The water levels for the first week of Oct could only be described as perfect. Showers throughout the week kept it topped up, and yes some days had it creeping up but even though it can unsettle the fish, one would of thought given these conditions catches would surely improve. Not so, in
fact it was a very poor week, with only a handful of fish landed. Fish were hooked but many were lost as if they were only coming half heartedly to the fly.
The second week started with lower water which continued to fall away until heavy rain all day on Thurs had it back up to 6ft through the night and was still 5ft 9in on Fri morning. This was rather high for most of the day but certainly looked good for the Sat.
Unfortunately, one of the tenants due to arrive at Ballantrae Bridge became unwell and had to cancel, resulting in the owner fishing the week with friends. Robert Dalrymple was out on Tues evening and connected with a good big coloured cock fish in Sam’s Pot which he landed and returned estimated at 15lbs. I was invited to fish on the Sat and also got hold of a big wily cock fish in Sam’s Pot. This one would be a good 12lb and very coloured and was quickly returned. These fish are great sport and don’t give up easily despite playing them hard. Later in the afternoon I landed a small fish around 5lb and my nephew Kenneth had a nice fairly fresh hen about 12lb. Both fish were from the Low Battery and returned.
Knockdolian had 16 for the first week then as the water fell away only three the following week.
Two Swedish anglers Kent and Yan landed 6 between them, best a fresh 16lb fish from Sallochan and a 12lb from Corbie Stairs, David Connor had 4 from Bankweil Inc a 16lb fish. Another Swede, Harald Carlen had 3 from Bankweil and Dalni best 14lb. Andrew Cowan had an 8lb from the Scaur and 5lb from Twins. The 3 fish on the 2nd week were all 5lb grilse caught by Richard Chivers party and Dr Haskin’s party.
Kirkhill had three on the 3rd for Paul and Robert from Stoke 8lb 5lb & 5lb this was the first time on Stinchar for the lads. Bruce Hamilton landed his first of the season and one for Gilbert as well both these fish were small grilse and all fish returned.
At Bardrochat, Kenny McGregor had a 12lb & a 20lb out the Dub on Sat 13th
Successful rods at Dalreoch and Almont were Willie Peffer with fish of 5lb 16lb and 19lb, Brian Robb 13lb, Stuart Swindon 11lb, Colin Hyslop 6lb and Paul Good 15lb and 5lb.
I also have heard of a number of fish from the Wee Stinchar but it is difficult to obtain information from a lot of the little farm stretches. Anglers here are very reluctant to broadcast their catches for some reason.
Anglers are reminded of the code of conduct produced by the river board recommending no worm fishing during the month of October. Please keep any fish in the water at all times during unhooking prior to returning it

As I type this report (Sept 30th) the river is sitting at 6ft on the marker at Colmonell. The forecast for the coming week remains unsettled. That is just music to the ears of the anglers who have just arrived for their long awaited, weeks fishing. I can’t help feeling this has been part of the problem that we have encountered this September. The river has been up & down like a yo-yo and catches have not been what we are accustomed to for September.
Contrary to what some anglers believe, there is a fairly decent head of fish in the river but for some reason they are reluctant to show. They are well spread out in the system with reports of fish off the very top of the river, 6 weeks earlier than usual.
Ballantrae beats haven’t been setting any records, although to be fair many of the tenants here are pretty relaxed about their fishing break, often combining a round of golf or two with the fishing.
Balnowlart syndicate rods are probably experiencing the leanest September for many a year with blank days common place. Successful rods were Ian Erskine, Jim Gruggan, Steven Holiday, Kenny Gibson, Kenneth Hyslop, Andy Ewan, Stuart Lang and myself.
On Knockdolian the last week was quieter with 11 for the week. Mr Cherry’s party caught 6, the biggest being 19lb from Corner Pool on the Thursday. Robert Straver caught a 9lb on the Tuesday from Corner Pool.
Paul Smith caught a 13lb on the Thursday from Blackstone. John Hall caught a 15lb from Kinning Parks (32″ long) on the Saturday and a 6lb from Shakiston.
Last year September’s total was 89 compared to 43 this year.
Colmonell Club had a few, Les Howarth 13lb, Alexander Wilson 12lb and his father Sandy had two small grilse and one estimated around 17lb.

At Kirkhill, Gilbert Brown said fish were about, but rods had to work hard for them. Steven Johnston caught his first double figure fish at 11lbs. A few smaller fish were also caught and both Gilbert and John McColm lost really big fish after having them all for some time.

Apologies to the rods on Bardrochat, Dalreoch and Almont as I couldn’t get hold of John for details of successful rods but the total for the month was 17, best 12lb.

Hallowchapel have been putting quite a few in the book including one over 20lbs returned.

The Wee Stinchar has produced fish all the way to the top. A 10lb fish was reported from Knockeen, which is well above Barr village.

Minuntion is still in the action with fish for Eddy Smith, John Scobie and a first Stinchar fish for Ian Bunch.

The prospects for the remainder of this season is difficult to predict, but unless we see a vast improvement in the Autumn run, it looks as if returns are going to be considerably down on last year.

The week ending 22nd September was challenging to say the least.
The water was on the low side at the start of the week, but the showers soon lifted it to a nice level by mid-week, followed by heavy rain on Thursday afternoon. This had it at 4ft and clearing by Friday morning.
At Ballantrae Bridge after having a rather lean time of it, the catches jumped to 16 for the week, now that may not seem a lot for this time of the year, but as the previous few weeks were only producing single fig returns, it was certainly a welcomed improvement. Interestingly most of these fish were small grilse, of which a few were less than 3lbs. Only two fish were over 10lbs. These are fish which normally would be in the river by the beginning of August as opposed to appearing in the third week of September.
Balnowlart saw most of the syndicate rods head home empty handed last week with the few exceptions being Andy Ewan with one of 11lbs and Callum Gibson a fish of 7lbs
Knockdolian rods headed forth on Monday morning with great expectations after returning 32 last week. Seven fish was the total for the week, very disappointing! Best two fish were 19 & 15lbs
The Club water had four, Kirkhill five and Dalreoch six.
The farther up-river, the poorer the catches, Hallowchapel didn’t have a fish.
One at Laggansarroch for Roger Pirie 9lb, 2 for Eddy Smith & 1 for John Scobie at Minuntion
Some anglers who have been coming here for years are convinced there is very few fish in the river as they are just not showing this year for some reason. I spoke to one disgruntled angler who fished all week and only saw 4 fish jump. I personally think the fish are well spread out in the whole system and for some reason, when these conditions of continuous water prevail; the fish seem to switch off and become very difficult to catch. Hopefully the colder weather will start to bring out the territorial aggression in the big cock fish. There are a good number of very large fish in the river this year, so please be prepared with strong nylon, nothing less than 15lbs and make sure all braided loops are in good condition. If you are fortunate enough to land one of these specimens, please handle it carefully, keeping it in the water at all times quickly take a photo and measure the length & girth and return it to the water. It is important to return these large fish as big fish breed big fish, if the anglers don’t look after the fish, no one else is going to!!!!!

First week of September the water had dropped away slightly and this reflected on the catches. Roger Pirie returned a very coloured fish around 9lbs on Tues 4th. Balnowlart had 4 on Fri 7t
Knockdolian had 7 for the week.
The following week saw better conditions with Ballantrae landing 8 for the week.
Steven Holiday, Kenny Gibson, Ian Erskine, Jimmy Hyslop, Jim Gruggan and Marshall Veitch were all in on the action at Balnowlart.
Knockdolian had a great week landing 32 including a 20lb fish from Bankweil for Mike Arnett
John Hall’s party landed 13 for the week Inc two 16lb fish -1 from Bankweil the other in the House Run. Tony Coughlan landed 4 from McCallum best 12lb. Mike Smith and his friend Ian were at Knockdolian for the first time and Ian had a 12lbr from Kinning Park. Roger Taylor and his friend had 4 from the Bottom Pools best 10lbs.
At Kirkhill Gilbert, Owen Samson and John McColm all had fish as did John’s son who caught his first ever salmon. Well done young man. These were all Grilse.
Dalreoch has been disappointing with very few being caught; Peter Stewart had a brace of grilse on the 15th.

Mike Arnett’s 20lb fish

August has been another month of continuous water with a number of good spates, one of which reached 9ft at Colmonell on Monday 27^th.  The whole month has seen water levels, which allows fish to run the river as they please.  This results in no build up of fish in the tidal reaches and is indeed reflecting in the catches in the lower river.  For all the water, angling pressure has been very light, except for the days immediately following a spate.   Anglers seem to be reluctant to buy day tickets as the water gets down to 2ft.  The exception to this is the syndicate members who keep plugging away and have been rewarded for their efforts with some exceptional fish, provided they scale down to suit conditions.

Rods at Ballantrae Bridge have had to work hard for their fish.  Owner Robert Dalrymple fished on good water with his two sons with only Alistair being successful with an 8lb fish.  Alistair now lives and works in Texas U.S.A. and follows his home river’s fortunes on the Stinchar website. The tenants on the final week of the month finished with 11 fish, mostly grilse.

Balnowlart has fished away steady with no reports of any bonanzas.  Kirkholm has struggled a bit this month with the only successes being when the river is high.  Owner William Marshall’s nephew 10 yr old Ryan Talbot caught his first ever salmon here this month, a lovely fish of 10lb Well Done Ryan.

Knockdolian has done well despite a lack of anglers.  Tuesday the 7^th was the best day of the month with 17 landed, including one of 17lb from the Blackstone caught by Lord Richard.  J.Clavering’s party had four best being 13lbs.  Brian Wilson and Tony Coughlan had 7 from Twins and Bankweil.  John Hall hooked 5 on MacCallums that day and lost every single one of them.  Len Holowko had one in Bankweil.  Jimmy Hyslop 7lb – Sallochan.  Ross McCulloch had two from bottom pools best being 12lbs he also had 2 from the Scaur best 16lb and hooked a fish in the Scaur which left the pool and snapped him.  I accompanied Stuart Lang to the Scaur on Saturday 25^th and witnessed the same thing happen to him.  He hooked a very large fish near the tail and after a short while it made to go out the tail of the pool and when Stuart tried to turn it, it also broke him.  Same fish?  Who knows!!  I had one from Dalni 11lbs, one from Sallochan 6lbs, 7 lb from Scaur and I also landed a fish from the tail of Bankweil on a  6ft water using a wet cell 2 and a 2.5 inch Red Tube. For those that know it, the big rock was completely covered.

Colmonell Club water has had a few successful rods being – Sandy and Alexander Wilson, Robert McIlwraith, Stuart Donnelly and George Falls.

Kirkhill has fished well with a number of quality fished landed, including one of around 19lbs for Tom Wallace.  Barry White on his first visit landed a nice grilse of 5lbs.  Owen Samson hooked 6 on one day, landing 4 of them.  Gilbert himself also had 4 fish. Graham Jones had a nice grilse on a Red Devil.  On Bardrochat from the Bridge Pool, John Paton had an 8lb fish and Dougie Dunsmuir one of 6lb.  On Dalreoch, Patrick Kensell had a 12lb fish from Hare’s Took.  J Freeman 4lb from Dangart.  Gordon MacDairmid from the Ayrshire River Trust had a 10lb out of the Craig.  Also on the Craig Glyn Phillips landed a beauty of 14lb. Brian Robb and Nathan Calderwood both had grilse of 5lb from Dangart, Ian McIlwraith a 13lb fish from the Pot. Laurie Taylor had a 6lb grilse from the Craig.   Up on Almont Johnny Gaff had 4 and 1 for Billy Morrison all fish in the 6-7lb class. Colin Hyslop had an 8lb fish from the Rock Pool.

Hallowchapel is doing well with best for the month an 18lb fish for Mr Cameron and his son also getting one of 12lb.  On the Wee Stinchar Rodger Pirie is still doing the business with another 4 fish on his syndicate rod, including fish of 15lb and 12lb.  Another member of this syndicate, young Harry Sheddon caught his first salmon on the fly, a cock fish of 20 and three quarter pounds.  This is a magnificent fish for the Stinchar and not many anglers can lay claim to such a catch in their lifetime.  Well Done Harry!!

On Minuntion catches have slowed up a bit, John Scobie had one of 10lb and another of 14lbs Paul Parker landed a good fish around 15lbs and another of 5lb, a grilse for Eddy Smith and the keeper Douglas Faulds took his rod with him when he went to feed his birds and had a cast at the bottom of the beat and landed a fish of 14lbs much to the disgust of anglers that had been fishing all day with nothing to show for it.

As I write on September 1^st autumn is certainly evident already with the trees changing and a few leaves already falling.  This is the time the visiting anglers arrive in numbers, I just hope we haven’t used up our quota of water for the year, as I am afraid this river does not last long before needing another downpour.  Given water September can be a fantastic month to fish the Stinchar.  Time will tell.

Harry Shedden’s 20lb fish from Laggansarroch