Week beginning 27 July 2020
Monday 27th July. 1’3” and 58 degrees with a beery colour. It was wet in fact it was very wet, I was wet, the dogs were wet, everything was wet. Peter London and pals John and Rex were here and I gave them good news about the river having a wee lift over the weekend and it should have brought some fish up and shuffled the pack and we can’t fail etc. I took John into the cauld and never saw a fish, down at Learmouth Paul and Peter saw some fish but couldn’t get a pull, Rex after getting his flat rear tyre sorted out hooked and lost a fish in the Iron Gate, and Andrew managed an old 8lber from the Temple. This afternoon Paul and Rex had an 8lber from the Cauld but it had lost its last louse a while ago, Andrew got another from the Temple and that was all the action. The rain stopped around 4.00pm whilst we were in the Back of the Wall and the fish started to show, it must have been the pressure lifting that livened them up, the lads are fishing on very sensibly as it won’t fish tomorrow looking at the gauges tonight.
Tuesday 28th July. 3’1” 56 degrees and very dirty so no fishing. Popped up to Earlston to pick up the strimmer after its unscheduled breakdown, there’s still a bit of strimming to do in the Bags and Annay. The rods called in for a quick look and goodbye they are fishing at Upper Pavilion tomorrow so might be a fish or two up there after this water. A few beats above Kelso had one or two fish and Milne Graden had one before the water really coloured up Kevin tells me. I was dry all day but windy too windy for July, have I ever said I hate the wind, I really hate the wind, I’d rather sit in the house all day and learn Chinese than be out in the wind. Picked some more raspberries which Sally turned into jam in a few minutes, I just will not buy that stuff in the shop, I think they put two rasps in a jar and fill in with water and gelatine and have the cheek to call it jam. New team on tomorrow Ed Marshall and pals who have been coming for a few years now, they could be lucky this year with the water as long as it clears quickly.
Wednesday 29th July. 1’9” and 56 degrees but very beery. It was a bit on the quiet side this morning, I took Simon Scargill into the Temple but it never seems to work when it’s low’ish and beery and this morning was no exception, Tam at South Wark had a young lad in the boat with a Rapala on and had a fish straight away behind us and 2 seatrout, Simon went on to get a 4lb seatrout from the Cauld and lose a bigger fish before lunch, the rest of the team blanked. This afternoon with the water clearing like a watched kettle Simon lost a fish in the Back of the wall whilst Edward made good of the slightly better conditions getting 3 from the cauld the best being a 16lber. Final score for the day was 6 fish and a seatrout after a couple caught this evening. Some good scores were made on the river today I imagine with the help of a bit of spinning, as it clears overnight I am hoping the lads can bag up tomorrow after having enough casting practice today.
Thursday 30th July. Well that’s the July record broken; it was 60 in 2017 but now its 67 and a day to go. So well done Team Marshall for being there and helping us get past the 2017 figure. Simon got his casting up to speed and soon had twp from the Glide this morning, a 10lb hen and a 5lb grilse which swam past me and up through the rushes onto the beach, (see instagram), he also got one out of the Duddo. Howard Cooper had a brief hold of one in the Cauld this morning, which might be the last for a while as the levels are dropping fast and the Cauld nowadays does not like low water. Ed Marshall spurred on by Simon’s success plopped his fly just in the right place in the slap after lunch and had a 6lb Grilse which ran straight through the Slap getting snagged on a stick on the way through which meant I had to tip toe along the cauld to free it off. Andrew was back gunning this afternoon and added another 4 from the lower beat all fresh and returned. Forecast tomorrow is for 27C which will kill off the fishing I’d think, first run through the pools in the morning then a lazy gin and tonic sounds nice of an afternoon. The summer fishing continues to impress and as long as we get a bit more water in the near future it looks like it’ll continue. 1’3” and 56 degrees with a beery colour to it, we have been on floater with various sinktip depending on which pool and 1” tubes or #8-#6 flies.
Friday 31st July. The cheery weathergirl was spot on and it was very hot today 27C which brought an east wind with it as the heat built. It did nothing to improve the fishing as only one fish caught today, Ed Marshall got it in Learmouth stream a fresh grilse, ha also lost another. It was heartening to hear reports of a lot of fish down at Berwick and the very lowest part of the river, hopefully they will push up over the next few days. The rods took the afternoon off to avoid the heat and are going back out later. I popped up to Cornhill bend only to find the Scottish Olympic swimming team in full practice again along with Fergus the chocolate lab and his brother. I went to the Glide and caught nothing. It’s to be a bit cooler again tomorrow so things should improve.
Saturday 1st August. 1’3” and 62 degrees with a bit of a breeze. No one managed to put the first fish onto the august scoreboard and not that many fish were seen today. Still hearing reports of lots of fish in the Tidal areas of the river but very little sign of them moving up yet. Forecast next week is rain on Tuesday then warming up again into the weekend. See tweedbeats on instagram for clips and photos
©M Campbell 2020
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