Week beginning 11 October 2021
Monday 11th October. 1’9” and 50 degrees and nice and clean. A mixed team this week but they soon got the hang of the job, some had fished the Lees before but not for a few years. Charles Cook is a regular as is Stuart Thornton. Mike Smart who was here a few years ago had a 10lber on his second cast at the Iron Gate and followed it up with another from the same place and one from the glide. Brian Lovering had 3 from the slap and lost one down the lower cauld, Charles Cook had a decent fish from Learmouth Stream which made up this morning’s bag. This afternoon we had 2 from the back of the wall, 1 from the ledges and 1 from the glide, and now I can’t remember where number 11 came from so I will have to ask about tomorrow. The forecast for the week is decent with a high pressure over us for most of the week but getting much colder by Thursday onwards, that should get any fish still downstream to think about moving. The Junction and Upper Floors both had a fresh/clean fish today, Pud sent me the photo of said fish and it’s certainly the cleanest fish I’ve seen since the 27th August.
Tuesday 12th October. 1’6” and 50 degrees squeaky clean, the team went through the pools and the motions but struggled to get a pull, Mike had a pull in the slap and just on lunchtime Brian who’d had a fish on in cornhill bend which he lost as it got snagged up behind a rock managed to hook and land a 20lb fish in the glide on his second run through it. On the whole it was very quiet round the beat with fish being very scarce, we didn’t see a fish in the cauld all day, there were a few showing in the temple (I mean a few as in few). We backed it up this morning and this afternoon as did south wark but nothing to be had. Tillmouth had 8 today which gives us hope that there are still some to move up, also hoping that the river dropping back in quickly doesn’t stop the fish moving and we are back to having shrunken pools with coloured fish that won’t take a fly.
Wednesday 13th October. 1’5” and 51 degrees and squeaky clean. I took Brian up the temple and round the Cauldstream but it wasn’t until he waded the lower cauld that he got a fish, it was an 8lb coloured hen which took a Willie Gunn frankensnaelda tube fished on a intermediate line. Mike Smart arrived back up at lunchtime to report he’d landed the fish of the week a 22lb cock from the Iron Gate, Charles also had one from learmouth which made up the bag for this morning. This afternoon we had another two fish coming from the glide and Iron gate, all the fish were coloured which is par for the course nowadays. Not many fish showing today and in fact I think we caught more than I saw. Catches across the websites are down as well. I think catches will stay depressed until we get a frost on Friday night which will sharpen them up a bit and normally brings them onto the take even as old as they are.
Thursday 14th October. My old enemy the wind came to see us today, I’ve enjoyed the last few months with nothing more than a breeze or no wind at all, but that’s no use for turning the blades on the wind turbines though. 1’4” and 50 degrees. Dan the man is here for three days along with Geoff Sleight and Dan was the man today getting 3 fish, 1 from the slap and 2 from learmouth this afternoon with Paul. I never saw a fish all day either landed or jumping, not one! That’s the first time since April I think that I’ve not seen a fish show somewhere round the beat. Stewart Maughan had two from the glide this afternoon and could perhaps have had another but he was so knackered with the wind he didn’t fish on. All fish on floaters with sinktips and 1”- 1 1/4” tubes. A much calmer day forecast for tomorrow but much colder even a chance of a frost.
Friday 15th October. What a difference in two days, yesterday a full bloody gale and today flat calm with blue skies and a bit of warmth midday. Geoff was first into action getting a 10lb hen from the cauld on a gold bodied willie gunn tube fished on a slow sinktip, Charles Cook also had a 10lb hen from Learmouth this time and Dan had a wee grilse from the iron gate. This afternoon down the beat it was like a mirror with not a ripple this put the fish that were there right down and very few were showing. Samson up on the slap and cauld had a 8lber from the slap making it 4 for the day, he is fishing on for an hour this evening so he might find another. Catches were nothing to shout about but the beats up river are getting some long awaited action. There are some mutterings on the river and social media about catching/fishing for coloured fish and the river should be closed, this year as last if we went down that route we’d be closing at the end of August as the last silver/clean fish we saw/caught was on 27th August, that would make it a rather short season.
Saturday 16th October. Cloudy day but calm, 1’3” and 46 degrees. Jonathan Reddin joined us today and soon added to the week’s total, he had 3 from the iron gate point on his trusty black n yellow tube and followed them up with another from the glide. Up on the slap and cauld Dan Albone had a hold of 3 in the slap and all 3 fell off he followed those with another loss in the temple, some days they just don’t stick on. Samson Stieger-White on his second day couldn’t match yesterday success and managed a pull in the iron gate despite casting like a demon all day. Ladykirk had 10 today showing there are still fish to come unless they decide to stay and spawn down there which I doubt. Bit of rain going through tonight and some rain in forecast for next week. I think that is 35 for the week which is not too shabby given recent conditions.
Some excellent clips on Instagram this week so log on and follow Tweedbeats to see all the action.
©M Campbell 2021
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