Week beginning 12 November 2018
Monday 12th November. A nice mild calm start to the day but with a rising river. 2’9 and 46 degrees with a beery tinge, two of the rods decided not to fish and two gave it a go this morning and packed up at lunchtime having had a couple of brown trout. Tonight it is around the 4’0” mark and rising at the Lees so tomorrow I imagine it’ll be very dirty and full of leaves.
Tuesday 13th November. Well it was big and dirty, I don’t know if it was full of leaves as we didn’t wet a line. Two of the rods phoned to say they wouldn’t be coming while Liz and John Macgregor turned up for a look as they live just across the river in Wark it wasn’t a long trip. It was a lovely day apart from the river conditions so we got on with some tidying up, Paul attacked a big Beech limb that came down in storm Ali and I got the gutters unblocked round the hut, I then took a long overdue trip down to Berwick hospital to see Bob Harrison (Flipper) who has been moved there whilst he recovers from his recent stroke. He had a laugh at some of the stories I told him about the lot of you, he has a long road to travel and I wish him all the best. Prospects for the rest of the week are an improving picture apart from the rain in the west tomorrow, after that it looks to be settled but I fear there will be little left down here to catch. I took along a young Guinea fowl I reared at home and released into the run, it immediately ran to the only other one in the run and has teamed up with it, I’ve done this before and it always amazes me as they have never seen an adult before so how do they know they are a Guinea fowl, birds of a feather stick together I suppose. Puppy Jock is coming along nicely and is more of a “wee dug” now than a puppy so it’s time to start some play retrieving.
Wednesday 14th November. The day was over before it began with a rising dirty river, well it was falling in places and rising in others but tonight it’s rising yet again so tomorrow will be a wash out with the Teviot at Roxburgh showing 4’4” and rising and Pebbles along with Boleside both over 3’6” and rising.
Thursday 15th November. 3’10” and a rather toasty 48 degrees with wall to wall sunshine. Adrian and Simon Harrup here for three days but today was a non starter, after a coffee and a blether Simon had a rod up and had a few chucks off the bank to fill in a bit of time but sadly that’s all he was doing. There were some fish caught but they were about 50 miles upstream of us. It is dropping and at 7.00pm it was around 3’0” on the gauge so it will fish tomorrow, 3’0” is still very big for us even in a year when there are a lot of fish around. I’ll be amazed if we get one tomorrow also pleasantly surprised, but as they say “you never know”.
Friday 16th November. Absolutely cracking day weather wise today with blue skies and it was almost hot. 2’8” and still 48 degrees with a beery tinge. Adrian and Simon were joined today by friends David and another Simon, they got themselves spread around the beat and gave it a go. The only thing to report from the morning was a wee pull in the Glide and I saw a seatrout Kelt in the Temple. This afternoon the rods changed places and Simon Harrup had a wee and I mean a wee salmon Kelt from the Temple along with a pull that took about an inch from his reel. Looking at the websites tonight there are only two fish reported off the whole river which was caught at Cadrona the other at Lower Birgham, that I have to say doesn’t inspire me to rush back along there tomorrow.
Saturday 17th November. Another nice sunny day with the gauge showing 2’4” and 44 degrees. The lads fished away all morning but nobody saw so much as a scale, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the conditions, just no fish left. The Army gave us a great display at lunchtime with 4 Apache attack helicopters flying round the beat and hiding behind the trees see instagram for clips. After lunch an east wind had picked up and was putting a wave up the Cauld and Temple so the lads decided they’d had enough and the thought of getting a few miles towards home in daylight was more attractive than casting into that upstream wind. The catches on the river were better than yesterday by 3. Next week water conditions will be spot on for us so if there is a fish on the beat we should get it, it’s a big if.
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©M Campbell 2018
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