Friday 22nd October

 Today a planned outing to the river Whiteadder a tributary of the Tweed.

But first we shopped in Kelso. We found the sanding paper but at the tackle shops (Orvis and Fin and Game) there was no 15 lbs Maxima left, empty shelves!
At Fin and Game I bought  aquasure, three polyleaders and a 15 lbs spool from Rio
The isopropylalcohol to detect holes in my waders was nowhere to be found in Kelso. 

We had no time to visit the Salmon Museum.

The steps at the photography shop, even there Mike popped in to ask for alcohol.

After almost an hours drive we parked the cars at Hutton bridge and geared up. I chose the 10'3'', 9 weight switch with a Rio switch chucker #8 and a 5 foot fast sinking polyleader and three feet leader.
Mike had his switch rod 11"6'' 8/9 weight and  a floating line with a Rio slow sinking polyleader and a six feet 15 lbs nylon tippet.

After a steep descent we came to the river which was runing clear with a peaty colour. The vegetation on the banks was flattened by a recent flood. This was also evident since a lot of debris was stacked in trees.

 

 I  started with small salmon flies and when I saw a few rises I decided to change to a dry fly setup.

A chucker is not the line to make a delicate presentation of the fly.

Changed to the streamer set up with Glomma Dogs and later a small Horny Stickleback.

This last change to the single hook fly proved to be successful.

 

Mike was very kind to help me land the cock fish with its beautiful colouring.

We fished another hour but had no more touches. Mike saw a proper fish but we did not connect.
After a strenuous walk up the hill we prepared for the journey home.

My Hardy chest waders still leaks in the region of the left foot.

On the doormat we found the Day 2-test, received on day 6!