Week beginning 7 October 2019
Monday 7th October. A damp morning with the Lees gauge showing just under 6’0” and very dirty. Charles Cook who is here for the week sent a text or two to confirm it was no use today, Ritchie Gallagher text then phoned this afternoon whilst David Easty turned up at the hut for a look. There was a bit of rain about this morning and this afternoon the top of both Teviot and Ettrick are rising, not a lot but rising all the same. I doubt if it’ll fish tomorrow, it’ll marginal at best both height wise and colour. I am now wondering why more opticians don’t fish having taking Sally (wife) in to Kelso this afternoon for new specs and nearly having to go across to the bank to arrange a second mortgage to pay for the specs they could buy the best fishing on the river. The forecast is for a lot of wind tomorrow so that combined with a big possibly coloured river doesn’t sound too good to me.
Tuesday 8th October. 3’7” and 50 degrees with a bit of murky colour, that combined with the wind cancelled any fishing effort at the Lees today, David Easty turned up for a look but knew that’s all it would be. The rest of my day was spent digging out a drain and getting the earth below my damp course level on the back wall of my house, that’s why I couldn’t be a builder all that digging at an awkward level is not for me thank you. It’ll fish tomorrow, it’ll still be on the big side for us but it’ll fish, fast sinking lines combined with copper tubes will be the order of the day and a good cast to get through the wind.
Wednesday 9th October. 2’11” and bloody windy. Richie Gallagher here along with David Easty, Charles Cook couldn’t stand the wind and I’m with him on that score. Casting into the wind in the Temple was difficult to say the least but rowing was no fun either, at this height the Temple is our only chance really, more so this backend as the Cauld seems to have stopped holding fish for reasons unbeknown to us. Ritchie was the lucky/good rod today getting a fresh 21lb hen at the top of the wall on a Willie Gunn conehead, that was our only fish of the day but it was a belter. Catches were low on the river looking at the websites, I expected more to be caught in middle tweed given the heights. The levels only dropped one inch all day but at least it’s clean.
Thursday 10th October. 2’7” and 50 degrees and clean enough. Less wind today thankfully, this helped with the casting and the rowing. Olivier Devictor here with Huston McCullough Olivier is an old hand at the Lees and was first into action in the Temple getting a clean 11lber on a Ally Shrimpy sort of tube, Huston and myself sorted the world out but didn’t have a pull which was the same for Charles Cook and Zander Kenny who is here for the first time. This afternoon the wind dropped completely and Zander fishing the Temple had two fish on then off again which is character building stuff, he also lost a really big fish when wading the Lower cauld, Charles not to be outdone had a 10lb older hen also from the Temple. Whilst in the Temple I saw South Wark getting a nice clean fish below us which gave Lee’s rod a good fight as it ran and jumped, it great to see a big fresh fish or two being caught. We could still do to lose 6” to 7” to get the other pools to come on stream but the river is dropping very slowly, it only lost half an inch today. Catches across the websites are patchy with us and South wark having action but other beats not having a touch or perhaps just the one. I’m glad we have some fish about the place but it’s better for the river if all the beats are getting fish.
Friday 11th October. A rising colouring river and blowing a hoolie just my sort of day! Charles Cook was up in the Ledges at the top of the Temple and had a fish on within five casts but it was soon off again, that was the only pull of the day as the conditions soon put the fish’s heads down. I took the boat half way down the Temple then wished I hadn’t as I then had to row it back up to the top again with Charles on board so no need to go to the gym tonight. Olivier and Huston didn’t even have a pull this morning which was no surprise as conditions had us beat. After lunch the lads decided to do other things rather than fishing which was a wise decision. I took a drive down the beat to scare off some goosanders and stopped for a while to watch a very optimistic rod at Learmouth having a cast off the stream point, I didn’t see him have any action. It will fish tomorrow but will not be all that great with the rise.
Saturday 12th October. 2’6” and 50 degrees but not too windy. Charles Cook had to leave as he’d things going on so we were down to 2 rods. Huston was the luckiest rod on the river as his fly was dangling behind the boat as we were sorting out the world when a fresh 6lber grabbed the fly it was the only fish off the beat and one of very few off the lower river. Only 5 fish for the week all down to the conditions, looking ahead into next week the cheery weathergirl tells me it going to be another unsettled week with rain about, good for the fish not so good for you and me. As ever see tweedbeats on instagram for latest photos and clips.
©M Campbell 2019
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