Within hours of the website going online, there were over 50 hits and inquiries continue to come in from anglers anxious to cast a line in Selm Muir which has been given a facelift in recent weeks.
Taggart, a Scotland international carp fisherman, with two silver medals and a bronze in his collection, is confident the site in woods near Livingston will take off.
Nearly 80 of the original carp plus new stock awaits anglers at the lake which is otter fenced, and will have toilets, an on-site tackle shop, bailiff and a private car park.
The new owner is keen to encourage more people into the sport he loves, including young anglers, and the tackle shop will have all that is required for anglers to take to the 11 available pegs which are only on one side of the lake.
Taggart wants anglers to feel they have space to enjoy their sport, but there are rules which include a maximum of two rods and no braided line. Leaders are not allowed and tubing is recommended. Only barbless or de-barbed hooks can be used and the minimum main line is 0.35mm or 15lb
The advertised fee is £150 per calendar year and this will include 10 kilos of house pellets and a tub of pop ups, plus a 10 per cent discount at nearby West Lothian Angling which is also owned by Pumpherston-born Taggart who started the business from his garden shed.
Members will be able to book a slot at Selm Muir online and 24-hours sessions are £25 and day sessions £15. Application forms are available on the newly-created website at www.selmmuircarpfishery.co.uk
Taggart said: “Selm Muir is for anglers by anglers.”
The 41-year-old is excited by the prospect and said he will do everything he can to encourage newcomers. Taggart added: “A 10ft rod with a 3lb test curve is preferred and it is a help if people have a reel with a bait runner as there are some big fish in here.
“That is why we recommend a minimum of a 15lb line. If a fish is hooked they will dive for cover and you need to be able to handle that and to play the fish away from other anglers.
“However, we want to make it easy for keen anglers to cast a line here and that is why we will stock everything you need in our on-site tackle shop.
“We try to keep things simple and you can get a basic kit for a small sum to get you going. We’ll have blowback rigs in stock which we consider ideal for here. We will also show you what hook lengths to use. A six-inch is good here as there is some silt at the bottom of the lake.
“PVA bags are good but we don’t want to blind people with science, we want people to come here, fish and enjoy the experience.”
Elsewhere, Drumtassie Trout Fishery are offering free fishing on Sunday in their brown trout pond and all bosses ask is for anglers to deposit all fish caught in a tank and they will then be taken up to the nearby trout fishery.
Leeanne Aitchison, fishery manager, said: “That’s right, a free day fishing as it helps us as the brown trout water is closing.”
She urges anglers to message her to book so she does not get swamped on the day and she added: “There are over 2,000 trout that need to come out.”
Any method can be used on the brown trout pond, which is housed in the coarse fishery, except Powerbait and she asks that fish hooked should be landed quickly.
Only barbless hooks are allowed to minimise damage to the fish and the pond has a capacity of 15 pegs.
Meanwhile, Ormiston-based angler, Robert Golon, goes for glory in the venue’s two fly fishing trout ponds when he aims to be the Scottish Bank fishing champion.
Should he succeed, then he will qualify to represent Scotland in the Home International in Ireland later this year.
Golon was second in one of the semi-finals at Skelmorlie in Ayrshire and he joins the event organiser, Brian Quinn, in the 24-strong final at Drumtassie.
Scott Pozzi and Scott Mudie from Fife are also in the field along with several anglers who won gold at when the international was hosted at New Haylie near Largs over a year ago.
The fishery near Blackridge has reported good catches with Danny Connelly having 34 to the net and finishing his session with a Tiger trout of over 6lb.
John Aird had 29 including three Tiger trout.
Other local fisheries have been busy and Allandale Tarn has been “on fire” with fish coming up for the take. A single brown smoker has been working and fish have been caught all over the water and buzzer patterns, particularly traffic lights and Vicar patterns, have also been favoured.
Linlithgow Loch has also been fishing well with Nigel Muckle returning 21 fish and George Mackintosh kept four and returned 19. Blob, FAB, buzzers and black and green lures plus snakes have worked well.
Bowden Springs entertained the Edinburgh-based Trout Fishers Club and also saw good caches with regular, Billy Wilson, hooking a 10lb brown and John Kearney an 8lb rainbow.
Millhall near Polmont has fished steadily and warmer weather has seen large hatches of fly with the result that buzzers are featuring more heavily in catch returns. Diawl back patterns have also worked well closely followed by cormorant. A McRoberts returned 15 fish and D McRoberts 12.
At Pottishaw near Whitburn, Neil Andrew Coutts Irvine enjoyed an excellent day with numbers into double-figures on a floating line with cormorant patterns doing most of the damage.
In East Lothian, bosses of Newlands Tweeddale near Gifford reported good catches. Thomas Beattie (Jedburgh) had eight on buzzer and CDC and regular Bobby Bloyd (Dalkeith) also with eight on pink egg.
Sea fishing now and Prestonpans angler, Stevie Burns, was among the four placed men in the Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers open match at Lunan Bay near Montrose.
Also in the frame was Billy Buckley (Uddingston), a member of the Scotland squad who fished the world championship in Spain, plus Kirkcaldy-based Alan Combe. The longest fish was a 34cm flounder caught by Stevie Barrett.
Chris Horn, one of the organisers, said fishing was tricky and patchy, probably as a result of the sea during the week.
The next match is on Sunday at Riverside Drive in Dundee (Sunday, April 13) with registration from 9am to 9.45am and fishing from 11am to 4pm. This is a pegged, catch and measure and release match with an 18cm minimum.
Pre-book only to Chris Horn on 07872 944807 and the bait is lugworm and mackerel only with a two hook maximum.
Entry is £20 with £5 for juniors and Burns, who was second in the Edinburgh New Year Shore League, is one of the men scheduled to take part along with Ian Campbell (Falkirk), retail manager of The Edinburgh Angling Centre, and the winner of the Edinburgh New Year League, plus Edinburgh-based William Stafford and Nuno Santos who is the manager to Scotland’s junior angling team.
On to coarse fishing and it is a close race going into the final match in the winter league run by the Edinburgh and Lothians Course Angling League.
The best four of six matches count and East Lothian-based Simon Clynshaw and Darrin Ferguson, president of the club, both have three section wins so it is all to play for in the final match at Orchill near Auchterarder.
Clynshaw has a weight advantage and Edinburgh-based Geoff Lowe and John Perella are chasing third spot with both on similar points and weight.
Mark Gleave won the fifth heat with 28lb with Ferguson second on 20lb 14oz and Andrew Paterson third with 7lb 8oz. Clynshaw was well down with a bag of 3lb.
The club’s first of ten league matches over the summer is on Saturday, May 3 and the series runs until September 20.
Finally, Scotland’s ladies carp team had to accept second best to The Army in a match last week in England when conditions proved really tough at the A1 Pits in Nottinghamshire.
Their next assignment is the Ladies Tri-Nations in May.