29/02/2012 - Eliburn

Time - 1430 - 1545
Water - Inflow clear, clouding up into the main water
Where - Next to inflow bridge
Weather - Dull but OK & improving
Method - Float, maggots, 18 inches down
Total - 6

14.5 inch Ide

Without much time on my hands I opted for a single rod assault and headed for the top end where I can guarantee interest.

Not too long before my arrival, someone had obviously been feeding ducks as there was a lot of bread on the surface, but no ducks around. However there were two or three carp in the 3-5lb range sooking and swirling at it on the surface which was encouraging for starters. Unfortunately I didn't have any bread with me.

14 inch Ide

First cast my float disappeared and I was into a decent Ide of about 16-17 inch. I was toying with how to land it as my net was still folded and after a minute or so, as I tried to set up my net it escaped.

Continuing with the method of casting and then dropping some mags over the float area was proving successful. A couple of foot or so down you could see the fish hoovering up the maggots on the drop and the float was disappearing often enough. The first fish to be banked was a 14.5 inch Ide, soon followed by a 14 incher.

As the fish began to wise up - more phantom bites were increasing as the fish gobbled then spat the mags before I could strike - I increased the amount of maggots from 2 or 3 up to full beard. Although still attracting interest from the Ide, I connected with a couple of Perch. The first was just under 5 inch and the next a veritable Eliburn monster of 6 whole inches.

I'm pretty well versed in what Eliburn holds and have caught or seen most species. On maggot and float alone I've connected with Carp, Barbel, Tench, Rudd, Hybrid, Ide, Gudgeon, Roach & Bream. However, as far as I know, I'm yet to encounter a Chub. Having never encountered them anywhere else either, I have no experience of them to use as a marker. It is my suspicion that I have caught Chub amongst hauls of Ide, but just not been aware of it at the time. I've been told they have unmistakably big mouths, but, considering the variety I've hooked, I'm very surprised I haven't even caught a Chub by accident. Most unlikely. Needless to say, now I'm aware of this I've been paying special attention to all 'Ide' I catch.

There was still a fair bit of interest in general although I was casting a bit further and wider. My next two fish were smaller than the first two Ide, but quite interesting in the old Ide/Chub debate.

Fish Five, 13.5 inches

Fishes One & Two I characterise thus: A deeper, rounder 'breamier' shape as is apparent in the photos. Quite rough to the touch when dealing with them on the bank and quite a thuddy fight without many or any runs.

The last two fish were different enough to arouse my suspicions, whilst being similar enough to allow my doubt and confusion to rumble on.

As soon as I hooked them, at a further distance than I'd caught my earlier two Ide, I noticed a difference in the fight. I suspected they were Roach as they were much flittier, a bit stronger though not heavier and making runs. Once banked I noticed their scales to be relatively larger and noticeably continuing up round and over the back of the fish. They were more slender and very slimy to touch. However the colouration was as good as identical both on the body and the reddishness of the fins. Fish Five was 13.5 inches and Fish Six was 12 inches.

So for the time being I'll continue to call the last two Ide until I determine the differences for sure, or catch a Chub which shows itself to be completely different from the Ide I've been taking.

19/02/2012 - Cockenzie

Elaborate & brooding wind break

Time - 15.30-16.45
Water - Halfway between high & low tide
Where - Warm water outflow & North Harbour wall
Weather - Breezy and not too warm
Method - Spoon
Total - 0 (zilch)

A quickish hour or so on a mainly investigatory expedition. A couple of boys on the sea side of the bridge over the outflow appeared to be bait fishing with set lines. Another dude on my side using a rubber sandeel under a float on lightish tackle and my good self with a blue/silver spoon. All without success.

Cockenzie Harbour

There was a cormorant coming and going suggesting the presence of something worthwhile. The guy I spoke to had only restarted fishing last year but had been told that the odd bass is taken when they come near to the warm water in the power station outflow.

Otherwise, in June-July a bit of orthodox Mackerel bashing can provide a bit of fun.

With no success at the outflow, I tried the harbour entrance for 10 minutes but the tide was well on it's way out and nothing registered.

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.

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.

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.

03/10/11 - North Esk

Time - 18.00 - 19.00

Water - Around 10cm up, coloured nicely
Where - Railway Tunnel Bridge - Dalmore Weir

Weather - OK

Methods - Size 3 mepp
Total - 1
Species - Brown Trout
Size - 10.5 inch

An excellent image above of the overnight rise in water level according to the Dalmore gauge on the North Esk.  While an excellent resource, I've only recently discovered this specific water level indicator. On the few occasions since discovering it that I've been able to match it to my own actual observed conditions, I'd say that it is accurate at recording water levels, bit the times it claims to represent are a bit out. I'll be more specific once I've had time to do a bit more matching up of data and observations.

From Dalmore Tunnel looking west along the Old Railway

The boost in water attracted me out. Auchendinny was the direction. After an unsuccesful stint at the bridge, walked through the tunnel to the old mill site to find it's been fenced off since my last visit. So back up to the bridge, into the water and a traipse downstream. However, as I was crossing at the foot of the bridge pool, I chucked the spinner directly upstream. This is the tactic that has brought me my only two fish to date from this pool and first cast I was into another. Notable that they don't sniff the mepp in other directions but can't help themselves when its heading straight downstream.

10.5 inch

Afterwards there was a little toil for no reward. Nothing doing at all in the weir pool and the impending darkness ended proceedings.

01/10/11 - South Medwin Water

Biggest Hill Pool

Time - 18.00 - 19.00

Water - Crystal clear, not low, but not high either
Where - Parked at the farm track ford & fished upstream in the hill pools, then a quick shot at and above the humpback bridge

Weather - Windy, drizzly

Methods - Size 3 mepp
Total - 3
Species - Brown Trout
Size - 6.5-8.5 inches

6.5 inch

With time running out in the trout season, I made my way to Dunsyre to see what was on offer. Initially drove thru the village and along the farm track to the weir. The track is becoming difficult to pass and an off roader would be well advised next time I attempt the mission. Had a quick thrash in the weir pool, but nothing showed itself in a favourable looking spot.

First 8.5 incher

Moved upstream in the increasing drizzle doubting my decision to persevere. En route witnessed at least a thousand geese, maybe as much as five thousand or so, migrating in their V formations, in half a dozen or so groups. Took some footage, but in the grey drizzle and at the height they were at, not really worth adding the clip on here. Tried my luck in one or two small runs, the burn is pretty small this far upstream with no success. At the first decent pool I connected with a 6.5 incher, resplendent in a real buttery brown colouring and flapping about like the wild burn brownie it was. An absolutely excellent wee fish and suddenly everything was worthwhile again.

Best saved til last

At the next and biggest pool, prospects looked outstanding. After a couple of missed taps, I managed to get my second fish, marked and coloured exactly as the first fish. However on closer inspection, there was a problem with its tail. At first I assumed it had been nibbled a bit, and that may have been the case. But it was probably some sort of fungus/wasting type infection. Otherwise the fish was lovely.

The very next cast I hit the jackpot again with another 8.5 incher, this time without any problems. Fish of the day to top things off. If these are the fish that make their way downstream and into the Clyde, then the Clyde is a lucky river indeed.

With the rain and potential for lying water in mind, I made my way back to the car to get back along the farm track before things got too slippy and puddles got too deep at the risk of becoming stranded.

At the humpback bridge, I had a wee peer to see what, if anything was happening. Upstream there is a shallowish pool which slopes right into shallows before running under the bridge. At the tail of that pool, there must have been 8-12, 7-9 inchers lying which were spooked by my silhouette and made themselves noticeable as they made for cover in the deeper current. I fished from the bridge up for a few small pools and runs, but generally the pools were too small. Nevertheless I did manage a couple of half decent bites.

Last stop was the pool immediately below the bridge. I opted to fish upstream into it from the right bank. I was tapped a couple of times when casting right into the inflow but was unable to make them count and called it a day after a right good covering.