And Bully's special prize!

I've been out spending time on small rivers and streams of late trying to catch my first bullhead. I've not managed to catch one but I think I spotted one which is slightly encouraging. My sessions have been quite enjoyable and have produced some nice bonus fish. I visited Lochore Meadows Country Park in Fife with my new workmate Brett before a bullhead session on a nearby river. We had fun targeting perch on assorted soft plastics using ultra light tackle and caught a few of them as well as a few tiny pike. I also got lucky and caught a rainbow trout which was a bit of an ugly brute so I didn't bother to photograph it.

One of my perch.  Caught on a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad, one of my all time favourite drop shot lures. Not that perch are very fussy mind.

These tiny little pike would follow our lures and attack them right at our feet. One that Brett put back attacked his rod tip which was lying in the water. Very funny. 

In the afternoon Brett had a driving lesson so after we parted company I visited a nearby river. Another workmate of mine Robert has caught bullheads from it this year and had kindly shown me a couple of the spots where he caught them. I've had a few sessions on it since and there is one particularly nice pool that has produced some really nice bonus fish on float fished maggot trotted down the swim. On the way to this pool I've also seen a few large red dragonflies which was pretty cool. 

Dragonflies are strange yet beautiful insects. 

As well as some pristine roach and small perch I've caught some nice brown trout from the small river.

I was quite surprised to catch this bigger brownie from such a small river. A rather lovely reward for my efforts. 

I've also had a couple of sessions on the Water of Leith ledgering small pieces of worm which again produced some nice bonus brown trout and also a very plump little minnow. I've also had the privilege of seeing the electric blue streak of kingfishers as they fly up and down the Water of Leith during both trips which is always a real treat.

A nice Water of Leith brown trout.

I thought I had caught a bullhead when I hooked this little bloater.

Given that bullheads are gobies I'm pretty sure that if I put a chunk of worm anywhere near one it wouldn't be hard to catch. Having had another quick read of my copy of the excellent "The Little Book of Little Fishes" I note that bullheads breed in springtime so I suspect that I may be better off waiting until next year to try and catch one when they might be more active before spawning. However, I've enjoyed my bullheadless bullhead trips of late with lots of nice bonus catches and colourful insects and birds to keep me interested in targeting them so I might have a few more attempts and maybe I'll try after dark a few times.

Tight lines, Scott.

Diamonds in the ruffe.

Thinking of cheesy post titles for my ruffe hunting catch reports will soon be getting almost as difficult as catching the little brown spiky buggers! I headed to Balmaha Pier again on Wednesday with my mate Jake to have another go at catching one. When we got there just after daybreak we found a camper van parked at the pier. There was a landing net outside it so I quickly got my gear onto the pier and secured the spot I wanted before the angler inside emerged. When he did appear it turned out to be someone who had been in touch with me at the end of last year to chat about lures for perch after reading a report I posted on a forum, he recognised me and introduced himself. It's a small world. After a short while one of his mates arrived and the four of us started fishing. 

Whilst the other lads opted to spend the majority of the day fishing lures for perch and lobbing out a couple of deadbaits for pike I had decided to fish a feeder rod for my small elusive target. For the first time I had spooled my feeder reel up with some Berkley Fireline Crystal to aid bite detection at range and after my last visit I decided to try experimenting with multiple hook rigs too, starting off fishing a swim feeder at the bottom of a three #18 hook paternoster. Hemp and maggots were loaded into the feeder, single maggot on the hooks produced a roach on the first and second cast and this set the tone for the first hour or two with a few more roach being caught.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in wonderful condition. Bright orange eyes and scales gleaming in shades of blue and silver in the sun.

After a few more roach I switched to chopped worm on the hooks but this just resulted in hardly any bites. As the day went on it was soon becoming apparent that most of my fish were coming on the bottom hook of my rig. I reasoned that perhaps this was due to the depth of water I was fishing in resulting in the other two baits being presented up off the bottom when I tightened down to the feeder so I switched to a one up one down rig to try and present two baits on the deck.

As the day progressed I continued to catch roach with a single bream/roach hybrid breaking the pattern. By early afternoon none of the others had managed to tempt any of the resident fish until Jake's persistance finally paid off when he hooked a fish fairly close to the end of the pier. It turned out to be a small pike instead of a perch though.

A nice looking fish.

After a bit of a lull I then had a quite small indication on my rod tip which I struck into only to feel the weight of a decent fish. Obviously it wasn't a ruffe and as the fight progressed I suspected it was either a perch or maybe a powan as it gave a few thumping headshakes. It turned out to be the latter and my second rare and beautiful powan was soon landed before being quickly unhooked, photographed and returned.

I admire my second silvery powan from Loch Lomond in two trips. Lovely.

Powan are a really stunning species with lots of subtle colours becoming visible as you view them from different angles. Hard to capture in a photograph.  Beautiful indeed.

After carefully popping it back and watching it swim off strongly we all laughed about the fact I'd caught possibly the rarest fish in the loch twice in two trips but couldn't catch what is allegedly the most common! Things then slowed down for a while but I managed to catch a few more roach. I fished into darkness to see if what I'd read about the nocturnal feeding habits of ruffe had any truth in it but alas a single roach was the only reward for my speculative effort. None of the others managed to catch anything further either. 

So despite enjoying a decent days fishing it was yet another failure on the ruffe front! I'm sure the method I'm using is fine and I know that they have been caught recently at the pier too but repeated trips without success has me questioning things. Perhaps I should use even smaller hooks? Order some pinkies or squats? Maybe a change of ground bait might attract them into my swim? Perhaps a lighter or faster tip for my rod would show up bites I'm missing? Perhaps another mark at Loch Lomond or perhaps elsewhere holds more of them and an attempt there would see me land my target? I think I shall have a little break from them, target other things and ponder some of these questions and make a few decisions before I have another go for that will hopefully make the difference. I know one thing for sure, when I finally catch one it'll be "ruffe justice"!

Tight lines, Scott.

Taking the ruffe with the smooth.

Last week I went fishing with my mate Nick down at the Ghegan Rock again. It was a pretty poor night's fishing and we both blanked. He told me it was his third blank in a row, something he considers to be a bit of a disaster. No angler likes blanking but it's just part of fishing and you have to take the rough with the smooth. On Sunday afternoon I fished at Balmaha Pier on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond for a few hours to try and catch a ruffe. I must have tried there about a dozen times now and the little fish that's supposed to be the most prevalent in the loch is proving very elusive indeed. I ended up blanking for the second consecutive time but I did see two ruffe being caught by another angler so I was at least encouraged to know that they were actually there to be caught! Interestingly he also caught two powan, another species I've never caught. I was planning on a visit to Portpatrick Harbour to try for a three bearded rockling on Tuesday but instead opted for another trip west to have a crack at ruffe again and if I accidentally caught a powan I certainly wouldn't complain. Arriving just before sunrise I had the place to myself, set up my feeder rod and began fishing. Loading my 30g black cap with hemp and maggots I fished a single maggot on my #18 barbless hook on a simple running ledger arrangement. It was a damp misty morning and luckily it didn't take too long for me to catch my first freshwater species of 2014 dispelling in the process any concerns I had in the back of my mind about reaching Nick's milestone of three blanks in a row. Two is bad enough!

Of to a good start with this lovely little pristine roach.

Shortly after this as more light flooded through the mist I suddenly realised that I wasn't alone after all and would be sharing my swim with another angler. I knew straight away that just like on Sunday I'd be out fished by him. The simple fact being he's much more proficient than I'll ever be at catching fish. It was nice watching him do his thing and he'd soon overtaken my tally.

A real fishing expert.

Undeterred by being second best I continued fishing and caught a few more roach before catching what I initially thought was a small bream but upon closer inspection I realised it was in fact a bream/roach hybrid.

I've yet to catch a bream in Scottish water. At least I know there must be some bream in Loch Lomond I suppose!

Just after I put the hybrid back and cast out again the feeder hardly had a chance to settle when the tip arched right over. Grabbing the rod and lifting into it I could feel the weight of a decent fish. I took my time playing it and when it came into view I realised it was a rather nice powan. I've read that they are fragile fish and do not like being kept in nets so after landing it I took a couple of quick photos before carefully putting it back, cradling the fish until it swam off.

The powan is only found in a few Scottish waters and numbers have dropped in Loch Lomond due to egg predation by my target species the ruffe.

They have a very odd looking mouth. Somewhat like that of a herring.

I was quite pleased to catch my first new species of the year but I carried on fishing hoping a much smaller spiky fish would be next to take my bait becoming my second new species of the year in the process. After a few more roach however I decided to change from maggot to a small section of chopped worm on the hook. This resulted in fewer bites but when I finally connected with a good one I knew what had taken it was far too large to be a ruffe and had soon landed a  perch.

Ruffe love worms allegedly but so does their cousin.

A nice looking fish and whilst it was certainly a bit more colourful than the last ones I caught form the Grand Union Canal it wasn't a patch on a Loch Lubnaig perch. Those really are hard to beat in the appearance stakes and I'm looking forward to fishing there again at some point this year. Anyway, longing for stunning Lubnaig perch aside, I fished on until the light began to fade and caught a few more roach but alas the little blighter I was after yet again failed to fall foul of my efforts.

A rather nice roach to end the session with. He doesn't seem to happy about it though.

So despite another failure on the ruffe front it was still a pleasurable day's fishing, I was certainly glad not to reach the dreaded three blanks in a row and it was very nice to catch a fairly rare new species. In a way it felt like my ruffe hunting efforts had finally been rewarded, even if not with a ruffe! I'll certainly be back to Balmaha Pier to try again but may have to start thinking outside the box. I may try fishing into darkness next time as I've read that ruffe will feed nocturnally. I might also try some rigs that have multiple hooks. This is something I've been thinking about for a little while. It's quite odd that in coarse fishing almost all rigs are designed around a single hook. I'm not sure why this is and over a clean snag free bottom I don't really see why this wouldn't produce more fish without any other issues preventing it doing so. Purist coarse anglers might very well be horrified by this suggestion but if it increases my chances of catching my first ruffe I don't care!

Tight lines, Scott.