Up until last season, my thoughts about lovely Loch Earn in Perthshire were of boyhood memories; days and nights of camping on its shores as a youngster, catching innumerable small dark brownies, but never anything of any size. However, reports kept filtering through to me about the superb brown trout angling to be enjoyed nowadays…

River carp are completely unlike their still water cousins. These are happy to bask on gravel bars during the summer heights, casually gliding amongst the lilly pads and perhaps sucking down the odd chum mixer off the surface, while during the winter months, tucking themselves away in the deep water safe from any prying eyes,…

The angler was an old hand at this, reeling even faster to keep the deep sunk lure sending out its enticing vibrations, his intuition borne of long experience told him that his lure had tempted a fish from the shoal which was painting a dream picture across the face of his echo sounder.Deep beneath the…

We intended to stay for eight weeks so there was no need to rush, there was plenty of time to settle ourselves in before we got down to the serious business of fishing.The caravan had been left unattended for over six months, and we had left Spain thoroughly soaked after three days of continuous rain…

We chose a misty day in late summer, arriving at the boat moorings just as the early morning sun rose in the sky, causing the cloud to dissipate in wraith-like fingers around Ben Vorlich and its satellite hills, illuminating the little village of Lochearnhead on the far shore. A ray of sunlight glanced off the…

One apparently increasingly contentious issue is the identification of large fish, particularly roach and rudd, which unfortunately have a habit of hybridising both together and with bream. Our two species of bream, silver and common are also not without blame in this whole sorry tale. So, this week I thought I would give a brief…

This has certainly paid dividends, especially since the Scottish winters have not been nearly as severe as was normal in the past. For example, within half an hour’s driving distance of Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh are three locations in West Lothian which can provide bank and boat angling throughout the colder months. They also offer…

You can certainly be sure of a warm welcome at Waterside Farm Fishery near Galston ; Springwater Fishery near Dalrymple ; and Cowans Law Fishery near Moscow ( the Ayrshire village, not the Russian city ! )Waterside Farm has built up quite a reputation for its jumbo rainbows, with a most impressive tally of 20lb…

The angler, trying not to move around in his boat and disturb the trout which were heading and tailing as far as he could see from Dunlop Bay to the Willows, dropped his cast of Suspender Buzzer and Hopper gently in front of a feeding fish. The Suspender was engulfed, the angler tightened and a…

To catch such superb specimens in some of Scotland’s loveliest coastal scenery was the angling experience of a lifetime – but sadly, all too ephemeral. In came the commercial boats, some legally but plenty illegally, and those prolific marks were transformed into barren emptiness, with even the sea bed being ploughed up. But in recent…