Week beginning 21 August 2023
Monday 21st August. Yet again we have had another dirty rise of water, not enough to stop us fishing but enough to spoil the chances, 2’0” and 60f with a stiff westerly wind. A mixed team this week but they are regulars so mostly know their way about the beat. Graeme Hogg was up top and we eventually managed a wee fresh grilse out of the lower cauld from the right bank, Paul Holland lost a bigger fish in the glide and that was the total action for the morning. This afternoon Paul Holland had a seatrout out of the glide and Mike Kemeny also had a seatrout out of the cauld. All these wee rises are spoiling what could have been a good spell of fishing of late had we perhaps just had the one decent spate, going up and down a foot or so two three times a week and bringing in colour does not help. Thinking it’ll be better tomorrow my hopes were dashed when I looked at the gauges at lunchtime to see the Teviot rising again along with the top of the Ettrick, only a wee rise again but enough to spoil. Catches on the river reflected the state of the water with no beats doing more than 3 which was on Carham.
Tuesday 22nd August. Another windy day, I hate the wind. 1’10” and 60 f with just a tinge of beery colour. Down the beat this morning Graeme Hogg was the only lucky rod if you can call catching a 2lb grilse lucky, they don’t fight much on a 14’0” rod. The wind was a real pain making casting a challenge. A fish or two were seen in the glide and the odd one in the back of the wall but they were keeping it a bit secret today with few showing and even fewer pulling. This afternoon Paul Holland lost something in the cauld another wee grilse as it struggled to bend his rod tip, we put on a big collie dug hoping to make something move in the lower cauld but it didn’t work today. The osprey joined us for a while and kept us entertained but it also failed to catch, it was here yesterday as well and surprisingly it caught a flatfish of all things. Catches were nothing to shout about and disappointingly low downstream of us although I did hear Ladykirk lost three this morning. We are still on 10’0” fast sinktips and no doubt will be again tomorrow as another wee rise is coming down this evening.
Wednesday 23rd August. A calm start to the day which I always like, 1’9” and 60 degrees but starting to run a bit cleaner at last. It was all quiet for Sally Roe up on the Cauld and Temple with the only action being a decent brown trout. Down at Learmouth Veronica Holland landed a belter of a fish which would have tipped the scales at 14lbs and was as fresh as paint, it took a rarely used nowadays Waddington shank Willie Gunn , now thats a blast from the past. On the glide her husband Paul after fishing it through two times was persuaded to pop on a very large Collie Dug and had three boils in the main part of the pool and hooked and landed a 7lb salmon and a 4lb seatrout in the tail of the pool, it was great seeing them take on the big flat water. Again today fish are about, it’s patchy but enough there to keep you trying. Tomorrow should be the day this week as it hasn’t risen this evening so will be cleaner and a tad lower. There were more fish caught downstream of us today so they’re still coming in.
Thursday 24th August. 1’7” and 60f and clean. Christopher Scott and James Aird joined us today and James wasted no time getting on to the scoreboard getting two fish from the cauldstream along with a couple of pulls and a boil in the slap, Christopher on the other hand didn’t fare so well down the bottom end not seeing a fish or having a pull, the same went for Mike and Sally in the middle part of the beat, they did see fish especially in the glide but couldn’t get a pull from them. This afternoon it was all James again who now was down in Learmouth where he landed another two fish, that’s what I would call a perfect day two in the morning and two after lunch. There were fish showing at times but it was patchy, in the cauld this afternoon I thought we couldn’t fail as fish were there and we were right on them. We fished it down several times with different flies including a large collie dug but not a pull or a boil was to be had. Family fishing tomorrow and Saturday so we’ll see what they can do.
Friday 25th August. 1’5” and 57f but nice and clean. Mark Clarfelt was on duty today and was sent down to Learmouth with Paul, he made good use of the pool getting three fish one of them a fresh one, they all took a gold conehead tube on a 10’0” fast sinktip. Henry Bowring up on the cauld covered some fish but couldn’t get a pull from them; Andrew covered the bottom end but couldn’t find a taker either. This afternoon the cauld yielded two fish to Anthony Laing and Mark found a taker at the Iron Gate. There was some fairly heavy rain this afternoon and some of the gauges are on the rise again. 10 fish reported caught below us today which always gives us hope that there are still fish to come. 6 fish for the day is a decent score nowadays, 2 were fresh.
Saturday 26th August. Torrential rain overnight had the top gauges rising and especially the Leader and Gala water so a lot of the higher beats were out of action first thing this morning. We managed a few hours this morning and Anthony managed to hook a fish whilst brushing up on his snap “T” cast but it didn’t stick on, Nick fishing the cauld had a pull but that was all the fishy action for the day, by lunchtime the river was rising we gave the cauld a go but it was weed every cast so that was day over. It will be orange tomorrow but at least it has until Monday morning to run through us so will be back to a strong beery colour no doubt.
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©M Campbell 2023
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