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!!!!!
