Week beginning 23 May 2016
Monday 23rd May A lovely day on the river nice and sunny depending on your point of view of course, I for one am loving the sun as its been a long cold spring. Phil Fisher and pals here for three days and after the draw Phil found himself in the pound seat on the Slap croy, he gave it a going over with a wee cascade but not a thing happened, I switched him to a bottle tube and he had a pull first decent cast but it didn’t chew it hard enough. There was only one sensible thing left to do and it was the sunray which was duly tied on. I told him he would have to produce his best ever cast which with the aid of a puff of wind he did, Leave it, Leave it, right wee strips and then a splash, the fish really thumped it coming almost clear of the water when it took which is quite a sight when its flat calm, anyway it pulled the rod over with Phil hanging on then it was gone, bugger it! That was the action for the day. Colin Monk drank coffee and mused over the referendum whilst picking a fly, Paul Copson gave it a good go as did Colin Chisholm and Roger but to no avail. This afternoon I hunted out some more hogweed which keeps springing up now that its warmed up and we’ve had a wee bit of rain, I also found some Japanese knotweed so gave that a good sook of roundup. 1’3” and 54 degrees with a beery tinge. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Tuesday 24th May. An overcast day with a north wind making it feel like March not May, there were fish in the Slap as usual but we couldn’t get any interest from them today, nothing seen in the cauld and in fact very little showing round the beat. Things were better over on the other bank at Learmouth were they had three out of the stream this morning all on an upstream flying “c” but to be fair they had fly fished it first. There are plenty of Smolts on the move so a wee bit of water would help them get down to sea and away from the predators that are lurking about. The Oyster catcher at the middle stream was making a hell of a racket this morning as we fished our way by and it wasn’t until we were about 60 yards down that she came back in changed her call and the two chicks came running out from under the roots on the bank side, the nest at the Glide has only one egg left in it now and no doubt the Carrion Crow will have that soon unless I get it first. Catches on the river were lower that I’d of thought for today but there were some caught below us so that always gives us a bit of hope. Cloudy day for tomorrow and damp on Thursday, good for the garden.
Wednesday 25th May. An overcast day with a cold north east wind, it was like going back a month and the lads trying to fish the back of the wall and the Glide didn’t appreciate the wave going upstream. There were very few fish showing today but Phil Fisher did manage to tempt one up to a #12 silver stoat in the Slap and Alex managed to lose a decent Seatrout in the Glide when his leader snapped 15lb at that, I was about to give him a bollocking for using fluorocarbon but it was nylon the trusted favourite he must have stood on it or nicked it somehow. There were good catches below us again today as far down as Tweedhill who had 4 so hope again. Forecast is for a wet day tomorrow with the north east wind again so it’s not going to be nice out. Got the Annay strimmed this afternoon but its a fair drop into the river now, the winter floods have made it worse.
Thursday 26th May. A better day mostly because we caught 3 fish, 2 this morning from the Slap both for Norman Taylor at 12lb and 13lb and both on a wee silver stoat conehead. Not to be outdone Steve Burley had a nice 12lber this afternoon also from the Slap. The disappointment at the moment is the Cauld which looks so good but we haven’t had a pull there this month. It was like going back a month today with a cold north east wind and steady rain all day.
Friday 27th May. 1’0” and 50 degs nice and clean, young James Burley was top dog today getting a fresh 9lber from the Slap on an orange and black conehead, he wasn’t top dog last night when he broke his dads fly rod though. We had a big splash at a stripped sunray, keen but not keen enough. There are some fish showing at the Iron Gate and Norman lost one there this morning on his favourite silver stoat. Learmouth had 3 today as well one from the Back of the wall and two from the stream all on the dark art. It’s a good job we have the Slap as 2 mile of water and 4 out of 10 yards and 1 pull in the other 2 miles.
Saturday 28th May. An overcast start to the day with the north east wind still with us, the team fished their way round the beat without so much as a pull, not even Norman could get any interest in the Slap. I tied on a sunray for him and was about to demonstrate a circle “c”, just getting a yard of two of line off and before a cast and bang, another rod gave up a Shakespeare oracle this time, mind they’re not top of the range rods, almost disposable one day use only, harsh I can hear you saying but fair is the reply. By lunchtime the sun was beating down and it didn’t help to make it any easier. Not a bad week for the end of May, just the Cauld letting us down at the moment.
Log onto instagram for photos.
https://www.instagram.com/tweedbeats/
©M Campbell 2016
our twitter feed