Fishing in Inverness
Scotland · Atlantic Europe · hardiness zone 8b
New here? Start with the fishing introNow
10°C · Overcast
Today
14° / 9°
Sun
07:31 – 18:37
Moon
Waning Crescent · anglers' solunar: good
Weather read at 11:03 p.m..
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active near Inverness, UK in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishJun–MarEuropean perch
Perca fluviatilis
Five to eight dark bars on a greenish flank, bright red-orange lower fins, and a spiny first dorsal fin with a black blotch at the back.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Дауд Арсанукаев · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–MarZander
Sander lucioperca
Slim and glassy-eyed, with grey-brown saddles, rows of black spots on the spiny dorsal fin, and long fang-like canine teeth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Tomas Broucek · CC BY 4.0
FishApr–OctCommon carp
Cyprinus carpio
Big bronze scales (or the scattered big scales of a mirror carp), a long dorsal fin, and two pairs of barbels at a rubbery, tube-like mouth.
Where and how to catch it →
FishJun–MarRoach
Rutilus rutilus
Silver with a blue-green back, bright red eyes, reddish lower fins, and a dorsal fin set directly above the pelvic fins.
Where and how to catch it →
FishMay–OctCommon bream
Abramis brama
Deep, flat-sided and slimy; bronze as an adult (silvery when young), with a long anal fin and a mouth that shoots out into a tube.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Carrie Seltzer · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–NovBarbel
Barbus barbus
Long and muscular with a flat belly, an underslung mouth with four barbels, and a bronze back over a pale belly.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Donald Davesne · CC BY 4.0
Also out there this month
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
Behind this week's fishing
The day, the ground and the sky over Inverness
Flat light spreads fish out and holds them shallow through the middle of the day.
- Brown troutbest now — The most nocturnal trout there is. After dark the big ones leave cover and hunt the shallows and the tailouts.
Overhead · Inverness, UK
The sky over the water
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
11h 06m of light
Sunrise
07:31
Solar noon
13:05
Sunset
18:38
A month from now the day will be 2h 22m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
The moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · waning · day 26 of 29.5
- Next full
- Oct 26 · 20d
- Hunter's Moon
- Next new
- Oct 10 · 4d
- Darkest nights
Planting by the moon: Last quarter to new: a resting phase — weed, prune, harvest, turn compost and prepare beds.
Anglers' solunar rating: good — the tradition says fish feed hardest in the days either side of new and full, and around moonrise and moonset. The evidence is mixed; light and weather matter more.
Turn of the season
Winter solstice
Dec 21 · 76 days away
Average last spring frost here: May 27.
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Inverness, UK
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Worth watching
The moon
Waning Crescent · 15%
Waning, 26 days old. Full moon in 19 days. Anglers' solunar rating: good (a tradition).
It moves water — in the sea, in a lake's edge, and, by long tradition, in the sap of a plant. Fish feed hardest on the days around new and full.
- Working for you
Wind
11 km/h now · 29 peak
A working breeze: it ripples the surface, drifts a boat at a fishable speed, and stacks bait on the windward shore. Anglers call it a walleye chop.
It pollinates corn and grasses, dries soil, breaks stems — and it decides where the bait, and therefore the fish, end up.
- Worth watching
Rain
16.4 mm / 7 days
16.4 mm across 4 days — short of the ~25 mm a week most beds want. Top up the thirstiest rows.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
11.2 °C
Good for brassicas, beets, chard, carrots and potatoes. Wait on the heat crops.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Quiet right now
Day length
11h 06m
Losing about 5 minutes of daylight a day.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Quiet right now
Frost
127 frost-free days
Typically May 27 to Oct 1 here. Coldest night in the next week: 4.2 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
Read and watch with your kids
All the books and videos for Inverness →Stories about where you live
The fishing note for Inverness, every week
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