Salmon Autumn 2021

  Our last day on the river and only Franca managed to catch fish. She had two trout and one grayling. There were many fishers around today and we saw one catch a fish and heard from others that were successful, like David, the nephew of Adam. Jim and Terry came to see us and said good bye and hoped they would see us again next year. We hope so too. We hammered the river till dark but were not capable of catching. Still it was a nice day, warmer than yesterday and very little wind. The International Salmon Competition did not show a winner in terms of numbers but Mike insists that the heavier weight of my salmon makes me this years winner. So be it. We had a most comfortable dig at the Crailing estate in beautiful surroundings with even a river flowing through the grounds. We will be back.

 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.