Covid rules

LATEST REPORT
Sun 20th September 2020

 20/09/20 COVID RULES are getting tight and I’ve tried very hard to keep the norm but I am going to close the hut as of tomorrow.
No one will be travelling in my vehicle .
There's a very mixed group most days from all walks plus it’s law now. Please only come with yourself or who's booked. NO partners. NO family, NO lunch meetings, just booked rods as of 21/09/20. Thank you. I’ve kept it going but it’s time to take the rules again seriously.
Anyone not keeping to this will be asked to leave. If not fishing, don't come to the lodge.

Oh just never seem to get the chance to update. It’s just all go at moment with the three new croys in position. That's been good to see and it took a lot of work to get it all done, thanks to Jim Wilson contractors for coming along at short notice and going with the plan, using a crane to do a lot of the work instead of heavy machinery. It was a great success and going forward we learnt a few things but, overall, no damage to any banks and no intrusive river works. To be honest you would never have known it had been done. Totally the way forward in building and repairing areas that a crane suits.

We used underwater concrete as well which we found very good and the croys, a bit white at moment, will never move and will weather down as time goes by. Overall a huge success and a great team effort from all the lads and also the new owner for going with it after only owning the beat 6 weeks was a very wise investment with the Tweedswood pool and Tappies looking like salmon pools and both have produced fish which is great.

Bringing my self round to the other part - fish! Well, it’s been interesting. Things were going along OK. Fly only but last 8 days there's a huge swing in no.s and also the spinning's off again - it’s very evident the amounts that spinning catches on the river as a whole. I would be 30 down as we spun hard as well for the catch record. It’s tricky and very debatable but no.s talk and that's what keeps people interested. As soon as the fishpal.com no.s page starts to slow up, the bookings start to ease. It’s the same each year but again, if the salmon aren't playing ball, as they aren't at the moment, you can’t help it on the catches river-wide. I've spoken with ghillies all over the river’s length and the salmon are as last few years getting ready to spawn. Redds are getting cut by the seatrout now and it’s usually 4 weeks later they start the salmon so all looks on cue for the same pattern as last three to four years’ early spawning. Is the river changing, are the habits of our salmon also changing? It’s very evident yes, the backend has eased off and our spring and summer fish spawn quicker. That's what happens in this cycle we are going into in coming years. It’s hard to be at the river in perfect conditions day-in day-out and seeing lots of salmon but they just jump jump and not taking the fly. One day’s OK but going into three days it’s hard going.

I hope a wee flood comes along or frost kicks in soon, as at least one or two will come back on the take to just lift things a bit. I always wonder how many fish in the river have been caught already to how many haven't. It’s easy to work out but I’ve not got the stats. This would be quite a few salmon in the river returned but already have been caught or maybe twice caught, so do they remember? We will never know, interesting!

So the coming weeks are just going to have to be a day out and hope for a tug but I’m afraid I am in the camp of the salmon have got their breeding thoughts on and they are very hard to turn out of that, going by the other years, but big positive is there's a good breeding stock in place and that's a very good thing going forward, no matter what way it all goes in the coming years.

Well here’s to going into the unknown again. Stay Safe.
Aye, Kevin