Week beginning 11 September 2023
Monday 11th September. Team Brymer here for three days, last year in their three days they caught 44, they’re not going to catch 44 these three days I’m afraid. 8” and 64f with loads of slime and algae coming down, the wind which wasn’t strong was blowing it out of the margins after being lifted by the warm water. There are fish about, there were a lot at the top of the back of the wall, some in the glide even cornhill bend had a few in it but not one was interested in a fly, mind you couldn’t get a fly near them that wasn’t covered in green gunge, it was slime and weed every single cast, we have to hope it is going to cool down a lot in the next few nights to sink this slime back to the bottom.
Tuesday 12th September. A nice enough day with sunny spells, 8” and 60f and full of that bloody slime, by lunchtime there were great islands of it coming down the temple. Down on the glide this morning Tim after breaking his now rod set up his spare with a full floater on his now favourite fly a sunray and it nearly did the job for him as he had a brief hold of a fish below the point. Simon switched to a skimmer in the duddo and had a boil at it in the lower half, it’s trying to minimise the weed that has us fishing on top. This afternoon in the cauld Simon had a big boil at the sunray in the lower part where the weed wasn’t as bad but it didn’t take hold. Top dog this afternoon was Duncan down at learmouth where he hooked and landed an old croc that would tip the scales at 20lbs. Plenty fish showing but nothing fresh or even clean seen today. Sally (wife) has been at it again, it is show week and over the years when she has ventured into the garden unsupervised she has managed to turn one of my potential exhibits into part of my dinner or into a relish or chutney, this time it was a perfect head of broccoli which I’d earmarked for the single specimen vegetable and it would have been a winner, she has in the past cut my pumpkin in half to make chutney, another time it was the best carrot you’ve ever seen which made it into a stew. Looks like a bit of rain coming tomorrow evening, if we get a lift of water it’ll be unfishable for a day or so.
Wednesday 13th September. Around 7” on the gauge but the water temp had dropped to 54f down from 64f on Monday this I thought would sink the weed or stop it lifting at the very least but it didn’t. The weed was a persistent problem all day, worse in some pools than others. Tim was up top and we both saw a fish or two in the temple so decided to back it up with a sunray, the weed was terrible, right through the water column, luckily it was more of a light slime which came off the fly whilst casting in the main. Into the cauld and the slime was bad we fished it out but not a pull or a boil was had. Down in the duddo young Jim Brymer had a bit of a hold of one but that was all the action for the morning. After lunch Jim was in the cauld and somehow got his fly into the mouth of not one but two salmon, 6lbs and 7lbs both river fish. The rest of the team stuck to their duties and fished it all afternoon which is a credit to them as picking off weed every cast would have me back on the bench after a very short shift. Ten fish caught upstream of us but only three below us, I’d like to see it the other way round as it would indicate more fish to come. Rain over the catchment tonight and Friday so we could just maybe get a bit of a lift to move some of this slime out.
Thursday 14th September. Team Colinson here for next three days and unofficial Team leader Paul wasted no time getting into a fish in the cauldstream, it was a 20lb coloured hen that went away safely after a decent scrap. Chris Major had a 10lb old cock from the iron gate whilst everyone else spent the morning taking weed off their hooks. The weed was a problem some pools worse than others, I say weed but it’s really slime. This afternoon Paul who had moved down to learmouth stream with Paul the ghillie landed another two a 13lber and a 3lber plus had three other pulls just off the point on a #12 red frances. That was all the action for the day it is amazing that the fly stayed clean enough for the fish to have time to decide to take it. The osprey gave us a fly past this afternoon; I thought it had buggered off south as that’s the first I’ve seen of it this week and yesterday a flock of golden plover arrived so autumn is surely here. Tillmouth had five today and somewhere else downstream had one. Rain forecast for tonight and a part of tomorrow.
Friday 15th September. It was a grey day the perfect day for the use of the word Dreich if ever there was one, it rained all day mostly light rain but rain just the same, I’m writing this at 8.00pm and it still raining and forecast to rain all night. The top gauges are rising and hopefully we will get a decent rise out of it as we really need to get rid of this weed/slime, fishing today was all but impossible with weed on the hook/fly and line every cast but somehow Mark managed to hook and land a fish in learmouth on a sunray, the fish weighed 4lbs but by the time it was landed it was more like 40lbs said Paul as there was so much weed on the line and fish, Andrew also had a fish a 5lber from the Annay also on a sunray. A worry is with a big flood is it will take all the fish away up the river and there seems to be little below us to come up, there will always be some stragglers to go at I hope. Flower/veg show tomorrow so I’ve busy getting it all ready, flowers are all cut and in pots and vases in the garage as the rain has really battered them, a lot of things have gone over as the show is too late, end of October things were perfect, hopefully everyone is in same boat so I still have a chance. With the top gauges rising fishing looks doubtful tomorrow as even a wee lift will bring tons of slime/weed down.
Saturday 16th September. Another dreich day with rain and a north wind, there was no humming and haying today about if it was worth a cast as it was rising and looked like green porridge. Looking at the gauges upstream it’ll get over three feet here maybe more as it’s still raining. Hopefully most of the slime will be gone by Monday but not the fish, I’ll feel sorry for the fish having to try and survive in that it must be difficult for them to breathe without getting their gills full of slime. A few martins and the odd swallow still here but today’s weather might just encourage them to head south.
Sunday 17th September. 2’1” and the Lees and very beery, should be fine tomorrow as long as the rain stays away of course.
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©M Campbell 2023
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