I heard a rumour the reservoir got drained. Is this true? I headed up last summer no sign of any fish, not like Torduff with the minnows all around the dam area. Only saw tadpoles. My friend told me it was great for pike, he said a few years back his 2nd cast of the day was an immediate hit.

I to have been told it was drained, went up a couple of times last year walking the dug and just had to have a cast. Both times it was during the day with bright sunshine and hot so not the best conditions. Never caught or seen anything but on second trip my mate was with me and he caught the biggest perch I've seen. Were both pretty new to fishing but conservativly guessed it at least 2 lb Needless to say I will be back It was caught on the fly, we gave up on the troot so put on lures in the hope of a Jack

Going by this picture it was still full in January.

Frozen Bonaly Reservoir:: OS grid NT2166 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!

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Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.

Scoobyscott, i went up last summer and remembered a guy fishing with his dog dont know if it was you though, i was with twoof my mates going for pike, you had a fly rod and asked us what was in it..was this you ? As for the 2lb perch thats impressive. The website above has photos of the reservoir when it was drained, there was still water guessing they couldnt drain every last bit of it so some fish must have been able to survive. My mates dad said when he was a kid years back the place was teaming with pike. The Bonaly car park at the bottom says that the river is home to pike and brown trout although dont know if trout will still exist, i'll give it another go this summer.

Yeah think that was me, every time I was up I had the dog, wee boxer cross. After Mark catching that perch we figured it must have plenty eating to get that big. Hopefully there are still trout in it, nature is pretty resiliant. We are gonna head up again this year to thinking of camping it and targeting Perch and Pike though we dont really know what were doing. First time we were up some neds were camping, went up walking week later trees cut down, rubbish everywhere just dont understand some folk

Aye that's right, the time i went up some "Jay-Kay's" had had a big camping sesh the night before we saw them then the disapeared so we went over to there camp. They had brought an air rifle and shot the tres and tins etc left all there **** on the side of the reservoir. It is a pain but there will always be Ned's just like nature they are resilient LOL

Fished it for the 'Edinburgh Evening News' junior comp in 1980. It was stocked with rainbows for the event, great fun! Neds are nothing new - a few appeared after that competition and nicked my old tin of mucilin and launched it into the reservoir - probably still there!! A year or two later, an angler went up to test a new rod and landed an 8lb wild brown.

It's good to get some history from this place, I might get in touch with Pentland Hills or Edinburgh Council to see what happened with the whole draining scenario

Here's a photo. Im pressuming this was it drained. http://http://picasaweb.google.com/l...m2yM7HpGe9EIyw

Scoobyscott, If your going for pike up there i'd fix yourself up with a deadbait rod. Just a floating deadbait rig right out in the middle of the reservoir. Get some cheapy tesco value or asda value sardines in a tin. Brine or sunfloweroil (oil keeps scent in water) tie some line to the bit you open the tin with, just open it slightly so the fish doesnt get out, then chuck it right out to where your deadbait is it should attract whatever is in the reservoir. Pull the tin back in when your done so your not polluting like Neds lol. For perch just use spinners and lures you could do the tin trick aswell it atracts all fish. Just chuck it in near the we walk board bit and start spinning near there.