Week beginning 8 July 2019
Monday 8th July. A warm sunny start to the day, 4” and 60 degrees on the gauge. Chris Tunmore here for three day with a couple of pals, Phil Birnham and Will Sly, Will was on the Slap and soon had the “Monday morning” fish into the net, it was a 6lb fresh grilse which took a #10 Gold bodied willie gunn on a full floater with about two foot of sink tip. He followed that up with a very aggressive boil and pull at a sunray and another bow wave. Phil down on the Glide had a lovely 12lb fresh cock fish and saw others. Chris tried the ledges and upper temple but couldn’t emulate his success of a couple of years ago when he was pulling out seatrout for fun in bright sun. Tonight the team are giving it a go for a seatrout and there is good cloud cover keeping the temp up for them so scores might increase if they can manage to fish through all the cut weed that is coming down from somewhere upstream.
Tuesday 9th July. Light rain with heavier spells this afternoon; gauge around 3” and 61 degrees. Chris Tunmore fished Learmouth stream first thing then came back up for a cast at the Slap where he hooked and landed a fresh 8lb cock fish on a #12 willie gunn sort of thing, Will Sly had a 6lb fresh fish from the Glide also on a wee fly, he had another two big boils at the sunray in the slap but no pulls, the fish are keen to come look at it and boil at it but not quiet keen enough to grab it, we maybe need to be pulling it much faster to induce a more aggressive response. Jock the wee ginger dug is rather subdued tonight following his operation but I’m sure he’ll soon be up to mischief again. No weed coming down today which was a relief, I understand it has to be cut sometime but times have changed and lots of beats are now fishing through the summer, I know I’d rather fish in July than November. The team are back out tonight so maybe they’ll get another.
Wednesday 10th July. A very wet start to the morning but it soon cleared up and the sun was out. The lads fished round the beat but not a pull was to be had, we couldn’t even get a boil at the sunray in the Slap. 4” and 61 degrees this morning and clean. I got the Cauld all strimmed ready for landing all the fish that are going to turn up with the flood that follows all this rain they are talking about, it’s all If’s and maybes as the last three lots or rain have not given a flood just a dirty wee rise from the Teviot. Trouble is if it does flood the lads that are to come will lose out but sometime someone has to lose out for the rest to gain, the river and fish really need it let alone the rods. For all followers of Jock the wee ginger dug he continues to improve and is on light duties, walked on the lead, no dummy training for next few days. To be honest I don’t think he’s noticed yet. Thursday 11th July. Some heavy showers had put the river up 3” or so, 61 degrees. John. Milne Scotland here for the day along with Martin and Gordon who were part of the Markham party, Gordon had a boil at a sunray in the Slap and followed that up with a good pull in the Cauld, that was the only action for the day. The cheery weathergirl has been telling me that it’s going to be heavy rain and thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow but to me it looks like they are going to miss us yet again, it is very humid and overcast but when the sun keeks through its hot, well it’s hot if you’re wearing waders. The Jackdaws and crows have discovered the feed hopper in the chicken run this year again and are having to be discouraged with #6 shot which works rather well. Jock the wee ginger dug is like a coiled spring being kept on a short leash while his stitches heal. As far as fish sightings go they are few and far between, hot humid weather and salmon fishing just don’t go together.
Friday 12th July. 1’0” on the gauge and 65 degrees which is a bit toasty for the fish and it showed in the catches tonight. Peter Markham was here with pal John and despite not knowing the beat had a 5lb seatrout from the Glide on a Sunray so well done him. Michael Black also here for the day and was up top on the Slap and Cauld. He tried the Slap with a few flies and even though there were quite a few fish showing at the time none would look. We popped on a Sunray and had about 5 boils and follows one of which pulled but didn’t stick. This afternoon it was much quieter around the beat with next to nothing showing. Michael also happens to own the second bonniest dog in the country after Jock of course, it’s a labradoodle which looks like a wire haired pointer cross Spinoni (one of them Italian things), it had one chase at a hen one bollocking and never looked again, it can be done dogs don’t need to chase hens. The catches might go up tonight but it is very humid and salmon don’t like hot and humid. Latest- I thought I’d go for a cast tonight, I thought I’d try the tail of the Cauld for a seatrout, all was fine just getting to the very tail when Jock the wee ginger dug fell for the old wounded duck routine again and went charging after the bloody thing, ducklings scattered all over the place, mother duck flapping up and down and Jock charging up and down the river. Then to cap it all my effing waders are leaking yet again so now they are in the bin, that’s the last pair of Guideline waders I’ll ever own. There are less “leaks” in the Welsh valleys than what’s in my waders, granted some will be caused by me sitting on thorns and the likes but most are in the seams and groin and feet. They’ll likely take a thousand years to rot away in some landfill but they won’t be letting me down again.
Saturday 13th July. A very wet morning on the Lees with the gauge showing 11” and 63 degrees. Rob Jameson, Chris Hill and Mark Giffkins here for the day. The lads have all fished the Lees before so no need to show them the beat, Chris was on the Slap and Cauld and we gave it a few flies but couldn’t get one to have a go, to be honest there were very few showing today in the Slap and I haven’t seen a fish of any note in the Cauld all week. A very nice BBQ was had at lunchtime then it was back to the fishing. By 4.30pm still on a blank Rob was back at the Slap, Kevin Head Ghillie at Milne Graden turned up to see how it’s done. Rob offered me a cast at the Slap, there was a very long sunray on the end, I gave it a very long cast to cover the far corner, two strips and wallop it was on, sadly it was only 1lb 11oz but fresh as paint and had swallowed the sunray and bled out, still a fish is a fish. We have seen a few fresh grilse moving this week so let’s hope it’s the start of a bit of a grilse run.
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