A bit of a curve ball
Small bodies of water can provide excellent wild sport throughout the winter months and in Dumfries and Galloway we consider ourselves lucky to have remarkably easy access to them. We have a small syndicate shoot on the Solway coast covering just over 1,000 acres split between open hill, good grazing and silage pasture. On this ground there are seven standing water bodies, ranging from an 18-acre man-made loch to small seasonal splashes that appear in tandem with the welcome arrival of the dark nights.
On the periphery of our permission, the bankside of a pond can just be seen from the public road through a self-seeded block of goat willow. Until recently I had never visited this area, as my attention had been focused on the more central areas of the shoot. One evening, as I
