Week beginning 29 April 2019
Monday 29th April. A foggy start which soon cleared to give us a lovely day. 1’3” and 50 degrees on the Lees gauge. Team Harper here for the week and Terry as ever leading from the front soon had a fish on in the Slap, it came up behind the fly making a large bow wave so a wee bit of encouragement was required, “give it a bloody tweak” I advised and it was on. It took a #6 dressed treble on a floater with a 5’0” fast sink tip. Into the Cauld where we saw 5 fish one of them in the mid teens but couldn’t get any interest from them. Back to the Slap and pulled a Collie dug over it which resulted in a boil but no pull. The rest of the team failed to have any action despite seeing a fish in Learmouth and at the Iron Gate. The ducklings are doing well and one mother still has the 12 she had last Friday, there are loads off flies on the water and at the rate they are feeding they’ll soon grow. No sign of any Swifts yet although I’ve heard reports of some upstream. Jock the ginger dug continues to grow and helped to clear up all the horse muck outside the hut by eating it!
Tuesday 30th April. Well that’s the last day of April in and it’s been a better month than Feb/March, 24 fish for the month and all on the fly. Richard Harrison was on the Cauld and Slap this morning and elected to start in the Cauld soon had an 11lb licer in the net, the fish took a wee Willie Gunn tube and gave a good account of itself. 1’1” on the Lees gauge and 54 degrees. The team fished their way round the beat but today the only fish seen were in the Slap and Cauld. This afternoon Graeme Whitty was up top and had a fish lunge at a Collie Dug but no pull, a seatrout around the 5lb mark was throwing itself about in the stream, more than likely one which a trout fisherman had just lost in the shallows 5 mins before when it straightened his hook. The river bed is getting very slimy now and anyone with rubber soled waders resembles Bambi slipping and sliding about on the stones.
Wednesday 1st May. One of my favourite months, things should start to warm up, we should have a few resident fish about the beat, the Sunray/Collie dug/Skimmer comes in to play on a regular basis, but that’s all to come. 1’0” and 54 degrees this morning with overcast skies. Graeme Whitty took himself off to Learmouth and soon Paul had netted a 12lb licer for him, the fish took a posh tosh sort of thing opposite the bench. Frank Smith up on the Slap/Cauld tried a dressed fly first with no results, we then swapped to a wee brass bottle tube to gain a wee bit of depth and the fish was on then it was off again along with a bit of a swear. Into the Cauld where on the second run through we popped on a Collie dug and a fish leapt at it twice but failed to hook up, a bit of a pull on a dressed #8 a bit later and that was the action for the morning. Terry decided to tackle the Times crossword all the time keeping a beady eye on the Slap in case he had to spring into action. In the afternoon we covered the likely spots down the beat but didn’t see so much as a scale.
Thursday 2nd May. Not the kind of day I like in May, it was dull overcast and wet this morning. 11” and 54 degrees. Not a touch anywhere on the beat this morning and nothing seen apart from a couple in the Slap. This afternoon Graeme fishing the Slap blanked with a dressed fly, we then switched to a large Collie and he had a pull from a fish which let go as quick as it had pulled, a longer cast and another fish which must have been right on the lip also pulled the fly with the same result. The weather has turned into the north with a big drop in temperature and a frost forecast for Friday and Saturday nights so that’s all the tubs and pots back into the greenhouse and polytunnel. Plenty smolts going down today and a flock of 11 goosanders flying past this morning all males so the females are on eggs somewhere.
Friday/ Saturday. Continued along much the same with east winds and cold, really need a flood now.
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