Week beginning 15 February 2021
Monday 15th February. Almost tropical out there today and the snow has had a bit shift in the low lying areas, the deep stuff higher up has still to go but it is going, looking at the cheviots you can see more green every hour. All this heat has had the obvious effect of puting the river in flood, 4’2 this morning and by lunchtime 4’7” with the colour of milky coffee. Even though spinning has started I’m thinking it’ll be the end of the week before it’s worth a cast, although I imagine some will be out just for something to do.
Tuesday 16th February. Another warm day for the time of year with the wind fairly strong from the south west, this of course resulted in more snowmelt coming into the river, 6’0” plus this morning and over 7’0” this afternoon. I hear the seal is still in the Junction, it maybe knows its safe there as no one could go near it. On the Covid front Coldstream was down to zero cases yesterday but today three have popped up. The birds are amazing they have been in my garden for the last 10 days in great numbers and it cost a fortune to feed them all the apples, currants, mealworms, fat balls etc, today just the odd sparrow and a couple of blackbirds, they like their own wild food and they can find it now as all the snow gone on the low ground.
Wednesday 17th February. 5’0” and 41 degrees this morning but by lunchtime it was 5’2” and word from upstream is its rising again, this week is going to be a write off, forecast is for heavy rain by the weekend with a bit more in between for good measure. A good number of cormorants turned up today so they needed scared off, other things on the wildlife front was a huge rat in the trap at the chicken house door, it was a seriously fat rat, a carrion crow made a big mistake landing on the top of the lime tree outside the hut door and staying to caw, they don’t like 36grams of number 3 shot.
Thursday 18th February. 4’0” something or other and 41 degrees f still a bit coloured. Stiff wind blowing from the south west. Had a wander round the beat this morning it all looks much the same but it would at this height, Cornhill bend has changed a bit, the hole in the far bank has grown a fair bit. There were a few Cormorants going about so they got shooed off. The river was rising at Melrose this afternoon and it was up 2 foot since this morning, even without covid this month has been a write off.
Friday 19th February. Windy from the south south east this morning and very mild so mild in fact that the skylarks were singing when I had a walk round the beat. Whilst on my walk I found a large Ash limb that had been washed down in a flood, good news was it was dry and seasoned ready for the fire so that kept me occupied this afternoon. 4’1” this morning and clearing but I’ve seen some photos online of a very big brown river at Bemersyde so it’ll not be clearing for long. Not much to report today as no fishing, maybe next week we’ll manage a cast.
Saturday 20th February. 10’0” or thereabouts on the Lees gauge this morning (except I couldn’t see the gauge). It was also very windy and warm, the trouble is with warm at this time of year is it’s wet and it has been wet which has accelerated the snow melt, I saw some clips of the Teviot at Hawick last night and it was huge, it’s a worry that it’ll do damage to the redds or and fish that have already hatched. Tonight as I write this 8.00pm it’s raining again and blowing a gale so it’s going to be a while before any fishing gets done. SEPA have a flood warning out for most of the upper and middle river along with the tributaries.
As ever have a look at tweedbeats on instagram for latest pics and clips.
©M Campbell 2021
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