Week beginning 3 May 2021
Monday 3rd May. A nice start to the day but it didn’t last long, by mid morning the rain had arrived and an east wind, it was also bloody cold. Shouldn’t moan about the rain as we really need some water down the river, the green slimy weed is getting so bad that in the Glide this morning I had to come out to pull the stuff off my legs as wading was getting difficult. Team Harper here for the week minus Richard who’s not feeling so well, he might join us later in the week. Terry did the Cauld and Slap whilst Ken went down to Learmouth, neither of them had any luck. Ivor popped in to pick up some crabs that Terry had promised him and the pair were soon deep in conversation and Terry wasn’t going back out in the rain so I went to Cornhill bend and Duddo. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Oyster catcher still there sitting on her eggs but of course she runs off as soon as someone appears, I didn’t want her to be off the eggs for too long in the cold rain so started half way down Cornhill bend and in a couple of casts had a 6lb river fish which took a #10 cascade double, thats the first fish on my new set up rod, reel and line after everything was nicked last autumn. More was to come as not 10 minutes later a 9lber took it half way down Duddo, I saw the fish head and tail over it, this fish was brand new, (seeTweedbeats on instagram). The wind and rain picked up a bit after lunch so Team Harper retired to watch the snooker (I’d rather watch paint dry), gave it an hour after lunch but nothing doing, Andrew had a brief hold of one at the Iron gate before the wind and cold sent him home as well. A better day for catches with high teens being reported across the websites tonight. The top gauges are all rising and the Teviot down to Hawick rising, Ettrick down to Selkirk so we might have water tomorrow which could stop us fishing.
Tuesday 4th May. 1’8” and 44 degrees f and rising, a green tinge to the water and lots of weed mixed through the water column. We didn’t wet a line today so Terry and Ken now reunited with his phone took a trip to Melrose to see friends and look at river up there, i popped into Kelso to the optician and to get some sinktips. £10.00! for a Rio 6 foot sinktip, when did that happen, these sinktips will not be getting loaned out, I lost them all when we were robbed last year and I’m sure they were not £10.00 each then. With this rise of water the swans nesting on the middle croy were washed out of the nest tonight as the river was up to 3’3”, all the oyster catchers will be gone as well apart from the one at Cornhill bend that should be ok. Some of the top gauges are rising again so it’ll still be fairly big tomorrow and no doubt have more colour in it.
Wednesday 5th May. Not much chat today as river was 2’10” and very dirty, water temp down to 44 degrees when it should be more like 54. Tam over at south wark had a paddle down the Temple with his rod chucking something very silver about the place, a Blair spoon maybe. The otters gave us a swim past and the ducklings kept everyone entertained running about trying to catch any flies that were on the surface. Normally there would be some good trout coming up to a fly but there wasn’t one to be seen today, they are very easy to catch on the dry fly in brown water. Very cold again tonight so both heaters on in the greenhouse and polytunnel.
Thursday 6th May. My bird bath was frozen over again this morning but the heaters in the greenhouse and polytunnel had done their job and all was well. The gauge was reading 1’10” and the temp had dropped to 42 f with a strong beery tinge. We went through the Temple and Cauld but all we had to show for it was a lost seatrout and a couple of brownies. Further upstream some of the beats fared much better with Junction getting 7and Sprouston 5, I also heard that Lower Floors lost 6 which is a tad careless. Hopefully tomorrow the fish will slow down a bit and we might find some tomorrow. A trip to the dentist this afternoon resulted in two temporary fillings as there was no windows in the room they couldn’t use the big drill, this is a bugger as I’ll have to go through it all over again in a couple of weeks or so when they can fit me in again. Another cold night coming up so the heaters are on again but the cheery weather girl says it’s too warm up by Sunday, I hope so.
Friday 7th May. Another cold day, not as cold as yesterday but still cold for May. Myself and Terry went down to Learmouth stream this morning and at 1’9” was looking good, just of the end of the point Terry’s Willie Gunn tube was grabbed by a fresh 10lber which gave him a fair old tussle, we soon had it in the net and tagged and returned. Lady luck was with Terry today as he had another this afternoon from the Cauldstream this time, brand new and covered in lice. Ken had a run up the temple with Paul and had a couple of brown trout but no salmon. As in the rest of the spring the colder it gets the harder the fish seem to run with some really good catches around kelso. The forecast is for showers the next few days and in fact a bit more substantial rain tomorrow, this will set us up nicely for next week. (I hope).
Saturday 8th May. An awful day weather wise with a cold south east wind and rain, Terry and Ken decided they didn’t fancy wading down the river and after a cast at the Slap they headed home which was a very wise decision. I thought I’d wade the tail of the Cauld as its a perfect height for it, 10 minutes in and I decided that it was the wrong choice plus I discovered a leak on my left leg which made my mind up to head home. Some good catches in the last few days round the Kelso area, it seems the colder the water the faster the fish are running, it is to warm up tomorrow so hopefully without another flood we should start to have some resident fish again.
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©M Campbell 2021
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