Week beginning 19 September 2016
Monday 19th September. I’m writing this on Tuesday night so I’ve forgotten what happened yesterday. 1’1” and 56 degs a nice day for hill walking; golfing, sitting outside a pub with a pint watching the world go by but fishing was a challenge unless you were a member of Team Bruce who were on the water and hauling them out like there was no tomorrow, 5 for the day along with a fresh seatrout, 3 from the Cauld the best being 16lbs and 1 from the Glide, 1 just round the corner at Cornhill bend and the seatrout from the middle stream, two of the fish were keep able had they been cock fish but team Bruce are a noble lot and put them all back unharmed. We are using floating lines with either 8’0” inter tips or 5’0” faster sink tips depending where you are fishing.
Tuesday 20th September. Another lovely day out, a proper early autumn day but it made the fishing even more challenging but Edward Cumming Bruce is a man who likes a challenge and he had a 5lb grilse out of Learmouth stream on a wee black and silver conehead, Julian lost one in the same place about an hour earlier, the lucky lad today was Antony who had a 12lber from the Duddo on a 3” Waddington fished with a fast sink tip and all that tied on to a 20’0” rod which I must have a go with tomorrow, I tried an 18’0” Hardy some 25 years ago but I’ve never seen a 20’0” rod so that’ll tick another box, maybe one that doesn’t need to be ticked I’ll find out tomorrow. 1’0” and 54 degrees today and now squeaky clean, there are still plenty fish showing but all coloured I’ve heard/read reports of pods of fresh fish moving through some of the beats below us but they’ve either not got here yet or got the bus past us on Sunday.
Wednesday 21st September. Another nice day to be outside, 1’0” and 54 degs squeaky clean. I never got my cast with the 20’0” rod. Maybe a good thing, it was a Bruce and walker I’m told. The rest of the team using normal sized rods failed to catch a salmon but a seatrout was caught in the Back of the wall, a 6lber I don’t know the condition of it as I had to leave before 5.00pm, I’ll find out tomorrow. There were not as many fish showing today and certainly no clean fresh ones although I did hear about a liced 6lber from Carham that must be the pod of big fresh fish that were reported to be running past us over the weekend. There is still the odd swallow/martin flitting about I should think they’ll be gone in the next two weeks. The forecast now says there is to be rain over the catchment tonight but I doubt it’ll give us more than a couple of inches.
Thursday 22nd September. The gloom was lifted today not by the sunny conditions or the thought of a large dram tonight but the 3 fish that were landed today 2 of them being the cleanest fish we’ve seen for a while, 4lbs, 6lbs and 7lbs not the biggest fish in the river but they all count, they came from the Slap, Learmouth and the back of the wall. The gloom was also lifted by the arrival of Bridget and Candy who have joined Antonia as having lassies on the team always tends to sharpen up the boys not wanting to be out fished. There is a wee lift coming down the river tonight maybe just enough to shuffle the pack a bit and bring some on the take. There are still no reports of “pods” of fresh or otherwise fish moving up from downstream but there are plenty rumours of same, another flood will really let us know what’s going on. We having been giving them everything of late from wee doubles to 7” sunrays, bottle tubes, skimmers and even the candy runt (nothing to do with Candy who’s fishing today)but the most successful fly has been a wee black and silver thing be it double of micro tube.
Friday 23rd September. 1’9” 54 degrees with a slight tinge. Well the pack has been shuffled and the Lees seems to have been the main beneficiary getting 6 today the best being 17lbs which Edward caught in the Glide. All the fish were coloured but I did see a proper big silver fish in the Cauld this morning. I was in the Cauld this morning with nick and we fished it down with a Temple shrimp tube first and never had a pull on the second run down we switched to a 1” black and yellow and had two fish in three casts. Nicks dad Rowallen (spelt wrong no doubt) had a 12lber from Learmouth stream and Edward had another fish from the Glide a 10lber this time. Bridget managed a 8lber from Cornhill bend whilst learning to do a circle “c”. There were fish in all the pools but I’ve no doubt that they’ve seen all the flies and more when they were sitting downstream waiting to run, I spoke to Kevin at Milen Graden and he tells me all his fish have gone and there’s no new ones to take their place, Yet! The temperature is dropping and there’s more rain in the west over the weekend so it might still happen.
Saturday 24th September. 1’4” and 54 degrees with a strong southerly wind blowing, I was down in Cornhill bend and Duddo this morning with Izzy who was perfecting her single Spey and circle “c” whilst cracking off the odd fly, there were enough fish splashing about to keep it interesting but no pulls. George was the lucky lad this morning beaching a fish that would tip the scales at 4lb soaking wet, well he was lucky until he broke his rod, must have been the stress of the fish. This afternoon Izzy putting her new found skills to use got into a decent fish in the Cauld, Stewart got the boat ashore and was ready to rush in with the net when the poly leader snapped which is a bummer, it must have had a nick in it. So at time of going to press its 3 for the day all coloured and all returned making it 19 for the week which is a good score so far this back end. We have a flood warning from SEPA again today for heavy rain but checking the gauges at 7.00pm they are all steady. A good flood will let us know if anything else is to come, there better be its still September. It was a nice week the weather was kind and the fish almost came on, some fresh ones next week would be good.
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©M Campbell 2016
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