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.