Week beginning 9 May 2016
Monday 9th May. A lovely sunny warm day at last, maybe not great for the fishing but good for the soul. Team Evans here for three days and it’s going to be a bit of a challenge unless some more fish turn up as the run that came through the second part of last week seems to have dried up, we saw fish in the Slap and one old one in the Cauld but no pulls were had. 1’4” 52 degs and despite giving it a skimmer and a sunray we couldn’t get a boil or a pull from them. But every cloud has a silver lining the sun has really warmed up the ground and I was busy all day in the garden getting carrots and beetroot in, I also got all my hanging baskets filled and the other beds dug over, the greenhouse and polytunnel are filled with tomatoes and chilli plants so it’s all go. Still not that many clutches of ducklings yet and the swans are not sitting yet. I’ve just had a wasted night having to change all my passwords and change my email address the worst bit is trying to remember all my old passwords and none of it my doing, Grrrrr! Be better tomorrow.
Tuesday 10th May. Another lovely day out on Tweedside with fish jumping in the Slap and we even saw some in the Cauld, we didn’t get a pull off any of them but it was a lovely day out, catches on the river were low to say the least with only 6 reported across the web sites but it was a lovely day out. There are fish in the pools and all those fish that have been running past us all spring are up there somewhere it’s just a case of finding out what they are going to take. I’d be fishing a much smaller fly on a longer leader or get at them with the “skimmer” or Sunray; it’s the time to experiment and its fun trying, you’re not catching them on normal methods so try something else. 1’4” and 56 degs with us today so some of the pools are a bit slow but the streams are lovely to fish. Tweedbeats now has an instagram page so log on and you’ll get an almost daily feed of photos and comments, I’m not saying there will be fish on everyday but if no fish then views and a bit of wildlife, maybe an onion or two anyway get logged on.
Wednesday 11th May. Much the same as yesterday both in weather and catches. 1’4” and 46 degs squeaky clean with a bit of algae growing on the stones now. Edward Evans saw a Seatrout in the Learmouth stream which had a splash at his fly but no pull, the Slap was fairly busy with fish splashing and boiling but not at the fly. At this time of year its usually fairly easy to get a pull or a boil off the fish that are in the Slap on your first or second cast but not this year so far. High drama this afternoon as a young lass came off her horse whilst riding round the water dykes and had to call an ambulance as she’d done her knee some damage and couldn’t walk, at least it proves we can get an ambulance down the beat from the hut end, so if any of you come to grief we can get you sorted, I have to add though that some of you I wouldn’t be too keen on giving the kiss of life. The catches were poor to say to say the least and I’m putting it down to the river temps fluctuating. The water will be warmer than the air for half the day then the other way round, tonight at 8.30pm the temp was 62 degs and this morning it was 56 degs, thats one excuse at least.
Thursday 12th May. An overcast start to the day but still an east wind blowing keeping it cool in the shade, the overcast conditions made no difference to the catches on the Lees though what did make a difference though was one rod didn’t turn up until lunchtime due that pesky work thing that you have to do and by the time he got here the sun was splitting the trees again. The other two rods had to stop due to a medical emergency, one collapsed unconscious and the other was a doctor so he was in good hands, all this happened down at the Glide but at least we knew that we could get an ambulance (see yesterday) there but it wasn’t needed as the doc got him away in his car so hopefully he’ll make a full recovery. Douglas Forbes a man who keeps half the borders smiling (he’s a dentist) was the only rod who managed to fish all day but even with his 40 yard circle “c” cast he couldn’t tempt a fish out of the depths. The fish in the Slap are still refusing to look at anything we offer them but I’m sure that they’ll make a mistake soon. 1’2” and 56 degs squeaky clean. It’s nice to see the countryside starting to turn green at last it gives you hope that the long warm summer nights are not far away with Seatrout grabbing at anything that goes past them. It’ll be better tomorrow.
Friday 13th May. The 13th is supposed to be unlucky but not on the Lees as Chris Bryce had an 11lb liced fish from the Bags first thing on a fly of his own tying a silver double with a bit of a wing and had a hold of another at the Otter stones. Bob Millar who was filling in for Douglas Forbes (check yesterday for the puns) managed to “extract” a lovely fresh 8lber from the Slap on a wee bottle tube and almost had his first on a skimmer from the cauld but the fish didn’t get a good hold. There were a few showing in the Slap a mix of old and new that along with a couple of decent sized Seatrout showing in the lower cauld kept us busy this afternoon. It was nice to see a good few fish being caught downstream of us, maybe another wee run coming in. 1’2” and 55 degs with a cold north wind blowing, overcast morning and sunny spells this afternoon. I had a good look at Cornhill bend this morning and its much deeper on our side with a very narrow neck the tail looks the same, as it’s my favourite pool I would hate to see it change for the worse. Remember if you want to see photos from the weeks efforts get instagram on your phone and follow Tweedbeats which I update as soon as anything happens.
Saturday 14th May. Another bright sunny day kept cool by the north east wind that was blowing. Douglas Forbes back today and he wasted no time in getting into a fish on the Slap, switching from a #8 dressed double to a black and red bottle tube he managed a fresh 8lb cock fish which was safely returned. There were a number of fish in the Slap as yesterday and we saw a good sized fish in the Cauld but couldn’t get any interest from it. 1’1” and 50 degs which is a fair drop in temperature from yesterday. There was a huge hatch of flies this afternoon a brownish thing and were hatching off the land rather than the water and the swallows, martins and ducks were making full use of them. Two of the rods gave it a miss this afternoon and are going back out tonight once the sun is off the water so the score may increase. Forecast is for the weather to start coming from the west next week which will be a welcome change unless it blows a gale. For photos see instagram. https://www.instagram.com/tweedbeats/
©M Campbell 2016
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