Week beginning 4 October 2021
Monday 4th October. An overcast start but mild enough, Lees gauge reading 2’11” and 48 degrees, very beery this morning. Francis Sidoli was first into action getting a fish from the ledges which will be the first fish from the ledges since the coronation; well that’s what it seems like. Sons of Francis, Dom and Chris had one each from the slap and cauld taking us to 3 on the scoreboard, Francis obviously decided more were required and sneaked 4 out the back of the wall all of them above the top post. Nigel and Steven Turff just couldn’t find a taking fish this morning no matter where they fished. This afternoon Team Sidoli on the middle stretch of the beat added another 8 and a seatrout to the scoreboard, Francis claiming 10 to his rod for the day, so it’s well done Francis and come on the rest of you. It was patchy fishing, the cauld at 1’9” this afternoon should have been a banker but despite Steven casting from bank to bank we couldn’t get a pull, we didn’t see any either. Catches below us were quieter than of late, could have been the beery water or perhaps the fish have moved. One of today’s fish was carrying a tag and it was one that we had tagged earlier this year, unfortunately Francis didn’t see the number on the tag as it was covered in algae, we are the only ones using yellow/pink/black combo tags so we know it was one of ours. If you catch a tagged fish clean the yellow part to see number.
Tuesday 5th October. An awful day today weather wise with driving rain and a north east gale. That pales into insignificance by the sad death of a fellow angler who slipped into the river at the Upper Temple on the South Wark side, despite our best efforts and those of the emergency services he passed away our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time. 3 fish landed today and river likely to be in full flood tomorrow.
Wednesday 6th October. 7 foot of red orange water this morning, so full of mud was it that you could smell it. Now the question is what have the fish done? Gone to the sides to try and get out of it, headed off upstream on masse, headed downstream to find cleaner water, who knows we’ll find out as it settles. The trouble with these types of floods when the tributaries are big and the main Tweed isn’t is that as it drops in and it is dropping fast the colour can get worse as there is no big tweed to dilute it, it will be a fishable height tomorrow but the colour will be an issue. The weather today couldn’t be any different from yesterday, the sun was out it was calm and it was warm like a summers day, Thursday and Friday to be the same says Windy Wilson weatherman of facebook fame.
Thursday 7th October. Not sunny today but warm for the time of year, 2’8” and 52 degrees this morning but still very beery. Francis got onto the scoreboard early getting an 8lb coloured hen from the thin water in the ledges at the top of the temple, Neil Andrews had a wee troot from the cauld and that was this morning’s action. After lunch John Pette had a 4lb at a stretch cock grilse that looked like it came in to the river in March so dark was it, Francis had a 7lb seatrout from the cauld which made up the catch for the day, with the colour of the water 2 salmon was a good score. Top gauges are rising again tonight but just a few inches this time, we need the water to clear and we’ll see how many fish are still with us.
Friday 8th October. 2’6” and 54 degrees and a tad beery, I could see in about 3 feet at best which is fine, not so happy about the temp going up to 54f be better if it was 44f. We gave the temple and cauld a good going over this morning but not so much as a pull was had, same for the south wark boat, I saw a about 20 plus fish all morning. This afternoon Neil had an 8lb old hen from the glide and Francis who stayed on had a 5lber from the ledges. Catches across the websites are very disappointing with the top beat being the Nest with 5 followed by Milne Graden with 4 a serious distance between them, the rest of the beats had none one or two. The constant wee rises could be the reason the fish are off but really it’s a lack of fish and certainly a complete absence of fresh/clean fish, if it drops in 5 inch or so tonight we should do better tomorrow.
Saturday 9th October. 2’3” and 54 degrees and still with a beery hue. Neil and John went down to the middle part of the beat where between them they had 5 pulls, 4 in learmouth and 1 in the glide but the score this morning was sticking stubbornly at zero until Francis at 12.50pm managed a rather black 8lber from the lower cauld which saved the blank. This afternoon all was quiet with hardly a fish to be seen, John said to Paul have a chuck, Paul picked up Johns rod 3 casts later in the slap and a chunky 15lber was in the net which was tagged and swam off strongly, that was the only pull of the afternoon. I suppose the good news of the day is they are still catching some fish below us, Ladykirk had 5 today and Kevin at Milne Graden had another 4, no fresh fish reported though. The fish will likely not move too much until we get a frost and there is a frost forecast for mid week coming.
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©M Campbell 2021
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