Week beginning 29 March 2021
Monday 29th March. Blowing a bloody hoolie yet again and the river big and brown, 3’7” and rising 50 degrees. The wind that has been with us for the last week and more is to finally start to drop tomorrow then to turn into the north on Wednesday and become much colder. I was going to plant my first early spuds today but I think I’ll give them another week; I have some in tubs and buckets in the polytunnel so I get some a month early. No fish off the Tweed today but I saw a photo of a nice fresh one out of the Whiteadder caught by Lee Ross. Fishing will be marginal tomorrow below the Teviot but upstream from there it’ll be a bit clearer so someone might be in luck.
Tuesday 30th March. At last the wind has started to drop and by evening it was almost calm. 3’5” and 50 degrees this morning but still coloured so no fishing effort put in today. There was a fish caught at Lower Birgham and Martin at Upper North Wark tells me they had a hold of something, he also told me they have a seal playing about on the beat which is not so good. Popped up to Kelso this afternoon for some supplies and to get Sally her 2nd jag, the lads on the Junction were spinning away which was a wise choice in this colour but there are no reports of anything caught. We have two lads on tomorrow and looking at the gauge tonight its reading 3’0” and well beery, it’ll clear a bit by tomorrow and hopefully drop enough to get into the Lower Cauld. There might even be a good rise of trout if the flies hatch so I’m taking my troot rod along tomorrow just in case.
Wednesday 31st March. It was a lovely start to the day with a warm even hot sun shining down and a couple of silver fish showing as they went through the Slap, that was as good as the day got, by 2.00pm the wind had picked up and it was out of the north east bringing grey drizzle and a serious drop in temperature. Billy Davison and Nathaniel here for the day and they covered all the decent water but a couple of trout was all they had to show for their efforts. 2’7” and 48 this morning and a bit beery but the beeriness soon dropped out as the day went on. A hatch of olives and March browns brought up a few brownies onto the fin to take them and the sandmartins were making the most of them. An Osprey was seen at Upper North Wark today which is about bang on time. Catches were poor on the river with one at the Junction and I heard of one at Lower North wark. This poor weather is here right over Easter and beyond, as long as it stays dry and drops the levels that’ll do.
Thursday 1st April. It was a nice day if you were out of the wind and in the sun but the north wind was chilling things down and the river temp had dropped back to 44f from 50f just two days ago, conditions were near perfect apart from the main ingredient which is a springer, we never saw a scale today, no pulls or splashes nothing. It seems that the run has just stopped and we are waiting for it to start again, I think I wrote something similar last week. Two fish reported off the river today one at Lower Makerstoun and one at Bemersyde, you could put it down to fishing effort but places that are fishing are covering the best bits. The forecast is getting grimmer for the weekend and we could be rolling our Easter eggs in the snow come Monday. I’m sure once this weather is past things will soon pick up and the fish will appear.
Friday 2nd April. Quiet a hard frost this morning which caught me out, I’d lit the lamp in the greenhouse but forgot to do polytunnel so this morning there was ice inside the watering can in the polytunnel, hoping my plants didn’t get nipped. 1’11” and 42 degrees, nice enough once sun thawed everything out. Johnny and Alex Scott here today and the pair of them fished all the hot spots but not a scale was seen nor a pull had. Only one fish caught below Kelso and not many above. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Saturday 3rd April. A glorious day, wall to wall blue skies, warm and most importantly no wind. 1’9” and 42 degrees and squeaky clean, perfect really. Just the one rod on today Crispin Rodwell who has fished a good few of the beats in the area. This morning he did the Cauld, Slap and Learmouth but not a pull was had and nothing seen. The lads at West Learmouth had more success getting a nice fresh fish from the Iron Gate point showing that all you have to do is find them. 6 fish reported off the river today across the websites so it’s still a bit on the quiet side. Not looking forward to Monday as gales from the North and even snow!!!!
As ever follow tweedbeats on instagram for latest pics n clips.
© M Campbell 2021
our twitter feed