Week beginning 23 November 2015
Monday 23rd November. Well just when I thought it was game over for the season we get 7 for the day which is the second best day this season, after saying that it’s the first time the Temple has been a decent height this season. 2’10” 38degs and clean which is almost spot on apart from being a tad high, I always reckon 2’6” for the Temple apart from the spring when its crap at any height. The fish ranged from 6lbs to 12lbs and all were clean enough apart from one, they were all hens as well and were returned. Lines were wet 3 to wet 4 type with 11/4 -11/2 tubes. John Macleod a Lees regular had two and he wasn’t that keen on fishing to start with and Bill Sandford was the top banana with five which got him grimaced thanks from fellow rod John Shepherd. There were some fish showing along with a good number of kelts. The fly in the ointment was the rain as it was fairly steady all day.
Tuesday 24th November. As feared the river was up, only 4” but enough to spoil things as it put the fish right off, it’ll be all the crap off the roads and out of the drains. Under 3’0” we start to fish ok, over that it’s always a struggle. We hardly saw a fish all day apart from the one that South Wark got from the Temple first thing which was a fresh 4lber. It’s been dry all day and a cold night so hopefully that should knock it back down to 2’9” by tomorrow morning and we might get back at something.
Wednesday 25th November. It was a lovely day out on the river today, with no wind the rods casting decent lines and clean water. There was a lack of fish showing but that didn’t bother John Shepard who up in the Ledges landed a lovely 25lb fish which was photographed and returned, that’s the biggest off the Lees this year. Fliss up from deepest Norfolk had a liced Seatrout out of the Cauld and Gareth Parry managed a Kelt from the Temple but they dinny count! This afternoon still windless which is unusual for the Lees, Tom Ferrier had an 8lber from the Cauld on a green and yellow tube whilst Gareth had another two from the Cauld that were both clean. I heard of another liced fish from Sprouston but on the whole catches on the river were poor with only 23 reported the last time I looked at the sites. The Kingfishers were flitting about on the Temple and cauld really showing their colours in the sun today and we had a fly past from a big skein of greylag geese along with a couple of tornado jets. It should be a decent day on the river tomorrow but after that it looks to be going downhill weather wise. We need another 6 to get to the 300 mark which is well down on the average but it sounds better than 200 and something.
Thursday 26th November. Not a bad day to be out on the river sunshine, mild, warm even. 2’5” and 42 degs this morning and nice and clean. There wasn’t that many showing but Phil Fisher and Colin Chisholm managed to land three from the Temple and cauld one of them clean which was a 7lb cock. This afternoon Colin continued his good luck getting a 5lb hen from the Back of the wall, Rodger Oxtiby blanked in Learmouth but wasn’t really bothered as he just enjoys the day out along with the craic. The Holland brothers Paul and Carl thrashed away all day but also failed to bring something to the net, it’ll be their turn tomorrow and I hope so as I don’t like the look of the weather and we still need to get another 2 for the 300. I was down at Cornhill bend and Duddo this morning and it looks like a bit more banking has gone with the floods along with the wee tree on the far bank at the hole where the Duddo now comes out. I think we will have to start issuing nose pegs for the rods down there as there are a good number of rotten Kelts lying about and this mild weather is not helping, at least Kelsae (dug) hasn’t decided to roll in one yet but no doubt she will.
Friday 27th November. It was the kind of morning I’d rather not be on the river, regular reader of the pages will know how much I like the wind and this morning there was a tad of a breeze and not a midge to be seen as they’d all been blown to Norway. This wind didn’t deter the rods though and they thrashed away all morning with Carl Holland being the top dog as he caught the only fish of the day which was a 6lb coloured hen from the Cauld. This afternoon the wind was replaced with heavy rain which didn’t help the catches as we only had one pull in the Temple. The gauges are rising tonight and fishing looks very doubtful tomorrow, it’ll be big and brown at best, not really big but enough to make fishing fishless. The catches on the river as a whole were poor and that’s with the gauge at 2’2” this morning which would suit a lot of the beat upriver. Forecast tomorrow is for more rain and gales and Sunday looks very wet so that might be it over.
Saturday 28th November. 3’3” and rising and dirty so no fishing today. I went up to Gala today and didn’t see a single rod on the river on my travels. 16 for the week at this time of year in a season like this is a bloody good score.
Sunday 29th November. Gales this morning and heavy rain then a wee quiet spell mid afternoon then back to heavy rain. All the gauges are rising so it’ll be get the boats off tomorrow morning and thats the season over, its a shame for the lads who were looking to fish tomorrow but there’ll be no chance. I can’t say I’m sad its over in fact I’m delighted as the fishing this month has been more than a bit of a challenge. I’ll write up a bit of a season overview for next week if I can get my head round it.
©M Campbell 2015
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