Finally the sun has returned to the sky! After yesterdays deluge, it was a relief to see such a beautiful morning. I headed to Stranraer to meet a man who was going to fix our electrofisher. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a quick fix and Robin took the anode back to Ireland with him on the next ferry. We should be back in action on Tuesday weather permitting.

On the way back I had a look at the Water of App as it enters Loch Ryan. It was flowing nicely and I saw a couple of sea trout leaping near the mouth of the river. This is an Ayrshire River but Galloway Fisheries Trust provide the Estate with management advice and monitoring at the moment. This is a historic arrangement from before the establishment of ART but it still would be nice to have the river under our remit.

The first pool above the tide on the App. I watched a couple of sea trout splashing just off shore

I headed back to Ballantrae and then Colmonell. The Stinchar was big but fishable and there were rods on every beat as far as I could see. I heard that one fish had been caught on Kirkhill, but only one.

Fishing down Bardrochat towards Colmonell Bridge

Further upstream at Hallowchapel, there were a couple of Yorkshire visitors who reported seeing a few fish but they hadn’t landed anything.

A bit bright but nice levels at Hallowchapel

I called Meryl who was just upstream finishing off spraying a stand of Japanese Knotweed. We met at Hallowchapel and I gave her a hand to spray some of the many stands of Knotweed that infest this stretch. The Knotweed is in flower at the moment so it’s prime time for killing it off.

When the plant is in flower, it is much easier to kill with a single application of Roundup Pro Biactive

 

Making the most of the dry weather. Meryl equipped with an extendable lance could reach the centre of most JK stands easily.

Team work

As we can’t go electrofshing tomorrow, Gordon volunteered to assist Meryl and myself on the Duisk at Barrhill tomorrow where we will hopefully manage to spray a huge amount of JK. I’ve no doubt we will miss plants but at least next years task will be greatly reduced.