Week beginning 31 August 2015
Monday 31st August. First of all I must correct a mistake in last week’s report, I reported 48 fish for the month when it’s actually 46, I’m sure some of you sharp eyed readers would have noticed this and are busy penning a letter to me as I write so there we are 46, unless one is caught tonight. Today the gauge was showing 1’4” and 54 degs nice and clean, a light north wind and sunny spells, now this is the sort of day you would expect to “bag up” but by 5.00pm all we had to report was one fish lost at the Iron gate and a mole from the Bags. I was down on Cornhill bend first thing and thought all we had to do was chuck the fly in the water and we would have one on, well we did see a fish but no pulls and that’s after a dressed treble, a bottle tube, a skimmer and a sunray. At lunchtime there were shrugged shoulders and sighs and mutterings of ah well there you go, thought we’d of had a few this morning and so on. Stewart came back up from Learmouth stream saying there were loads of fish 50/50 new and old but they had failed to get a pull. The latest theory doing the rounds apart from the Russian trawler is that the fish have gone so far north that they have swam right along the northern coast of Russia and have ended up off the coast of Japan, at the time of writing this I am busy trying to translate the Japanese copy of trout and salmon rivers reports to see if there’s any substance to this theory. What is correct though is a large pod of dolphins are in the river mouth at Berwick which have been starring on facebook and I’m pretty sure they’re not eating seaweed. New team on tomorrow for the rest of the week so it’ll be thrashed to a foam, (fly only mind). Latest news in 1@12lb river fish from Cornhill Bend so that’s 47 for August I’ll give you a pool by pool breakdown tomorrow.
Tuesday 1st September Team Godden here for the rest of the week and raring to go, got the draw done and I was on the cauld with Nigel to cut a long story short we lost a fish on a wee bottle tube on the second run down, Toby then went into the Cauld and landed a nice fresh 5lber on a dressed treble (you need a bit of luck in this game). Top dog for the day was Gene Godden who landed two in Learmouth and lost another two he also got a 10lber from Duddo stream this afternoon. This afternoon I was in the Temple with Paul Robinson and despite him casting like a hero we never had so much as a bow wave, there were fish showing but 99% of them are river fish. Looking at the websites I see Tillmouth have had a bumper day so there’s hope for us all, bit strange how the beats round about them didn’t though. August catches are as follows Temple 9, Slap 1, Cauld 7, Learmouth 4, Back of the wall 4, Glide 4 Cornhill Bend 10, Duddo 6, Middle Stream 1 and the Bags 1 so 47 landed and 32 returned, 5 on a spinner almost all on one day when it was big and dirty and 42 on fly. Showers from the north tonight so they won’t do any good. Late report- 2 from Cornhill bend this evening 4lb and 6lb
Wednesday 2nd September. It would be amusing if we didn’t need the rain so badly, I received a text from SEPA today which was a flood alert! Having just seen the weather after the 6.00pm news there might be a wee shower tonight or tomorrow so a flood alert is a bit over the top. 1’2” and 56 degs overcast some sunny spells with a north wind. Nigel Crosskell was the lucky boy getting a 4lber from Cornhill bend on a scruffy shrimpy thing he also had another pull, down on the Bags and Middle stream Gene and Stewart never saw a fish it was much the same round the beat. Paul Robinson had a pull on a Sunray in the Cauld and in the Slap a bigger fish had a big lunge at it. This afternoon we saw a few fish in Learmouth Stream but couldn’t get a pull from them, Bob (Learmouth Ghillie) had a 4lber on a surface popper this morning and another splash at it, it shows you have to ring the changes it’s no use to keep thrashing away with the same thing all day if its not working and its good fun. All the pools are getting low now and you need to work the fly all the time. Another theory is El Nino is causing the lack of fish I’m not sure why it should as it’s in the southern hemisphere, I think it’s more likely to be the solar flares this spring giving us a huge display of the Northern lights and that has affected the Salmons ability to find their way home which adds some credence to the Japan theory I suppose, I’m off to the garden before I write any more bullshit.
Thursday 3rd September. A chill in the air today with grey cloud cover and a cold north wind making it feel more like October although the fishing was nothing like October. 1’1” and 54 degs. Nigel and myself went through most of the flies in the box at various depths in the cauld but had no interest in any of them and at the lunchtime debrief everyone else had much the same tale to tell. This afternoon things were slightly better as we had increased the score to two pulls and two moles. Paul Robinson lost a fish in Duddo and Nigel had lost one in the Back of the wall. South Wark above us had the same sort of day but Lower North Wark had 5 two of them tide liced grilse at 3lb, each a case of right place right time. They are a stoic team this lot so we just keep casting away and by the law of averages we should get a fish. The only fish I saw being caught was by the Osprey this morning in the lower cauld and the big dog Otter in the Bags this afternoon. Its Friday tomorrow so thats always a good day to catch a fish.
Friday 4th September Tim Poole was top dug today getting two on flies that were at each end of the scale, the first one on a Sunray in the cauld and the second on a #10 lightly dressed silver stoat from Learmouth stream, Nigel Crosskell not to be outdone had an 11lb cock from Cornhill Bend, the rest of the team blanked. Wee flies seem to be the order of the day right down to #14, the river is squeaky clean now and 52 degs and with no sign of rain next week tactics are going to remain the same. We did see a few fish today in Duddo, Cauld and Learmouth, there are plenty in the Temple but getting them to pull a fly is more than a challenge. Away from the fishing I’m getting my show produce sorted out for next Saturday, 52 entries, sally reckons I’m getting a bit too competitive but there will be plenty hot tomato relish for sale in the coming weeks.
Saturday 5th September. 1’0” and 52 degs still nice and clean. Gene Godden had a 7lb coloured hen on a wee red and black bottle tube fished on a full floater which is about the same as a treble on a sink tip I suppose it just saves having to put one on, anyway he got it in the Cauld. There are a few splashing about in the Cauld but I didn’t see any fresh/clean ones. The rest of the team fished the best bits round the beat which doesn’t take long at this height and were back at the hut by 12.00 noon, tackle down then a splash of coffee and it was off home, so there we are the fleet is at anchor and the score is 12 for the week had it been the spring I would be delighted with that but in the first week of September its not so good. It’ll soon be Monday so I’m off into the garden to see what I have to show next Saturday.
©M Campbell 2015
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