Week beginning 24 June 2019
Monday 24th June. Travelling home from deepest Englandshire and still receiving counselling after having to pay £1.53 for a litre of diesel, I asked the girl at the till if it was a misprint but she replied no, at least Dick Turpin wore a mask.
Tuesday 25th June. 1’3” and rising slowly, Paul Holland here for his second day, he was lucky yesterday getting a 10lber from the Slap but not so lucky today getting nought. The river had a beery tinge to it and there was a cold North east wind blowing. There is talk of a mini heatwave over the weekend but I’m not holding my breath.
Wednesday 26th June. A cloudy morning with the North east wind still with us, Nigel Houldsworth here for the day so Paul took him down into the Cauld for a paddle about whilst I got on giving the hut a lick of paint which has smartened it up no end. The result of paddling about in the Cauld was one seatrout seen no pulls. The water was colouring up slowly all day which is often the case with the small rises you get the colour well after the height. There were a couple of fish seen in the Slap but that was all. 1’3” and 54 degrees. It should be a good night for the Brown trout so I’m out for a look. I didn’t get a trout but I did get a 3lb seatrout which is for tea tomorrow night.
Thursday 27th June. It was wall to wall sunshine today, blue skies and hot which is lovely unless you’re trying to catch a fish. Alan Mowitt joined us today and we gave the Slap a good go but even though we saw a fish as we were fishing it didn’t pay any attention to our offerings, even the Collie dug failed to bring one up for a look. Cauld was next were we didn’t see a thing. Alan did see a fish in Duddo this afternoon but with the same result as this morning. I was busy chopping down some Hogweed that has popped its flowering head up over the undergrowth, its a sweaty job in this weather as the undergrowth is as tall as me, I half expected to come across a tiger or a rhino as I hacked my way through to the plants. 1’1” and 58 degrees today with a strong beery tinge. At the moment the salmon are suspicious by their absence, I really thought I’d see far more fish moving and the catches down river are nothing to shout about either, but glass half full and all that, I’m sure they will turn up soon, maybe tomorrow or perhaps next week. I had the seatrout for tea tonight along with new potatoes and broccoli from the garden and it was braw.
Friday 28th June. 1’0” and 62 degrees with a south east wind and roasty toasty. Steven Robins here for a couple of days joining Simon Wood who is a Lees old campaigner. Simon was up top this morning and seeing a fish in the Slap we gave it a few flies, the only one that stirred any interest was a large Collie dug which produced a bow wave for a few yards before it sunk into the depths again. Steven fished as much of the rest of the beat that he could but never saw a scale, after lunch he tried Learmouth stream and had a sharp pull from something and that made up all the action for the day, Steven is going back out this evening which is the right option in this heat and bright sun. The scores on the river reflected the weather and at 8.00pm only three fish were reported.
Saturday 29th June. Hot and humid with cloudy spells, when the sun peeked through it was very hot, 9” and 66 degrees on the gauge. Ian Black and Toby joined us today as a sort of half way stop on their way up to the Shin next week. On the Slap and Cauld Steven Robbins had a bow wave at a sunray and another wee fish rose beside the fly close enough to look like it was coming at it or maybe just coincidence. Down on the Glide Ian Black had a hold of a fish on a #10 silver stoat but sadly and rather annoyingly the hook snapped, on examination it had snapped at the barb so maybe the wire had been cut too far through when forming the barb. There were very few fish showing in fact none really which is not surprising in that heat, the catches across the websites showed three fish for the day, again not surprising given the weather. I’m sure it’ll be better next week.
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