I assured him I'd had t-shirt weather days there in November before (in fact, almost hot enough to go topless!!!) so there was no real rush, especially as we'd been targeting the sea a fair bit recently too.

A typical Eliburn Perch

On arrival I was a bit concerned as all my favourite pegs were already occupied. I also noticed much more pond weed than I'd seen for a while making some pegs and especially the 'arm' a bit more clogged up than would be ideal. Landing fish through the small channels between the weed might be an issue.

We set up on the east bank. H plumbed to find the depth and began with his maggots on the bottom under a float. It didn't take long before he was acquainting himself with the inhabitants. Whilst I connected with a couple of medium sized Roach a few feet off the bottom, H's first was a lovely wee Gudgeon, a new species for him. Seldom will one Gudgeon have had so many photos of itself taken.

His Majesty hard at work (the extra weed clearly visible)

There was occasional interest, but nothing hectic and I commented after an hour or so I was amazed we hadn't been ambushed by the usually prevalent Perch yet. Within seconds I had one on the bank, the aggressive wee nutjobs always amuse me with their compunction for a scrap.

The weather had been OK, but was improving nicely. Unfortunately in this country I always have the Billy Connolly weather forecast in my head. In Scotland, if it's sunny, that means it's going to rain and if it's raining, that means it's going to be sunny.

A slightly more decent Perch from the top end

I liken the Ide in Eliburn to Rainbow Trout. When you get them in your swim they are voracious, not shy at all and swirl for any thrown in maggots much like rainbows in a fish farm do for pellets. H was hoping for one of them and eventually I thought I'd spotted some moving around just in front of us (still without my polarised shades). There was the usual flurry of phantom bites (float goes, you strike, nothing there as they spit the bait before you can react). When we did manage to connect we could only land some more Roach.

A lovely Roach for H

In time things slowed down a bit. I often have success at the top end of the venue so on the way back to the car we had a dip in there. I think between us we had 5 fish in our first 5 casts (I've said it before, but I don't understand how (non-carpers at least) blank here. There were Gudgeon, some Roach and the always game Perch getting stuck right into our maggots and in no time we'd topped our catch totals right up. However the earlier sunshine had given way to blustery showers and I was happy to call it a day. H had 'won' with Roach, Gudgeon and Perch totalling 14 whilst my Roach & Perch tally was 12. With plenty more species to be caught, I knew it wouldn't be long before H dragged me back.

12/10/2012 - Straiton Pond

Time - 1630-1815
Weather - Windy, chilly
Water - Full up & cloudy
Method - Maggots
Total - 3
Species - Roach 5"

Following some heavy rain I made my way back to Straiton Pond without too much confidence. My bite to landing ratio had been abysmal on my previous visit and conditions were likely to be a lot worse. The wind was quite strong restricting the marks I could fish from and on arrival it was apparent the water height was not too far from being at its maximum. Plus my maggots weren't the freshest.

At the first two marks at either end I didn't get any interest at all and wasn't too far from calling it a day. But I decided to try the last remaining sheltered spot on the northwest bank at the landslip. After a good 15 minutes or so of nothing I was otherwise distracted when I noticed the float disappearing and managed to reach the rod in time to hook the fish. Keen at least to see what it was I hurriedly brought ashore a small Roach of about 5 inches. One bite, one fish, delighted.

I explored around a bit if that's what casting in different directions could be called with no more success. I'd caught the Roach not far from my casting range limit which firstly was out of the shelter and into the wind, but secondly was close to the sunken tree. This made accurate placement of the bait very difficult, but after a couple of near misses with the tree, I managed to get the maggots back to the spot I'd got the first fish. Again, another bite, hooked into it and two bites had now produced two fish. A mad turnaround from my previous visit and a write-off of a session quickly becoming quite successful. I repeated the cast (after a few misfires) and soon the pattern repeated making it three bites and three fish. What a completely beguiling and inconsistent pastime the old angling can be.

28/09/2012 - Straiton Pond

Hillend and The Pentlands and the weather

Time - 1600-1900
Weather - Westerly, threat of showers
Water - 4 or 5 inches up
Method - Float/Maggots
Total - 4
Species - 2 Roach to 6 inch/2 comedy Perch

Part 2 of my plan for today took me back to Straiton Pond which I've caught a bit of a bug for lately. Despite the different parameters of this session to the one on the Esk earlier, it proved remarkably similar in many ways.

I headed for the landslip mark expecting it to be sheltered to an extent from the wind. Chucked out my maggots and hooked a lovely wee Roach first cast. Delighted that I've now sussed the Perch and Roach in here I thought to myself 'brilliant, see how long I can keep up with a fish a cast'. I didn't catch another fish for 2 1/2 hours. An incredible pastime at time, sometimes so easy, sometimes bewilderingly uncooperative.

A new Personal Worst?

I did get some taps, but these were increasingly infrequent. I moved to the west corner mark - nothing. Tried a few new spots here and there - also nothing. With darkness and the weather closing in and a poker game to get to, I was tempted to chuck it fo rthe day, but resolved to have one last effort in the top right corner. Immediately I began to get interest. Once the maggots had dropped, the float would disappear, reappear and be constantly bothered.

Last Roach

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't connect. I wasn't even feeling the fish as you often do with a missed strike. I suspected Perch were the culprit and was close to filming some of the float madness and my missed strikes. I varied the amount of maggots from 1-3 and tried different colours when I eventually managed to hook probably my smallest ever rod caught fish. Obviously I was into a shoal of baby Perch who could hardly even get a maggot in their gob. As so often happens, you wait ages for a fish and another comes along straight away as I 'landed' another one the very next cast.

Not too keen to lay into this little lot now I'd discovered what they were, I explored around a bit more and soon lost, then landed another typical Roach of about 6 inches.

The first photo I've included shows the Pentland Hills from the banking on the north side of the pond. Anyone familiar with the Penicuik-Straiton part of Midlothian will know that Penicuik takes a disproportiantely higher amount of rain than Straiton and northwards into Edinburgh. Despite the short distances involved, 4-9 miles or so, the difference is maybe most apparent in winter when you leave snowbound Penicuik in polar gear to get the bus into Edinburgh and when you get there folk just stare as it's bone dry and relatively mild. This discrepancy is caused by the weather rolling in from the north-west and as it hits the Pentlands, turning into clouds that once up and over, often dump their contents on the other side. While it might not win any awards, I think this photo is an excellent example of how the weather frequently works in this area. The hill in the middle is Hillend, funnily enough the end of the Pentlands facing the south of the city. Here you can see above and to the right, lovely clear skies. Looking left it gets increasingly dark showing a serious rain dump over the area towards Penicuik.

23/09/2012 - Straiton Pond

Plump

Time - 1545-1900
Weather - Occasional Easterly, not bad otherwise
Water - 1-2ft visibility
Method - Float/Maggots & Float/Deadbait
Total - 14
Species - 7 Roach, 7 Perch to 6 inch approx

I made straight for the landslip mark today hoping to get right in amongst the fish and wasn't disappointed. Fishing about 30-35 inches under the surface, I was getting enough interest and soon had a Roach on the bank by the usual float/maggot combo.

Looking to escape

While bites were common enough, it wasn't exactly frenzied. I was trying to target Perch a bit more than on previous visits as the ratio of Roach to Perch so far is around 4:1. Ths entailed varying the maggots, often fishing with 2 or 3 red ones and it seemed to be working.

1540

I've been chatting to a dog-walker who's fished the pond in the past and provided me with a fair amount of information on the place. He turned up and advised I should try a bit deeper after a prolonged quiet spell and immediately I was under siege. Mostly from Perch, but the Roach were happy to get involved too. All fish were still more or less the same 6 inch-ish in size. Just shows how important the depth you are fishing at can be.

1830

As well as the maggot/float tactic, I chucked out a Pollock strip under a bubble float hoping for a passing Pike. However nothing happened at all on that rod. I suspect I may have to explore different depths on that front too and will surely do so next time I'm back.

Now a comparison between the last two photos. Both more or less show the same bank and are taken from the same place. The captions show the times taken. As you can see the light and conditions altered appreciably during the session.

21/09/2012 - Straiton Pond

Time -
Weather -
Water -
Method - Float/Maggots & Float/Deadbait
Total - 11
Species - 9 Roach, 2 Perch to 6 inches approx

I'm reporting on this one well after the session and can't recall too many specific details. Reasonably typical session where the maggots did their thing with the Roach and Perch.

Also had a deadbait out hoping for any passing Pike, but nothing at all.

14/09/2012 - Straiton Pond

Fish of the Day - 6.25 inch

Time - 1500-2000
Weather - Very nice, same wind as day before
Water - As before
Method - Float, maggots/Isome
Total - 13
Species - 9 Roach, 4 Perch

Keen after yesterday I arrived an hour earlier and immediately got stuck in to the first small bay after the prompt interest I'd experienced the previous evening.

Incredibly, in the next 20 minutes, three dog walkers  variously sent objects into the pond for four dogs to retrieve. Wondering how long this sort of dog bathing could continue, I decided to stick things out as I was now super confident in my depth and bait combos and likelihood of catching.

Lovely

Despite the adjacent canine activity I'd soon taken three Roach, the first of 6.25 inch being the biggest I'd take all day. Seven fish in one and a bit sessions so far, all Roach, where were the Perch I'd been told about?

Whilst using some maggots, the worm-imitating Isome should have been tempting one eventually.

Then indeed the fourth fish of the day was a 6 inch Perch.

Latecomer to the party

In all I took four Roach and three Perch before a conversation with another local walking his dog produced enough information to encourage me there were gettable fish elsewhere. Tales of "Roach like dinner plates" and "2-3lb Perch" might not have been entirely accurate or up to date, but there was enough information on depths, history etc to improve my chances a bit more. Plus it had gone dead where I was.

View from second mark

I moved to the exact opposite end of the pond, where the specimen Perch were touted as lurking. There was nothing doing at all float-wise, but I was encouraged there were at least fish about by the odd small Roach skittering out across the surface. A change of depth found more success and I was soon onto, not monster Perch, but more small Roach.

Getting smaller

Bites were frequent enough, again encouraged by frequent addition of maggots.

Bites seldom came early, mostly occurring after the drop. As before a Perch eventually made an appearance and as darkness arrived, I finished with nine Roach and four Perch.

A nice mark-up in success rate after the previous days experimenting and exploring.

Roach

13/09/2012 - Straiton Pond

Time - 1600-1900
Water - Visibility no more than 2 foot, a bit choppy
Weather - Windy, quite grey, threat of rain that never really came
Method - See report
Total - 4
Species - Roach

Through word of mouth I'd heard Straiton Pond contained 'decent Pike' and was 'stuffed full of Perch'. With my first ever couple of bags of Isome needing tested and a tub of maggots I set off hoping to get amongst the Perch.

The first point of contact with the water at the eastern end was a small 'bay' sheltered nicely from the wind. I could see what looked like small Roach flitting about and applied the two maggot attack about 20 inches under the surface with a stick float (still water). Small Roach fishing elsewhere has necessitated scaling right down about as fine as its sensible to go. 2-3lb b/s with a barbless 18 or 20 hook. Usually I use pre-tied packs that are all about as trustworthy as each other, or me.

A couple of missed bites was soon interrupted as a dog walker a few metres away had begun hurling a ball into the pond so his dog could fetch it. The fish went quiet and with no let-up in the enthusiasm of the man to bedraggle his poor mutt yet further, I decided to seek another mark. The rest of the southern shore was exposed to the persistent cross gale so I made my up and around to the northern side. En route there were a couple of shallow mud flat type puddles which held very decent amounts of small fish no bigger than an inch. Healthy signs.

View from landslip mark

About halfway along the north bank is a useful looking spot created by a landslip and I made my way down through the widest variety of thorny shrubbery yet. Within 10 foot or so from the bank, there was shelter from the wind, any further out and the line drag really drifted the bait. However the edge shelved down quickly and there was plenty of cover close enough in that I was more than happy to keep it near. The first bite (missed), took a while, but gave encouragement. The maggots didnt work, then some Isome was attached, with similar intermittent taps before I went a bit deeper. Things improved, but still nothing landed when I had a nice idea. Although the Isome looks the part, due to it's 'not aliveness', it doesn't move. So I popped a red maggot on for the wriggle factor. This seemed to do the trick and a Roach of about 5.5 inch was brought ashore. As I'd been expecting a Perch, and suspected the phantom bites were Perch, just shows you never know.

Isome strikes

Much the same continued, any time it went a bit quiet, a small shower of maggots, or a tweaking of the hook combo (2 maggots/Isome/Isome + maggot) seemed to speed things up. Nearing lift time I made my way back to my original spot. It now appeared dogless. I cast out and plonked my rod down so I could unload my bag and when I looked up the float had already gone. By the time I'd got the rod again it was off. Seems to be almost the surest way to catch a fish is to stop paying attention. As I extracted my first Roach from this spot, my phone beeped and that was my lift saying it was time to go. Ach well. In the end I had four Roach no bigger than 6 inches and although things had been slow, I'd honed my tactics enough, and saved enough maggots, to think another visit the next day would produce much better results.

My fledgling Coarse career has mostly been honed at Eliburn. What I've found there is that if you aren't getting bites, you have to find the fish. Try higher or lower in the water. Adjust your bait. Maybe scale down to finer tackle and get some bait/maggots into where you are fishing. If all that fails, move.

19/07/2012 - Eliburn

Water - See first paragraph
Weather - OK, a bit chilly around 6pm as the wind got up, before dying down into quite a nice evening
Time - 1pm-9pm
Method - Meat cubes, maggots, sweetcorn, floating bait
Total - See end of report
Species - Roach, Perch, Ide, Gudgeon.

A long overdue trip through to Livi kicked off in the early afternoon. The wettest April-June spell on record followed by a couple of big July downpours had the reservoir at its capacity and as a consequence, the water was a bit muddier looking than normal. Saying that, the visibility wasn't much different to usual.

A little surprisingly, as it was the best weather in a while, it wasn't too busy. We settled into the Railings Peg with two tactics. Firstly some chopped meat out on the bottom and then maggots under a float at varying depths until we found some fish.

2-3lb Carp in the surface

There were plenty of fish in the surface including some small carp although they largely disappeared from our immediate vicinity as things progressed. I was into fish on the drop pretty quickly managing to land one Roach whilst losing two more Roach plus a decent Ide and a wee Perch. I was fishing reasonably shallow (18 inches - 2ft) below the surface and was having most interest on the drop with a few maggots sprinkled on and around my float at regular intervals. Whilst there were some Ide getting involved, it was mostly Roach that were interested just below the 'surface layer'.

Primo condition Roach

My fishing buddy was fishing a little deeper than me and was having a bit more success. As usual, there were spells of little happening interspersed with bursts of activity as fish seemingly came into range. In between this I'd target wee Perch deeper down in the margins to boost numbers a bit. When we were both doing this a larger than normal Perch of 9 inch was taken, until that point our biggest Perca had been 5.5inch.

The monster Perch

All this time and for the rest of the session we didn't get so much as a line-bite on the bottom bait. Very disappointing. This despite chucking out sweetcorn and some extra meat cubes to try and attract some fish in to feed.

There were some other guys fishing opposite us and down in the Dam Corner peg. they were catching regularly enough as well, bith using poles and looking mostly like they were into some Roach.

Gudgeon - lovely wee fish

As it neared 9pm and the end of our permit, we were running out of maggots, so therefore struggling to find much interest from fish taking bait in the drop. So we decided to give the head of the pond a shot as it's usually a safe bet. We were quickly seeing our floats pulled under by small Perch and as it turned out, some Gudgeon too. These were all on one or two maggots. It's also where I connected with a comedy perch of 3.75 inch.

We did try some floating bait too, but nothing was feeding on the surface (other than the odd seagull).

Me (16)
Perch x 10 - 3.75"-6"
Roach x 4  - 7"-11.5"
Gudgeon x 2 - 5"-5.5"

Him (18)
Perch x 5 - 4"-9"
Roach x 10 - 7.5"-11"
Ide x 2 - 15.5"-16"
Gudgeon x 1 - 5.5"

23/12/2011 - Eliburn

Bit of a beast

 Time - 12.40 - 16.20
Water - Cloudy, cold
Where - Middle Peg & Bridge Peg
Weather - Cold, calm, odd very light shower, 6.5 degrees on arrival
Methods - Meat cubes on the bottom, multi maggots on float
Total - 14
Species - Ide (4), Perch (9), Roach (1)
Size - 4.5 inch - 17.5 inch

Five anglers in total, two of them with poles were trying their luck. The water had been frozen until Tuesday before thawing and was certainly still chilly when I dipped my hand in.

I was delighted to find my fave middle peg unoccupied and settled in. Rather than specimen hunt with both rods, due to the time of year I decided to try one with meat cubes on the bottom with one rod and vary the depths under a float with maggots or pellets on the other. A tactic that proved very productive by the end of proceedings.

I'd sat for a while with nothing doing at all. The pole fishers were on the last two pegs on the east bank at the dam end. The Dam boy got a gudgeon and the other guy landed two I think, one I defo saw was a roach of about 8ish inch. Not sure of his bait, but he was sending the pole out, tipping his bait in, retrieving the pole, adding his bait/float, then dropping it right on top of his bait again. The fourth gent arrived and took the bottom corner peg chatting a bit on the way past. His intention was to fish the bottom.

Tip top condition

After exploring depths & areas with the mag rod, I was even unsuccessful right in at the bank hoping for a guj or wee Perch. Eventually, only marginally further out I had a wee tickle and extracted a Perch that, if I had had the temerity to measure it, may have broken the 4.5 inch barrier. And it had wolfed the hook right down. About 20-30 mins later, another little bit of action on the float was met with my eagle-like reactions. Fully expecting a guj or 4 inch perch, I was delighted to feel something a bit more substantial. It turned out to be a 10.5 inch Roach in nice nick. Not quite a mad half hour, but thats sort of how it felt at the time.

There hadn't been any fish visible just under the surface, but occasionally what were probably decent carp, would break the surface, mostly near the middle of the water so with a couple banked and some sort of activity about, I was happy enough. Nothing whatsoever on the meat rod though and no nibbles at all when I retrieved the bait for inspection. As the time edged closer to darkness, I had to decide whether to stay put, maybe get another fish or two and maybe a nice one on the meat, or head towards the bridge where I would always go if I had to catch a fish if my life depended on it at Eliburn. So I upped sticks and moved.

Half way to my destination, I noticed another dude fishing where I was headed. However he was packing up. So I politely made enquiries and sure enough it would be all mine soon enough. The vacating gent said he'd taken 4 small perch on the maggot.

One of the greedy 15 inchers

First cast my float disappeared and I took my second tiny, hook swallowing roach of the day. Result. Another 3 followed, maybe reaching as much as 6 inch in length. I'd edged about as north as I could go, where the inflow drops off and struck into another perchy type bite and realised immediately I was into something a lot more substantial. A couple of minutes later I had a 15" Ide on the bank. Where did that come from? I was baiting up a bit more now and the Idey type swirls would appear now and again so I knew I was in with a chance of some more. Bang, another 15 incher soon followed which was blind in one eye, then almost immediately another that gave me a good tussle requiring a fair bit of cajoling to keep it out of the weeds beds. It tipped the measuring tape at 17.5 inches. A few more wee perch then followed before a final 15 inch Ide obliged. All fish on the maggot and all using tactics that wouldnt be out of place at most other times of the year at Eliburn, although generally deeper than usual, but not necessarily on the bottom.

08/09/11 - Eliburn Reservoir

Blank Buster

Time - 15.00-20.00

Water - OK, visibility 18-24 inches, pretty calm

Where - Middle Peg

Weather - Decent enough, not much breeze, sunny outbreaks amongst cloud

Methods - Rod 1 - Maggots, float, 3lb trace size 18 pre-tied hook link, Rod 2 - Meat
Total - 1
Species - Roach
Size - 7 inch

As unusually tough a day as I've had here. First note of interest at 17.30 on the mags. Started shallow and increased depth. Although bites did increase, nothing wonderful. Prob just a Perch or two, a Guj or two and a Roach or two. The Roach I did eventually get was a very tentative offer, on mag, about 3-4 feet down.

Worth noting I didn't have too many maggots (leftovers from previous visit) & they were in a bit of moisture & pretty unpleasant to handle so I wasn't baiting up as often as normal. If/when I did, interest certainly increased.

The meat rod had no runs, one pickup up & spit, and two or thee line bites as far as I could tell. Twas a different brand of meat from usual and I'd like to think this had a bit to do with the general underwater inaction.

Others Anglers seemed to be in the same fishless boat. Two younger dudes started in the Dam Corner Peg and about 19.30 got a Mirror Carp of about 6lbs. Method looked like maggots in a swim feeder.