Week beginning 10 November 2014
Monday 10th November. A foggy start, in fact so foggy I thought we might have to have foghorns fitted to the boats as we don’t want an international incident with the other side. 2’8” and 42 degs but clean at last, I took Oliver Devictor up to the top of the Temple, well he walked up and I rowed up as is the way anyway we were soon into a liced 12lber which fought like a lion, thats the first liced fish I’ve netted in an age, it was soon followed by a 5lb cock which was covered in spots and had the look of a Seatrout about it with a Salmon tail a hybrid possibly? Jim McCaig the Teith terror managed another licer but only 3lbs this time from the lower Temple. This afternoon the fog was still about us but we’d avoided any collisions I was on the far bank of the Cauld where Oliver landed another one of those 3lbers liced again. There’s also a dead Salmon on the middle Croy which an Otters pulled out and it’s being devoured by a load of rats which are not put off by the boat being a few yards from them. Jim McCaig who luckily is not scared of rats landed two fish one of them being an 8lb Seatrout. The fog got worse by 4.00pm and by 4.30pm with the light failing fast we called it a day with a total of 5 salmon and 1 Seatrout. It was nice to be fishing a clean river again and if it keeps dropping we should be able to spread round the beat a bit more as it’s getting a bit tedious being stuck on the same two pools for weeks, and the Cauld is not that great a pool when it’s high in fact over 3’0” it’s crap but that’s maybe down to the lack of fresh fish. We were using wet 2-3 lines and 1 ¼ tubes. A point of note for the day was Oliver using a single hook in the morning had two pulls two landed, in the afternoon three pulls only one landed on a treble!
Tuesday 11th November 2’5” and 44 degs but nice and clean, Michael Trafford had a couple from the Temple both liced but not big fish and followed that with one from the Cauld, he now knows he should of been using a wet 2 type line yesterday, Ian Thorpe pulled out a huge 4lber from the lower temple. This afternoon Michael got a 12lb hen from the back of the wall and had 3 other bits of action so at last we are getting fish from somewhere other than the top two pools, we had a 16lb hen from the Slap as well, so 6 for the day and in a very bad south east wind, of all the winds we get a south east is the worst, not that I like any wind at all. The forecast is for rain in the west tonight but it might be late enough for us to get the whole day in before in rises, it needs to drop not rise but there we go. There are still a lot of leaves on the trees so I imagine the next frost will fill the river again. We did see a number of fish in the Temple today but they are a fair old mix of old fish and older fish with the odd fresh/clean one, there are also some Kelts splashing about and Jim McCaig had his best Seatrout Kelt ever today.
Wednesday 12th November 25 fish or there abouts off the whole river showed the conditions of things today, with a rising river things were always going to be difficult we did see fish today and 2 of the fish we caught were fresh but they were 2lbs and 4lbs the other was a 10lb hen from the temple this afternoon which was clean but not fresh. That was the last day for this team but at least they all had a fish or two. Team Hinton on tomorrow and with Jim Reid champion whisky sooker here it’ll be a numbers game on the amount of fish we’re going to land. The spanner in the works will be the height and the colour as we will stuck at the top end again and there’s bound to be a fair bit of colour so Jim will be using his new best green and yellow fly or I might persuade him to try a Temple Shrimp (one of the best dirty water flies ever tied) if it’s tied the original way that is. The salmon on the Croy has gone so it just shows what a team of rats can do when they get about it, whats the collective name for rats? I don’t know but I’ll tell you tomorrow after I’ve looked it up.
Thursday 13th November It’s a pack/plague/swarm of rats pick one it would seem. 2’11” and very beery 46degs so not a great start, Jim and myself thought about staying in the hut and sorting out the world with a bottle of Balvenie but we’re made of sterner stuff so it was off to the top of the Temple, two Broonies and a Seatrout Kelt and we were back at the hut for a Balvenie, mind you it was a good Kelt! The other rods blanked but Phil Hinton had a hold of something for a few seconds, Jim fishing the lower temple before lunch with his new favourite fly had a 9lb clean’ish hen and that was it for the morning. After lunch the wind really picked up, the Temple resembled the North Sea and in the Cauld fishing from the left bank was impossible and on the right bank I had to row hard to stop myself being blown up onto the Cauld, Jim looked round and pulling the running line out of his face said I’m not enjoying this, that was all the encouragement I needed and we were ashore quicker than a rat up a drainpipe, soon to be followed by the rest of the rods. It was becoming dangerous with flies shooting past your ears out of control. Forecast tomorrow is for gales from the south east and heavy rain so it’s looking grim. Today’s total was 2 Broon Troot, 1 Seatroot Kelt, 1 @9lb salmon 2 squirrels and a Carrion Crow.
Friday 14th November A wild and wet day with the Lees gauge showing 3’0” and rising at the top end the rods had had enough and waved the white flag, what a contrast from this time last year when the same team had 40 fish in three days (mind it was a record November) So it was check the boats take a rat out of a trap then off to Kelso for a shopping trip, Put my name on the pumpkin club trophy again at the jewellers. Little bit of clothes shopping and a few other things that we never get the chance to do when you’re on 6 days a week, although tomorrow will be a day off I think as its rained monsoon style this afternoon, it’ll be a day of checking the boats first. Forecast is for Saturday to be a nice day but Sunday looks wet yet again.
Saturday 15th November If there was ever a dreich November day this was it, foggy all day and it was that really damp type of fog, gauge showing 4’6” and mucky brown so no chance of fishing, well if you were insane you would fish in it! We pulled off the wooden boat from the Cauld to replace it with a plastic one as we are all fed up of rowing the wooden boat on the left side of the Cauld as it weighs a ton and none of the Ghillies can remember the last time we caught a fish on the left bank other than wading the tail end. There were 5 fish on the websites tonight which were caught about 3 light years above us, I had a wee chat with Martin who’s been working at Upper Hendersyde and he tells me the place is full of Kelts, we did see a lot of Seatrout Kelts at the Lees on Thursday and no doubt this flood will bring more to us. So a day off today which was spent filling the car with all sorts of stuff to sell at a car boot sale tomorrow I’ll be a millionaire by Sunday night! Forecast dry tomorrow so it will fish on Monday but I’m not expecting much in the way of fish, I’m not being a pessimist just realist but an optimistic one at that. There are a lot of Squirrels this year and you would think that a grey flecked white thing would stand out a mile in a pile of brown leaves but you don’t see them until they move, and thats a bad thing to do if you’re a squirrel Anyway two weeks to go and only 450 odd fish to catch so the lads are going to have a hell of a week.
Photos this week are pretty boring really. Jim Reid in the Cauld boat with the bows pointing downstream to try and stop the boat being blown up into the Cauld, a gauge showing the water too high and a bleak Temple pool.
© M Campbell 2014
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