Week beginning 28 October 2019
Monday 28th October. A cold frosty start with blue skies, the Lees gauge reading 1’6” and 42 degrees squeaky clean. Margie and John Tucker here for a couple of days and with Andy Mantle and Craig Scott. The teams fished all the likely spots and covered a few fish that were there but nothing fresh to be seen. The catches on the river were nothing to shout about either with South Wark catching the lowest fish on the river today, thats a bit of a worry as the beats below us should be getting the odd fish as the height really suits them, it was either too cold or too sunny or there’s no fish, there is also reports of the odd kelt being caught below Kelso.
Tuesday 29th October. Heavy showers greeted us this morning but they have done nothing to the river levels, 1’5” and 40 degrees squeaky clean. Again today we gave all the likely spots a run through, several times in some cases but nothing was to be had. Fish sightings were scarce and pulls were even scarcer. On my way back down past the Annay this morning a cormorant landed so I pulled up the car to go and scare it off, as I sneaked down the bank to scare it off an otter came off the bank and headed for the cormorant as well, it was like a scene from a David Attenborough film, the otter was making a Bee line for the bird with a fair degree of purpose just its nose sticking out. I decided not to scare the bird but to watch the hunt, it ended with the otter narrowly missing the cormorant, I assume he’s the same lad that’s responsible for the demise of the swans if it is him. I’ve seen them taking young ducks but never a bigger bird but I suppose it’s a bigger meal. Catches on the river were low again apart from the Junction who had 5 and Traquair 4, I’ve not heard if they were fresh/clean fish but I have my doubts.
Wednesday 30th October. A very foggy damp start to the day with the Lees gauge reading 1’5” and 40 degrees. There were a few fish showing in the temple, I mean a few mind, not loads. I took Alastair Dunbar up the Temple and over half way up twitching in a #8 Ally shrimp we got a hold of a fish that turned out to be a 10lb old hen which we soon had landed and returned. On returning to the Slap croy he had a few casts over the Slap and was into another, this one was brand new with lice and was around the 5lb mark. Andy Mantle and Craig Scott blanked down the bottom end and in fact only saw the one fish all morning. This afternoon Craig Scott who needed to catch a fish as its been about a 1000 years since he had one was rewarded for his stoicism getting a 6lber from the Cauld. It was from the right bank out of the boat which is the first time this month; he also lost a fish in the Slap and had another pull in the Cauld. There were other reports of fresh fish from Upper North Wark, Upper Hendersyde and Junction so that’s the run getting under way now!!! Anyway it was nice to see a licer and hear of others, it’s a lot better than last year when liced/silver fish were as scarce as politicians who tell the truth. Forecast is for the weather to get milder but wetter which is bad for us but good for the fish. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Thursday 31st October. A cold start to the day but calm. 1’5” and 40 degrees. Mark Newstead joined us today along with Joe Early and Simon Cassidy over from Ireland. Mark was the only one to score this morning getting an 11lb old cock fish from the Slap on his last cast before lunch, we did see a few fish, less than yesterday but enough to keep the lads at it. This afternoon Alastair Dunbar landed a fresh 5lb grilse from the Glide which took on the dangle as he was stripping in to recast, Perry who fished for 10 minutes down the Annay also had a 5lber. There seems to be otters all over the place at the moment as every pool I go to I see an otter, there are also a lot of kingfishers this year which I do like to see. Catches were on the low side this evening looking across the websites but Drygrange made up for it getting a fish at 31lbs. Rain forecast for tomorrow which will make for an unpleasant day but hopefully not flood the river.
Friday 1st November. That’s October out of the way and it let us down a bit, 55 this year and 80 last year, I could put it down to high water and marginal conditions some days but really it was a lack of fish. Anyway today, 1’4” and 42 degrees and a lot milder Ritchie Gallagher, Paul and Carl Holland joined us today and set off about their duties, it was very quiet at the top end of the beat with only a couple of fish showing in the Temple and one or two in the Slap, in the Cauld I didn’t see a fish but I’m sure there were some there but just keeping their heads down maybe. Down on the rest of the beat things were no different with nothing showing. Looking at the catches across the websites it was the same picture up and down the river. Looking at the gauges at 6.00pm there is an inch or two coming down which will run through us overnight, it might shuffle the pack a bit for us, either way it’s good for the fish.
Saturday 2nd November. Heavy rain overnight (which I didn’t expect) has the river rising, all the gauges were rising, not a big flood but enough to stop any useful fishing. 2’1” At the Lees at 8.30am and colouring fast. The rods packed up quickly so they could hear the rugby world cup final on the way home; bet they wish they hadn’t now. Will there be any fish left down here after this rise? There will likely be some kelts about next week and hopefully some fresh fish. We’ll soon find out. See tweedbeats on instagram for latest clips and photos
©M Campbell 2019
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