Salmon Autumn 2021

 At 07.00 I was at the Oxnam with my 8 foot 4" #3 rod, On a nymph I managed to catch a trout and a grayling, both the size of my longest finger. A fresh morning a little cold for the hands. Ideal circumstances, gauge at 0.916, dry and sunny and some chilly wind from the NW. Although the river was still a bit high for comfort we could get in the water almost everywhere. Franca had the first decent brown trout at the Streams. In the afternoon I had two seatrout, one very slim with greyish colouring, the other plumper and with more pronounced spots. Franca was encouraged by Terry to step in at the Boat pool and accidentally slid in to be submerged. This brought good luck said Terry, not much later Franca witnessed Terry catching a salmon.   Franca found some dry clothes and headed for home on foot. This is what we found out only after phoning her when she was not at the parking place when we came out of the water when darkness settled in. She is in good condition and even made di...

 This morning I predicted that the river level at Ormiston Mill  would not reach the 1.000 mark before noon.  At 08.00 hrs. it was 1.037m and it took almost seven hours to the 1.000m  mark, it takes its time. That meant using long fast sinking polyleaders with short leaders and heavy flies. More difficult when you are hip deep in fast flowing water.  We saw a few fish but could not connect with salmon. Franca is the winner of the day, she landed two trout. There is a controversy regarding the identification, brown trout or seatrout, any opinions welcome? The colours of the leaves are wonderful especially when a spell of sunshine hits the trees. There were some technical problems with the tools of the boys, Mike had to disassemble the Hardy Demon 9000 reel to find a loosened locking nut interfering with the rotation. The sticking was over when reassembled correctly. I found the line not being threaded through one of the guides. After correcting this I noticed the...

 Franca took pictures on her early morning walk in the estate. I had a meeting with Jim Smail at the Town Hall to have a look at a Hardy Perfect 4 inch reel that was lying in his cupboard for a good many years. Unfortunately it was a right hand retrieve non changeable. Moreover the price range he indicated was 600-800 pounds. It looked as if it was hardly used. Late in the morning we parked at the side of the road where our beat for the day was situated across the field. Mike was already there and preparing his new Shakespeare Scandi rod, 14 ft 9" #10. After Mike had flattened the prickly vegetation across the road we jumped a fence and went down to the river. More brambles were hit by Mike, I just stepped on them. The river was a good height, we could get in and wade along the bank. Some parts of the bank had collapsed into the river in the recent flood. Mike is the man of the day with two fish, a 40+ grayling and a decent trout. We saw a few salmon jumping. It was a lovely, dry ...

 River is still too high... sigh. Franca made an apple pie and I had a look at our Oxnam river on the estate, the water  lower and less coloured. Even had a chuck with a heavy fly with my 3 weight. Since I noticed a minor leakage in the left foot region of the Hardy waders I checked it again and found two seam sections to be repaired.  We went for a stroll around Kelso and visited the River Tweed Salmon Fishing Museum in the Town Hall where we met Jim Smail, a retired ghillie. We had a bite at Mayfield and did the shopping at the usual place. Franca cooked us a fine dinner, chicken thighs, Brussels sprouts and baked potatoes. Some pictures. We estimate that the river height will be a little over one (1) metre come morning so we have a plan to explore the topmost part of our beats of the Teviot, the Chesters region.

 We had to go to England to fish on this Sunday. It was a wet trip to the North Tyne at Falstone. After arrival the weather changed and even the sun showed itself now and then. The river height is controlled by the amount of water released from Kielder water. This can be checked on the website:  https://www.tynereleasekielder.co.uk/current-information The release of  7 cumecs gave us an ideal height to wade. Unlike most rivers in England and Scotland the North Tyne is not much influenced by rainfall. Mind you keep an eye on the release scheme before going there. We saw about 5 fish crashing near us but unfortunately we could not hook them. Only three snapshots, we were busy fishing. A not so positive graph for fishing on Monday.

 This morning Mike questioned David Carrick the secretary of the Tyne Angler's Society about places we could fish. We checked the gauges and the North Tyne and the Rede were fishable. Franca decided we were to go to Hass loch today and to the Tyne tomorrow. Our local Oxnam water was still coloured although I could see through about 20 cm, have to check again tomorrow before we leave for the North Tyne. En route to the Hass we investigated the Jed Water but we could not locate an access path. Moreover the river was still rapid and held colour. We later discovered it was not permissable to fish the Jed for trout or grayling at this time of year.  It was a dry and sunny day at the Hass and Mike had a leviathan brown trout on a Shipmans buzzer size 16. The weight of the fish 7 lbs 2 oz. Franca managed to persuade Miguel to put him and his catch on Facebook only if he was sufficiently disguised so not to be recognised in keeping with his extremely modest disposition. Franca assiste...

The gauges are showing the river level is dropping but it is a long drop from 3.5 m. to the level at which fishing is comfortable around the 1 meter mark. If no substantial rain falls in our catchment area we will be able to fish again on Monday. We are considering fishing an English river coming Sunday. Today I went for a walk up the River Oxnam that borders the Crailing estate where our cottage is situated. The Oxnam was high and coloured and as expected my fishing was not effective. The autumn colours and  views of the surroundings were very nice. In the afternoon Mike did some shopping in Kelso for he would be the cook this evening. Echalion shallots were new to me and so was the tasty dinner he prepared with these onionlike bulbs. We met him later in the afternoon at the Hass loch where we all caught a rainbow trout, Mike had the biggest. 

 Since there was no reason to race to the river (height almost 2 m above normal) we were up at about nine. Yesterday the wader test had a favourable result, no leakage for the first time since I arrived here. And today another two waders were repaired, a pair of  Mike's breathable waders were treated with glue and a few patches and Franca's neoprenes were glued. It is raining heavily in these parts of Scotland and there were flood warnings issued. The gauging station at Hawick showed a height in the red part of the graph. They are getting nervous there. Some of us had poached eggs for lunch. And now some serious water. After a thorough inspection of the river we headed for Sainsbury's and amongst the goods we extracted from the reasonably filled shelves we had hand stretched sourdough pizza! We could not find banana shallots and we forgot the olive oil.

 We were slow to start today. We should have started at 6 because in about an hour the river was unfishable. I managed to catch a wee trout on a big weighted tube. Mike returned home to repair his waders. Franca had a few chucks at the streams early on and when it became unfishable she had some time at the bench pool. I had a look at the borders of the widening river and was amazed how fast the water rose. At some places I could cast a heavy fly with a short leader and 15 foot extra fast sinking tip, mainly stripping the fly parallel and close to the bank. Nothing happened. Did some work on the river by removing branches and clearing paths. Also filmed the racing water in the various places we normally can fish. At about four o'clock Franca decided to have a walk home. We checked for the best route to avoid the busy A698. This is the normal route we take by car since Kalemouth bridge is still closed. She made the following pictures en route. More rain is falling in our catchment ar...