Week beginning 9 April 2018
Monday 9th April. Well I nearly hung the flags out today as Christopher Scott had a hold of a fish; it took just behind the boat in the Cauldstream pulled a couple of yards of line off the reel jumped and said cheerio. 3’0” and 44 degrees with a slight beery tinge. The first of the March Browns made a brief appearance around noon but there were no trout coming to the surface to take them. The sandmartins were busy inspecting the drainage pipes in the Temple wall for this year’s nest sites, always a risky place to nest as any flood around 4’-5’ will flood them out. The sun was shining today and it felt spring like but by mid afternoon the east wind had picked up and a chill was back in the air. Rain forecast tomorrow coming in from the north east so we will get wet but hopefully it’ll not put the river up again.
Tuesday 10th April. It was the sort of morning that you wouldn’t put a dug out in and Kelsae the dug never left the fishing hut all day, which was also where I’d like to have stayed as well, a strong north east wind was blowing a fair bit of rain in making it a very unpleasant day, I have refrained from using the kind of language it deserves for fear of offending my more sensitive readers. Craig Cockburn was joined by Bob Millar who are both Lees regulars but neither of them had so much as a touch off a fish despite fishing hard all day. Craig mentioned at the end of the day that we’d covered a lot of water; I rather sarcastically retorted that we’d would have had the same result if we’d stayed in the same spot all day, namely the hut. My enthusiasm is starting to wear a bit thin now and it hard to find a positive in a day like this, but it’ll be better tomorrow. The sandmartins were joined by the swallows today and there were flies coming down from noon onwards so at least they had something to eat in this cold. Junction were the golden boys today getting 6, so good for them and the other beats that caught up there. The cheery weather girl tells me that its to remain rather shity until the weekend at the earliest with more east winds and rain, so that’ll improve my mood even more. Large dram and off to bed I think.
Wednesday 11th April. So the shity crappy weather continues along with the complete lack of fish stopping on the Lees, we nearly had a seatrout today in the cauld which took a couple of feet of line jumped and threw the hook much to Craig Cockburn’s dismay. John Wilkinson of falling in fame and a young 92 years old fished hard all day casting into the distance and deserved a fish but there were no takers, he just needs to wind and talk at the same time and we wouldn’t be stuck on the bottom as much. There was a decent hatch of olives and a few march browns but no trout to be seen taking them. The Osprey turned up today and had a couple of dives but it failed as well. Maybe tomorrow.
Thursday 12th April. Another wet cold dreich miserable day with not a salmon in sight. Sandy Scott was here for the day but gave up about noon due to the cold and wet along with the lack of fish and a long drive ahead. Jeff left at lunchtime whilst Ron and John stuck it out all day, the old dog for the hard road and all that. New rod to the Lees Martin gave it a good going over but all he saw was one lonely trout taking a fly in the ledges. There are fish going through as they are getting some around Kelso but they are just refusing to stop down here. I was looking back at some photos from last year on the 12th of April and it was warm and sunny, a photo of the oil seed rape field shows the rape around 3’-4’ tall and in full bloom, this year it’s about 4 inch tall and standing in cold mud and I dare say it feels about the same as me.
Friday 13th April. For all it was a better day weather wise it was still cool and dull. 2’3” and 43 degrees on the Lees gauge. The team fished their way round the beat but not so much as a pull. Queen of the slap Trish Burgon couldn’t even manage a pull. The rest of the river was also very quiet a small rise might have affected the beats well upstream but round Kelso and below the conditions were good enough. Maybe tomorrow.
Saturday 14th April. It was a much nicer day and memories of the last 8 weeks of hell are subsiding just a wee bit. The river went up again last night by a few inches and put just a tinge of murk into it. Highlight of the day was Jim Fleming getting a hold of something in the cauld this morning just for a few seconds, not long enough to decide what it was but a pull at least. We saw three fish today but they were very obviously runners and by the looks of the websites tonight they have ran straight to Junction and Lower floors, so well done them. So the wait goes on, the cheery weather girl tells me that its going to be dry and warm next week but then she spoiled it all by saying its going to blow a hoolie on Tuesday. If it doesn’t rain for a month I’d be a happy boy.
© M Campbell 2018
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