Week beginning 7 September 2015
Monday 7th September. A glorious autumn day on Tweedside, with not a puff of wind and clear blue skies contrary to what the weatherman said it would be. BBC weather said it would be a cloudy day with south east winds so I have to say I’m pleased they are wrong. 11” and 52 degs this morning and squeaky clean you can see the stones under the water a long way out. Team Jardine here for three days and they’ve got their work cut out for them, Ian had a big bow on a Sunray in the Slap and lost another on a #14 treble whilst down on the Cornhill Bend Bill and Allan looked at my offering of a hitched Sunray with deep suspicion that is until he’d been through the pool and had 3 boils at it landing one which was the only action they had all morning, they are now stripping Sunrays like their lives depended on it. Dave had a nice fresh 11lber on a #12 double in no man’s land between Iron Gate and the Glide. This afternoon on Duddo there were a good number of fish showing in the stream and Dave gave me the same suspicious look when I handed him a Sunray, he’d been through the stream twice with wee flies and as this morning big smiles appeared when he landed a 7lb cock behind the Cornhill boat who were giving it a bit of condom. It shows what a boat can do in low water as soon as it was at the top of the stream all the fish started showing tight on our side; the stream is so small they have to move away from it. The Temple resembled a highly polished mirror so we elected not to fish it, South Wark went up it 4 times this morning but never had a pull. Catches on the lower river were on the low side today, maybe the sun, maybe the lack of fish. Weatherman is now saying it’s to get much more unsettled by the weekend, we’ll see!
Tuesday 8th September Another disappointing day with only one salmon being landed on the lees, in fact catches were disappointing on the whole river today and we couldn’t blame the sunshine as it was cloudy all day. 10 1/2” and 54 degs. The lads gave the beat a good going over covering all the main pools that have fish in them, Ian jardine had a big boil at the Iron Gate and Bill and Allan had a splash at a hitched Sunray in the Cornhill Bend. Top Dog today was John Wallace getting a 7lb licer from the Bags this afternoon. Another disappointment are my long carrots for the show on Saturday they are actually shorter than my short “stump” carrots, I kind of took my eye off the ball on the long carrots as they were hidden behind the parsnips and lacking in water it would seem. Not many swallows or martins left now and there was a big skein of greylag geese over Learmouth this morning so autumn is closing in. The cycling tour of Britain comes through Coldstream tomorrow morning so the roads will be closed and there will be men in shorts that are really too tight all over the place.
Wednesday 9th September Quick report tonight, 2 off the beat 1 @7lb Slap, 1@8lb Learmouth one fresh one old. Fish showing in Learmouth, Duddo, and Cauld the other bits are slow, really slow. Still on floating lines with wee sink tips, wee flies and a Sunray of course. Right I’m off to a Flodden memorial service.
Thursday 10th September. A lovely sunny day only spoiled by a strong south east wind blowing up the river. 5 fish landed today, now thats a big day this autumn so far, 15lb was the best one from the iron gate point caught by Chris Major and the sight of this spurred Paul Collinson into action as a few minutes later he had a 11lber from the top of the back of the wall, both fish were coloured hens and were returned. This afternoon I had Chris Scorer in the Cauld popped on a hitched sunray and soon had a liced 9lber in the net, these fish were joined by two grilse from Duddo again by Chris Major, so smiles all round. I tried the Temple this afternoon but it was a lost cause as its full of weed which the wind was blowing back up, there is a herd of Swans up at Wark along with about 60 Canada geese who are ripping up the weed eating a wee bit and the rest floats downstream so it was weed every cast. The Ghillies/Boatmans meeting was in Kelso tonight so there was much talk about the wild fish review but nobody knows much about it yet, also a Pacific pink salmon has been caught at Norham, if you catch one of these invaders you kill it! Back to the Lees, fish in most pools you just need a bit of luck to find a fresh/clean one which is more likely to take. We are still on floaters with inter tips or full floater if you are hitching/skimming, 9” on the gauge and 54 degs is it gets any lower we will be putting wheels onto the boats!
Friday 11th September. It was blowing hard from the south east today making the Cauld and Learmouth almost unfishable and it must have affected the whole river as there are only 11 fish reported off the river today. 8” and 55 degs. We did see a fresh fish or two in the Duddo and Cornhill bend and we had one pull in Duddo that was the only action apart from 1 mole. Almost every fly in all the boxes has now been given a swim but it seems you need luck more than skill at the moment. I’ve been mega busy tonight as its the annual show tomorrow so I’ll be up at daybreak getting stuff ready, some of the exhibits are passed their best and some not ready its been a strange year. Rain tomorrow and a bit on Sunday but nothing like enough just nuisance rain.
Saturday 12th September An awful day for fishing the Lees with no water and a stinker of an upstream wind which made the Cauldstream unfishable, in fact the only bits worth fishing were the Bags and the Cornhill bend Duddo area. Chris had a 3lb old Grilse first thing this morning. Two of the team pulled stumps at lunchtime and the other two were going to give the Bags and Duddo one more run through and then pack up. I’m now off to veggie/flower show to see how I’ve got on; I’m not expecting any silverware this year. Well! Two trophies are now sitting on my shelf; most points in vegetable section and most points in categories 30-50, Sally (wife) also won a cup in the baking section and is still the Gingerbread queen of Coldstream for the third year running. Only 25 fish reported off the river today which is more than I thought there’d be but still no sign of useful rain so it’s going to be another slow week ahead. The forecast is for rain about the country but it looks like most of it is going to miss the catchment, we’ll just have to hope it’s wrong.
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