Week beginning 16 October 2017
Monday 16th October. It was a strange day with hurricane Ophelia approaching. We started off with a flat calm and mild, warm even then by mid morning the sky turned pink with a dull yellow tinge to it, all to do with sand from the Sahara which has been picked up by the hurricane I’m told, By lunchtime it was so dark the hens went to roost, by 3.00pm the sun was out again and it was sunglasses back on, but the wind was here and it was blowing straight upstream from Learmouth to the top of the Temple. 2’4” and 54 degrees this morning but clean water at last. The Trevelyan Thomas team here for three days and young Will was the top dog getting four fish onto the hook and landing three of them, one of them a liced 11lber from Learmouth stream. The drama of the day was Mark Lowe taking a tumble in the Glide and dropping his rod which will now be downstream somewhere, so if anyone finds a 14’0” Lennox rod with a Pfluger reel attached you know where it came from. The wind is to be with us until lunchtime tomorrow that combined with a wee rise coming down the Teviot could ruin the day. The catches were nothing to shout about only 20 reported off the Tweed by 8.00pm and I have to say there were a lot less fish about today at the Lees, you never know a big run might come in tomorrow.
Tuesday 17th October. A very windy morning, gales in fact as storm Ophelia went through, also a rising river which made all fishing efforts futile. Looking at the catches on the websites I see that Traquair had a 4lber which was the only fish reported off the river. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Wednesday 18th October. 2’10” and 50 degrees and fairly murky this morning but much less wind. We got the team split up on to their respective bits to fish as we were all mainly at the top of the beat due to the level. Steven had an old 7lber from the lower cauld which was the best bit to fish at this height and colour. I started on the top half of the temple with Richard who was casting a bit too furiously and managed to stick a fly into my jaw, (note to self, duck quicker), after a yellow card was issued and a word of advice things settled down a bit, by lunch Stevens fish was still the only one we had. This afternoon I had Kate in the Cauld and her “snap “T” casting came on a treat, this was more a self preservation exercise than casting practice. Richard Gerney managed to break his rod just before he finished another thing he hit with the fly! So at the close of play the score was 1 fish, looking across the websites we did as well as most and better than a lot. The Trevelyan Thomas team have had some bad luck with the wind and water but we’ve had a good craic and sorted out the casting, it’ll be better next year for them.
Thursday 19th October. Same height and temp as yesterday but improved colour. Will Haggas, Clare Shaw (check out her art work) and Lucy Wrisdel here for the day along with Richard Mildmay White, Tom Leslie from Fin and Game was also here to help keep an eye on the lot of them. First into a fish today was Lucy and it was a very important fish as it was her first, Lucy was wading the lower cauld with Tom and got into a 14lber which gave her a fair old tussle. The fish was cleaner than most but still not a keeper, but Lucy has the photos to keep. Will got an 11lber from the ledges this afternoon and that made up the total catch for today. The weather was much better than yesterday, calm and overcast and I expected more to be honest. As I write this at 7.30pm the gauges are showing steady but its raining outside and the forecast is for a pickle rain tonight, will it rise and colour again? I hope not. The catches up and down the river were nothing to shout about, well you could shout but it won’t make any difference.
Friday 20th October. It turned out to be a lovely autumn day today but not for fishing. The rain that sneaked up on us last night had the river rising and colouring, we started at 3’2” and it didn’t move most of the morning but the colour really came in by midday and the chances of catching a fish were zero. Spent the day tidying up round the place set a few mole traps, plugged a few squirrels and scared off a cormorant or two (I have a licence). At 4.00pm the height was 3’5” and very brown and the question is will it fish tomorrow? There’s to be a couple of hours of rain overnight so it will be touch and go tomorrow as we are already on a big water for the Lees. Trying to find a fish when its spot on is hard enough but at 3’0” and manky it’s the needle in a haystack story. Looking at the websites there were 2 fish caught off the river today the lowest being at Dryburgh, there was 3 off the Middle Ettrick as well, (I’ll bet they were bonny coloured).
Saturday 21st October. I didn’t think we’d be fishing today but the bigger Tweed had washed a lot of yesterdays colour out, it hadn’t dropped much and was sitting at 2’10”. Richard Mildmay White fished until lunchtime then threw the towel in due mostly to the upstream wind. This afternoon I had Richie Gallagher in the Temple when to both our amazement we hooked and landed a fish. It wasn’t a monster at 3lb 10oz but it was fairly fresh and turned out to be the biggest fish of the day as it was the only fish of the day. We were joined by what I at first thought was an otter but it was just too big and a good 150 yards away so the scale was all wrong, it was of course a bloody seal, it showed twice then just disappeared. On the websites tonight our fish is the only one from Berwick until you get to Middle Mertoun, then you have to go up to Boleside for the next one. A lot of rods had left yesterday so many beats weren’t fishing today, I can’t blame them as it’s been a hard week and yesterdays rise and colour would be the last straw. More rain coming up tonight which is a bugger, what we need now is no more rain and a frost to drop it and cool it right down. I did see a few fish in the Temple but nothing in the Cauld as it’s still a bit on the big side for the Cauld and I’ve not been down the beat for what seems like weeks so have nothing to say about that. 7 fish for the week. It’ll be better next week.
©M Campbell 2017
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