Week beginning 9 May 2022
Monday 9th May. An overcast day with a south/south west wind blowing, 8” and 56 degrees with a very slimy riverbed. Team Merrell here for three days. Mark Orton was on the Slap this morning and carefully extending his cast yard by yard with a wee plastic tube on he reached a fish that had shown a couple of times which took the fly straight away, on his 12’0” switch rod it gave a good account of itself. Ian known for being adventurist had a brief hold of a fish down in the Annay. This afternoon Mark still using his new favourite fly but on a full floater had a nice fish of around 8lbs from the Back of the wall. I saw a couple of silver fish moving along with the now resident fish that are here but we had no other pulls. Today’s rain which was mainly in the west hardly wet the ground here; the Ettrick has a couple of inch at the very top which will not even reach us. Flood badly needed.
Tuesday 10th May. There were some very heavy showers today pushed along by a very strong south west wind, the two combined started to lift all the slime and crap in the margins and edges into the main flow and by this afternoon it was starting to cover the fly. The river is up 4” at Sprouston this evening with a wee bit more to go, hopefully it will run through us tonight and the weed will have settled by tomorrow. No action today from the fish, we saw the usual residents in the Iron Gate and Glide and Mark whilst fishing the Bags saw a few silver fish on the move. Kevin down at Milen Graden found a dead fish this morning which was tagged at Tweedmill on the 25th April as a fresh fish; its head was covered in fungus so it had succumbed very quickly 14-15 days at most, there are always going to be some that when hooked played and handled don’t make it, it is not always easy to keep them in the water when unhooking. Catches were very low across the websites with 4 reported but Junction had 3 and Sprouston 2 this morning which helps the scoreboard.
Wednesday 11th May. A cool North West wind blowing and the river up to 1’3” with a distinct green hue and a lot of tiny particles of broken up blanket weed/slime through the water column. I was thinking the fish will not be too happy having to breathe that lot but I was wrong as Ian Merrell landed a fresh 14lber from the Bags and Jonathon Maddox a fresh 12lber from the Iron Gate. Up on the Slap and cauld we saw a couple head and tail in the Slap but despite trying a fair range of flies we couldn’t get a pull, the Cauld was fishing a bit better due to the extra water but still no pulls, I did see a seatrout trying to run over the face of the Cauld but it turned back with a couple of feet to go. This afternoon Ian Merrell hooked a fish in the Cauld which stayed on all too briefly, that’s the first pull in there since the second week in April. Paul saw a couple of Swifts over Learmouth stream this morning so that is summer started. I took the sprayer down the beat this afternoon as the hogweed has started to grow after the recent showers, it got a good sook so in a week or so we’ll see it turn yellow and die. A new team on tomorrow so they’ll be keen and give it a good covering.
Thursday 12th May. The river has dropped back to 1’1” on the Lees gauge and the green tinge has gone, it has also dropped back to 50 degrees and a stiff south west wind was blowing, now you’d expect a south east to be a warmer wind but today it wasn’t. First onto the score board was John MacLeod who had a fine 10lb licer from the cauld, all the finer as that is the first fish landed out of it since March, it’s amazing as soon as it get a wee bit more water in it fish will use it. Colin Hewitt fishing the Glide had a fresh 12lber on a slow sinktip and a wee Willie Gunn tube. This afternoon Christian Bryce had a good pull in the Cauld and John lost a fish in the Learmouth stream, Calum at Lower North wark text to say they had 4 this morning 3 of them caught by Mark Orton who caught two on the Lees on Monday so he is having a good trip. Another couple of Swifts turned up today or maybe it was the same pair as yesterday but saying another pair makes it sound better. It’s cold again tonight and my plants are not happy in the garden, not that they speak to me but they look cold and miserable. I was up at St Boswells tonight for the launch of Andrew’s book (I’ll go anywhere for a free glass of wine). It is a good read and a fair crowd were there to hear Andrew give a wee talk about it, it was then home to repair my leaking waders and light the heater in the greenhouse. A bit of a gale forecast tomorrow before it calms down on Saturday and warms up and not before time.
Friday 13th May. It is considered unlucky Friday the 13th and so it was for John Macleod as he lost the only fish we hooked all day which was in the Bags this afternoon, it was a little fish of around 6lbs and brand new. Colin had a boil at a Collie dog in the Cauld this morning that was all the action we had. It was a very windy day from the North West, the gauge reading 1’0” and 51 degrees. Fresh fish were caught above us and below us and even Learmouth had a fish opposite us but we couldn’t get one to stick. Anyone looking at tweedbeats on instagram will notice that we have been hacked so don’t buy any bitcoin or invest in the make £10,000 in an hour schemes that Helga or Orla or whoever it is are promoting.
Saturday 14th May. A nice day at long last and even the sun came out; I was beginning to think the sun had forgotten where I lived. 1’0” and 52 degrees with a light north west wind. James Dorman was here for the day and the orders from John Macleod were to get James a fish as he’d never caught a salmon. Paul was in charge on the Slap and Cauld and after a couple of boils at the sunray and a pull just before lunch and a change to a wee conehead a fish was on in the Slap, it ran down into the Cauld so Paul dropped the boat onto the Cauld where they landed a liced 14lber, a day James will never forget. As instagram is still in Nigeria or somewhere due to hackers there is a photo of the fish on tweedfisher on facebook. No other pulls were had but fish were seen from the Bags up to the Slap, not hundreds of fish but more than enough to keep it interesting. Bit of rain start of next week which will help.
Anyone looking for accommodation in the Coldstream area check out the Bothy in Coldstream on airbnb or ring 07786598475.
Tight lines.
©M Campbell 2022
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