Week beginning 1 April 2019
Monday 1st April. Thats another month that I don’t like out of the way and we march on into April when once it warms up things start to happen. 1’4” and 42 degrees which is a fair drop in temperature since Saturday when it was sitting at 48 degrees. I only saw the one fish today and that was in the Slap at 4.30pm. There were fresh fish caught upstream as far as Gledswood and as far down as Tweedhill so there are fish in the system, not enough yet but they’ll come. The forecast is looking grim for the week ahead but at least this week I know it’s going to be crap weather wise rather than being promised a calm week and having a gale most days like last week.
Tuesday 2nd April. We were joined today by Will and Clare Haggas who are Tweed regulars, we fished the Cauld/Slap/Back of the wall/Iron Gate and Glide but didn’t have a pull, we saw a fish in the Slap and one right down in the Lower Cauld that was all the action before lunch. After lunch Clare lost a fish in the Slap whilst fishing off the Croy which caused a wee sweary. Husband Will was down in Learmouth stream and saved a blank catching the best looking fish I’ve seen this season off the beat, it was around the 16lb mark and took a Frankensnelda fished on a fast sinktip. 1’5” and 42 degrees and squeaky clean. The catches were well down with all the fish bar one being caught at the Lees, south Wark and Lower North Wark, Hendersyde and Dryburgh Lower making it 7 fish in all.
Wednesday 3rd April. What a horrible day that was, snow, sleet and rain all in equal measures. The place was white over first thing this morning but soon melted away at lower levels with the rain. Will Haggas and Clare fished the Slap, Cauld and Learmouth stream this morning but no pulls were to be had, we did see a fish in the Slap both this morning and after lunch and covered it several times with different flies. Highlight of the day was a sighting of the first swallow of the year which would be wishing it was still in Africa as it flew about in the snow. This afternoon Clare had had enough and headed back to the hotel, Will gave the Slap another go and had a run through the Cauld but no action apart from seeing the fish in the Slap another couple of times. The Teviot is rising again tonight so we will likely have a bit of colour tomorrow and when the snow melts on the hills we will have a lot of colour.
Thursday 4th April. Heavy rain and snow during the night hasn’t helped with the river levels or the colour, 2’2” and rising this morning. Will had a few casts off the bank but decided the odds were stacked against him so packed it in. The river continued to rise slowly all day and with more heavy showers during the day the gauges are rising again tonight. I can’t see there being any useful fishing below Kelso tomorrow. The cheery weathergirl tells me that it is to settle down and warm up a bit for the weekend, do I believe her?
Friday 5th April. 3’2” and well coloured which was a shame as it was the nicest day this week. Alan Mowatt and Steve Robins turned up for a look, Steve fishing again tomorrow so turned round and went home, Alan decided to chuck a toby off the Cauld bank as it was such a nice day, I got the grass cut round the hut and Paul cut up a mountain of kindling, it’ll be better tomorrow.
Saturday 6th April. It was a horrible dreich morning, dull grey skies and a damp mist that hung about like a bad smell, 2’9” and a very dark beery colour to the water. I thought I had more chance of picking a Grand National winner than getting a fish; this all goes to show how little I know about horses and fishing come to that. We caught 4 fresh springers and my chosen horse was 5th in the national. 3 from the Temple, one which was caught by Philip Slane on his first cast of the day and it wasn’t even much of a cast (he’d admit that himself), Philip went on to get a 10lber from the tail of the cauld in the afternoon. Jonathon Reddin had a nice 8lber from the upper Temple and Steven Robins also had an 8lber also from the upper temple. All the fish were on the fly and all safely returned. We saw other fish and had another pull during the day so no doubt someone upstream will catch up with those fish next week. By close of play the river had dropped to 2’5” and cleared a bit so it’s looking good for next week.
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©M Campbell 2019
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