Week beginning 7 March 2016
Monday 7th March. A lovely day on Tweedside with a touch of frost but blue skies all round and most importantly no wind, even Kelsae the dug was strangely wind free for a change. 2’4” and 38 degs with a wee tinge of colour. Team Merrell here for three days, so we all got sorted out on to our respective beats/pools with Ian on the Temple with a Toby spoon and he was soon into some Brown Trout which is what you expect with the tinge of colour, we did hook into something bigger at the Cobble point but it was on and off, two of the Trout were a good size and in a few weeks they will be nice and fat as the March Browns start to hatch. That was the action for the morning. This afternoon I was in the cauld with John Maddocks and in no time we had a 6lber with lice on a 2” Black and Yellow Frankensnelder (who named this fly?) and lost another good fish which pulled like a train until it got off, the state of play now is that if you hook anything it’s more likely to be a Springer as there are no Kelts left in the river (bet we get one tomorrow). Junction who blanked this morning had 7 this afternoon so there must have been a shoal of fish pushed through. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Tuesday 8th March. A duller day with a wee breeze blowing, 2’2” which is the lowest it’s been this year and 38 degs. I had a wander down the beat with the lads to see whats changed but it’s still too big to tell. Ian fished the Cauld but never had so much as a pull and it was the same story round the beat. This afternoon I took David Clarke into the cauld having switched him onto a multi tip line and in no time he was flicking it over the stream, it wasn’t long before a fish was on, me giving gentle advice about letting it run, the reel handle getting stuck in his jacket, the rod tip touching the water, the fish thrashing on the surface and the hook coming out, or so I thought but it turns out a schoolboy error had been made and the blood knot wasn’t as non slip as it should have been, (luckily I hadn’t tied it on). So there we are one pull all day and its away with the fly, I’m sure it’ll soon lose the hook as I could see it on the side of it’s mouth when it jumped. Heavy rain forecast overnight so it’ll likely be away again tomorrow sometime.
Wednesday 9th March. Dull damp day with a north wind albeit light, 2’2” and 38 degs. The team fished hard all day but all that we had to show for our efforts was 1 mole and a brown trout. Highlight of the day was seeing my first spring salmon (apart from landed ones) jump in the cauld this morning, a nice fish which looked to be in the 10lb mark, we covered the area but that was the first and last we saw of it. I also found out today that my wader repair the other day is not waterproof as water came pouring in this afternoon and at 38 degs it soon had me scuttling for the shore. 2.00pm and the river was up an inch and looking tonight at the levels its up 6” or so, but thats better than I feared, it might have a wee bit of colour tomorrow but at least its not a flood. New team on tomorrow so they’ll be as keen as a ferret getting put down a burrow.
Thursday 10th March. Steven and Hilary Drury and Dan Curtis fishing today James Long was supposed to be here with Dan but put his back out casting an intermediate line yesterday, it would seem the rods nowadays are getting soft. 2’4” and a bit of a grey tinge to the river which I never like, on the bright side it was a couple of degrees warmer today and we did see fish moving for the first time this year, in Temple, Slap and Cauld. The only action this morning was a brown trout that gave us a splash in the Temple on a 20g Toby. This afternoon Dan got into a springer in double figures in the tail of the cauld but it wasn’t to be his day as after a couple of big runs and a head shake it was off again. Things are looking a bit more settled for a few days so we should be getting a fish or two if they stop with us, I should imagine the fish we saw today will be at Kelso tomorrow. New arrivals at the Campbell household I put 12 French Maran eggs into the incubator and 22 days later I’ve managed 7 chicks, 4 eggs were infertile and one didn’t make it so I’m rather pleased with that as they lay the brownest egg you’ve ever seen. We are still on fast sink tips or Spey type full sinkers with 1”-1 ½” tubes and colour as long as it’s black and yellow. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Friday 11th March. Well! It was better today I told you it would be. Lindsay Cripps (no relation to the doctor) arrived all the way from Australia and promptly caught not one but two springers and they were his first ever spring salmon. Sporting his best corked hat and with his didgeridoo slung at a jaunty angle over his back he had a liced 10lber from the Slap on his last cast of the morning, following a hearty lunch of vegemite sandwiches he had a 12lb licer from the Glide on a 1” black and yellow tube so it’s well done Lindsay. 2’1” and 38 degs nice and clean, it was a tad warmer today and the breeze was coming from the west south/west today, it’ll be a matter of days before the first sandmartins turn up so it needs to warm up to give them something to eat, I did see a couple of flies coming down today but they’ll need more than that. The weather people are saying it’s to warm over the weekend and a high pressure is to sit over us all next week, not before time I say. I saw one other fish in the Slap at 5.00pm and that was the only fish I saw all day apart from the one landed at the Slap. Hilary and Steve fished their way round the beat but a wee trout from the Temple this morning was all they had between them. I don’t know where all the fish I saw yesterday went as the catches were not that great today above us. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Saturday 12th March. That’s a bit more like it - 4 for the day, yes 4! We had worse days in the autumn. All 4 caught on fly and safely returned; the biggest 10lbs and smallest 5lbs all were liced. 2 from the Cauld, 1 Back of the wall and 1 from the Middle stream the lucky rods were Harry Birbeck, Murray Stewart, Sandy Scott and Andrew so smiles all round. At lunchtime today I also thought I could hear the faint sound of “waltzing Matilda” being played on a didgeridoo it was Lindsay Cripps from yesterday who was fishing at Upper North Wark today and had another springer well done him. We saw other fish in the Cauld today and a couple looked like they were taking up residency which would be great as they’d act as decoys. The weatherman was quite chipper tonight as he was telling me the high pressure thats coming in is going to stay right through next week and beyond so that’ll do for me. Photos are the lucky ones with their fish.
©M Campbell 2016
our twitter feed