Week beginning 8 February 2021
Monday 8th February. 3’8” and 34 degrees with a fair bit of colour, there was also a wicked east wind and heavy snow showers making me rather pleased that I wasn’t sitting in a boat trying to catch one of the very illusive February springers. The Tweed foundation have published the results of the tagging programme they ran last summer/autumn, it is very interesting reading and you can find it on the foundation news page. Another hard frost for tonight which will help to drop the levels some more so fishing this week sometime is looking more likely (very local rods only). On the wildlife front it seems the seal that was with us a week or so back is now in the Junction, this is when a licence should be issued straight away to deal with it, It must be 30 miles from the sea!
Tuesday 9th February. More or less a repeat of yesterday weatherwise. 3’2” and 34 degrees but clean, Paul was feeling brave and waded the Lower Cauld for 45 mins, I opted to keep the fire tended and tackled the trout and salmon crossword whilst keeping an eye on Paul just in case he got into one and needed a hand to land it, my services were not required. Another hard frost for tonight should take the gauge down to 2’8” for tomorrow perhaps 2’0” would be better. It sounds a bit like a war zone round here at the moment with the local farmers firing rockets and setting off rope bangers and gas guns to keep the swans, geese and pigeons off the rape and wheat. There is on the latest forecast a chance of the weather coming in from the west after the weekend but that will just mean a flood once all the snow melts. This day last year the river was rising fast and peaked around 18’0”, February fishing is for the keen or mad but great if you do get one of those nice days when the planets are aligned and a big fat silver springer grabs hold.
Wednesday 10th February. More snow, less wind in fact calm for most of the day. David Foreman (maker of fine game pies) came along for an hour this morning and waded the Lower cauld but failed to find anything of a fishy persuasion, David only lives a few hundred yards as the crow flies from the hut so easily falls into the local rod category. Junction had a fish yesterday but thats the only one I’ve heard of this week, there will be next to no one fishing and the river has been too big so catches will reflect that, plus its early February. There are a few Goosanders and Cormorants showing up now so they’ll need shooed off. 2’10” and 34F nice and clean, hard frost for tonight so it should drop in more maybe 2’7” tomorrow maybe. On the garden front it all looks the same under a foot of snow, finding a parsnip for dinner is a bit of a challenge though. Clancy my Kelsae onion seedlings are coming along in the propagator they won’t be as big/good as yours but time will tell.
Thursday 11th February. It was a lovely morning once the freezing fog lifted if you like ice/snow. The air was so clear and crisp with the low temps, its been the coldest night this winter, the only reason that the river is not full of grue is down to its size. 2’7” and 32 degrees, Andrew had a kelt from the ledges and Davie Foreman was skulking about somewhere this afternoon but he’s not reported in with any tales of epic battles with huge springers so I presume a blank. By the time this lockdown ends I reckon I’ll have new career choices, opal miner, gold miner, antiques dealer maybe a historian with the amount of crap telly I’ve been watching of an afternoon. There was a springer off the river today though at Lower Floors caught by Tom from Fin and Game I heard. Another hard frost tonight so river a bit lower tomorrow, I’m going to punt for 2’4”.
Friday 12th February. Another frosty morning with a fresh covering of snow on the ground, not as cold as yesterday but still a tad nippy. 2’4” and 32 degrees squeaky clean. Dave Foreman took himself off down the beat a bit like Captain Oates as I’ve not heard or seen him since, Andrew had a cast at the Ledges but no reports of springers have been received. The log splitting machine arrived today and the two lads set about the stack so we have a huge pile of logs ready for the hut when we can use it again. One fish reported today from Hendersyde a 9lber so well done to the lucky rod. The forecast tomorrow is for a south east gale so that will have most heading for the fireside I’d think, the river is just starting to come into a height for us and it’s going to rain and melt all the snow and we’ll be flooded off next week, just another reason I hate the winter. The mother otter with her two young were fishing away outside the hut this afternoon and we had a visit from a cock bullfinch, notable as we rarely see a bullfinch. The one good thing about the snow covering is you can see what wildlife is going about, it’s quite amusing to see the tracks from deer, badgers, hares etc and where they go, the hare is really random going out into the field then turning around for no apparent reason. The deer and a fox are much more direct and don’t wander off much. The rats round the run must have succumbed to the special diet I gave them as not a sign of them. I’m going for 2’2” tomorrow and I might just have a wee cast in the morning down the bottom somewhere out of the wind, then home to watch Scotland beat Wales in the afternoon I hope.
Saturday 13th February. No one was brave enough to stand in water at 33f with a fly rod in a near east south east gale at the Lees today. It was a wind that was trying to take the face off you due to the wind chill factor. 2’3” and squeaky clean. There were two fish caught at Sprouston today but they are the only fish reported. It was home and tie a fly or two, a quick walk with the dogs and then the rugby, Scotland V Wales which was a great game with only one point in it; sadly it was Scotland who were a point less. The covid cases in the borders continue to fall and looking at the chart we must be in one of the lowest areas for cases which is good news.
The fishing is still for very local rods only but this might start to change a wee bit by the end of the month. So keep the hands clean, wear a mask and we’ll be back on the river.
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© M Campbell 2021
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