Week beginning 25 May 2015
Monday 25th May Another week upon us and good conditions but no fish, 1’4” and 54 degs clean. Phil Fisher and pals here for three days and they set about the job with a spring in their step, we saw fish in the Slap and Glide but no pulls were had. Score for the day was 4 moles.
Tuesday 26th May 1’3” and 55 degs sunny with a westerly wind. Colin Chisholm was on the Slap first thing and with a brand new cascade sort of fly on a #8, he had a really solid pull, not solid enough as it turns out. There are some older Seatrout splashing about in the Cauld so we put on a wee fly this afternoon and caught 4 wee Trout. The Osprey was with us all afternoon fishing the Cauld and had less luck than us as it never caught a thing. There are some fish being caught on the beats downstream which gives us a bit of hope, but by the end of May I’m not really expecting a big run to suddenly turn up June is always our quietest month so I’m hoping the Seatrout will make themselves known in numbers. Wind and rain forecast tomorrow and wind on Thursday so I’m really looking forward to that!
Wednesday 27th May 1’2” and 54 degs clean. Colin Monk was on the Slap and Cauld and gave it his best but we didn’t see a fish, this along with the rain and a 4 hour drive home encouraged Colin and Paul Copson to head off early. Phil Fisher and Colin Chisholm were fishing the bottom end and Phil had lost a fish in Duddo this encouraged them to stay a bit longer but it didn’t work out for them as neither had a pull this afternoon and headed off about 4.00pm. As I was about to lock up Bruce had joined us so I stayed for a last coffee and by the time I’d finished it the wind and rain had abated the Slap looked good so I tied on a wee bottle tube which I’d tied last, night first cast and it was fish on! 10 mins later after a run down through the Slap into the Cauld Bruce had it in the net and away it went none the worse.(that’s my first fish since last April) It happens that way sometimes, somebody fishes the Slap for ages never sees or touches a thing along comes someone else and one cast wonder ! On the wildlife front we have a Nuthatch nesting in an old Swallows nest in the log shed, I saw a clutch of ducklings at last along with a clutch of Goosanders which I wasn’t so happy to see. An Osprey has been fishing the Cauld for the last two days, all afternoon today in fact and once it gets a fish it sits in the Chestnut trees to scoff it so it can’t be nesting maybe a young one without a mate.
Thursday 28th May All I can say is it was bloody windy and it ruined the day. 1’2” and 50 degs with the waves stirring up the crap off the river bed and that bloody wind. It’s been such a long cold slow spring and the forecast is shite as well with heavy rain on Sunday, we are starting to see some ducklings at last. Even plants in the greenhouse are well behind and the garden is at a standstill compared to last year, the quicker this spring is well behind us the better.
Friday 29th May The day started off well enough, calm’ish and dry and a couple of fish showing in the Slap but we couldn’t get a pull from them. This afternoon this went downhill with a severe thunder storm along with hail the size of marbles, so that was me into the hut I’ll not stand about waiting to be hit by lighting when someone is waving a 15’0” carbon conductor about. Only one faller today that was Mark who stepped over the only rock in the Cauld and fell in setting off his lifejacket, it’s a bugger when the jacket goes off and you’re hardly up to your knees. The pair of swans in the Cauld now have a cygnet with them and I’ve no idea where it came from as I’ve not seen her sitting and the last nest was washed away in the first week of May so hardly time to incubate any more in time for a cygnet now unless its came downstream from somewhere else, anyway the cob was letting it sit on its back so it must be theirs. On the fishing front it was very quiet today with only the two showing in the Slap but a number of Seatrout were seen in the Cauld this afternoon, I’d have a go in the evenings but its still so cold I can’t get up the enthusiasm. Tomorrow looks like it might be the best day of the week so I hope we can do something with it.
Saturday 30th May A nice sunny start but a westerly wind still with us, Norman fishing the Bags and Middle stream had seen some small silver fish showing so we changed over to a wee stoats tail about a #12 and he soon had one of the wee silver fish on which turned out to be a 3lb 5 oz Seatrout. This afternoon up on the Slap there were about half a dozen Seatrout showing but we couldn’t get a pull from them, there were also Seatrout showing in the Cauld but despite fishing it from both sides with the boat and wading the tail from both sides right down to the rapids we couldn’t get a pull. It’s nice to see these Seatrout turning up as they didn’t come to us last year and the spring run will soon peter out. The Swans still have the wee cygnet with them and it seems to be doing fine (not that there’s a shortage of swans on the river). I also found a sandpiper nest down the back of the wall this morning, there are more ducklings about but nothing like there should be at this time of year. Forecast is still for rain tonight/tomorrow and heavy rain on Monday so that’s going to spoil things a bit, it’s going to spoil Sunday, one day off and it bloody well rains! The fishing reports from next week might be a bit erratic as we are onto summer lets and Paul and myself share the fishing along with the Coldstream angling club fishing the bottom of the beat of an evening it gets difficult to keep things up to speed, and there’s the garden and common ridings. Just seen the latest forecast and it looks like Mondays rain might just be below us. Photo this week is the rain/hail on Friday afternoon.
© M Campbell 2015
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