Week beginning 1 May 2017
Monday 1st May. That’s another month over and it didn’t break any records, 10 for the month. 4 Slap, 4 Cauld and 2 Back of the Wall (Iron Gate really). 11” and 50 degrees with an East wind all day as forecast. David Clark was on the Slap/Cauld and was the only one of the team to have any success. He’d tied the fly on properly this year and the 8lb licer was safely landed in the Cauld unlike last year when the fish swam off with the hook. We saw a fish in the Bags and 1 in Duddo and the same old lads in the Slap. There were 8 fish reported caught below us today so they’re still coming in and hopefully the numbers will increase.
Tuesday 2nd May. Another dull overcast day with an easterly wind to chill the air. Paul Cottrell was up the top end and covered the Slap nicely where a few fish were showing but he never had any interest from them, we them went into the Cauld where a nice fish had showed itself, Paul was just getting into his stride when his rod snapped on the second section and he wasn’t putting any strain on it. Paul decided to pop down to Hardys to get a new section only to be told they don’t keep them in stock! He’d had rung them a few times only to be told the lines were busy, I’d expect better service than that from a company like Hardy. Anyway this was all good news for John who was in the Cauld this afternoon and landed a fresh 10lber. There were some fish showing at the Duddo and an old one in Learmouth and Mark reported seeing a fish at the Iron Gate. Ladykirk had a good day getting 5 so hopefully they will have a few friends heading this way for us tomorrow.
Wednesday 3rd May. A cracking day at last with wall to wall sunshine, still a bit chilly when out of the sun and in the north east wind, also it didn’t do anything to improve the fishing as the catches were poor to say the least. On the Lees today we saw the usual fish in the Slap and there was a splash in the Bags but that was all I saw today. The catches will not be helped by the fact that Gardo netting station down at Berwick is killing salmon, I heard on the grapevine that they killed 18 on Monday in one shot, whether that was one shot or one tide makes no difference thats 18 fish that will not spawn. The Tweed anglers are putting all spring salmon back until the first of July. Stocks are very low this year yet Gardo promotes itself as a sustainable fishery, I struggle to see what sustainable is when you kill everything you catch and how do they know if there is a surplus of salmon in the river. I haven’t heard how many they caught on Tuesday or today, it’s just not good enough. Surely common sense would prevail and they would wait until the middle of June at the earliest before killing a salmon, but I suppose there’s money to be made so it’s a case of I’m alright Jack.
Thursday 4th May. The drought goes on, no sign of any rain for the next 7 days; if we could get rid of the north east wind it would be fantastic weather, not for fishing though. There were some nice silver fish showing in the Slap today one of them was well into the teens of pounds but they would not look at a thing we offered. There was also a couple showing in Duddo stream but no action down there either. The only fish caught near us was at West learmouth where they had two on an upstream condom from the stream, looking at the websites there was nothing caught below us, or nothing reported by 9.30pm anyway. The low water 9” combined with the bright sun and cold north east wind do not make for good fishing and the cheery weather girl tells me the wind is to go into the south east next week, all week, so that will make the cauld almost unfishable as it will be straight upstream. The Osprey caught a cracking trout from the cauld this morning (see instagram/facebook) for photos, they are really good photos taken by local vet David Knight. I was round at 8.30pm for a look and there were a few trout rising and an Otter fishing the cauld. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Friday 5th May. A cloudy start with that north east wind again, 9” on the gauge and 50 degrees. Colin Hewitt who was a bit bushy tailed this morning was down on Learmouth stream and soon had the hangover shaken out of him by a 14lb licer which took his wee Red Frances tube fished on a floater with a 5’0” inter tip. The rest of the team didn’t fair so well not having a touch. Christian Bryce who arrived this afternoon stayed on for a cast in the evening and at least saw a few fish, 1 in Cornhill Bend and another in Duddo. The catches on the river were very low today with only 4 fish reported across the websites. On the wildlife front the Osprey was back again today along with the resident Otter. The Oystercatcher that had 4 eggs in the nest down at Cornhill Bend has had a visit from a Carrion Crow which has pinched all 4 eggs, the Carrion’s life span is going to be a bit shorter than it would like, there was one mobbing the Oystercatcher on the cauld today but it won’t anymore. On a happier note I saw my first 2 swifts of the year tonight so summer is really here (if the wind would change it might feel like it). Still no rain on the forecast.
Saturday 6th May. Another cloudy cold start with a north east wind blowing again. Lizzie Macgregor joined us today and got her casting up to speed but didn’t connect with a fish, there’s always next time. Malcolm D Smith gave it all but had the same result. John Macleod son Calum and pal Harry arrived looking like they’d had a good night last night and fished all day and again the same result. We did see a fish in the Bags and one at the Iron Gate along with the usual ones in the Slap. The sun came out by 2.30 and it warmed up a fair bit but of course that means there might be a frost tonight so the green house heater is on again. There were a few fish caught below us so that’s hope for Monday. My pumpkin seeds arrived from America today so they are straight into pots and I’m looking forward to breaking my Scottish record, so thanks John and David for getting that organised. We really need a bit of water now to give us more to fish in and to shuffle the pack a bit, not too much just a couple of feet would do, it needs to warm up a few degrees as well. It’ll be better next week. (see instagram or facebook tweedbeats) for photos.
©M Campbell 2017
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