Week beginning 17 October 2022
Monday 17th October. It was one of those marginal days with a rising river with colour coming in 2’8” and blowing a bloody hoolie from the south. The team were mad keen or maybe just mad but we gave it a go. Once I got over the Cauldstream to the right bank there was some shelter from the relentless wind and we fished it up and down a couple of times but didn’t have a pull, we did see a good number of fish on the move. This afternoon I took Malcolm Dutchman Smith up to the Temple boat which was tied up at the Ledges, on the way up I pointed out the slightly calmer area sheltered by the wood on the south bank which we were going to fish as the rest was waves, on getting to the steps Malcolm said bugger that or words to that effect I’m not going out there it’s not safe, and it wasn’t really so we headed down to the middle of the beat. One fish was lost in the Iron Gate along with another pull both first thing. The river was rising again by lunchtime and the gauges upstream are rising so tomorrow will be much the same as today but the wind is to drop and turn into the north east.
Tuesday 18th October. After yesterdays gales the day dawned flat calm and sunny which was a great relief as regular readers know how much I hate the wind, it was calm but the river was up from 2’6” last night to 3’0” this morning and very beery. Malcolm and Stuart went off to the bottom of the beat along with Bob and Pete who were sharing a rod, amazingly they both hooked fish at the Iron Gate but only Pete managed to land his which was a 10lb coloured hen. This afternoon the river had dropped back a couple of inch and started to clear a bit. Bob Wigglesworth who’d been in the Temple decided he’d like to wade the Lower cauld and it was a good decision as he had two fish of around the 4lb mark and lost another bigger one but even more amazing was the fact they were silver, not silver like a springer but silver like an autumn fish used to be when we had lots of them in the good old days, Stuart who was in the upper part of the Temple with Paul in the boat also had a fresh/clean fish a hen of 12lbs this time. Is this a very late run of fish coming in? Tomorrow will tell as it will be a much better height and colour. I hope it is but I hae ma doots!
Wednesday 19th October. One swallow does not a summer make and 3 clean/fresh fish do not make an autumn run it now appears. We landed 4 today, 3 this morning and 1 this afternoon, Stuart Dawson was the lad on top form getting 2 from the Temple this morning and the 18lber from the Back of the wall this afternoon. Day visitor Stuart Calligan was lucky on his visit getting a 10lber from the lower Temple on a black and yellow tube that was his only pull of the day. Conditions were better than yesterday with the gauge reading 2’4” this morning and a touch of beer in it, but we saw a lot more fish yesterday than today, I saw a few this morning but this afternoon was quiet. The beats down at the bottom of the river are now recording blanks with Tillmouth being the lowest beat to record a score today, in the middle of the river a lot of beats were blank today. I’ve just received a text from SEPA giving a flood alert but looking at the weather after the news the rain is more in the east unless they update it later, I think a lot of these alerts are computer generated, it sees a bit of rain about and flags it up. The bird flu is still working its way through the swans with another cygnet dying today, there will soon be none of this year’s young left.
Thursday 20th October. What a horrible day it was today, it never really got light with all the low cloud and rain; it wasn’t heavy rain more light but steady all day in an east wind. Team Springham here for next three days and they were soon at work round the beat. Duncan Mcnair was first into action getting a 10lber out of the Duddo on what was a very small tube considering the conditions and height. Phil had a 13lber from the Cauld and Nick had a fish from the Iron Gate area. Lunch over I took Duncan for a paddle down the Temple and he had a 13lb hen on a black and yellow tube on a floater with a 5’0” fast sink tube, Tam on the other side at south wark had a wee grilse then his rod had a 28lber about opposite the Temple, Tam had a weigh net with his so there is no doubt about the weight pulling the scales down to 13kg which equates according to my phone to 28.66lbs, well done them. Paul and Phil lost a couple in Learmouth Duncan had one from the Lower cauld and one from the boat, Tim who fished harder and cast more than the other three put together saved face getting a 4lber from the Duddo before close of play. It was very quiet this morning the only fish I saw was the one Duncan caught. This afternoon we saw more fish and they looked like they were on the move. Another plus today was my waders returned from Diver Dave and he’s made a good job of them as I was nice and dry for a change. The lowest beat to catch fish was again Tillmouth and it starting to look like the beats below have ran out of fish. 2’1” on the gauge and 48 degrees nice and clean, some gauges are rising above us not by a lot but it could be enough to spoil it tomorrow.
Friday 21st October. Well the rain did its job and we were flooded off today 3’10” by 10.30am but 3’5” by 5.00pm still very dirty though, fishing tomorrow will be marginal at best, some of the very top beats had some fish but they of course are above all the main tributaries that bring in the colour. I am hearing reports of seals in the lower river, Stuart who was with us the other day said he had a seal in the same pool when he was fishing Tillmouth yesterday and there were a couple at Milen Graden. Jock the ginger dug disgraced himself today by eating one of the dead cygnets; something else must have started it off an otter no doubt, anyway what he ate didn’t stay down long and at least he wasn’t in the back of the car when it reappeared. I’m not sure if bird flu transfers to dogs but the cygnet has been dead for a few days so I presume the virus is as dead as the cygnet.
Saturday 22nd October. A nice soft south wind blowing and it was warm today, the gauge was showing 2’9” 51 degrees and very beery, I didn’t hold out much hope due to the colour and unsettled nature of the water and this was proved to be the case until around 4.30pm when Phil had a 6lber from the Lower Cauld. A few brownies were the only other catch, very few fish showing this morning but as the water cleared a wee bit this afternoon more started to show and they were on the move, when I say more it was just a few not hundreds of a few years ago. 2’9” is a good height for the Temple but not when it’s so unsettled. Forecast is for more rain tomorrow and some of the gauges are rising tonight so we will have to wait and see what is in store for us next week.
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©M Campbell 2022
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