Fishing: Reward for perseverance

It went from one extreme to another at Tweeddale fishery in the Borders.

On my last visit it was torrential rain, but this time it was a scorcher and flat calm. There was a bit of a competition on and I am always up for a bit of a match. After drawing my peg – which I have to say was not a bad one – I made my way down to the start. It was on the middle pond and has an average depth of around nine feet.

Going with a floater and a black dancer on a long leader, I felt sure I would catch. There was a fair amount of weed around but not enough to cause any bother. Out in front of me was a little island and I covered both sides of it as I was sure of a response. Fishing the depths, I connected into a fine fish of over four pounds on a slow figure of eight retrieve and it led a merry old dance till it slipped the hook just at the net. That was it for another hour or so where I changed to a Damsel and landed a three-pound fully finned fish. Then I took another on a black dancer followed by my last of the session on a fab.

It was hard going, but perseverance paid off in the end and I look forward to cooler weather and an improvement in the water temperatures. Anglers are all the same whether it’s too hot or too cold: we can never get conditions perfect but we will always stick at it!