Week beginning 20 July 2015
Monday 20th July 2’0” and 56 degs carrying a very dark beer colour, John Okell and Graham Nicol here for two days, neither have brought spinning rods with them and prefer to fish the fly anyway but with this colour a Toby spoons bad to beat. Whilst the lads were busy in the Cauld and Ledges I slipped down to the back of the wall set some mole traps and had 5 casts with a 18g Toby and had an 11lb Seatrout, The fly will come into it’s own as it clears and the lads could do well, writing this bit at lunchtime as its raining so we’ll have to wait and see what the score is later. Well the score was increased by 1 salmon from the Iron Gate area and 1 Seatrout from the tail of the Cauld, the scores on the websites were lower than I expected as well but I suppose its still July and the water was very dark today.
Tuesday 21st July1’6” and 56 degs still very beery, Graham Nicol was straight onto the score board with a brace of Seatrout from Learmouth stream one of them weighing 12lbs which is a cracking Seatrout. I got the wooden boats turned over and it had to happen it poured with rain after I had pitched the inside of course! The heavy (very) showers continued into the evening so I didn’t fancy a cast this evening but had to lock up the hens so as I was just about to get into the truck a fish headed and tail in the Slap so there was only one thing to do, tube on one cast and a 9lber which I popped back (lucky fish), on getting home I got a text from the lads who had been fishing today to say they had one about 8lb and lost another two in the Back of the wall. The gauges are now rising yet again and I have the fire on at home as its yet another dull cool day so no hot water. Anyway two salmon and two Seatrout is a good enough day, could be dirty again tomorrow though.
Wednesday 22ndJulyQueen of the Slap Trish Burgon and John here today and the love affair with Trish and the Slap is now over as she had first dibs at the Slap this morning and failed to get a pull, honour was regained later on that morning when she landed and returned a nice 8lber from the Back of the wall, Trish and John had invited a guest today Julian Livingstone who also got straight onto the score sheet with a 16lber from the Cauld which was also returned. John however blotted his copybook this morning by losing a decent fish in the Slap when the leader snapped and guess what he was using Fluorocarbon, if your coming to fish on the Lees don’t bring it with you, I’ve seen that happen about 8-9 times this year, it’s not worth it! I attended a pop in meeting at Melrose this afternoon all about the wild fisheries review and to be honest there was nothing there to learn, I did put my opinion across quiet strongly, others were using stronger language when I left. 1’6” and 56 degs beery tinge.2 Moles today as well.
Thursday 23rd JulyA rather breezy morning down the Lees and Nail Morrison has joined Trish and John and he was soon into action with a 9lb licer from the Slap from the boat today as the wind was straight into our face, he followed this up with a 9lb Seatrout from the Cauld and to get his hat trick had a 8lber from Learmouth stream. Trish still smarting from failing to get a fish from the Slap yesterday had a 10lb licer from the Cauld wiping John eye a tad, John (Trish’s other half) failed to score but we’ll put it down to him being the genial host. We we’re using floaters with 10’ intermediate tips and wee tubes. All the fish were fresh including the Seatrout. 1’5” and 56 degs much cleaner today. Just the 1 Mole today.
Friday 24thJulyA better day at last, warmer and less wind unfortunately it did nothing to improve the catches. Paddy Tompkins and his daughter Alice fishing today and despite their best efforts nothing was wanting to play. We did see fish in the Slap but even the Sunray failed. 1’3” on the Lees gauge which means the backwater on the left side of the Cauldstream is back with a vengeance, it makes the place almost unfishable, well unrowable really. 56 degs which is a braw water temp for July and nice and clean. We are still using full floating lines with short intermediate sink tips and flies in the #10 to 1” tubes size for the faster streams or stripping a biggish Sunray if you have the stamina. The forecast is showing heavy rain over the catchment for Sunday which is good for the fishing next week but very bad for me as I’m going to a BBQ on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday 25th July Team Houldsworth here for the day and made the most of it. 1’2” and 58 degs nice clean water. James was first up onto the Slap/Cauld and managed a blank, in fact we didn’t see a thing and by lunchtime everything was looking a bit gloomy as the only action had been Nigel losing one in the Glide. After lunch things took a turn for the better, Louisa was on the Cauld for an hour so after a brush up on casting style we went through the pool with a #8 Cascade and blanked so there was only one thing for it “The Skimmer” which didn’t let us down, a nice 10lb fish was landed and safely returned. We then took ourselves off to Duddo/CHB area to find a liced Grilse on the gravel and Nigel fishing his way down the Duddo with a smile on his face, had got it in Cornhill bend, I then put James into CHB and nothing happened but heard from Bryan Jewels on the other side that he’d seen a number of silver fish showing and they had had a fresh 13lber along with a 3lber so it was on with the skimmer again and despite James not looking too keen on it he went down Duddo and was rewarded with a 7lb Grilse covered in lice. Both Grilse were a bit on the thin side but nice to see them all the same. 4.30 back at the hut and so heavy was the downpour that we sat in the car watching Nigel fish the Slap and hook a 4lb Seatrout which Igrudgingly got out of the car to land in the downpour, so a good day with 3 Salmon and a Seatrout, but the really good thing was seeing fresh/liced fish on the beat this afternoon. Forecast rain tomorrow and all day Monday so good for the river but not the rods fishing Monday/Tuesday perhaps. 12 fish for the week it’s looking up.
©M Campbell 2015
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