Week beginning 28 August 2017
Monday 28th August. If you were a betting man and you were going to put money on where the only fish of the day was going to come from on a Monday at the Lees, the last pool you’d bet on would be the Babyhouse. This morning Richard D Home defied the odds and landed an 8lber from that very pool, just goes to show you never know. The rest of the day was a blank, we saw enough fish in the Cauld and the middle reaches of the beat but nothing fresh and nothing wanted to pull. I hate to say it but its starting to look a bit like last year, maybe not quite as bad as last year but very similar. (Hope I’m wrong). 1’4” and 58 degrees and whilst most of England saw highs of 29 degrees we never saw the sun all day. Still on floating lines or floater with an inter sink tip but if the fish are not going to come up for the fly I might have to pop on a fast sink tip tomorrow.
Tuesday 29th August. Fast sinktip fitted on to Malcolm Leslie’s line and off to Learmouth with Paul where he lost a fish in the stream. That was the only pull of the morning, there are still enough fish showing to keep us interested but I didn’t see a fresh one today. Team Black fishing for two days and they covered the water with enthusiasm not seen since my grandfather won best carnation in show at Coldstream flower show. Other highlights of the day were Michael Black forgetting to pull the zip up on his waders after nipping ashore for a pee then wading back into the river the result being he looked like he’d peed himself anyway. George telling me what a lovely rod he had then breaking it this afternoon at the Iron Gate. Malcolm Leslie came good aging to save the day though getting a 12lb hen fish from Cornhill Bend on a big Red Frances. 1’4” and 58 degrees, it was much cooler today and again we never saw the sun. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Wednesday 30th August. It was a much nicer day on the river with less wind and warmer but all that didn’t improve the catches as the only action we had was one pull in the Slap this morning. The team fished all the likely spots with a fair selection of flies but we just couldn’t interest the fish. I didn’t see a fresh/clean fish today but I heard reports that the 5 from Tillmouth yesterday were all fresh and South wark had a fresh Grilse this afternoon. The Autumn Ghillies meeting was held at Kelso this evening and a number of topics were covered but there was an air of gloom in the air. On the bright side the summer catches are up and most Ghillies were pleased with their June/July catches, which of course is not much to cheer about if you’re fishing in mid October, you never know there might be an almighty rush of fish if we get this rain next week coming. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Thursday 31st August. Well that’s us into autumn now with September tomorrow, and it was one of the nicer days this summer, what made it nicer was the fact we had 5 salmon today and they were well spread round the beat. Ronald Gardner had two this morning, one from the Temple at 10lbs which was keep able had it been a cock, and one from the Cauld at 12lbs which was a cock but it had been a considerable time since it had seen a tide louse. Paul Holland had a 9lber from the Temple this afternoon again a fairly clean hen which was returned, his brother Paul Holland had a 6lber from the Iron Gate and Paul’s wife Veronica had a 12lber from Cornhill Bend. So five for the day not bad considering it was calm and bright. I filmed an otter fish right past us in the back of the wall this afternoon, it was munching away at the minnows in the shallows and couldn’t care less about us sitting there.(see instagram for clip) The Temple has a lot more fish in it, perhaps due to the water levels dropping and the bright sun as they can get hidden away in there, they can be a bugger to catch in there when its bright, but a half decent cast and a wee twitch of the fly and one makes a mistake now and again, Ronald’s fish this morning took a #10 lightly dressed cascade double. 1’3” and 54 degrees, nice and clean now.
Friday 1st September. Overcast damp start which you would think were perfect conditions for salmon fishing, most days they would be but today we never had a touch. The only action was a splash at Michael Blacks sunray sort of thing in Cornhill bend. This afternoon the sun came out along with a bit of warmth and that effectively killed off any chance of a fish unless a fresh one or two came along which they didn’t. So a blank day, we don’t like blank days but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’ll be better tomorrow. Just a short report as I’m off out.
Saturday 2nd September. It was a lovely day on the river if you like calm sunny conditions, fine if there are fresh fish about but there’s not at the moment, well not round us there isn’t. That didn’t bother Ian Black though as he landed an 18lb cock in the back of the wall this morning in flat calm glassy water, the fish wasn’t in the first flush of youth and it must have seen 100’s of flies and spinners (not at the Lees of course) in its time in the river so why did it decide today’s the day I’m going to grab a fly. That was the only pull of the day but it was a nice day. 9 fish for the week all returned. 83 for August 63 returned. As ever see photos on tweedbeats on instagram
©M Campbell 2017
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