Week beginning 9 March 2015
Monday 9th March Here we go again another week and it’s blowing a bloody gale yet again, my shoulders are still sore from last week’s fun and games with the weather. 2’10” and 41 degs this morning along with a fair bit of colour. Team Merell with us for three days and the spinner was the only option with the wind straight in our face, the lads stuck it out all day which is more than I’d have done as you will all remember how much I love the wind! There was half a dozen fish caught above the Teviot but nothing below. The winds to lie down a bit tomorrow and I hope the weatherman’s right.
Tuesday 10th March Three fish reported off the whole river doesn’t float my boat, do I want to row against a 20mph wind forecast for tomorrow and in the rain in the afternoon, no, but I will as I need to see a fish caught as I’m having withdrawal symptoms. 2’11” this morning 41degs and clean enough. We stayed with the spinning option this morning as it was over the “height”, we tried Raps, Tobys, Blair spoons no condoms though, but all were rejected by the fish if there were any there. This afternoon the sun was out and the wind finally dropped by 3.00pm making it a nice day at last. The first Daffodils have opened their flowers today overlooking the Slap which brightens the place up a bit, Rays antifreeze recipe continues to work and Clancy’s onions are growing away just fine, there’s not much more to write about today, maybe tomorrow!
Wednesday 11th March Another day another blank its getting a bit tedious now. The lads fished it hard enough but you need a bit of luck, Ian Merell called in at Tweedside tackle to try and buy some but they were out of stock, Junction had bought the lot! I’ve put in an order for a huge bag of the stuff for tomorrow. We got the fly rods out this morning as the wind had dropped and we got round the beat as well but not a scale was seen, I even took the boat up and down the Temple for “auld lang syne” but saw nothing. There was a few fish caught above us so good for them the lucky boys. We gave the Cauld some serious attention from both banks and two at a time for a while in the hope we’d head one off with a pincer move. I never saw the Wark lads today but I’ve heard on the grapevine that Bob Jewels took possession of a bottle of 18 year old Dalmore so he’s maybe sooked it and has a hangover. More rain for us tomorrow and the wind is to go into the east Argggh! Some years I’ve seen the wind into the east and it stays there for weeks and weeks, only plus is it might stay dry. New team tomorrow so they’ll be keen as mustard, hope they managed to buy some luck on the way up. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Thursday 12th March 2’11” and 39 degs very grey sort of manky colour, only three rods on but that was plenty with the state of the river. Toby spoons were tied on and the ledges and tail of the Cauld were attacked, but keen as Hilary and Steve Drury are even they couldn’t find a fish, Dan Curtis thinks he maybe saw one in the Cauld this morning but couldn’t be sure. I took Hilary in the Cauld boat this morning but with the upstream gale that got up and threatened to blow us up over the Cauld I headed back to port and elected to keep the fires stoked and issued coffee when required. I received a flood warning text from SEPA this afternoon and looking at the river levels tonight it’s 5’0”+ and rising at Crook inn so that will cancel all fishing effort, it’s also to rain all night so Saturday looks very doubtful. A big flood will shuffle the pack a bit and hopefully if there are any fish out at sea they might get a sniff of it and come charging up to the Lees and stay there!
Friday 13th March Unlucky right enough, the river must have made 8’0” at the Lees and this morning it was still 7’0” and the gauge was out of sight. It was the kind of morning where there was no humming and haying about will we fish or not the decision was made for us. Will it do any good I’ve no idea, it’ll certainly clean the river bed and bring down some more firewood for me. I doubt if it’ll fish tomorrow as the colour is so bad it’ll likely get under 4’0” but still too big in the Spring and certainly this year as its been like looking for a needle in the haystack when it was perfect never mind 4’0”. A bugger for the lads who had fishing booked but here’s one of those over used clichĂ©s “that’s fishing”!
Saturday 14th March 4’0” on the gauge and still coloured, some rods might be on above the Teviot where it’ll be cleaner and maybe some keen lads chucking big salmos or raps below Teviot. I popped along this morning bailed out the boats fed the hens cleaned the huts ready for Monday and checked the mole traps. The rest of the day has been spent attacking the garden tying up the raspberry canes and digging over beds getting ready for the warmer weather when it eventually arrives. This time last year the first Sandmartin had arrived all be it a bit on the early side. So we’ll see what next week brings, east winds no doubt and they can hang about for weeks. Rugby is on later and its the Calcutta cup which is a real grudge match but I kind of think Scotland will be looking for damage limitation this year.
Photos are The first daffodils and a big brown river.
© M Campbell 2015
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