Week beginning 25 February 2013
Monday 25thA nice frosty sunny startwhich made a change from yesterdaywith a snowy damp Sunday which is always the way when you only get one day a week to get things done, anyway 1’8” and 38 degs squeaky clean water and a cock Skylark singing over the Cauld this morning. Fished hard all morning and never so much as a pull and no sign of a fish either but that all changed in the afternoon with two lovely Springer’s, one from the Back of the wall which was 11lbs and had lice on it and the other from the tail of the Cauldstream which made 10lb fresh but no lice, both on the fly and both safely returned. Tuesday 26th A lovely day to be on the river blue skies and calm even a Skylark singing today for the first time this year. All four rods gave the beat a good thrashing but only one Kelt to show for it, but all is not lost as my hens have come on the lay after the winter and we had a pair of Treecreepers outside the hut this afternoon, creeping up a tree funnily enough. Wednesday 27th Today was one of the nicest February days I’ve ever been on the river in, blue skies, calm and even warm in the sun, it started with a hard frost but soon warmed up and made even better by two cracking Springers from the Cauld again both on the fly one from the boat and the other wading the tail end. Have switched to intermediate lines with the water dropping and smaller flies, took the fish on an Optimist today 1.25” tube at the top of the stream and#3 double in the tail. Thursday 28th Well that’s February over thank god for that it’s the worst month of the yearbut at least it was only 28 days this year. Two fish today both wading the tail of the Cauld, one on a wee size 10 treble on an intermediate line, the waters so clean you don’t need a big fly. The other fish was on a 20 gram Toby and had been in the river for a while. The February total is 12 Salmon all returned, 10 on the fly 2 on the spinner and 10 of them from the Cauld. We had a pair of Kingfishers this morning with the cock bird trying to woo the hen with a minnow and our resident Otters playing outside the hut this afternoon. The Skylark was singing his head off again this morning but he needs to be careful as last year we were visited by a Peregrine who soon mopped up all the cock birds as they were displaying to the hens 1st March tomorrow and it’s usually a windy month, we’ve not had a gale for a long time so I’m a tad worried. March 1st Another lovely day sunny calm and a fresh 14lb fish from the Cauld on a Sunray Shadow, it really attacked the fly. Saturday 2nd Sunny blue skies and a bit warmer. Phil Fisher arrived for his days fishing after leaving York at 4.00am only to discover that he had his wife’s handbag in the car with him which had all the house keys credit cards etc in it Oops! So he had an afternoons fishing instead after delivering the keys back to his wife who must really love him as she agreed to meet him at Heighley Gate Nursery at the Morpeth end of the A1 so he didn’t have to drive all the way back to York. It was a very quiet day on the river only three kelts for the day but we did see a few Springers, and Phil should be able to see out of his left eye after a few days!
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