Week beginning 25 August 2014
Monday 25th August As I write this I’m not sure about today’s catches as all the Ghillies had the day off which was very nice. I met Perry at lunchtime and he told me he had two about 12lbs both from Duddo and both clean, 11” and 54 degs with a strong east wind so not the best conditions.
Tuesday 26th August It was 4 off the beat yesterday which was a good score looking at the other beats. Today it’s 1 foot and 52 degs and very clean, Michael Black was up the top in the morning and put his position to good use as he got the only fish of the day an 11lber from the Cauld on a #10 Gledswood shrimp which wasn’t fresh. We did see a fish in the Bags and a couple in Duddo, also there were some fish showing off the Cobble point but they wouldn’t look at a thing, Wark managed an old one from the Temple in the afternoon and West Learmouth had one. The catches downstream are disappointing to say the least no matter how much other sites try to build them up the catches speak for themselves. I attended the Ghillies meeting tonight and it was long faces all round, the only bright thing was Ronald confirmed that we should see/get the Grilse run from the 2010 season which was the biggest catch on record so here’s hoping, I’m sure their just off the coast and waiting for a drop of rain. I forgot to mention last week that the random family were on their way north to do some fishing and read the Tweedbeats site every week that’s why I put the photo in.
Wednesday 27th August 11” and 54 degs bright sunny with an east south east wind. John Lloyd was top banana today managing to wrestle a 3lb tideliced grilse out of the Cauld and sadly that was it for the day. I did see another wee grilse in Cornhill bend and an old fish in the Glide. Looking at the websites tonight the whole river is struggling to find a fish, so the flood when/if it comes is badly needed, a bit of rain is forecast but I doubt if it will be enough. I spent some time today spraying the weeds around the back of the wall and glide so your huge salmon don’t get tangled in them when you are landing them and started to lop some willows down at the glide until I came across a wasp nest which made me retreat at some speed. That’s enough for today as I’m off to water my pumpkin.
Thursday 28th August Paul and Carl Holland here for three days along with Michael Black and Ronald Gardener who has fished on Tweed for millennia, but even with all that experience we could only manage one wee Grilse from the iron Gate Paul Holland being the lucky rod. Things were much the same as yesterday but hotter, I only saw a couple of fish all day but the other lads did see some in the middle of the beat, the water temp was up to 60degs by lunchtime and there was some of the stone dirt lifting from the margins. There’s a bit more rain forecast later in the week but I doubt it’ll do much. Some good Trout have been rising during the day and it becoming tempting to put the Salmon rods down and pick up a trout rod, but we have to keep plugging away hoping a fresh one will come along. The highlight of the day was its “Pasty Thursday” as Stewart picks up some Cornish pasties from Kelso and that’s what’s for lunch on a Thursday. I’m sure it’ll be better tomorrow.
Friday 29th August Another warm windy day and very bright and we blanked. There’s not much else to say about it.
Saturday 30th August Well the rain gave us a foot of water and a lot of murk and sediment, the sort of day when you expect to catch a Seatrout and thats what we caught one Seatrout at 4lbs from the Back of the wall. There were almost no sightings of fish today and the very few we did see wee old ones. I imagine when this water gets to Berwick tonight it will bring a few fish up and tomorrow “Sunday” will be the best fishing day of the week, Monday should be ok as well but with no more rain forecast for the whole of next week it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. An Osprey was fishing the lower Cauld this morning that’s the first one I’ve seen in weeks it will be on its way south and all the Swallows and Martins are gathering on the wires so it’ll not be long before their gone.
Photo this week is a very low water Bags
© M Campbell 2014
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