Week beginning 19 July 2021
Monday 19th July. The heatwave continues with blue skies and water temp at 66f at 8.00am and up to 72f by 12.30pm, 4” on the gauge or thereabouts. Mark Havelock Allen and son Harry here along with pal Matthew who were joined by Ian Beardsworth who last fished here a good few years ago. The lads set out and fished the streamy bits of the beat which are few at this height, more or less as expected not a pull was had, evening fishing is looking a better prospect and by that I mean last light 9.00pm onwards at earliest, long leaders and wee flies. 2 fish reported, 1 at Ladykirk and 1 at Milen Graden. The forecast is the same all week and in fact to get hotter towards Thursday. I walked along the Cauld this morning and could see a few fish turning and moving around in the Slap some of them well down it rather than on the lip. Going to walk the dogs along when it cools down a bit and see what the evening temps are. I’m going for 76f. It was 74f at 8.00pm
Tuesday 20th July. An overcast start but that was soon burnt off by a hot sun leaving cloudless skies and more heat. The Havelock Allen team were joined today by Richard Summers and Alistair Campbell who on his last visit to the Lees 30 years ago caught a couple of fish in the Back of the wall, he did ask if I could remember them but as I can hardly remember what happened yesterday it was no. The river is now as low as I’ve seen it since 2003 and today the lunchtime temp was 74f which is getting serious. Fishing is all but useless and apart from starting around 5.00am, it’s a lost cause and I would say not fair on the fish and even less fair would be anyone bombarding the shrunken pools and stressed fish with upstream condoms all day. I think the lads are going back out tonight, well 2 off them are but it’ll likely be 76f by then as it will have been heating up all day. The break in the weather the cheery weathergirl is talking about for Friday looks like it is going to stay south of us sadly.
Wednesday 21st July. Cloudy start to the day so I got a bit of strimming done first thing down the Cauld bank. Harry and Matthew arrived and went down to fish what is left of Learmouth stream at this height, it didn’t take them long. I had to stop strimming by 10.30am as the sweat was pouring off me. I took the water temp at 8.00am and it was a toasty 76f. This evening I took the dogs for a wander in the cooler air (not much cooler) and there is now a lot of weed/algae floating on the surface which if we were trying to seriously fish would cover the hook every cast. It is to be hotter tomorrow but by the weekend some cooler more like the average temps are coming in which will help the poor fish. In 2018 it was as low as this in July but a lot cooler and we were catching some fish, not loads but at least some. On the plus side of things my garden loves all this sun as long as I water twice a day and I could have a decent crop of chillis this year.
Thursday 22nd July. Not a single sunbeam hit Coldstream today not one, it was overcast and cloudy all day, this of course gave us and the fish some respite from the heat, it did nothing for the catches on the river as there is only one reported off the whole river. Harry and Matthew started a bit earlier but it made no difference, the water temp was 67 degrees at 8.00am and there is now a bit of weed/algae coming down. I thought great I’ll get a bit of strimming done as the sun is in but after about an hour trying to get the effing strimmer started with sweat running down, Paul also joined in and after much swearing we gave up. It is to be cooler over the weekend but I doubt if it’ll be enough to encourage any fish further up from the tide.
Friday 23rd July. Another scorcher with the water temp 66f at 8.00am. Bill Sanford here for a couple of days along with Bob Wigglesworth and Pete. The lads had a bit of a chuck this morning then left it until this evening. There was an awful lot of floating weed/algae coming down by lunchtime and the water temp was up to 70f. Catches on the websites tonight showed 4, 1 was caught at Milen Graden who have had 1 each day this week making them top beat I should think, Kevin the Head Ghille there text me to say there were fish running past him but I reckon he was seeing the same one going round in circles all day. Another hot day tomorrow so nothing is going to change sadly.
Saturday 24th July. That’s another week in and not a nibble in the heat and low conditions, Showers forecast for next week but we need a lot more than showers. One day it’ll rain.
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©M Campbell 2021
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