Week beginning 6 April 2015
Monday 6th April What a difference a week makes this time last week bloody cold, rain and blowing a hoolie, today its blue skies and hot! 1’10” and 48 degs. Whilst the rest of the population are off rolling their eggs down some hill team Charlton are here and looking for a fish. Now the combined age of the three of them must be something like 250 years, you wouldn’t think it, off down the beat like rabbits on heat this morning. It was a perfect spring morning on the Lees, good height and temp, squeaky clean but the fish didn’t want to play, we did see one well down the Cauld this morning but that was it. We have switched to intermediate and wee sink tip lines and scaled down the fly size to suit the conditions. John picked my rod this afternoon with a floater on and a wee 5’0” intermediate tip with a rather large Sunray, we gave the Cauld a good going over and he was amazed at how far he could cast with ease, remembering that John is 90! What a difference a floater makes. I tried a cast over the Slap and had a pull with a big boil on the first cast, about 10 minutes later the blackest springer I’ve ever seen jumped on the far side of the Slap. Now where’s that been to get that black down here? There was a hatch of March Browns at 11.30am which lasted about half an hour but very few Trout bothered to take them. The Sandmartins have disappeared and the Swallows aren’t here yet, nor is the Osprey. The forecast is for a settled week ahead so river levels are going to get down to the lowest this season which in theory should stop the fish with us, we’ll soon find out.
Tuesday 7th April. Another nice day weather wise in the borders although not suiting the fishing for some. 7 fish reported off the river today spread from Horncliffe to Middle Pavilion so that’s a bit thinly spread. Down on the Lees we blanked again today but we did see our resident fish in the Slap this morning and a Seatrout in the Cauld, Craig Cockburn and Tosh Thomson joined us today and were going to sort them out but despite casting with their own unique style even they blanked. I did see a couple of splashes in the lower Cauld this evening so they might still be there tomorrow. There seems to be a few Seatrout coming in so it’s maybe time to switch to a much smaller fly, plus they don’t hurt as much when they stick in your head! The hatch of March Browns was over before it had really begun today and the Trout had to be quick to grab one. 1’9” and 50 degs squeaky clean. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Wednesday 8th April It was another lovely day on Tweedside today, sunny warm and calm the sort of day I love, it was made even better by the fact we had two fish today. The first was from the Bags caught by James a liced 8lber on a 1” Tosh tube, it was James’s first ever springer. The second was caught by Craig Cockburn from the Cauld on a #8 Tosh double fished on a floater with a wee inter sink tip. Now it’s a bit ironic that both fish were caught on a Tosh when “Tosh” wasn’t even fishing today! I’ll bet he’s congratulating Craig and James as I write this. There was a short hatch of March Browns and I covered several Trout with a dry March Brown which the Trout ignored so I put on an olive and had one just under 2lb first cast. There were another three fish seen in the Bags and this afternoon the Slap was fairly busy with fresh/silver fish but we couldn’t interest them, it was just nice to see fish on the beat for a change and gave us something to aim at. Its just a good job that Trish Burgon can’t read this until Sunday as she would be like a coiled spring and John would be trampled in the rush to the end of Slap croy, Trish is with us on Friday so look out Slap.
Thursday 9th April The Bees were bumbling by, the first Swallows have arrived, the sun was shining and there was no wind. Colin Hewitt and John Dresser joined the team today and within 10 casts Colin was into a fish in the Cauld a lovely fresh 11lber on a ¾” Monkey tube. We saw one other in the Slap but that was it for the morning. This afternoon I saw a number of fish in the Bags all about the 5lb mark all silver and all ignoring everything we cast at them, nice to see them just the same. The March Browns were hatching around 12.30 and the Trout were at them, some good ones as well. 1’7” and 48 degs squeaky clean, a south/south west wind picked up in the afternoon which made the casting tricky at the top of the beat but it was just fine down the bottom. This low water needs to last for another week so we can maybe get a few residents then a wee lift of 6” just to give us more water to fish in would be fine. I’ve not had the skimmer in action yet this spring but it might get a swim tomorrow in the Bags.
Friday 10th April Another lovely day on the river but no fish to be had, there was a couple in the Slap one of them being the old one that showed up last week and in the Bags there are some splashing about along with at least a couple of very silver kelts . 1’6” and 48 degs today on the Lees gauge and it was the last day for John, Geoff and Ron who are going home fishless a big change from two years ago when they had over twenty for the week. John even tried the Wilkinson wasp a fly which he said never failed, but it did. John has the whole world supply in his box as he is the creator of the wasp. Team Burgon were also on the Lees today and “queen of the Slap” Trish Burgon gave the Slap a good going over but couldn’t get a pull which is a surprise as she has a very good record there due mainly to keeping hubby John busy with something while she slips by and onto the Croy. A pair of Swallows were swooping down on to the hatch of March Browns and an odd butterfly was about, all in all a very pleasant day.
Saturday 11th April. A different day today with a very strong blustery wind blowing down and across the river. Andy Brittan joined us today still smarting about the bill from the vet for rescuing his rabbit and got to work straight away on the Cauld then on down to Learmouth Stream, we saw one in the stream but no action apart from the bloody swans which are making a real nuisance of themselves. John Macleod and Paul went down to the Glide and got lost in the dust storm that was blowing off the fields, while Stuart McArthur fell foul of some lurgie and had to head home early. This afternoon we were down to two rods so I thought I’d give a big Sunray a swim down the bottom end and it nearly worked as a fish gave it an almighty pull in the otter stones followed by a big splash and it was away. Now time for a wee note to all you who are taking photos of fish. Colin Bell from Upper Floors text me to mention in this blog what he’d seen some anglers doing last night. There were a group of three I’m not sure what beat they were on but one of them had landed a fish and photos were being taken, the fish was picked up, put down, picked up again, put down, click, click, click and more clicks much congratulating of each other for over two minutes, Colin had roared at them across the river to get it back into the water. If the fish is being kept (when allowed) that’s fine as it’s been killed first (I hope). If it’s being returned alive then for f###s sakes give it a sporting chance, keep it in the water and one of the other rods get the camera ready whilst it’s still being played. It’s not acceptable practice to do anything else especially with all that’s going on with the wild fisheries review (cameras will be banned next) I’m not sure what beat it was on and the Ghillie wasn’t there as it was evening. Anyway that’s the rant over. 9 fish reported today not a lot for peak springtime fishing. The forecast is for rain tomorrow so it might put an inch or two in for Monday, not too much I hope.
Photos this week are Colin Hewitt with fish quickly taken (you can see the water running off it)
John Wilkinson Who at 90 and still wading down the river gives hope to us all
And a windy Bags
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