Week beginning 28 August 2023
Monday 28th August. A beery water today with the gauge reading 2’0” and 56f. The family fishing today, Nigel Houldsworth was down at the iron gate and glide where he had a pull followed a few cast later by another pull which stuck this time and he eventually landed a 4lb clean cock grilse, it took a comet tube fished on a 10’0” fast sinktip. The rest of the team drew a blank apart from David Sanderson who had a pull in the cauld. There were a few fish on the move today almost all of them looked grilse sized. It has been dry all day so hopefully no rise of water tonight or tomorrow.
Tuesday 29th August. Water clearing nicely, 1’6” and 58f. Team Black here for the rest of the week with Michael in charge, the lads were sent off to their beats and got about the job. Ben jack was in the cauld and after fishing it down with a tube we changed to a collie dug and immediately had a pull from a fish, a few cast later another pull but this time it stuck on and was a 12lb coloured hen, the single hook came out with ease and she was soon on her way. Michael Black was on form down at the Iron Gate point getting 3 fish one of them a 26lber; it was a coloured cock but gave him a great scrap. David Foreman made up the bag getting 2 grilse from learmouth stream, that was the total salmon for the day. This afternoon a couple of seatrout were landed, one from the glide and one from the iron gate point, both came to a large collie dug, the better being 5lbs and fresh. We did see fish on the move today mostly small grilse and it was patchy, some pools had them others blank, we’ll see what tomorrow brings as the water drops more and becomes clean.
Wednesday 30th August. Calm and mostly sunny for a welcome change depending on your view. 1’4” and a chilly 54f but clean. Almost perfect conditions you’d say except this morning the main players were missing. David Foreman managed to get two from the lower cauld on a wee conehead but further down the beat it was very quiet with hardly any fish showing, yesterdays lot seem to have headed west leaving a bit of a void. Michael Black helped the scoreboard a bit by getting a fresh 5lb seatrout at the Otterstones on a stripped sunray. This afternoon it was all quiet on the cauld, we did see a couple away down in the shallows and an old hen off the croy but no pulls, John Marshall had a boil in the slap to a collie dug, David Foreman was having fun though down at the iron gate and glide hooking some nice fish but managing to shake every one off, its character building stuff they say, some new fish must have come into the pools as he saw a lot of fish and some silver ones, up on learmouth stream only one fish was seen all afternoon, let’s hope they are in the learmouth or the cauld tomorrow morning. There is a super doper blue moon tonight so big tides to “bring them in”, I heard tonight that the tide has brought a seal up as far as Boathouse and Canny which is upstream of Norham bridge, I presume/hope it has followed a lot of fish up.
Thursday 31st August. 1’4” and 53 degrees but nice and clean. The sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky which didn’t help the fishing but it’s nice to have a dry warm day after all the cloud and rain we’ve had. Michael stayed up top whilst I took Douglas down to the glide/Iron gate area and refreshed his memory of the place, he soon hooked a clean fish at the iron gate which jumped about a bit, we thought we had it as it was heading straight towards us being played out when it turned its head and out popped the hook, this was followed by another pull from a coloured fish that jumped and threw the hook. Up top Michael started in the slap and soon had a 12lb old cock on a wee bottle tube fished on a slow sinktip, Jonathon Black down at learmouth had a 5lb grilse and around 7 other pulls. This afternoon it was all rather quiet the bright skies had put them down or they had buggered off, Jonathon had a pull in the glide on a black and yellow micro tube but that was all the action for the day. Dave Foreman is going to fish a back shift so scores might increase as long as he can keep them on the hook. Forecast for next 8 or nine days looks settled so tactics will have to change and a wee bit thinking out the box will have to come into play as levels drop.
Friday 1st September. 1’2” and 58f nice and clean with overcast skies and a light east breeze. Team Black were on form today and racked up 10 and 2 seatrout. David Foreman was first to break cover getting a 15lber from the middle stream on a wee gold cone, one of those flies where the dressing is in front of the cone. Jonathon Black had one from the cauld then another from learmouth he followed those up this afternoon with one from the middle stream lost one there then a cracking fresh fish from the cornhill bend around 14lb plus two good pulls, he moved down into duddo where he had another five pulls that didn’t stick. Michael Black had a very old cock in the cauld that couldn’t resist a collie dug and one out of the slap on a bottle tube, Sandy Laing had a 12lber from the cauld and lost one in the slap. To be honest everyone had a fish or two and I can’t remember where they all came from. It was very nice to see two fresh fish and have so much action in what is now low water. Sandy was fishing a #8 double the rest of the team were on wee cones or wee bottle tubes on inter tips or fast sink depending what pool they were on. We didn’t really see a lot of fish but they were there and hopefully more tomorrow, it’s a long time since we’ve had 10 in a day. We had 83 fish for August which is 73 more that August 2022 be great if this trend continues.
Saturday 2nd September. What a difference to yesterday, blue skies and hardly a breath of wind and hot in the sun, this of course did nothing to help the fishing, 1’2” and 56 degrees and now squeaky clean. Ian Black here for the day needed to catch a fish, he was in the glide and there were good numbers jumping, on his fourth cast he hooked into a decent fish in the teens of pounds which did a couple of spectacular jumps going upstream and threw the hook, he also had a pull in the duddo. The rest of the team struggled with the bright conditions and no one had any action, all things were used from #12 doubles, wee bottle tubes, collie dugs and even the hitch. This afternoon Ian was in Learmouth and on his first cast he hooked and landed a 11lber on a #8 double but that was the only pull of the afternoon, Michael and myself used the skimmer/hitch right down into the rapids at the bottom of the cauldstream but didn’t get so much as a nose sticking out. Ian is fishing on so he might have another fish as the light goes. Catches on the river were very low.
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©M Campbell 2023
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