Week beginning 21 October 2019
Monday 21st October. 2’5” and 46 degrees, still settling down after Sundays flood. Harry H Allen here along with Michael O’Neill who last fished the Lees about 34 years ago when even I was a laddie, the other half of the team is Bob Wigglesworth and Peter Corkhill. The weather was kind to us but the fish were not, Harry had a bit of a hold of something in the Ledges and Michael had something just tug the line, a few years ago these events would not have merited a mention but nowadays they are almost major events. The catches were low up and down the river which is to be expected with the conditions, at close of play the gauge was reading 2’4” so hopefully it will lose a few more inches overnight, it’s a real bugger as it was just falling in for us last Friday, now the land is so wet and the water table must be full to the top that it takes days and days to drop back, a hard frost would help.
Tuesday 22nd October. A windy start to the day with the Lees gauges reading 2’2” and 46 degrees and clean all but a wee tinge. Peter Corkhill had a wee 4lb grilse that had been in for a while but it was a tug at least, that was all the action for the morning. This afternoon Harry had a 6lber from Learmouth and Michael had a hold of a couple of fish one in the Cauld and one in the Slap, neither threatened to break the leader or the rod but at least it was a bit of action and kept up the interest. I did see a few fish showing right in the middle of the Temple which all looked as if they were going somewhere. The catches on the river as a whole were very light today which is surprising as I’d have thought conditions apart from the wind were better than yesterday. The kingfisher family were busy today as they have been all backend, if you don’t see one darting across the river you can hear them peeping to each other all day. The leaves are rapidly changing colour now, another frost will see them off I should think and it’ll be time to debate puting on a single hook as it’s easier to flick them off.
Wednesday 23rd October. 2’0” on the gauge and 46 degrees. Malcolm Dutchman Smith here today with fishing pal Steve, Malcolm has written and published a very interesting book on the Thurso for those of you who fish up there or are going. Also with us were Kent Hakanson from Sweden and Herbert Hinterburger from Germany both accomplished fishermen. Kent and myself spent a very quiet couple of hours on the Temple then dropped into the Cauld where we fared no better until just before lunch whilst wading the Lower Cauld Kent hooked and after a fair old tussle landed a cracking cock fish of 20lbs, Herbert lost a couple in Learmouth stream, Malcolm lost a fish in the Glide and Steve had a pull in the Duddo. This afternoon Steve lost a fish in Learmouth, Kent had two 1@12 from the Back of the wall and 1@10lb from the Glide, Herbert finished off the day getting a liced 8lber from the Lower cauld, a busy day seeing as we hardly saw a fish all day, you’ve got to love those Scandi/European rods on the beat as they have all the right flies, hooks, leader, lines for the job. Hopefully it’ll drop in a bit more tonight and we will have another good day, the forecast has a lot of rain for Friday evening, I’m hoping the forecast is right and it is going just below us, it only has to move an inch on the map and we’ll get it.
Thursday 24th October. 1’10” and 48 degrees and nice and clean. Team Springham here for next three days and we got off to a slow start with the only action being a pull in the Duddo this morning for Steve. There were very few fish showing and the only thing making a splash was the big dog otter thats been skulking about the place the last few weeks, it took a hold of a swan a couple of weeks ago and last week a swan has been killed and eaten down at Learmouth stream, now I’m not saying it was deffo the otter but its suspicious. This afternoon I gave Steve the £5 tour round the Cauld and we never saw a fish until 4.30pm, Tim Springham fared better down in Learmouth getting a 5lb liced cock and saw 3 or 4 other of the same ilk. Forecast ok for tomorrow so we’ll have to pull out the stops and get a few more on to the scoreboard as the rain now looks like it could be on us tomorrow night.
Friday 25th October. A cold dull morning with the Lees gauge reading 1’10” and 44 degrees which is a drop of 4 degrees overnight. Graham Gannon was the first to score, it took a while but after fishing both sides of the Cauld we eventually hooked a fish at the bottom croy of the left bank, It led Graham a merry dance and turned into an older 18lb hen which had been through the mill, (see instagram). That was all the action this morning. This afternoon the team fished their way through the likely spots without success until the close of play when Duncan on his last few casts of the day hooked a fish in the Slap on a red frances, it was a 10lb hen that had not tasted salt water for while, it was safely returned after a very cautious fight with Duncan. Rain is falling this evening and I really hope it does not affect the levels as there were very few fish showing today and I don’t want a flood taking everything away upstream just yet. Paul and myself have been tagging all the fish we have been catching and releasing lately, the tags are yellow floy tags inserted beside the dorsal fin and are numbered, if you catch one please report the number to the Tweed foundation
Saturday 26th October. Dull cold start but a sunny milder afternoon. 1’8” and 46 degrees nice and clean, perfect water for the Lees really. It was a good day conditions wise but fish were a bit scarce only seeing one or two at the Iron Gate and one in the Cauld. At least we missed the rain that has been falling down south. I’m sure it’ll be better next week.
As ever see instagram for photos and clips.
©M Campbell 2019
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