Week beginning 22 February 2016
Monday 22nd February. 3’2” and 40 degs clean with lovely blue skies above us. Team McLaren here today who were rather successful this time last year getting 3 Springers and they didn’t let the side down this year with Jerry Corke (avid fisher and beekeeper)getting a fresh 6lber from the Back of the Wall on a 20g Toby. Now at 3’0” on the gauge its not the first place you would expect a Springer in February but there it was, maybe the gravel has shifted a bit and its more fishable in high water or was Jerry just lucky as Quentin would say, whatever it is well done getting the Lees onto the score board. Forecast for week ahead is hard frosts so that will help to tighten it up a bit and drop the levels as the days go by and we’ll be able to have a look into the pools. Another success today was Quentin managing to fish all day without his reel falling to bits although a loose screw this morning which appeared inside the spool case nearly brought his fishing to an abrupt end, it took a bit of working out where the screw had came from in an old Mitchell 300 but we found the hole eventually.
Tuesday 23rd February. Another cracking day for February with blue skies and a frosty start, not as cold as I thought it was going to be last night or hoped as the frost really helps to drop the height. John Okell and pals joined us today and for John it was a successful day as he managed not to fall in this time (so far anyway). 2’9” and 38 degs nice and clean, the team fished their way round the beat with a mix of fly and spinner but the only thing landed was a wee brown trout, there were 11 fish reported today across the websites the nearest to us coming from Upper North Wark and Birgham Dub with 1 each the rest all round the Kelso area which you’d expect with the high water. Quentin McLaren excelled today managing to fish all day without breaking his or anyone else’s reel and Tony’s venison burgers at lunchtime were a welcome treat. The way the river is dropping its only a matter of days before it gets down to the 2’0” mark at the Lees and some fish might start to stay with us, we also can get into the pools proper and get at them. The only black mark today was Kelsae (dug) must of caught a young rabbit and eaten it, when I let her of the back of the Jeep at home there was the rabbit on the rug in the back just recognisable as a rabbit, lugs paws and all, she’s a lovely dog really I keep telling myself. Plenty birds singing today and the Skylark was in full voice down the Back of the wall, we were also joined this morning by a pair of otters. Just think it’s only a month and we’ll be getting ready to change the clocks forward and February will be distant memory.
Wednesday 24th February. Yet again another lovely day, cold start but blue skies and clean water (how long can it go on?) 2’6” and 36 degs. I gave tony a run down the Temple and saw one head and tail not sure what from though and that was the only action there. Dave Dakers who is made of stern stuff waded down the tail of the cauld and on his second run hooked and landed a cracking liced 11lber on a fast sink tip and 1 1/4 tube its so nice to see a fit fat silver fish after last back end. John Okell has really excelled himself with two days without falling in. Tony spoiled us all with his venison burgers at lunchtime and so big are they that I could hardly eat my dinner tonight which brought a bit of a scowl from the Nesby Place catering department, but a bit of a smile from Kelsae (dug) who thought she was going to get half of it. The Glide and Iron Gate were fishing nicely and John came back from Learmouth saying that he had fished it down and had waded a third of the way across and that’s at 2’5” this afternoon so the boat needs to be launched tomorrow for a more detailed investigation. The Otter was with us this afternoon again at the Cobble point and looked like it was munching away on minnows as one quick bite and whatever it was was down the throat. There were 12 fish reported on the websites and I heard of another from Cornhill so at last the fish are being caught round about us a few more inches off and it’ll be a numbers game down here.
Thursday 25th February. Not so nice today with a cold wind coming across the river at Learmouth stream, I took John Okell there in the boat; well I thought that safer as he wouldn’t fall in that way. 2’4” and 36 degs, the stream looks much the same there is a bit more gravel below where we keep the boat and in fact the boat grounded as I chained it up, at 2’4” it should be floating and you can now wade down past the point with fairly easily. As far as fish go today I never saw a thing or had any action on the websites there are 7 which came from Junction 4 and Hendersyde 3, I also heard of 1 at Sprouston but it wasn’t on last time I checked. The water is now squeaky clean so there’s no excuse for the fish not seeing the fly just need to find a fish to show the fly to. I pulled about 60 yards of polythene tubing from the willow bushes in the Cauld this afternoon flotsam from the Junction hut no doubt. On the wildlife front the Otter went past this morning and the Great Tits are calling for mates There’s no rain on the forecast through to the weekend so it’ll drop a bit more albeit slowly now as it only dropped an inch last night so we must be at the top of the water table.
Friday 26th February. 2’’2” and 38 degs nice and clean. Jerry Corke was the “Corke” that popped out of the champagne bottle this afternoon getting two Springers from the Cauld, both were around 7lbs and liced, fishing a wet2 type line and a black and yellow from the right bank. Jerry was almost speechless which is a rare event but managed to say that he wished Quentin had been there to witness the event. Quentin who had fished the Cauld all morning was needless to say ever so pleased for him. The Otter was with us again this morning in the Cauld and maybe that was why Quentin didn’t catch a fish (any excuse will do). As the river has dropped a wee bit more we now see that it has flipped a bit off the front of the Cauld and dropped it on the bottom end on the left bank side, and as I noticed yesterday Learmouth stream has more gravel on our side at the top as John Pease could wade right down past the point with ease. There were 15 fish reported across both sites which is nice to see and more to add tomorrow I hope.
Saturday 27th February. It was a lovely start to the day with blue skies and no wind and the river in good order. The lads set about their task with a spring in their step but by lunchtime all that had been caught was a wee Seatrout Kelt George Turnbull from Jedburgh was the lucky lad. Looking at the websites tonight 6.00pm there are only 3 fish reported, 2 from South Wark and 1 from Birgham dub on a day when if they had been there I would have expected bigger catches. By mid afternoon the weather swung round to the north the temperature dropped and it started to rain, we ended the day with a blank but on the bright side Scotland beat Italy in the rugby. 4 for the week and all safely returned. March next week once we get rid of the 29th is a long enough month without sticking on an extra day every four years, why don’t they add an extra day to June or July that would be much better.
Photos are Dave Dakers lovely Springer and the new gravel at the Learmouth boat dock.
©M Campbell 2016
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