Week beginning 20 February 2017
Monday 20th February. It was rather warm for the 20th but the price to pay for all this warm weather was a gale blowing from the North West. 1’11” and 46 degrees, I can’t remember the water temp ever being 46 in February and was almost tempted to switch to a full floater along with a skimmer but decided to stick to the norm. Team McLaren(not the F1 team) here and all keen as mustard, they were soon spread round the beat and the mornings results were a couple of half hearted pulls and nothing landed. This afternoon it was Rory McLaren who was smiling, Rory’s more used to blasting up the Lees in his Tornado Jet but today he really earned his wings by getting a lovely fresh 8lber from Learmouth stream, it was one of only 3 reported off the river today so we still don’t have a big stock of fish yet. There’s to be a bit less wind tomorrow but back to full on gales on Wednesday so it’s going to be challenging fishing all week.
Tuesday 21st February. Less wind this morning which was a relief, gauge still sitting at 1’11” and down to 44 degrees. The beat looks in good order it’s a really good height for us we just need a few more fish to stop with us. Jamie had a couple of Kelts from the Ledges and Jerry had a kelt from the lower cauld which he swore was a springer until it wasn’t, Quentin tried really hard but failed to tempt anything. There are some big fish about though Junction had a 22lb tide licer this morning and lost a bigger one that snapped the line I hear through the grapevine, so I’m glass half full at the moment and I can top it up when required. The wind has really picked up tonight and we have had some heavy rain so I’m expecting a rising river tomorrow that along with the forecast for Thursday might finish fishing for the week. The ducks must think its spring already after the warm couple of days as there has been a bit of a love fest going on with them, it almost make you blush.
Wednesday 22nd February. A very blustery day but mild enough the river was rising with us from mid morning mostly from the Teviot, this did nothing to deter the team and they set off round the beat, the wind however picked up as the morning went by and the levels were rising by mid morning. With nothing being caught or touched most of the team decided some pigeon flighting might be a better way to end the day, Chris Noble stayed on as he was sure he’d get a fish I last saw him at 4.30 down near the Iron gate and he was loving it so left him to it, I’ve not heard any reports of fish capture from him so I presume he blanked. The forecast for tomorrow is for heavy snow and gales and in fact the school transport has already been cancelled for tomorrow so they must be expecting a lot, I’m putting another log on the fire.
Thursday 23rd February. Storm Doris is here with dire warnings of snow, snow that was going to be so deep that all the schools were closed but we never had a flake, not one single flake. It did rain today though and it rained all day the gauges are all rising and this evening the Sprouston gauge is over 5’0” with more rain forecast tomorrow night fishing is over for the week I’d say, there was one fish reported yesterday and none today so it’s going to be a quiet week on the catches.
Friday 24th February. A frosty sunny start to the day with the Lees gauges showing 3’9”and filthy, a lot of the colour will be from Teviot but Tweed will be contributing. High drama this morning when Paul and myself were called to assist in the rescue of a dog that was being swept down the river, in usual doggy and river stories the dog gets out on its own and the rescuers drown, this time all was well as the dog was ashore on the English bank in front of the town and was soon reunited with the owner. Will it fish tomorrow? I doubt it as there’s a lot of snowmelt up river to come.
Saturday 25th February. River rising again making 7’5” and rising tonight at Sprouston and with more rain forecast tomorrow fishing on Monday is doubtful to say the least. The day wasn’t wasted though as I got some more onions seeds into the propagator and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in the pub watching Scotland beat Wales at the rugby so every cloud has a silver lining. Not much more I can say really except we’ll be into March next week so once the river settles down there should be more fish about.
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©M Campbell 2017
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