Week beginning 20 June 2022
Monday 20th June. Steven Turff and pals here for three days and they will have their work cut out for them. It looks to be about 0” on the gauge but still 56 degrees which is good but that will change as the week goes on. Steven was on the Slap first thing and soon had a fresh 12lber on a wee black and yellow tube fished off a full floater, there were a few old fish showing in the slap but it was the fresh one that was keener. We then moved down to the Bags after giving the Cauld 10 minutes, the bags took us all of 20 minutes to fish so it was off to the Iron Gate where he hooked and landed another fresh fish of around 8lbs on the same wee tube. Brian cook and Kevin sadly blanked but are going back this evening so I’m sure they’ll soon catch up. Stefan Pauli one of our German rods is over at West Learmouth for the week and he had 2 from the stream and lost another 2 this morning.
Tuesday 21st June. The longest day today so the nights will be drawing in, better go and put some fleece over my tender plants. Off the gauge and the potato pump was running by 4.00pm and will likely run all night. Steven lost a fish at the Iron Gate and we had a big boil from one of the old fish in the Slap, apart from that all was quiet. Getting reports of fresh fish down the river David Foreman was fishing tonight further down and had 3 grilse and lost another 2 fish. It is seriously low now and no sign of proper rain on forecast so there is nothing to encourage these fish to come up to us. The water temp has jumped back up to 60f this morning and a warm day is forecast for tomorrow so small flies and lots of luck required.
Wednesday 22nd June. A lovely warm sunny day if you like that sort of weather, no use for fishing but it was a lovely day. The team fished this morning and nothing was moved, a few coloured things were throwing themselves about in the Glide and Iron Gate. Water temp was 60f this morning and I should thing 65f by 5.00pm the height is off the gauge. After lunch the lads headed for home as it was just a three day trip, Team Brymer on tomorrow so we have text them and told them to start early as it’s to be a warm sunny day again tomorrow.
Thursday 23rd June. A cloudy start which burnt off by lunchtime into a lovely hot afternoon which was great news for my tomatoes. Duncan Brymer who is fishing for the next three days had text yesterday to see if it was ok to have an early start, thats fine we said and in fact would actively encourage it, they started at 5.00am which is maybe a tad early, ironically they didn’t get a fish until midday, getting 2 from Learmouth stream one of which was 9lbs and liced. The lads are having the afternoon off for a snooze no doubt and fishing again this evening. There was a freshet released yesterday which will reach us sometime tonight, Last week I blamed it for switching the fish off when I went for an evening cast, we’ll see what happens tonight.
Friday 24th June. A very warm humid day with the water temp at 65f this morning this went up to 72f by lunchtime which caused the bubbly green weed to start floating down the river and onto the line/fly. I tried backing up the Temple with a sunray hoping I might surprise a resident fish but it was weed almost every cast. After lunch the heat was building and thunderstorms were forecast and the cheery weathergirl was spot on as about 4.15pm the temp dropped the wind picked up and it poured along with thunder and lightning which sent me scurrying to the hut. Duncan and Paul down at Learmouth earlier had seen a couple of wee silver grilse but no pulls. Some of the team are thinking about fishing tonight but that’ll be weather/weed dependant I think. Hoping that the forecast for more rain further west is correct and we might just get a wee lift and cool down.
Saturday 25th June. A much fresher day with the water temp down to 62f, it had gone up one inch over night which is neither here or there. Joined today by Will I’ve forgotten your surname sorry. Will and his wife had a terrible night as they came down from the highlands in two vehicles one which had two Labradors in the back which had both had the skitters in the back, on arrival at the hotel at 11.30pm they found it was all locked up lights off and no reply, they had to sleep overnight in the other car sitting up, wife having a sense of humour failure. Anyway wife went off to bed after breakfast Will came fishing and it paid off for him as he had a nice fresh fish out of Learmouth stream on a wee green conehead black frances, he also lost another fresh fish and had a pull. John had a hold of a fish also in Learmouth and that made up the day’s action; Will is going back out tonight if he can stay awake so I hope he gets another one.
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Sunday 26th June. Windy with some heavy showers in the west, a flood of any size would be good but someone has to lose out for the rest to win.
©M Campbell 2022