Week beginning 31 August 2020
Monday 31st August. Well thats another month kicked into touch with a total of 61 for the month, all in all it was a poor month with lots of low cloud and east coast haar, too humid for the fishes liking and mine. Today the gauge was reading 2’4” and 50 degrees with a beery hint. Andrew was the first to score with a fish from the Lower cauld, not far behind him was Russell Sanderson with a 12lber from the Cauldstream which ran him well into the backing, (Bob Wigglesworth it was on one of those flies that you didn’t like). Nick D Home got the fish of the day a 20lb fresh cock fish from the Ledges which he returned. We ended the day with 7 on the scoreboard, I expected more but by mid morning I knew it wasn’t going to happen, there are plenty fish about but not that keen to play. Tillmouth were top dogs getting 17 showing the fish haven’t moved “en masse”. It’ll be better tomorrow as it will have dropped in a bit more and the fish should be more settled and in a mood to play. Team Godden start tomorrow so it’ll be chaos at 9.00am followed by a stampede to the river.
Tuesday 1st September. The usual chaos this morning but we soon got going, 2’0” on the gauge and 50 degrees slight tinge. Mike was first to score with two from Learmouth stream, Nigel Crosskell had 3 from the Back of the wall this afternoon including a fresh 15lber, Toby Kemble had a couple from the Cauld on a #6 cascade, Dave Foreman a couple from the Annay and a couple of seatrout. The Temple had fish showing all over the place but we never had a pull from any of them. Catches were good on most beats but not all and it looks like there are plenty fish below us to come, we finished with 9 for the day and 2 seatrout, I’m hoping for more tomorrow as there is some heavy rain coming in which might bugger up a couple of days so we’ll have to get them tomorrow.
Wednesday 2nd September. Nice start wet finish. Gene Godden was the top banana today getting 7 out of the 10 we landed; he had 3 from the Cauld this morning then 4 from Learmouth this afternoon and all decent fish this afternoon three 12lbs and one 14lbs. Tim Poole trying out his new Loop rod had a couple, one from the Slap and one from the Cauld this afternoon, the other fish came from the Annay this morning. The lads fishing below Learmouth never had a touch all day. It was quieter today with less fish showing but I’m not complaining catching 10, all the fish were taken on floating lines with sinktips. 209 so far for the season remembering we couldn’t fish April /May , last year on this day we were on 170 and in 2018 we were on 82 for the season so we are on the assent . It is a bit on the wet side here at the moment 8.30pm and it has come from the west so I am waiting for the bloody gauges to catch up with the rest of the fishing world and let us know what is happening upstream, they are effing useless.
Thursday 3rd September. 1’10” and 54 degrees and clean first thing but it is rising, I took Mike into the Cauld for the morning and we never saw a scale so we headed into the Lower Temple for an hour before lunch, turns out it was the right move as he had a 8lb hen which was tagged and returned (see instagram). We did see a few fish there but that was the only pull. Toby had a splash at the Sunray in Cornhill bend but that was it for the morning. After lunch the river had jumped up 10” and was pushing 3 foot all the team apart from Mike decided not to fish although Toby did swither, Mike and Paul went up to the Ledges but were soon back down with the colour starting to come in. Hopefully it’ll run through us tonight and will just be beery tomorrow and the fish will want to play. On the wild life front I’ve not seen an Osprey for a couple of weeks now and there were small groups of martins and swallows heading south across the Cauldstream this morning, the otters have been absent for a week or so as well except they don’t migrate so I don’t know where they are. The kingfishers have had a good breeding season as there are a lot about.
Friday 4th September. Beery water and a stiff breeze blowing down the Temple. 2’3” and 54 degrees. Tim was the surprise of the day getting an 8lb cock fish from the Duddo but very welcome it was. Gene not to be beaten got a 5lb freshish grilse from the Lower cauld, This afternoon my old friend the wind was back and blew me down to the bottom of the Temple and did nothing for my temper, have I ever mentioned I hate the bloody wind? Anyway two fish for the day was the final score and all was well until Toby broke his rod except it wasn’t his rod it was Gene’s, I’ll leave it there for them to sort it out. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Saturday 5th September. It was windy again, not as bad as yesterday but still blowy. Mike Cook was first onto the scoreboard with a 10lb hen fish from the Cauld (see instagram for clip) as he was playing it I could see that Nick D Home was into a decent fish as well just a few yards above us in the Temple, it turned out to be a good 16lbs and was straight off the tide, he also had a 13lber. Nigel Crosskell down in Learmouth stream with Paul had 2 in quick order 13lb and 16 lbs which was also brand new. The lads had a long drive home in front of them so they pushed off at lunchtime; Paul had a run through the Lower Cauld and got a 4lb Seatrout, I tried the Iron Gate and Glide and landed a 10lb hen which was clean but not fresh. The wee fresh grilse seemed to have dried up and it’s bigger fish we are catching now, mostly clean rather than silver late July/August fish with the odd licer amongst them. 1’10” and 52 degrees with just a slight tinge this morning, a few years ago I’d have been disappointed with less than 20 landed but this is the “new normal” fishing and the new normal life for all of us. Floating lines with various sinktips are the order of the day and whatever your favourite fly happens to be.
Follow Tweedbeats on instagram for some good clips and photos. It’ll be better next week.
©M Campbell 2020
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