Week beginning 30 September 2019
Monday 30th September. Team Sidoli here for the week, which consists of David Flux, Neil Andrews, Francis Sidoli and his sons Chris and Dom. Francis was soon into a fish in the Temple and in fact he had two, possibly spurred on by watching the other side get three. Neil who was in the Cauld all morning never had a touch and in fact only saw two fish all morning, the Cauld continues to disappoint, it should be spot on for the Cauld and it is spot on except the fish don’t think so, nothing has changed on the river bed but they are not using it this backend and it should be our banker. Dom and Chris had a fish each this morning but David fishing the Glide on down blanked. By the end of play everyone had at least one fish apart from David whilst some had two or three. 2’2” and 50 degrees with just a beery tinge. We didn’t see a lot of fish but still managed 10 for the day which is our first double figure day for a long time, we also had a good number of quick sharp pulls (more than likely grilse) which didn’t stick. Had this been 6 or 7 years ago I would be saying that tomorrow we would fill our boots, we’ll know soon enough; out of the 10 fish only 2 were fresh/clean.
Tuesday 1st October. 1’11” and 50 degrees more or less clean. Chris Sidoli was on the Temple up in the Ledges and had a 10lb fish on his very first cast, he followed this up with another around the 8lb mark 20 mins later then it all went quiet. Dom Sidoli went into the Cauld and at last we had a fish from the Cauld it was also a hen around the 10lb mark, he had another wading the tail which was a brand new grilse at 5lbs. David Flux got on to the scoreboard with a 11lb clean hen from Learmouth, not to be left behind Francis had a 5lb grilse from the Iron Gate. This afternoon it was very quiet and I never saw a fish from the Back of the wall down to the Bags, David had a couple of pulls in the Iron Gate and Francis had another fish wading the Ledges, so 7 for the day which is not too shabby considering they put their heads down this afternoon with the wee rise that was coming through. Hopefully it will start to drop over night and we don’t have any/much colour in it tomorrow.
Wednesday 2nd October. A cracking autumn day with blue skies and just a puff of wind now and again, 2’3” and 48 degrees with a bit of a beery tinge. This wee rise and beery tinge seemed to have put their heads down or they had buggered off as pulls were hard to come by. Francis who always manages to buck the trend had a wee grilse from the Ledges in the first 10 mins and David Flux had a grilse from the Back of the wall, that was all the action this morning. I fished the Temple down with Neil Andrews this afternoon and we started to see a few fish in the last hour but couldn’t get a pull from them, Francis again showed us how to do it getting a 17lb hen which was clean from the Iron Gate. As my favourite saying goes “It’ll better tomorrow” and it will as the water is dropping and clearing, another double figure day would do nicely.
Thursday 3rd October. It was a bit quieter on the Lees today as a lot of fish seemed to have left the beat and pushed off upstream with Rutherford being the main beneficiary getting 11 today. On the bright side though Tillmouth had 9, Ladykirk 4, Milen Graden 3, Pedwell 1 and Boathouse 2 so it looks like there are fish to come yet. 1’10” and 46 degrees all but clean. Francis Sidoli was the top dog today getting all 3 fish that were landed with the biggest being 10lbs from the bottom of the Cauldstream, the other 2 came from the Temple which were small grilse. Piers lost a decent sized fish in the glide after the line got stuck round a rock or some other snag. Nigel Woodruff who is also here for 3 days discovered a leak in his new waders this afternoon so was not a happy bunny as they are the top of the range Simms. Hopefully the rain will stay off for the next 2 days and let us get at the fish if they are coming. Sadly Sunday looks to be very wet, sad in 2 ways, one it will bugger up the fishing for next Monday and two I want to clear up my garden and I only get Sundays to do it.
Friday 4th October. 1’10” and 46 degrees but rising. It was a proper dreich autumn day with a north east wind and persistent rain. Neil Andrews was on the temple and was very happy with himself as he was out of the wind and worst of the weather being completely sheltered, he was even happier than the other rods as he caught the only fish of the day a 15lb old hen. The rest of the team spread round the beat and didn’t have so much as a tug from a fish. By lunchtime the river was up 6 inch and a lot of colour had arrived and the team decided they were beat, apart from Francis who was coming back for a cast at 5.00pm as a pesky little flood wasn’t going to stop him catching a fish, at 7.30pm I’ve yet to receive a text saying he’s caught one, he perhaps decided to stay in one of the fine hostelries in Kelso instead. Will it fish tomorrow? It might but it will be marginal fishing as it will still be well beery I should think.
Saturday 5th October. 2’6” and 50 degrees and well beery. This wasn’t going to deter the lads and they were soon getting stuck in to the river. Francis eventually hooked a fish in the Slap just after lunch which was an old hen about the 7lb mark, he had another in the Cauld but it was hooked in the arse so doesn’t count, normally a foul hooked fish goes ballistic but this one just stayed where it was to start with whilst Francis bent the rod almost double not sure if it was a fish or not, it started to move and by now Francis was giving it some serious stick so much so that I thought he’d snap his rod, the fish jumped once and it was all over, into the net and away again none the worse apart from a sore bit. We did see a fish or two in the Temple and some in the Lower Cauld but that was all as we didn’t bother with the bottom half of the beat. Francis and Mike Stirk are going to fish on so catches might improve as it is dropping and clearing. The forecast is terrible and flood alerts have been issued for the Borders, if correct it’ll be Wednesday at the earliest before it fishes. Ther
e were a few Cormorants about today so they were shooed away along with the Goosanders that are starting to show up.
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©M Campbell 2019
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