Week beginning 6 September 2021
Monday 6th September. An overcast humid day with the wind veering from the east to the south and getting warmer as the day went on. Team Godden here for the week apart from Toby who got here last night from deepest Norfolk then this morning found out he has to drive back home today as some of his workforce has tested positive for the dreaded covid. Mike was the top dog today getting am 8lber from Duddo on a wee silver stoat fished on a full floater. The weed was becoming a bit of a nuisance after lunch but it’ll be nothing compared to mid week when the temp is to reach 26C. Catches were very low and only 3 fish reported caught below us. We did see more fish about today but they were all black/brown/red, I heard through the grapevine that some pools further downstream have emptied so that’s maybe what we have today.
Tuesday 7th September. Well the cheery weathergirl got it spot on today as the sun was out first thing and it was hot, this of course did nothing for the fishing and looking at the websites this evening at 7.00pm there are only 2 fish reported caught on the whole river, I dare say some rods will be out this evening for a cast once the sun is off the water so they might increase. The forecast is the same for tomorrow so not much is going to change, after that it’s to cool down which is a good thing for the fish. Looking on the bright side though all this sun will ripen my tomatoes and chillis as they have just been sitting doing nothing for the last couple of weeks or more due to complete cloud cover most days.
Wednesday 8th September. It was roasty toasty today at Coldstream so roasty that in fact it was the hottest September day in Scotland since 1906, a rather warm 29C in fact. The rods decided very wisely not to fish and opted for a jolly in Edinburgh instead. I decided to do a bit of recognisance and took myself along with Sally off down to Berwick to see if I could see any shoals of salmon coming in. First stop was at the mouth of the river at low tide and not a thing to be seen, the tide started to turn and still nothing, no seals, dolphins or salmon. Then upstream by maybe 3 miles to Low Bells/South Bells and North Bells where we sat for an hour as the tide came in and started to back the river up, and still nothing not a splash or a bow wave. Norham bridge next where we saw our first fish in the deeps below the bridge, it was a wee brown grilse. We popped into Norham to visit Bob Harrison ex Ghillie from West Learmouth for a chat and to see how he is recovering from his stroke a couple of years ago, I have to say he is in good enough fettle and can still manage to laugh at a joke, even one of my really bad ones. As far as catches go there is one fish reported caught for the whole river today, it was caught at Rutherford and weighed 4lb, not surprising really given the conditions, I took a walk along to the hut tonight and the floating weed is all over the place brought up by the heat, river temp at 8.30am was 62F and I’ll bet its near 70f now. A SEPA flood alert issued for thunder storms and floods followed by plague and pestilence no doubt, I’m not holding my breath.
Thursday 9th September. What a difference in two days, yesterday record braking sun and today thick cloud and downpours but not enough to help with the river levels as it was mostly in the east. Nigel was the nearly lucky rod losing a wee black grilse in Learmouth which was the only action of the day. 5 fish reported across the websites today which is terrible for the time of year and effort put in.
Friday 10th September. A mostly overcast humid day but dry on the whole. 0” on the gauge or thereabouts, 64 degrees with a lot of floating gunge and weed coming down smothering the fly almost every cast. Mike had a brief hold of a fish at the Iron Gate and Nigel had the same in the Bags, Nigel was using a tiny plastic tube no more than a quarter of an inch long. The same old fish were showing in the same old places but nothing remotely silver to be seen. Yesterday’s rain did nothing to the river not one inch down here.
Saturday 11th September. River was up an inch this morning which was the results of SEPA’S flood warning but it brought a lot of weed with it. Team Godden decided to head for home early and to be honest they were not missing anything. I popped up to the Duddo this afternoon to walk the dugs and try a wee hitch through it but the wind was blowing upstream and causing the hitch/skimmer to be drowned, as I’d travelled so light the fly on the rod was the only one I had it was home again and do some dead heading in the garden. There was a fish caught today on the Lees but it was caught by a local trout angler on a #16 nymph, it was a wee clean grilse 3lb if it was lucky and fairly clean, he returned it being a good sort plus he’d get the jail if seen chapping it. So our Sahara type drought goes on and there is no rain next week so it is going to be a challenge to say the least.
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©M Campbell 2021
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