Week beginning 29 September 2014
Monday 29th September A new team in and they are all keen to get at the fish, pity the fish are not too keen to join in the fun. That said Francis Sidoli had two from the ledges in double quick time while Tony had a nice 10lb hen from the Slap and Ian Merrell had a fresh 3lber from Learmouth. It’s about 8” on the gauge and clean 54 degs this morning, a few fish showing but not enough to get me excited. Anyway chickens are doing fine, whats left of them and Kelsae’s not chased the Hare today. What can I write? It was a lovely day out, warm calm, a great day for anything but fishing.
Tuesday 30th September Another lovely day but not if your fishing. 8” on the gauge and 54 degs squeaky clean, we did see a few fish and even a few wee clean ones but only the one pull which resulted in a 3lb coloured hen from the Glide. Francis spent the whole morning in the Temple but never had so much as a sniff, while Rodger had a go at the Slap and the Cauld stopping to do a wee spot of bird watching, there’s only so much you can do in the Cauld. The weatherman is now saying there is big rain on the way for Friday so I’m getting a bit excited and nervous as if the fish don’t come on the back of the rain/flood we’re buggered, so flooded off on Saturday, Kelso races on Sunday and a boatload of fish on Monday!!!! Kelsae the dugs dramas continue as she was sniffing a wasp this afternoon and was stung on the lip, a bit of a squeak, ran away then back to see what it was then ran away again, she looked like she had a tennis ball inside her mouth.
Wednesday 1st October Well that’s September out of the way and it was one to forget with only 45 fish landed, the warmest driest September on record. Anyway that’s history back to today, 7” and 56 degs overcast and a light south west wind. 1@7lbs from the Slap for Tony which was liced and an old 7lb cock from the Temple for Francis wading the Ledges and that was it for the day, there were hardly any fish showing and in the morning I was down the bottom of the beat and only saw one we black fish in Cornhill bend. The weatherman is still bigging up the rain for Thursday night Friday so we wait and hope. There were no more dramas for the dugs and the hens are still alive, the pumpkin seems to have stopped growing as its now turning golden, it’s smaller than last year but thats fine as its a bugger to move it about. The farmer was round with the mower and cut the grass round the field and there were loads of Wagtails feeding were he’d cut and I mean loads, whats the collective noun for Wagtails? I’ve Googled it and it came up as a narcissus of Wagtails!
Thursday 2nd October Another bright and warm day after an early frost but the fishing didn’t improve as we only had the one fish from the Cauld and it was a tad on the old side to say the least, it took a 1 inch monkey and weighed in at 8lbs or there about. The weatherman looks like he’s going to give us the flood we need with heavy rain tomorrow and into Saturday so we will soon find out if there’s any fish to come.
Friday 3rd October It’s raining! Yes it’s actually raining and at 7.10pm its raining hard so hopefully the long awaited flood will be here tomorrow, the forecast shows it hitting all the right places and its to rain until tomorrow lunchtime. Anyway today Francis was the cat that got the cream and had 4 out of the five fish landed today, two from the Cauld letting the fly dangle down the stream and two from the back of the wall, none liced though. David Marx also had one this afternoon using the same tactic. The websites were showing a few more fish landed today up and down the river it was maybe the change in weather that helped. Having just checked the gauges, there is nearly 2’0” in the Ettrick and 1’6” in the Teviot with both gauges still rising so at least its on the move, Tomorrows rods are not going to like it but something had to change. So lets dig out the wet 2 type lines and dust down the tube flies and get on with some autumn fishing.
Saturday 4th October Well it’s here 6’0” and rising, dirty brown and lots of rubbish coming down. Now we will see if there are any fish in numbers waiting to come, there’s more rain on Sunday night so it could be midweek before it settles down but now we can get on to some decent water with the pools having a bit of a flow through them.
Photos this week are- Kelsae with stung lip, a low water in the Ledges, a serene Temple on Thursday and the flood we needed.
© M Campbell 2014
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