Week beginning 30 September 2013
Monday 30th September. A south east wind blowing 10” and 50 degs squeaky clean water so let’s get at them, we had the draw and nobody was sure if they’d had a good draw or bad as with these conditions it’s anybody’s guess. Everyone on floater with wee sink tips. By lunchtime we were on 5 fish well spread round the beat. Temple 1 which looked like an old Springer, 1 Back of the wall, 1 Cornhill bend and two Iron gate point, only one fresh one though. By 5.00 the score had increased to 7 so a good day given recent catches, the bad news was the south east wind blowing up the river and the forecast is for a 22 mph wind from the south tomorrow, as if the Cauld is not difficult enough to fish as the south side is just one big back water. We lost a couple in Cornhill bend and 1 in the glide and the Cauld; on the glass half full side I see the bottom river beats had a few more today so maybe tomorrow! Tuesday 1st October Well, into October and leaving behind a very dry September which would suit the farmers but not the fishermen of this world. We had 186 for September with 117 returned, 185 on fly and 1 on spinner with the top pool being the back of the wall 41 (including the Iron gate point) Cauld second with 39 and temple third with 35. We also had 6 Seatrout all on fly. October has got off to a great start with 13 for the day including a 20lb hen for Neil Andrews which he caught in the Cauldstream on one of his better casts, although he also takes the award for the smallest which was a 1lb wee fresh thing from the ledges. Rodger Skan had a brace from the Cauld this morning and took the afternoon off to rest on his laurels, Francis Sidoli had 3 from Learmouth and his sons Dominic and Chris and one each from the Back of the wall, top Banana today was David Flux with two cracking fish from Duddo on a 13’6” rod which is big enough for these conditions and gives you a much better fight, doesn’t take any longer to get them in you just feel more of the action, he was using one of the new Hardy sintrex rods and it casts for miles. The wind today was a bugger making the Cauldstream very unpleasant as it’s so low that combined with the backwaters and it’s next to unfishable. Most of the fish were again coloured and in fact the Seatrout Neil caught is being deported on the next flight. Wednesday 2nd Down an inch and still 50 degs, squeaky clean apart from the river bed. 6 today in a bad south east wind, lost a couple in the Cauld this afternoon, Francis Sidoli demon of the Lees managed 2 from the Bags this morning both fresh wee hens which he returned and also had 1 wading the Ledges this afternoon, the other fish was caught by Neil Andrews in the back of the wall this morning. I did see some silver fish jumping about today but couldn’t get them to look at anything. Sitting at the bottom of the Glide this morning watching the world go by I saw 4 fish moving up through the thin water so something is happening. But what’s really happening is RAIN! Just seen the weather forecast and it looks like rain tonight and most of the day tomorrow so if it’s correct we will lose some fishing but will at last see some proper fish, if it’s correct? Thursday 3rd Well there wasn’t much rain last night and been dry here all day until 7.00pm and a look at the river levels shows nothing rising apart from the wee bit from the top this morning which is making its way down the river. I’ve just been to Kelso (to see a man about a dug) actually I did go to Kelso and bought a dug! Anyway it was pissing down at Kelso so let’s hope its like that all across the Borders. 7” on the gauge and 52 degs and a warm day but that south east wind is still here. Only fish today caught by Neil Andrews in the Slap an old hen at 14lb, one lost in Cornhill bend a wee pull in the back of the wall and one boil at a skimmer in the Cauld, not much to show for all that effort. The Otter made an appearance today once going through the Slap causing a fair bit of panic amongst the resident fish and then in the Cauld this afternoon. I didn’t see any fresh fish today and I’m really hoping that this rain comes to something. So what can we do? Well just keep plugging away and hope that something fresh turns up with it’s pals in numbers. Friday 4th What bloody rain? It rained a bit right enough but not enough to give us the flood we need; you’d of thought watching the weather that Noah would be brushing up his carpentry skills, but there was no need to even sharpen a chisel. 1’1” this morning and 56 degs and it was warm outside. I was down the bottom end this morning and we did rise a fish in Cornhill bend to a skimmer but no pull, Duddo stream had old fish jumping about all over the place but I never saw a clean one. Francis who was in the Glide was just saying he had more chance of having sex with Santa’s wife than catching a fish when he hooked and landed a 3lb cock (can I hear sleigh bells) he followed that up with its twin brother and that was it for the morning. In the afternoon Neil managed a 10lb old cock fish from Learmouth stream but that was the only pull for the afternoon. David waved the white flag and set off to blast some Grouse out the sky while Rodger went to see if he could spot the rare ring necked rockhopper which has been about the last few days. We’ll see tomorrow if this wee rise has shuffled the pack about. The new addition to the family is called Kelsae and is an 8 week old Lab bitch who was getting her jags tonight she’s called Kelsae because she comes from Kelso! Saturday 5th 1’7” and 54 degs and still clean so I hoped we would bag up, it was going to be feast or famine and I’m afraid it was famine. There were loads of fish showing and running, in fact some of them were taking the far side of the Cauld. We gave it a fair old thrashing all morning and Neil Andrews managed to catch two, one of them a 20lb cock fish which wasn’t the freshest fish in the river so was returned. Lunchtime came and went and we hoped the fish would come on in the afternoon but they didn’t. My phone was fairly busy with next week’s rods getting excited and it should be a good day on Monday and Tuesday but I can see us running out of water by mid week, Temperatures are set to fall so that will help even in low water. Terry Harper and co here next week so no doubt there will be the usual whisky drinking competition in the hut on Monday and Phil Hinton will be using the flies tied with his own body hair which seem to catch their fair share of fish as long as he remembers to remove the brylcream first. So hoping for a great week coming but we’ll see.
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