Post by zephead on Apr 15, 2007 15:27:05 GMT
Just put the twins,Bruce and Walker,back in their playpen after a strange but enjoyable week at Upper Hendersyde.
Odd to be unpacking the car of items like my Swanndri,a fleece,couple of pullovers that I'd normal need for this week.Even the wading jacket was superfluous by the end of the week (note to self-see Arm and a Leg about wading vest as new sweat box Vision Zipper things have no bloody pocket in them)as well as looking for the aftersun cream.
Week finished with 5 fish caught and 6 lost.
2 on Monday from The Ferry Stream Croys on dressed flies and a Collie Dog with a couple lost,zip Tuesday although an inexperienced rod had a serious tussle with a fish that pulled the hooks straight (quite what went on I'll find out tomorrow when I hold a Stewards Enquiry) and nowt on Wednesday with a pretty experienced team of rods,some of whom contribute to this forum.
General improvement with Rookie James getting a fish on his own and unsupervised in the Winter Cast off the end of the concrete walkway on Thursday and with a few fish moving thro.Friday was an early start with a nice fish fish lost by me in the Mill Stream,again wading at it was well off the UH boat hole/middle gauger fishing a 12 Red Francis on a floater and anti skate tip and but with DP getting a nice 6lb fish on a similar set up on a Yellow and Silver Ally's he sportingly returned.Saw what liked like a handful of fresh fish that looked suspiciously like grilse rather than spring fish coming thro at 11am ish which would correspond with tide times etc-quite where they were headed and where they will end up is anyone's guess as there was hardly enough water to get them over our march and into The Grain to Billy and the Junction lads.
Pools were rested well all Friday afternoon with much kippage undertaken given Ednam Gin Fest,debut of New Chinese as post fishing dinner stop,further Johnny Noirs in the Black and then a bit of cockburns inspired real estate bollocks chatter til 2am.
Very pleased to get a river fish in the tail of the Winter Cast of about 6lbs with a bit of heed damage at 7pm once the heat had gone out of the day.Popped him back after he gave a good account of himself.
Saturday dawned very misty but cooler and I lost another fish between the croys in the Ferry wading in the autumn lies above it.This was a nice decent sized fish of 10 lbs,maybe more, that was only on for 20 seconds max having taken a size 14 treble Cascade almost on the dangle.
We tried in bright July/August temperatures to see if we could nail a fish in the afternoon to no avail since Saturday's rods had come to fish and not get involved in an itinerant trip to Melrose with assorted skiving boatmen to watch the Affs win the 7s and lose a few quid on the National.
A few observations:-
1.If you're on Tweed early next week,unless its a low water beat,get up early and fish very quietly the low water lies,necks and grilsey type stretches.
2.Visit Tourist Information to find things to do between 11am and 6pm in the evening as IMHO you'll need to be resting what water you have in your pools if you want to land a fish.
3.Be prepared for a frustrating time casting over lots of jumping stale river fish and trapped kelts that have seen it all-we were starting to give ours names by Saturday teatime.
4.All in all,an enjoyable few days under testing conditions and pleasing to put a smile on Ronnnie's face over the evening drams with a few fish landed in the face of serious adversity.Despite the weather we saw plenty of fish and always felt when the sun was behind a cloud or when the wind was up(a la Mondays gale)there was a chance of a fish.
On a slightly sad note,the only real disappointment is the uncertainty of whether,having fished the beat now for nine years,back-end as well as in Spring,is whether my Spring weeks will be lost to the new owner,as of this week,wishing to retain the best fishing for himself.The back end lettings this year are yet to be confirmed and it may well be fished as a private beat only which would be a shame as it takes some time to get know the place at different water heights and times of the year.
At the same time,good luck to the next man in the batting order.If he does make it private and does one or two things to improve it further for his own use then well done IMHO-it's his brass and leisure time and he deserves to treat it as he wishes.If it's not a hard-nosed commercial enterprise like so many beats on the river are turning into then so much the better in this quarter and I'm sure there'll be other places I'll find to wet a line.
The departing owner,working with Ronnie's guidance,has done a superb job with the beat under his stewardship over the past 20 years or so,having had the foresight to build two croys at the head and tail of the beat early in his ownership to essentially create 4 good pools from two average ones which give much more fishing.On the eve of the change of ownership it was interesting to have a casual flick thro two tomes of Brylcreem boy Oglesby's to note the old pictures of the beat pre-improvement.
It is perhaps a fitting testament that in MH's last full year's ownership the beat had its best ever catch return in '06 since being split out of the previous ownership structure-well done to him and best of luck with Arndilly where his principal riparian interests now lie.
DTYS!
ZH
Odd to be unpacking the car of items like my Swanndri,a fleece,couple of pullovers that I'd normal need for this week.Even the wading jacket was superfluous by the end of the week (note to self-see Arm and a Leg about wading vest as new sweat box Vision Zipper things have no bloody pocket in them)as well as looking for the aftersun cream.
Week finished with 5 fish caught and 6 lost.
2 on Monday from The Ferry Stream Croys on dressed flies and a Collie Dog with a couple lost,zip Tuesday although an inexperienced rod had a serious tussle with a fish that pulled the hooks straight (quite what went on I'll find out tomorrow when I hold a Stewards Enquiry) and nowt on Wednesday with a pretty experienced team of rods,some of whom contribute to this forum.
General improvement with Rookie James getting a fish on his own and unsupervised in the Winter Cast off the end of the concrete walkway on Thursday and with a few fish moving thro.Friday was an early start with a nice fish fish lost by me in the Mill Stream,again wading at it was well off the UH boat hole/middle gauger fishing a 12 Red Francis on a floater and anti skate tip and but with DP getting a nice 6lb fish on a similar set up on a Yellow and Silver Ally's he sportingly returned.Saw what liked like a handful of fresh fish that looked suspiciously like grilse rather than spring fish coming thro at 11am ish which would correspond with tide times etc-quite where they were headed and where they will end up is anyone's guess as there was hardly enough water to get them over our march and into The Grain to Billy and the Junction lads.
Pools were rested well all Friday afternoon with much kippage undertaken given Ednam Gin Fest,debut of New Chinese as post fishing dinner stop,further Johnny Noirs in the Black and then a bit of cockburns inspired real estate bollocks chatter til 2am.
Very pleased to get a river fish in the tail of the Winter Cast of about 6lbs with a bit of heed damage at 7pm once the heat had gone out of the day.Popped him back after he gave a good account of himself.
Saturday dawned very misty but cooler and I lost another fish between the croys in the Ferry wading in the autumn lies above it.This was a nice decent sized fish of 10 lbs,maybe more, that was only on for 20 seconds max having taken a size 14 treble Cascade almost on the dangle.
We tried in bright July/August temperatures to see if we could nail a fish in the afternoon to no avail since Saturday's rods had come to fish and not get involved in an itinerant trip to Melrose with assorted skiving boatmen to watch the Affs win the 7s and lose a few quid on the National.
A few observations:-
1.If you're on Tweed early next week,unless its a low water beat,get up early and fish very quietly the low water lies,necks and grilsey type stretches.
2.Visit Tourist Information to find things to do between 11am and 6pm in the evening as IMHO you'll need to be resting what water you have in your pools if you want to land a fish.
3.Be prepared for a frustrating time casting over lots of jumping stale river fish and trapped kelts that have seen it all-we were starting to give ours names by Saturday teatime.
4.All in all,an enjoyable few days under testing conditions and pleasing to put a smile on Ronnnie's face over the evening drams with a few fish landed in the face of serious adversity.Despite the weather we saw plenty of fish and always felt when the sun was behind a cloud or when the wind was up(a la Mondays gale)there was a chance of a fish.
On a slightly sad note,the only real disappointment is the uncertainty of whether,having fished the beat now for nine years,back-end as well as in Spring,is whether my Spring weeks will be lost to the new owner,as of this week,wishing to retain the best fishing for himself.The back end lettings this year are yet to be confirmed and it may well be fished as a private beat only which would be a shame as it takes some time to get know the place at different water heights and times of the year.
At the same time,good luck to the next man in the batting order.If he does make it private and does one or two things to improve it further for his own use then well done IMHO-it's his brass and leisure time and he deserves to treat it as he wishes.If it's not a hard-nosed commercial enterprise like so many beats on the river are turning into then so much the better in this quarter and I'm sure there'll be other places I'll find to wet a line.
The departing owner,working with Ronnie's guidance,has done a superb job with the beat under his stewardship over the past 20 years or so,having had the foresight to build two croys at the head and tail of the beat early in his ownership to essentially create 4 good pools from two average ones which give much more fishing.On the eve of the change of ownership it was interesting to have a casual flick thro two tomes of Brylcreem boy Oglesby's to note the old pictures of the beat pre-improvement.
It is perhaps a fitting testament that in MH's last full year's ownership the beat had its best ever catch return in '06 since being split out of the previous ownership structure-well done to him and best of luck with Arndilly where his principal riparian interests now lie.
DTYS!
ZH