Week beginning 26 February 2018
Monday 26th February. A cold day with a few snow showers, the river was in good order apart from the water temperature which was down to 34 degrees, 1’11” and squeaky clean with a easterly wind making the casting a bit tricky in places. Team McLaren here this week and a little bit of nasty weather was not going to put them off. The score for the day was 3 seatrout kelts, one from the Annay, 1 from Learmouth and one from the Temple. Four fish reported off the river one from Birgham Dub, two from Junction and one from Lower Floors. The forecast is still for some really bad weather to come in from the east from Wednesday onwards, sometimes the weathermen/girls big it up too much but this time it looks like they could be right. We could have grue on the river by the end of the week which would be the first time during the fishing season for years, since I was a lad even and that wasn’t yesterday.
Tuesday 27th February. The beast from the east started to make its appearance today with some very heavy snow showers and cold north east winds. The news is full of reports of snow and disruption it will cause, 2010 we had feet of snow for weeks and we managed just fine. Unless it’s going to dump it down tomorrow it’s a bit over the top. Anyway the fishing, team McLaren fished their way round the beat and one kelt landed and a half hearted pull was all they had to show for their efforts. Q and Jerry have both now perfected their circle “C” cast which makes life safer for all concerned. Two fish reported off the river today, 1 from Lower North wark and 1 from Junction which was an 18lb licer.
Wednesday 28th February. I was in the bakers this morning getting my lunch and said to him that I’d seen a lot worse snow wise and that the weathergirl had bigged it up a bit too much, fast forward 5 hours and half the roads in the borders are closed, the snow is getting deeper by the minute and the wind chill was splitting my lip, I started to agree that the “beast from the east” was here. The rods very wisely decided not to turn up; they possibly couldn’t get here anyway. This afternoon I popped along to have a look and there was grue forming on the temple, I’ve not seen grue on the river during the fishing season for at least 25 years. I imagine tomorrow that the grue could/will stop us fishing tomorrow. I have at the moment a level foot of snow in my back garden and there’s more to come; now some find it lovely to look at but it’s not. People fall over and break bones, cars crash, you can’t go about your normal life and soon it’s all going to melt and there will be a really big flood. I have around 20 blackbirds in my garden eating the apples I save from the trees outside the hut, today they were joined by fieldfares, that’s the first time I’ve seen them in town which shows how hungry they are. No fish reported off the river today, I’m not surprised as you’d be mad to fish in that. Much the same tomorrow the weathergirl cheerily tells me.
Thursday 1st March. That’s February out of the way thankfully as it’s the worst month of the year closely followed by March. The beast from the east has been very beastly and dumped a shitload of snow over the whole area along with a wind chill that would give you frostbite, and to cap it all we now have a river filled with grue making fishing impossible. All the roads in the area were blocked with snow/jacknifed wagons/cars and are just being opened today. There does seem to be a slight lift in temperature this afternoon maybe 0.5 of a degree but the wind is still bitter. I went along to the hut this morning to dig out the hens and an otter was fishing away merrily in the grue (see instagram for film clip).The top gauges have a wee rise going on at lunchtime today but when this lot melts it’ll be a bank topper again.
Friday 2nd March. Still cold but the wind has lessened at last. A lot of the local roads are being opened up today but travel is still difficult. The river is still full of grue making fishing impossible, plus you’d have to be mad to stand out in that. It will be about 1’6” on the Lees gauge which is a spot on height for this time of year, just don’t need the ice. The forecast is for a gradual warm up which would be the preferred option as if it rains we will have a serious flood on our hands. I collected some eggs from the hens today and they were frozen solid in the nest box, last time that happened was 2010. The rods are away home (if they make it) and for tomorrow the new rods have wisely called off.
Saturday 3rd March. Wee bit milder today and the grue almost gone but the ice sheets have built up from the edges. The streamy water like learmouth stream would be fishable but you have to trudge through the snow to get there. It’s been a hell of a week.
Sunday 4th March. More of a thaw today and the grue gone. A slow thaw will do just fine.
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