Week beginning 6 October 2014
Monday 6th October Team Harper here, I missed the whisky drinking competition in the hut yesterday as I was at Kelso races, great day as I had 5 winners. 2’6” and 48 degs blowing a hoolie, I only saw one wee coloured fish all day the other lads did see some more but at this height at the top of the beat there should be fish all over the place. Today’s excitement was Stewart losing an oar when he was rowing across the Cauldstream he made it to other side ok and we got a replacement oar over to him for the return trip, the Cornhill lads found the oar in the Duddo backwater which was good as it brand new. We didn’t have a pull all day but Kevin down at Milne Graden had 9 so there must be plenty down there as 9 is a big score at this height for them. 5’3” and rising at Sprouston and 6’ at the bottom of the Teviot is going to bugger up tomorrow, not enough water now too much! There’s also a new bird on the beat, it looks like a little Egret but it’s too big it’s the size of a Heron, yellow beak, black legs and white all over, maybe get a better look over next few days.
Tuesday 7th October A much nicer day to be out but the water’s not so nice 3’9” this morning and brown, so it was a day of kicking heels. The team had a run upstream to Middle Pavilion to see Mick and on their return said they hadn’t seen anyone fishing which is no surprise, by 4.00pm the water had gone from brown to dark tea coloured so it should be a lot better by morning it had also dropped back to 3’3”, so tomorrow, tomorrow.
Wednesday 8th October half decent water at last, 2’7” and 48 degs, still a bit on the dark side but there are fish moving and some of them fresh looking. Phil Hinton was the first on the score board with a nice liced 14lber from the Cauld with James Long not far behind getting one from the Temple, Graham Whitty skipped his way down to the Glide but failed to connect but did see fish there. As the river clears a bit more by tomorrow it should be a big day, in a normal year I would like to think it would be a 20 plus sort of day, time will tell, one thing of notice was all the fish I saw were bigger as in the wee Grilse were missing. We ended the day with 6 and a 7lb Seatrout, there were 3 other bigger scores on the river one at Boleside which shows how the fish were pushing up the river.
Thursday 9th October Well that wasn’t a bad guess as it was 25 for the day, mind you at 11.30 we’d only had one pull in Learmouth stream so I thought we were going to fail. Terry Harper to the rescue though getting 4 crackers from the Temple 22lbs being the best along with 20,18, and 14lbs so a good morning for him. James “the candle” Long blanked this morning in the Glide area but made good this afternoon getting 4 good fish from the Cauld, and Graham Whitty had 3 from the Back of the wall to go with the ones he got this morning. Mike Nield had 2 from Learmouth this morning and lost a big one in the Temple which ran him a merry dance for an age before it parted company, he also landed one in the Temple and one from the Slap. Phil Hinton scored some good Brownie points this morning getting a 14lber from the Babyhouse and one from the Duddo, all the lads today landed fish so everyone went home for supper with a smile which is always a good day. The showers this afternoon turned into proper rain which pelted down all afternoon and the bottom half of the Teviot is rising again so it will likely be a bit on the brown side tomorrow, now thats a real bugger as it would have been a perfect height and colour for us tomorrow. The big scores were round Coldstream today with the Wark beats doing well along with Tillmouth telling me that the fish are not running hard and that is backed up by the catches. It’s just so nice to be catching proper autumn numbers at last, all taken on wet 2 type lines apart from Learmouth where a wet 4 comes in it’s own.
Friday 10th October What a difference a day makes, back up to 2’10” this morning and very murky. James Long was top banana this morning getting all three fish that were caught, all in the Temple and all older fish, all on a wet 4 type line and using a temple shrimp tube ( not one of those shop bought things ) but an original one. In the afternoon Phil Hinton not to be outdone had three as well, again all from the Temple with one being fresh this time, the rest of the team failed to get so much as a pull, not even Graham and it was his birthday, I’m sure he’ll make up for it tomorrow. There’s a wee rise going on at the top end but it shouldn’t be enough to spoil the day.
Saturday 11th October 2’4” and 46 degs, I hoped it would be lower but a wee rise at the top of Tweed and Ettrick kept the levels up and a wee bit beery. I was in the Cauld with Mike Nield first thing and had high hopes but it took an age before we had a fish and that was right down the bottom of the far bank, that was followed by another two and a good pull, Andy Brittan came back up from the Glide as he’d blanked and went into the tail of the Cauld and soon had 3 to his name, now all this is a bit strange as we couldn’t get a pull in there all week. I n the afternoon I was in the Temple with Terry Harper (and that’s the last time I row him up to the top) he can walk from now on! Anyway for the first hour it was as dead as a Dodo flat calm and not a fish seen, but at 3.15 we started to see some fish moving and by close of play we had 3 landed and a couple of other pulls. There has been a mix of fish today a few liced some clean and some real old ones. Francis Sandison was in Learmouth this morning and never had a pull yet Bob on the other side had 10 by 5.00pm they did come on a fair bit in the afternoon. The total for the day was 22 which puts us on 59 for the week which is bloody good as half the week was out of sorts, lets hope it continues. The forecast for next week is set fair with a bit of a north east wind so it should be the best week of the season (no pressure on next weeks rods
Photos this week are a mix of different conditions through the week.
© M Campbell 2014
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