Week beginning 14 August 2023
Monday 14th August. Back to work after a week at the common riding. 1’8” 60f and very beery. A full team on and they were soon spread round the beat, Down on the back of the wall Barry Williamson had a nice clean 13lber which wasn’t a surprise as there were plenty showing, what was a surprise was he only caught one, it was the same story up at the top where Steve Robins was, plenty fish first thing then all went quiet and not so much as a pull, it was the same story for Steve in the afternoon in learmouth stream. Patrick Rouen had a brief hold of one in the middle stream and that was all the fishy action for the day. Pete Markam and Bob Wigglesworth covered fish this morning in the iron gate and glide but never had a pull. I thought this morning we were going to bag up but the fish were just not interested in that black water apart from Tillmouth who had 12 for the day, they must have been using a special fly. Rain started at lunchtime and at 9.00pm tonight it’s still raining, nothing showing on the gauges yet.
Tuesday 15th August. Well after all that rain yesterday the river went down 4 inch and cleared a bit. 1’4” and 58f with that beery tinge still about. Not so many fish showing today but enough to keep it interesting. Pete had a couple of follows in the slap to the sunray, another couple of splashes in the cauld, landed a seatrout and thoroughly enjoyed himself as he saw the splashes and boils. Down in learmouth Patrick managed a blank and didn’t see a fish. Andrew Fox lost a fish in the glide and Barry lost one in duddo. Bob saved the blank morning getting one out of the lower cauld. This afternoon Patrick climbed onto the scoreboard with a fresh grilse from the iron gate whilst Bob shook one off in the back of the wall, Barry made up for his loss this morning getting a 7lber from the cauld. We are on floating lines with various sinktips depending on what pools you are on and everything from a #8 double to a five inch sunray. I would like to see more fish about as it’s only a couple of weeks to the end of August and we’ll need a lot more than this to keep us going to the end of the season, they maybe are coming a wee bit later this year.
Wednesday 16th August. Word came through the internetty that it was very wet at Hawick and Jedburgh last evening and we found out it was this morning with the Roxburgh gauge reading 2’5” and it was already rising at the Lees before we got started, Patrick decided to head home, Stuart had already decided not to travel over, that left Andrew, Kirsty and wee Freddie (5yo)along with granddad Gavin, Gavin and Andrew decided to have a go but it was very soon clear that they were not going to catch a fish with lots of weed coming down and the colour getting worse by the minute, by 11.00am it was over. In the afternoon I popped up to Kelso to get some kit and as ever the tackle shops had the usual array of ghillies in for a bleather. I went back along tonight 8.00pm and the colour is worse if anything, it has all night to run through but there is not enough water coming down Tweed to dilute it enough, it’ll be a seatrooty water tomorrow.
Thursday 17th August. The water was here and it was manky, not unfishable but nearly, that wasn’t the worst of the morning though, it was Gavin sticking two barbs of a treble right into the middle of his bottom lip and knocking out a tooth in the process, off to the local health centre for him and more of that later. 1’7” and 60 f. I gave Stuart a trip up the temple but nothing was doing, his son Jonathon was wading the lower cauld and lost a fish on a big orange fly, Doug and Gerry were down in learmouth stream but didn’t bother any fish not surprising in that colour. Mid morning Stuart went into the lower cauld and also lost a fish but it was the young pup who saved the morning with Jonathon getting a 13lb cock fish out of the cauld from the boat. Gavin whilst all this was going on had been sent away from the health centre as no doctor to be had and told to go to the Borders general at Melrose, having cows to milk at 4.30pm in deepest Cumbria he decided to go to Carlisle general to get the fly taken out. This afternoon Doug an exile now living in New Zealand hooked and landed an 11lb fresh hen again in the lower cauld on a 10’0” fast sink tip and a large cascade aluminium tube. That was all the fishy action for the day. Back to poor Gavin who in Carlisle now had the hook cut but the barbs left deep inside his lip and was waiting for a surgeon to come and dig them out, he won’t be eating salt and vinegar crisps tonight I’d think, a case for barbless hooks me thinks. Hopefully it will keep clearing overnight and fishing will be red hot tomorrow before more rain comes in on Friday night to spoil things again.
Friday 18th August. 1’3” and 58 degrees with a bit of an easterly. Team Houldsworth here for a couple of days, Nigel Houldsworth lost a fish in the middle stream first thing trying to land it but came good later in the morning getting a fresh 15lb hen in the glide which gave him a good scrap, it took a wee willie gunn bottle tube as did the one in the middle stream, it was the best fish of the 5 we had for the day, John Carson had a nice 7lber from the cauld and had some great fun with a collie dug when wading the tail. I’m writing this on Saturday night so can’t remember who had what, anyway it was a good day.
Saturday 19th August. 1’2” and 60 degrees and clean at last, that wouldn’t last as storm Betty had dumped some water upstream and the top gauges were rising. Tor had a wee 3lb grilse out of learmouth which turned out to be the only pull of the day, there were a good few showing in the lower cauld but despite giving them a good selection of flies in the very stiff wind we couldn’t get a pull off them. By lunchtime the wind had really picked up and the rise had reached us, Nigel was going to go back out later when the wind had dropped by I imagine the height and colour will have beat him.
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