Week beginning 20 June 2016
Monday 20th June. What a difference a day makes in fishing, couldn’t go wrong last week apart from Graham shaking them off to today when we couldn’t get a pull. We did see fish in some of the pools but they were not going to play today. The wind has finally shifted into the west and the temp has lifted both the air temp and the water temp. 9” and 58 degrees this morning. Harry Stollard and Phil Burnham here for three days and I bet they were rubbing their hands together looking at the catches last week but that’s fishing for you. Now that it’s warmed up I inspected the garden and it’s not good news, after standing in the dull cold conditions for weeks a lot of plants have just given up and died and now it’s warmer the bloody slugs are out in force so as soon as its dark I’ll be out there with a bag of salt and a needle on a cane to sort the wee buggers out. Kevin at Milen Graden reported seeing lots of fish running again today but I think we need to quantify “lots”
Tuesday 21st June. Well I have to say that the fish weren’t exactly throwing themselves at the fly today, there were a few throwing themselves out of the water but not at the fly. !’2” and 60 degrees this morning and a bit more colour to it which is maybe the reason the fish didn’t want to know as the extra water would have come from the drains and road washings which wouldn’t taste or smell too nice to the fish, I suppose it’s a bit like having dinner and someone farts and stinks the room out it’ll tend to put you off a bit. A westerly wind again and warming up more today. There were a number of fish in Learmouth stream this morning and we covered them all but not a sniff was had, we pulled a big sunray across the Cauld and moved nothing, we tried several flies in the Slap same result. Forecast is for a day of 20 degrees and sunny spells tomorrow so at least the garden will like it if not the fishers.
Wednesday 22nd June. Back to 10” and 60 degrees today and a humid feel to the air. Phil and Harry fish away all day as best they could but all to show for their efforts was a lost seatrout in the Glide which Harry managed to hook once he’d switched to a full floater. There were fish showing in Learmouth stream but neither us nor the lads at Learmouth could get a pull out of them. The work which has been going on around the hut has finished at last as the ground has been shaking all day with the digger thumping the ground back into shape. The sun is out this evening and Harry threatened that he might go back out tonight for a crack at the seatrout so I’m awaiting a text around 11.00pm to say he’s bagged up. The weather has improved so much that I might even be tempted to have a cast myself one of these evenings but at the moment I’m giving my garden lots of TLC to try and get something worthwhile to put into the show.
Thursday 23rd June. A cracking day today nice and warm in fact too warm as I was strimming the banks at the Bags and the Middle stream so was a tad sweaty by the time I’d finished, on the way back up I met the lads fishing learmouth stream and Dan Curtis had just landed a clean 10lber on a #8 red ally shrimp so well done him. It was repairs to boats this afternoon and patching up floorboards along with a wee drop of paint. 9” and 60 degs, west light wind. As there’s not a lot of salmon or seatrout about I think I might be tempted to try for a brownie tonight, the only trouble is that it’s about 10.30-11.00pm before they are rising as it stays light so long at this time of year, other thing to do is have large gin and tonic in garden watching the swifts doing their air show, I reckon the swifts might have it.
Friday 24th June. Well we’re oot, who saw that coming? The catches are well down on last week; on the Lees I mean not on the whole river as it’s been quiet for a few weeks on the rest of the river. The lads are trying here, just seem to have ran out of fresh fish this week or maybe that’s the end of the spring run, June is the quietest month on Tweed unless you get a flood to bring in the Seatrout. Neil Wilson and John Leighton here for the day, Neil had a couple of follows in the Slap first thing and I haven’t seen him since this morning or had any reports of action so I presume that was it. I was busy strimming down at the Glide and Back of the wall until a heavy shower with a rumble of thunder made me scurry for home. 8” 60 degs this morning and clean.
Saturday 25th June. It was dry first thing but by 10.30 the heavens opened and we had monsoon style rain for a good one and a half hours, I went up to Kelso and just at the 30mph signs it was like someone had drawn a line in the road as it was bone dry. 7” and 62 degrees this morning Alistair had a nice 9lb fish from the Slap on a wee shrimpy conehead thing and three good follows to a sunray one of which was really aggressive and I thought it was one but like a lot of them it was just playing. This afternoon one of the lads had a 4lb Seatrout from Cornhill bend and its about time that pool started to work. Anyway all this rain is good for the garden and the fishing as it’ll help cool the river down a bit. Next week is forecast to be changeable but floating lines with wee inter tips are whats required unless the river rises then we’ll all need to gear up a bit. No photos of fish this week as I missed all the landings.
©M Campbell 2016
our twitter feed