Week beginning 20 April 2015
Monday 20th April A lovely sunny day with a light north wind, 1’4” and 48 degs. Dr Pearce Jnr here along with Nick Revill and team, so if there is a medical emergency we’re ok. We saw fish in the Bags, Duddo, Slap and Cauld had a hold of one briefly in the Slap this afternoon on a #8 black sort of stoaty thing. A pair of Ospreys fishing the Cauld today along with a Kingfisher, both nice to see. Clancy the Onions are in the ground and looking well, still more to plant out so it’s looking good.
Tuesday 21st April Another cracking day at the Lees as far as the weather goes, as far as the fish go it was not so good, Jonathon Pearce managed a wee very silver Kelt from the Cauld on a #10 yellow treble but that was it for the day. I suggested to the lads that they might like to fish this evening rather than this afternoon but dinner plans had already been made so all but Dave opted for a snooze instead. We fished all the likely spots this morning; sunrayed a few of them but no action so it looks like it’s time for the “skimmer” all we have to do is find a fish we can launch it over. Only 3 fish reported off the river today, which is no surprise really given the conditions. The Otter was having a great time in the Cauld this morning and the Kingfisher gave us a flypast or two. The March Browns seem to have run out and there were no trout rising at all today, it’s just about time for an evening rise to be starting but it’s still a bit nippy under these clear skies. Showers/rain forecast for Friday so that will help the garden if not the river. Clancy I got your “Clancy specials” in tonight so I’m looking forward to see what they turn out like. And many thanks to David Leddie who has sent me some giant pumpkin seeds from America so I might just beat the record again this year.
Wednesday 22nd April You can’t beat this weather after the long cold winter/spring that we’ve had it’s a real boost to the system, yes I can hear you all shouting “it ruins the fishing” It’s the lack of fish that’s the problem not the weather. 1’3” and 50 degs today. We saw fish in the Cauld, Duddo, Bags and Learmouth but no pulls. Team Revell left today as it was a three day trip and the only drama was Mick falling in Cornhill bend, “watch out for that line of rocks” were my parting words, Mick wasn’t watching was he. The Sandpiper are busy with their courtship displays, all the willows are green the Horse Chestnut is almost in full leaf, the paths have had their second cut, I’m looking out for Hogweed that needs a scoosh of roundup, it’s all lovely. Of course it can’t last and the weatherman is saying a lot colder next week after a wee bit of rain over the weekend.
Thursday 23rd April The good weather continues as does the difficult fishing, Jonathon Pearce was on the Cauld and the Slap this morning and we saw and covered two fish in the Slap and one in the Cauld but nothing doing. I even unleashed the Skimmer today in the Cauld but nothing happened so we returned to the hut broken men and sorted out the world. There was the odd trout rising this morning but I couldn’t see any fly on the water so whatever they were taking was small. This afternoon the rods elected not to fish, I got on with a bit of strimming until I couldn’t see for sweat and decided it was a tad too warm to be swinging a strimmer about. Still no sign of any Ducklings but it can only be a matter of days before the first lot are out and about.
Friday 24th April Another nice day and what made it even better was a 9lb Seatrout from the Cauld for Grahame Cooklsey (sorry if the spelling is wrong)Paul and Grahame had fished the Cauld up and down then saw the Seatrout jump covered it and it was on. We did see a few fish about the beat but that was the only pull all day. Short report today as off to Langholm for a common riding film show and I’m writing this on Saturday and I’ve forgotten what all happened.
Saturday 25th April Rain this morning but not enough to affect the river but the land really needs it. 1’2”and 54 degs making the water warmer than the air this morning which I never like. There were a number of Seatrout in the Cauld/Slap this morning but despite Jonathon Pearce’s best efforts we never had a pull, Paul came back up from the Bags saying that he’d seen a few there as well, these are good sized Seatrout 5lb and upwards and very tasty. We have been on floaters with intermediate tips for most of the week and flies around the #8 to #10 mark along with stripping a Sunray and even a Skimmer but we need the fish to stop with us. I heard of a 13lb tidelicer this morning at Birgham dub so they can still scoot through if they want. I like low water but it’s getting just a bit too low now as the Cauldstream has the big backwaters now and makes the fishable window a bit small, another 4”-5” would do. Forecast seems to be for north winds and showers next week so that’ll do, can’t change it so it’ll have to do. No Photos this week
M Campbell 2015
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