Week beginning 26 October 2015
Monday 26th October. We have been visited by aliens it seems and they have nicked all our fish. I sat watching my rod fishing through the Glide and it was an hour and a half before I saw a fish and by lunchtime I’d only seen 3 and none fresh, on texting up the river the story was the same, they’ve gone was the cry, well they have to be somewhere but nobody seems to know where. We didn’t have so much as a pull all morning and that was repeated this afternoon. I was in Learmouth this afternoon where I saw one very old Seatrout and two salmon both old ones, Bob on the other side fared better as he had an 8lb licer this morning from the stream but that was the only one I’ve heard of. It’s been a worst case scenario all our fish have buggered off and there’s next to nowt to replace them so unless some turn up its going to be a very long November. On the brighter side the dentist has now passed me fit for purpose but its a shock to the system first thing on a Monday morning. The hens are continuing to lay well and sally has now cleared the green house and polytunnel of tomatoes so we now have enough relish, soup and pasta sauce to see us well into next year. The trees are bonny in all their autumn glory and as long as we don’t get any high winds or hard frosts the show will last a while so at least the rods coming the rest of November will have something to brighten up their day.
Tuesday 27th October. Well the aliens didn’t get them all as we caught 4 today one of them clean but it was only 2lbs., Looking at the websites tonight the fish have moved to the Kelso area, its an unusual thing all these old fish with us were very reluctant to take then they move and come on the take again for a day or so. We had 1 from the Cauld, 1 from the back of the wall and 2 from Cornhill bend all on floaters with sink tips, the biggest was 15lbs. 1’0” 0n the gauge and 44 degs this morning and a very gloomy day (bit like my mood really ). The forecast on the BBC is for a fair bit of rain starting tomorrow so if their right it will be a game changer maybe not for the better either. Then again it might bring in that huge shoal fish thats waiting off the coast and has been since July! It’s more like it’ll give the fish that are still to come more water to hide in and more water to push straight through us. Whats happening on the wildlife front? Well there was a big flock of Golden plover flying about today, the Kingfishers are still tweeting away and the Otter was having a great time in the Bags this morning scaring the fish. We also had a faller today as John Dickinson fell in attempting to get into the boat in the Cauld then getting back to his car he discovered he had a puncture in his rear tyre so not the best afternoon for him. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Wednesday 28th October. A dreich day at the Lees with fairly heavy rain this afternoon following a damp dull morning. We had 1 fish from the Cauld this morning a coloured cock at 5lbs this along with two pulls in Learmouth this afternoon was all the action today. I did see tow fresh fish in Learmouth which was perhaps where the pull came from. Its pleasing to see that the beats below had a bit more success today than of late but I don’t know how many were fresh if any, I’ll find out though. The fly in the ointment is the rain as the river is rising on all the top gauges so could well be out of sorts tomorrow and more rain is forecast for tomorrow morning. Latest- Down at Milen Graden today they had 7 fish but only one fresh which weighed in at 2lbs.
Thursday 29th October. 2’1” and 48 degs and after morning cloud it was a lovely day on the river apart from the colour, weed and leaves every cast. That said the lads had a leisurely morning and started fishing around 11.30am, in the Cauld with Mark Beatty it was clean enough in the edge but when we got into the middle it was very murky and it was a leaf or a lump of weed every cast you could also smell the water and it wasn’t good, we saw 3 fish but it was maybe the same one two times so only saw two all morning. This afternoon things were no better Richard Moffat sailed down the Temple and only saw one salmon but there was a hatch of olives and there were two big trout taking them along with the mallard ducks that were making the most of the unexpected late hatch. In the Cauldstream Nick Smith was wading the tale end and normally you’d put good money on getting a fish from there at this time of year and height but he only saw one fish and a scabby Seatrout. There’s another wee rise coming down tonight and that might actually help to dilute the colour and wash out some of the rubbish by tomorrow. 4 fish caught off the whole river and at the extremes at that, the top and the bottom. It’s still very mild for the time of year in fact too mild a bit of frost might help thing along but at least the springers will be on the redds by now and hopefully producing loads of young springers.
Friday 30th October. A wet dreich morning with the gauge showing 2’0” and 48 degs, still dark beery colour. I was down at the Glide with Richard Moffat, we fished it through but I only saw one fish and in fact that was the only fish I saw all day, the other lads had much the same experience. After lunch the rain had stopped and it had warmed up a fair bit, Nick Smith was on the Temple and blanked Richard and myself went through the Cauld a couple of times without a pull and by this time it was looking good, any other year I’d be expecting a pull every cast but we never had a touch and again I never saw a fish move. For the last hour Nick waded the tail of the Cauld and at last someone had one a 12lb coloured hen, Mark arrived back from the Glide and reported that he’d had one and lost another both black. So two for the day which is better than none I suppose, the only beat to better that was Farnilee who had 3. 19 fish on both websites and that’s not deducting ones that are on both sites. Tomorrow should be better as the river will have settled, there is rain on the forecast but it will not affect tomorrows fishing.
Saturday 30th October. Well it’s Halloween and the only fright we got was theres no fish, not in any number at least. 1’7” and 48 degs and warm for the end of October. Mark Beatty had an old 15lber from Learmouth and Tim had an epic struggle in the cauld before he landed a 2lb clean grilse along with sticking the hook in his finger requiring a major surgical procedure in the hut. At this height at this time of year we should be seeing fish jumping all over the place but you just don’t see them. Bruce fished the Bags this afternoon and said there were loads jumping at the very top of the Bags I didn’t ask him to quantify loads, where he said they were showing indicates that they were spawning fish. I watched as Mark fished down the back of the wall this afternoon and neither of us saw a fin, it was flat calm so anything that moved would stick out like a sore thumb. Nick Smith and Stewart had the same in the Cauld they didn’t see a fish. Now all this says to me and even the most optimistic person that there’s nothing there and that’s being kind. South Wark had a belter of a day though getting 8 which was almost half the total catch off the river, one of them was liced so miracles do happen. We’ve had 83 for October compared to our average of 218 so that speaks for itself, 46 cocks and 37 hens so a good mix. There’s a wee rise coming down tonight but thats it for the week as its to stay warm and dry in the week ahead and calm, it’s been the calmest autumn I’ve ever known, not that I’m complaining. I’d like to swear a lot but there’s no point it won’t change anything. ©M Campbell 2015
our twitter feed