Week beginning 19 April 2021
Monday 19th April. Another blue sky day with hardly a puff of wind until the heat brought an easterly breeze this afternoon. 10” and a balmy 46 degrees f. Andrew King and pals here for the day, so a quick chat about tactics and the rods were up flies on and away we go. Mark on the Slap first shift and after a few flies with no action we moved into the Cauld but nothing doing there. Alex came up from Learmouth and had a go on the Slap with a wee fly, we changes to a sunray and had two boils at it in two casts but no connection. The other two lads down the beat didn’t see a thing or have a pull. After lunch mark in Duddo still with the sunray on had a savage pull on his second cast but it didn’t stick, another few casts further down and a head and tail splash at it but again no connection. Alex came up from the Bags to have a run through Duddo so I shifted Mark up to the Iron Gate point where he hooked a 10lber that went mental (they often do on a sunray) he had another pull after that also. So it was normal flies zero and sunray 6 bits of action.
Tuesday 20th April. Even my faithful Sunray/Collie dug couldn’t tempt one of the fish we saw in the Slap today, a mix of salmon and seatrout were jumping and boiling but none of them to a fly of any kind no matter if it was bright, dull, deep, shallow, fast, slow, etc. David and Sandy got down to the bottom end early and got onto the Bags and Duddo first for a change, not that it made any difference to the catches as they both blanked but at least they had first dibs. The overcast cloudy day forecast didn’t really happen until 6.00pm and its back to blue skies tomorrow. We saw a nice fish in the Lower Bags and one jumped over Sandy’s line in Learmouth this afternoon. Father and son team Ian and Ross Jones couldn’t equal their success of last Friday when Ross got a cracking shaped fish from the Iron gate point but they both enjoyed trying to tempt one of those slap fish. Colin Bell at Upper Floors texted this afternoon to say a liced fish had been caught there which shows that if they want to go there’s no stopping them even a summer level. 10” and 48 degrees today which is more like it. On the garden front I got my Kelsae onions in last night and every one looks like a show winner (if there is a show this year).
Wednesday 21st April. Blue skies again but a cold east wind keeping the temperature down. 9” and 48f. Same 3 or 4 fish showing in the Slap again this morning which will not look at anything and Paul came back up from Learmouth saying they had seen one down there. This afternoon I took local rod John Pease to the Duddo which we had to ourselves as Cornhill didn’t seem to be fishing, John was half way down when 3 fish showed and they showed in some style, clearing the water and two of them doing summersaults landing backwards. This was enough to get both us excited, John changed his tube and tried again, I put a large sunray on with a sinktip and followed him down, right where I saw the fish one of them lunged at the sunray and it was a big fish but no pull as it made a big splash at it, a few casts later another two boiled at the fly with the same result, it was a bit of excitement though on an otherwise quiet day. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Thursday 22nd April. The high pressure continues to dominate the weather with blue skies again and just a wee east breeze, 8” and 46 f still very clean but the stone dirt/algae is starting to grow making wading for some with the rubber soles rather slippy. 4 rods on today which was a bit of a squeeze given the height, it does of course mean that the fishy streams get a good covering. I saw a couple of nice fish in the Duddo this morning and a wee fat thing in the Slap this afternoon but not a pull was had off them. The only action I saw was a bow wave behind Finn’s fly as he fished the Iron Gate this morning. It was a lovely day on the river for everything apart from catching fish. It always amazes me the variety of accents these local rods have in the Borders. Another lovely day again tomorrow is on the cards, hopefully there will be a tidelicer there for us.
Friday 23rd April. Michael Black was back again today and normally that means a flood or gales or both together but today it was blue skies and a flat calm, this does not make for good salmon fishing especially when the river is at summer level. Just before lunch and after Sandy Lang had fished it with several different flies Michael would have a few casts before lunch. I had just filmed him on instagram and had said here’s Michael having a cast in hopeless conditions and of course 5 minutes later a 5lb licer was in the net, it’s easy when one turns up of course. That was it for the day, the weather was great (not for fishing) but if you’re not going to catch anything it might as well be on a nice day. Finn Raill is still fishing on tonight but the temperatures are dropping fast so he’ll be feeling it on his fingers. Only 4 fish reported tonight at time of writing. 8” and 48 degrees f. 4 rods on again tomorrow and all good fishers so if one turns up we’ll have it.
Saturday 24th April. A better day with an overcast start and a toasty 50 f, still an east wind keeping it on the cool side until after lunch. John Lowe had a hold of a fish in Cornhill Bend but it was just a brief hold this was followed by a fish clearing the water to grab a sunray. Jonathan Reddin had a 10lber from the Slap along with another pull. Graeme Hogg landed a 9lber from the top end of the back of the wall that made up the catch to lunchtime. After lunch Jim Fleming had a 6lber also out of the Slap. The Slap was like a sheet of glass at the time and we actually saw the fish coming in first cast covered it and it was on. All the fish were brand new and we did see a few others, not as many about as last year, even though we were on lockdown and couldn’t fish at the time walking round the beat you could see them splashing about . As long as there is a steady trickle I’ll be happy.
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