Week beginning 22 May 2017
Monday 22nd May. The river is a much better colour today and showing 1’2” on the Lees gauge. Brian Omer on his first trip to the Lees was on the Slap and as soon as he made the distance he was into a fish, the fish turned out to be a 7lb licer and took a #8 sort of stoat’s tail affair. Colin Monk Brian’s fishing partner had been very generous letting Brian fish the Slap first but his generosity was rewarded as he landed another licer this time coming in at 9lb from the Cauld on a #8 Gold Cascade. We also had a big bow wave at the sunray in the Slap but no pull. Meanwhile Phil Fisher and Colin Chisholm fishing round the rest of the beat didn’t have so much as a pull; it’ll be their turn tomorrow. I went along for a cast tonight but the wind which usually drops as the light goes didn’t so it was a quick run through the tail of the cauld then home.
Tuesday 23rd May. Another two fish today, one for Phil Fisher from the Slap and one for Colin Chisholm from Learmouth, that very satisfactory 4 rods and they’ve all had a fish over the two days. The fish were both taken on floating lines with wee intermediate sink tips teamed up with #8 flies. It’s getting warmer now as forecast and by tomorrow afternoon it’s to be up to 21 degrees and hotter as we go into the weekend so that will not help the fishing. The grungy weed starts to lift off the bottom as soon as the sun peeks its head out slides down the line and onto the hook. There were some fish showing in the usual places, not lots but enough to keep the interest up.
Wednesday 24th May. The heat really started to build today and the chances of getting a fish lessened, with bright sun shining down the pools this afternoon the rods headed for home early, only a few hours early though as they were just here for the three days. We saw the usual fish in the Slap and a couple showed in the Cauld but nothing to get excited about. So it was 4 fish in two and a half days and as I said yesterday they had a fish each so honours were even, it rarely works out that way in the spring. The rest of the week is really going to be a struggle as the forecast is for hot and sunny weather through to the weekend, but you never know.
Thursday 25th May. An absolute scorcher of a day, not a cloud in the sky and very hot. The water temp was 60 degrees at 8.00am and by lunchtime it was 70 degrees which put paid to any chance of a fish. What people forget is the fishes core temp will be 70 degrees as well, they can’t cool down or sweat (as far as I know) all they can do is find depth and shade out of the sun but the water will still be 70 degrees in the shade, so it’s no wonder they don’t want to play when it’s like this. The lads covered the pools this morning and sensibly decided to wait until this evening before having another go. Only one fish reported across the websites by 6.00pm.
Friday 26th May. Another scorcher, 28 degrees at the Lees, that’s a very rare occurrence. The weather did nothing for the fishing but it was a lovely day. The lads had fished last night and lost a couple of seatrout but that was it for the day. Only one fish reported across the websites so it shows how the weather affects the fish. I spent a lovely/busy afternoon in the garden weeding and watering as inside the polytunnel was like a blast furnace even with both doors open, after that I amused myself by blasting any cat that even looked at the garden with the hose on jet, it’s the most fun I’ve had for ages.
Saturday 27th May. Another very warm sunny start to the day, 8” and 66 degrees at 8.30am. The lads fished all the likely spots but the odds were really against them. Norman did hook a seatrout around the 3lb mark but it shook it’s self off before he could get a hold of it. By lunchtime it had clouded over but the humidity was oppressive and the lads waved the white flag and headed for home. Thats the spring season over at the Lees and we go onto summer lets next week so any fishing reports might not be as exciting as they have been so far this spring, 32 fish for the spring nothing to get over excited about but better than some. June last year was good so I’m hoping for more of the same this year, there does seem to be more seatrout about but I’ve only been out one evening so I’m not too sure yet.
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