Week beginning 12 February 2018
Monday 12th February. A very cold frosty morning with a wind that could cut you in half. 2’9” and mucky so the team decided not to fish which was a wise decision looking at the catch returns tonight. A couple of the lads had a walk round the beat while Frank read the papers and Terry cut the beef in to steak sized slices which spilled out the sides of the buns. The river is dropping but very slowly and the forecast for the next two days is for more rain/snow.
Tuesday 13th February. Another cold morning with snow/sleet/rain. 2’5” and 36 degrees with a road wash colour to it. Three of the team elected to have a cast this morning with 1 staying behind to stoke the fire and read the paper. Grahame Whitty stuck it out the longest but still came back with nothing to show for his efforts apart from rosy cheeks. It was game pie for lunch which was very nice and set us up for the afternoon session, Tony Bosomworth was the top banana getting a Kelt from the Temple and that was the only pull of the day. Top beat on the river was Carham with two licers and Upper Hendersyde with one, so well done them. The river was rising a little this afternoon and with a wet/snowy forecast the rest of the week could be unsettled. The big dog otter was having fun this morning chasing a Goosander which couldn’t fly down the Temple; it was going like a porpoise down the Temple right behind the Goosander until it reached the Cauld where it gave up.
Wednesday 14th February. Well I thought it was cold on Monday and Tuesday but today was bloody Baltic, it was the sort of wind that hurts it was so cold. The wind combined with the river going up to 2’7” and having a mucky grey colour to it made the decision for the team not to bother having a cast. I popped up to Kelso to get some supplies and didn’t see any other beats fishing so they all must have thought the same. It was game pie for lunch again but it seems to have an undesirable effect a few hours later, it’s maybe a bit rich for my delicate tummy. The river is all over the place tonight with some bits rising and others falling. Spinning starts tomorrow so no doubt no matter what the conditions metal will be thrown great distances across the water in the certain hope that fish will grab a silver flashy thing. I sometimes fancy trying a golden sprat again, they were the go to bait when I was a lad, but you never see them nowadays, maybe just as well as my fingers used to freeze having to set them up and wire on the sprat having just unhooked a kelt.
Thursday 15th February. A bit milder today with a very strong wind, the wind didn’t really matter as the river was rising and colouring quickly thanks to the Teviot effect. Graham Scott who arrived this morning gave it a chuck off the Cauld bank but it was just to blow away the cobwebs and try out his new line. The Ghillies/Boatmens meeting was held tonight at Kelso and many topics were covered along with all the latest information from the Tweed Foundation which was very interesting, a news sheet will be in the huts up and down the river from March, you can always look on line or on the Foundation’s Facebook page to find out what is happening. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=tweed%20foundation
Tomorrow’s prospects are not looking great, we should get on but it will still be carrying some colour and we will have to have our lucky pants on to catch a fish.
Friday 16th February. A nicer morning with less wind, 2’9” this morning and 36 degrees still carrying a touch of colour. I took Terry into the cauld and nearly gave myself a hernia in the process so I’ll not be doing that again in a hurry. We watched the opposition at South Wark landing a wee springer this morning in the Temple which spurred us on a bit, but all we had to show for our days work was a couple of kelts from the top of the Temple. There were two other fish reported off the river, one from Upper Floors and one from Lower. Should be down to around 2’5” tomorrow so we will be able to spread round the beat a bit as it’s getting a bit tedious being stuck at the top all day. The Otter was with us a couple of times and a pair of Kingfishers were busy either fighting or courting this afternoon (same thing really). Forecast for a bit of rain overnight but it shouldn’t affect us till late on.
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