Week beginning 20 October 2014
Monday 20th October What a long day that was 3’10” and dirty, Gene and Nigel headed for home straight away knowing what the forecast is for tomorrow with hurricane Gonzalo bearing down on us. The other team fished off the bank in the Cauld and off the Cobble point as there is nowhere else to go at that height and it that colour it didn’t really matter anyway. There is also a safety issue to think about, when your wading in brown water you can’t see the bottom and the wading is on your limit one slip and your away down to the Annay quicker than a rat up a drainpipe. The nearest a fish was caught to us today was at lower Makerstoun which of course is upstream of the Teviot. We did see the very odd fish moving midstream running hard. Will it fish tomorrow? Its to start raining at 11.00pm so if thats what happens it will not be fishable, and there a predicted 50-60mph wind so who’s going to cast into that and I will not be attempting to row in it, sometimes its just not safe.Tuesday 21st October Well the rain was not as heavy as forecast but the river is still rising above us and it’s bloody windy, two more rods waved the white flag and headed for home this morning which was the wise thing to do given the conditions they were on a three day trip. I pulled the boat up to the ledges first thing and got Jono into it and set off to fish the Temple, I have to say I won’t be attending the gym tonight and the only thing that stopped us going down quicker than the fly was the anchor snagging now and again, we did see 3 or 4 fish jumping through the waves but no pulls. This afternoon just before the rise got to us Jono waded the Tail of the Cauld and hooked and landed a fresh/clean 13lb cock but that was it for the day, I don’t think it’s going to be a big rise but enough to put in more colour and unsettle the few fish that are about at the moment. It was Bruce’s 70th birthday today and we forgot to buy him a cake or a card Oops! But I did remember to wish him happy birthday. There were only 4 fish reported caught today 3 of them from the Lees/Wark area and 1 from Holylee which is about 1,000,000 miles upstream into the wilds, in fact some of the shops still don’t accept decimal coinage. Wednesday 22nd October 2’9” and 48 degs, a much colder morning than of late, water bit on the beery side, we gave the Cauld a run through, wading the tail and boating the rest, also waded the temple ledges and boated the bottom end. We did see a few fish and saw the lads at Wark getting a couple at the very top of the Temple but there were no pulls for us today. New team on tomorrow so they’ll be as keen and sharp as a dentists needle, Phil Hinton has bought a new rod a Hardy 15’ sintrex thing so he’ll be getting stuck on the far bank tomorrow. We didn’t see many fish and what we did see were old fish, just shows all that water and they won’t go until they are ready. Expensive day for the dogs as Lucy was at vets as her paws are all split with the digging she does and Kelsae is going to be spayed tomorrow so that’ll empty the wallet. Pumpkin show tomorrow night so the whole town is alive with talk of monster veg and the TV crews are getting their spots pick for live broadcast to the nation, I let you all know how I get on. Thursday 23rd October. I fished the Temple from top to bottom this morning with Mike Nield and we never had a touch! 2’3” and 48 degs clean, how often can you say that in October? Stewart and Duncan had 3 on in the Cauld but he managed to shake them all off which was a tad careless to say the least. Phil Hinton was in Learmouth with his new rod but he suffered the same fate as Duncan but only once. Jim Reid Scottish and Commonwealth whisky sooking champion was in the Glide and IGP and never saw a fish. Tod along with Paul managed the only fish of the morning from the Annay a huge 3lbs. In the afternoon we got on a bit better getting another 5 to add to the bag. 1 for Jim who got one second cast from the Bags of all places. Mike 2 from the Cauld. In total 6 for the day but only one clean. I’m in a rush as off to the show tonight. Friday 24th October Well great news, I won the show and retain the cup and title with a 200lbs pumpkin, bad news was I had a bit of a hangover this morning. Good news on the Lees today though as we had 9 landed, Jim Reid laying aside his dram just long enough to get 5 from the Temple this morning was top dog although he blanked this afternoon. Phil Hinton managed one from the Back of the wall this morning which was liced, Jeremy had one from the Cauld and Mark one from the Glide which is the first one this month! Making it a total of 8 for the morning. The afternoon was a much quieter affair with only one landed from the Cauld for Mike Neild but he did lose 2 others and had a boil at a hitched Sunray. There were a lot of fish showing way down in the Cauldstream but mostly old ones until late on when we did see a few wee fresh ones moving in. While we were very happy to get 9 for the day the rest of the river was quiet with Hendersyde being next best with 7, no beats below us reported any fish today. 2’1” and 50 degs this morning and clean so nothing wrong with the conditions. Saturday 25th October Another windy day with sunny spells. The pool to be on was the Cauld as it was the only pool where the fish seemed to stop and grab a fly, Phil Hinton was the lucky boy who was first on and soon had 3 landed the best being a 21lb cock, he was generous enough to phone the other lads and have a wee shuffle about and Mike Nield came up from Learmouth and got two, but Jim Reid moved up from the Bags and Annay where it was warm and calm out of the wind to Learmouth where it was blowing a hoolie and caught nothing! We fished the Temple from top to bottom twice and never had a pull, in fact the rest of the beat was hopeless apart from one wee 3lber from the Back of the wall. We are going to be very busy Ghillies in the next five weeks as we only have to catch another 500 or so to get to the 5 year average, “easy”. Forecast is for a bit of rain Sunday/Monday so that’ll bring them in! 2’0” today and squeaky clean, we have been on intermediate and wet 2 type lines depending where you are fishing and anything from a inch and a half tube to a #6 treble and any pattern that takes your fancy.
Photo this week is my pumpkin, well what else could it be?
© M Campbell 2014
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