Thursday 14th October

By contrast, everyone else at Brooms was catching nicely on feeder today but I had a poor time on the pole, ending up with two commons, one of which was albeit a good size fish - and a gudgeon!

It was probably my own fault.  I think I picked the wrong swim on the west bank, thinking the SE wind would bring fish my way.  It was a swim where I've caught well before, but earlier in the year.  As well as missing lightning bites, I hooked and lost several fish and, in retrospect should maybe have changed to a larger hook size of a more normal pattern. Worm was only attacked by smaller fish (accounting for the gudgeon) so I decided to go on the swingtip in the middle of the session and got a frustrating series of touches and pulls, and two lifts that almost had the swingtip horizontal before fading into nothing.

Back on the pole at dusk I tried pellet briefly but got more lightning bites I couldn't hit. On the last cast with a decent size lobworm, I struck into a good fish that came off after a few seconds.

Easy to think that I got this wrong, but even so I could have had seven or eight fish on the bank rather than just three.

Tuesday 4th October

Very belatedly, I got round to my first serious fishing trip since April!

Everyone else was on the feeder at Brooms F1 pond but I stuck with the margins, feeding two swims either side of me on the short pole in swim 11 - and to good effect.

I took one nice mirror and a common on meat to my left but couldn't connect with any bites in the right hand swim as the fish stripped the meat off the hook in lightning quick time.

Switching to worm in the left hand swim I got a barbel, and then a really nice barbel that I reckoned was about five pounds, as it overlapped the large Brooms landing net at both sides:

Barbel

You never really get an idea of size from net photos but I take size 11 wellingtons, so it's over 2' long and took me about 10 minutes to land on the pole.  It was certainly the biggest I've caught.

Switching back to meat and saying to myself that barbel fight harder than carp, I hooked into a juicy mirror with almost no scales that set out to prove me wrong and took even to longer to land.  I estimated that it would have scaled 7lb.

Mirror Carp

On the last cast, I hooked into another big fish that snapped the line as soon as I applied any pressure and, unfortunately, it was a bit too late to tackle up again.  Possibly there was a weakness in the line but using 3.5lb bottom and 5lb above, you'd have thought the elastic would have coped with most things up to 10lb.  My first instinct was that it was a big'un that turned its head at just the wrong moment.

Overall I had ten fish, three mirrors, three commons, three barbel and one chub. Only one carp took worm and only one barbel took meat.  The chub was one of only two fish from the right hand swim when I finally hit one of the lightning bites, raising the question whether chub were responsible all along.

All in all a smashing return and a much better size of fish that was coming in on the feeders.

5th - 12th September

Holiday in Corfu, where there were still plenty of swallows and, if I am not mistaken, some of the red-rumped variety.  Also a number of very large birds of prey gliding at high altitude that I could not identify.  They weren't buzzards.

A couple of light-hearted attempts to catch fish off the rocks on sweetcorn (!), the second of which was looking promising as I could see the fish scouring around the bottom and taking the free offerings - until a huge wave from an ocean liner introduced storm conditions into the microcosm. Once they had subsided and the bottom cleared again, the fish had moved on.

Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to fish for the large numbers of mullet hanging around an outlet from the nature reserve next to St Spyridon Beach, as a sign in Greek and Italian said no fishing.  No rule against feeding them though and I could conclusively prove that mullet will eat sweetcorn, making it to my mind a better potential bait than bread, which they just knock to pieces most of the time.  On Rhodes, I saw the Greeks catching them on houmos paste, float fished at distance, and was duly impressed.

Previously had been watching out at home to see if my theory that swifts will not be sighted or heard after the end of August is true. I think I did hear a couple yesterday, so perhaps sighting a swift in September is just about possible. Swallows are also suddenly scarce around the estate, although tonight I was out with some people who live in farming areas and tell me there are still plenty around.

23rd July

Went a bit astray on a walk at the RSPB reserve at north end of Loch Ken, mistaking the boundary for a footpath.  Ended up in deep reeds and with major hay fever outburst.

The big compensation occurred on the approach path, when I got good close up views of two or three sedge warblers - not uncommon but a first for me.

It also rained and got wet feet as on the two previous trips this week.  Decided this will be the last of my walks in this frankly awful summer.

21st July

Bike ride and walk round Kirkconnel Flow. Fairly quiet overall. Saw two ringlets, one meadow brown and one small heath, a first sighting although not uncommon. Apparently Large Heath is also present. Large number of meadow pipits on central bog, so might be a place to look for merlin. Also roe deer in binocs whilst watching pipits. Heard several but only saw one bird of prey, too far away to identify. Also heard possible redpoll. Walk round the bog is hard work as mostly rough underfoot.

17th July

Walk at Moffat Community Wildlife Reserve.  Willow warblers, redstarts.  Plenty of butterflies in spite of mixed weather -  ringlets, meadow browns (several although apparently in decline elsewhere) and two small tortoiseshells.  Pleasant mixed habitat.

Also did Earshaig Walk.  Lots of siskins, spotted woodpecker and excellent view of male redstart on way marker  Lots more ringlets and two large(?) skippers.

13th July

Brief walk at Knowetop Lochs where saw several jays. Bike ride from New Galloway down Loch Ken and back via Bellymack/Laurieston. Swift flew out of an eve and almost crashed into me on New Galloway High Street! Siskin by Black Water of Dee and many red kites on way back. Goldfinches, ringlet butterflies. Stopped at Ken Dee Marshes to look out for wood warbler, but no sign.