Week beginning 28 March 2016
Monday 28th March.
A nice sunny day but the river was running at 3’6”and brown so nobody was going to bother fishing, mind you I know some that would fish all day. Now it was always going to be a bit risky not fishing today as Sally had decided to paint the kitchen so I had to keep out of the way. The day has been very productive all the same; I got the hen house back on its feet after the floods this winter as it’s been lying on its side with the roof ripped off. I then turned my attention to the garden and got a trailer load of horse manure. Rat traps next, I made some more wooden tunnels for the fenn traps it never goes wrong to have some spare. Next was a cleanup round the hut, its amazing where does the litter come from? No more sightings of the Osprey or the Sandmartins today and no flies or trout to be seen either. Tomorrows rods were on the phone asking about the conditions for Tuesday, it’ll likely fish but not be great and bring a spinning rod was my advice as it’ll still be big and carrying some colour. The forecast looks fine until Friday when more rain is coming in, thats what they are saying today but it might all change by Friday.
Tuesday 29th March. It was the sort of water that you’d expect to catch a brown trout or two or maybe a Seatrout being so beery and thats what we caught apart from the Seatrout and we found that the Temple brown trout are in fine condition. 2’6” 40 degs with a westerly breeze, the catches on the river were nothing to shout about again with 10 reported across the sites, it should be better tomorrow as it settles in a bit more. Still no sign of any hatch of olives or march browns. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Wednesday 30th March. Well the weather was fairly settled today unlike the fish that went zooming past us without stopping, I saw 5 in the Temple this morning and we covered them but never had so much as a pull. Looking at the websites tonight I can see where they went, Birgham Dub, Sprouston and Junction. We’ll get our turn eventually but it’s becoming a long wait. I would really like it to warm up a bit both the air temp and the water temp. Paul saw the first of the March Browns coming down this afternoon, just a few but it’s a start at least and it might be more tempting to get a trout rod out than a salmon rod. 2’2” this morning and 42 degs nice and clean. Rory that was a belter I nearly jumped out of the boat first run, always nice to see you though.
Thursday 31 March. A lovely day on the river for a change and we had a fish, yes, we had a fish. Veronica Ford was the lucky girl who got a fresh 10lber from the cauld and saw two others, the rest of the team never had so much as a touch but it was a nice day. The otter was with us most of the day catching minnows, one chew and they were down the hatch, another two sandmartins flitting about over the Cauld this afternoon and the skylarks were singing their hearts out, so all was well in the world and we can sleep easy in our beds tonight. 2’0” and 42 degrees, nice and clean. The only spanner in the works is the fact the weathergirl is telling me that there is going to be heavy rain in the west coming east and hanging about until Sunday.
Friday 1st April. One swallow does not a summer make or something like that and it certainly didn’t today as I saw my first swallow of the year which is very early and it was definitelyly not summer. 1’11” and 42 degrees nice and clean, we did see the odd fish but we never had a touch, well thats not strictly true as this morning I was in the Cauld with Dave and something tugged his line and made him squawk so I presume it was a fish but the whole event lasted about half a second. Veronica Ford (champion fly tier) who was fishing with us at the start of the week and caught our only fish was at it again at South wark this time getting two, so well done her, I’m sure husband Rodger will be delighted. The team covered the beat as well as they could given that the wind was more than a nuisance and it was bloody cold, so cold I had full winter gear back on including gloves. The top gauges are rising tonight and Jim Fleming (Glasgow spey casting champion) told me he’d phoned his better half who told him it had been raining hard all day in Glasgow so it could well be out of order tomorrow.
Saturday 2nd April. Well yesterday’s rain in the west caught up with us and the river was rising before we started making 3’0” by 11.00am and the colour coming in as well. The lads gave it a go but it was a lost cause. We had an unusual visitor today in the shape of a Mandarin duck which came skimming up river this morning we had to refer to the bird book to confirm what we’d seen. It was a garden job this afternoon taking down the old log shed and of course it started to rain, so now no log sheds and wet logs, what started off as a wee job has now turned into a major civil engineering project, still at least the lighter nights are here and there’s time to get things done. The forecast is dry for tomorrow so Monday will be fine on the river I’ve no idea whats coming after that.
©M Campbell 2016
our twitter feed