Week beginning 13 August 2018
Monday 13th August. A wet very humid morning with the gauge sitting at 8” at the Lees and a water temp of 60. Steven Robbins with us today along with Jonathan Reddin and Dave Walker. Dave had a pull in the Slap on his third cast and followed that up losing one in the Cauld it was more of a splashy pull than a loss. Steve however hooked and landed a cleanish 12lber at the Iron Gate which he returned. By lunchtime the rise was with us and the amount of weed coming down stopped any fishing. I popped along at 8.00pm to have a look and it was sitting at 1’9” and very weedy although still clean, I’m expecting any colour to be in by tomorrow morning. There were some fresh Grilse showing in Learmouth stream today but they wouldn’t pull, and Steve had been fishing down at Horncliffe on Saturday and seen lots of fish but couldn’t get a pull, we just need that decent flood and some cooler water temps. That’s the Common Riding season over for another year and I’ve now decided that I’m getting too old for a full weeks partying
Tuesday 14th August. The water was rather murky from the start of play and by lunchtime it was dirty, this didn’t stop David Walker getting our first fish of the week which came from Learmouth stream and would have tipped the scales at under 2lbs, it was tide liced, very skinny and had red vent syndrome, I struggle to say well at least it was a fish. There were some fish running this morning but we couldn’t get them interested in that road/drain wash water. Lunchtime came along with a very heavy shower and coloured water so two of the rods decided to give up until tomorrow in the hope the water will have settled down, in the meantime Adrian Carr arrived with son George, we got their rods set up and took them off down to the Glide and IGP where the wind was more in their favour and get their casting up to speed for tomorrow. There were a good number of fish showing in the Glide and hopefully George will have connected with one. I’m hoping for a half decent day tomorrow if the water clears enough, but of course the fish have to decide to play, floating lines with intermediate tips are the order of the day.
Wednesday 15th August. It was a warm day today but it also blew a hoolie which made me swear a lot, the water was still fairly beery and still sitting at 60 degrees. Young George Carr was here with dad Adrian and once he got into the Cauldstream he wasted no time in pulling out 2 Grilse, 1@5lb which was coloured and 1@3lbs which was liced, both on a floater with a 5’0” inter tip attached and a wee yellow and black shrimpy type tube on the terminal end. The rest of us didn’t fare so well hardly seeing a fish all day, and I’d planned on this being a much better fishing day minus the bloody wind of course. There were a few better fish showing in Learmouth this afternoon but no takers, I did add a mole to the bag this afternoon as the recent rain seems to have brought a few up to the surface. Still no trout to be seen, I should get used to the fact that the bloody Cormorants have eaten them all and stop being surprised every evening when there’s nowt there. It’s raining tonight but just enough to wet the ground and it’ll not help the river.
Thursday 16th August. A bit fresher today but still windy, 10” and 60 degrees with just a light beery tinge. Fliss Atherton from deepest Norfolk here along with Martin Edgar from deep up the Yarrow valley. It wasn’t long before Fliss was into action getting a 4lb grilse from Learmouth following it up with a 6lber and losing a decent fish which neither Fliss or Paul saw but both could tell it had a bit of weight about it. Martin and myself up on the Cauld and Slap never had so much as a pull but we did see a few fish. This afternoon the wind was still blowing but the fish had gone to ground and we didn’t get another pull. The fish were caught on the usual floater with a 5’ inter tip and a #10 willie gunn variant.
Friday 17th August. Another windy day, 1’1” still 60 degrees and clean. Nigel Houldsworth here for two days with an assorted team, once we got the kit sorted out we set off down the beat, first and sadly the only rod to score was Julian Romney who had a 4lb fresh grilse from Learmouth on a wee Ally shrimp, Nigel had a pull in Cornhill Bend and there was a pull in the Cauld. I saw enough fish in Learmouth to keep it interesting and in the afternoon David Houldsworth hooked one at the bench and had it almost to Paul waiting with the net and the hook pinged out. There were some better catches on the river today with Birgham Dub getting 10, Ladykirk getting 9 and Tillmouth 6. The hoped for rain on Sunday looks like its going to be south of us which is a proper bugger. Clancy one or two of the big show onions are starting to split so I think I’ll just lift them this weekend, if they get any bigger I’ll have to get someone to help me!
Saturday 18th August. It was windy, very windy, warm and cloudy, the gauge was reading 10” and 58 degrees but all that didn’t matter as we had 8 fish today along with 2 seatrout. No monsters in the bag but all very welcome, 1 liced the rest a mixed sort. They came from Learmouth down to the bottom of Duddo and team Houldsworth were smiling from lug to lug. All the fish were taken on #10 flies on the standard floater with a wee inter sink tip. The only action in the Cauld was a splash at a sunray which failed to connect. The catches on the river as a whole have improved big style in the last two days much to everyone’s relief. The cheery weathergirl is talking about some heavy rain tonight so let’s hope she’s right as without it we are going to run out of water very soon and this fragile run might stop again.
©M Campbell 2018
our twitter feed