Week beginning 31 October 2016
Monday 31st October. Well that’s the arse kicked out of October and it was our best month this season but you can’t polish a turd and in the age of the internet and instant news everyone knows what’s going on and it wasn’t great, top pool was the Cauld with 25, Learmouth and the Glide with 15 each, Back of the wall 13 but almost all were from the Iron Gate point, Duddo 14, Middle stream 12, Slap 5, Annay 3 and the Temple and Bags 0. 108 returned. New team on this week some new rods and some lees regulars Olivier Devictor is here for a few days and I was with him in the Duddo this morning as he was pulling a sunray through, he decided on a wee break and kindly offered me the rod all was fine until the third or fourth cast when the 6 piece rod became a 7 piece rod, Oops! It all happens in Duddo as Richard Mildmay White was in Duddo this afternoon and had wrapped the line round his leg I assisted but all I ended up doing was dropping Richard into the river when I lifted his leg up to untangle the line he toppled over but it was a nice day with the sun out and he didn’t really get wet. It’s scraping the 10” mark on the Lees gauge and sitting at 47 degs and with the cloudless skies and not a puff of wind the fishing was always going to be difficult. There wasn’t many fish showing today apart from Learmouth and the Duddo and none of them wanted to pull at a fly. The family of Otters were playing at the Slap croy most of the morning and the Osprey is still here, lots of geese going left and right across the sky honking to each other and the trees are now taking on their full autumnal colours. The clocks have changed and its now dark at 5.00pm, It’s just a pity they wouldn’t leave the time alone until the end of the season.
Tuesday 1st November. Another cracking start to a day but maybe too bright for fishing in these low water conditions and for fish that are reluctant to take to say the least. 10” and 46 degs with cloudless skies and not a puff of wind, the leaves are starting to fall now in a big way as yesterday in the chicken run there were a few but today it’s ankle deep, luckily there’s not been a wind to blow them into the river as yet. Dave Bell was back again today with his son Somerset and we were all hoping he’d get a fish; he was as keen as mustard but it wasn’t to be. Olivier was in Learmouth this morning with myself and lost what looked like a 5-6lb seatrout on a sparkly sunray, he even handed me the rod again today whilst he warmed up which was brave of him after the breakage yesterday. I spent the afternoon in the Cauld with Richard, now I have to say it takes a fair bit of tenacity to stick it out in the Cauld for an afternoon but Richard helped to pass the time with tales of “derring do” from various rivers in the salmon fishing world, he didn’t have a touch but he had a wee pull in the Otter stones this morning. Zan fished his respective beats with an enthusiasm that the pools didn’t deserve, but with a glorious autumn day like this it’s hard not to smile (unless you’re a Ghillie who’s been trying to catch a fish for weeks). There was a distinct lack of fish today, enough in Learmouth, Iron Gate, and Duddo to just keep up the interest even if one of them was busy cutting a redd right in front of me in Learmouth. The catches on the river today are what I’d describe as shocking with 11 reported across the two sites by 8.30pm, a bit of cloud cover and wind (not too much) might help but it wouldn’t bring the catches up by much I fear.
Wednesday 2nd November. A nippy start with a bit of frost about but blue skies and calm again, this made the Back of the Wall and the Glide look like glass and didn’t help the catches as we never had a pull this morning. We only had 3 rods on today as 2 were no show so it made things a bit easier as I could spread the rods out over the more fishy bits. This afternoon Olivier was in the cauld and all on a wee black frances had a 4lb seatrout, lost a fish and had another pull, down on Duddo and Cornhill bend Richard Mildmay white fishing the now famous “candy runt” fly (thats its name honest) hooked a big fish in the bottom of Cornhill bend which ran into Duddo we almost had it to the beach when the hook pinged out, it wasn’t played right out, was in a foot and a half of water growling at me maybe even daring me to land it, black red body with a yellow jaw line and a big white kype. The fly is a flying single type and its a fair sized single but if its not got a haud its not got a haud. That was all the action for today, fewer fish showing in fewer pools, 10” and 42 degs squeaky clean apart from the river bed which is manky. The leaves are falling fast now so any wind will fill the river and rods will be thinking about using a single as having to pull the line in every time becomes a pest and with a single you can usually flick it off, of course the fish can be flicked off as well, sort of depends on the leaves and your patience.
Thursday 3rd November. Some new rods joined us today for the rest of the week, Gilbert and Dirk from Belgium and Jonathon Meyer who’s here with mark Newstead who was here just last week. Mark was the lucky lad as in Learmouth he hooked and landed 4 salmon which brought our weeks total up to 4. The rest of the team were not as lucky as they didn’t get a fish between them apart from Robin (another new rod) who had a Grayling that would have tipped the scales at 3lbs so quite a Grayling but not a salmon. Richard who’s still smarting about losing that big fish in Duddo yesterday had a brief hold of one in the Otter stones this morning, so good but no cigar. Rev Jonathon Meyer was lucky to get a cast in learmouth this afternoon as Flipper had no rods on and kindly let us have a go at again, and it paid off as he had an 11lb coloured hen (see instagram tweedbeats)on a wee Blue Charm. Following a chocolaty trail down to the Otter stones Gilbert had a fish on for a while this afternoon but the fish decided not to play and let go. There were some big fish showing in the Duddo this morning and we took turns at going through it with the other side with Tam laying down a smoke screen with the pipe. The Bags seemed to be devoid of any fishy life but we always give it a run through as one of these times it’ll pay off. Friday tomorrow and the forecast is colder with the chance of a shower or two then an arctic blast on Saturday so thats something to look forward to.
Friday 4th November. A nice start to the day with blue skies, 9” and 40 degrees. I had our new Belgian friends on the Temple, Slap and Cauld this morning, now the temple is fine if you are looking to fill in some time but I’m not. The Slap takes 10 mins to fish so that leaves the cauld. Gilbert had a thrash at the Slap for a while as there were 3-4 fish showing then he cast the hat off his head which sent him in search of a new one, I took Dirk into the cauld which is not the kindest place to learn to do a double spey when you’ve never fished before and even with Dirk’s English being miles better than my Flemish the translation problems are still there and I’m trying to control the boat in something akin to a washing machine so we had our problems, after saying that he covered the bit of stream thats there but no pulls. Gilbert then fished the tail right out and before we knew it there was lunchtime. Reports from the lads at lunchtime were sparse as was the rest of the river so we were in good company. This afternoon the team spread out to cover the whole beat and Ian Cadzo was on the Otter stones (lower Babyhouse really) flicking out a size 10 red shrimpy thing and managed to hook and land a 10lb cock which he played with the upmost care, so much care that a member of the audience suggested that it’ll be a kelt by the time it gets in. (see instagram). That was all the fishy action for the day. Bruce who was on patrol at the Iron Gate/Glide area told me the fish were jumping all over the place from the point down to the ripple, 2 or 3 in the air at a time but not a pull was had, sounds like all the fish in the Lees are there, I’ll see how many are there tomorrow. Fresh fish are scarce to say the least and in fact I’ve more chance of riding a unicorn at next years common riding than catching a tide licer. On the wildlife front the Dipper was suspicious by his absence in the Bags this afternoon, the Otters didn’t show this morning but there are spraint all over the place, we still have kingfishers on more or less every pool and at last the Osprey has gone. The hens are going off the lay and Stewart is having a bonfire with fireworks tomorrow night at his house for the grandbairns, it all happens here.
Saturday 5th November. There were no fireworks at the Lees today on the fishy front; we did manage two fish 1@12lbs from the Cauld and 1@13lbs from Learmouth. The Learmouth fish was a story of two battles as Robin M Kemp was out in the stream playing the fish this morning as a swan flew past, said swan hit the line and got itself tangled in the line and Robin ended up playing the fish and the swan, both were landed and safely returned. 10” and 40 degrees this morning with a stiff northerly wind blowing bringing in the odd shower. The lads fishing this week have stuck at it with a diligence not seen since the days of Stalingrad and all credit to them, especially Richard M White who fished all week and didn’t land a fish although he had a hold of some. So thats another week over, getting darker earlier and getting a lot colder, leaves coming of the trees today in bucket loads. There’s a bit of rain about tomorrow and it’s going to creep into the west but to be honest I don’t want any water it would be good for the fish but not for me. Off to a whisky auction tonight so I’ll see if I can get a bargain and if I win the lottery you’ll never see me again.
Have a look at instagram for photos tweedbeats.
©M Campbell 2016
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