River Tweed End Of Season Report 2019 - Tay Salmon Fly

River Tweed End Of Season Report 2019

The Tweed season came to a close on the 30th November and as with recent season the autumn run failed to live up to expectation and with November been pretty much a wash out the season ended on quite a low note and relief with the boats off the river and the season officially done for another year.

During the season the river lost two prominent and long term supporters with the sad passing of the Duke Of Roxburghe and Jennifer Lovett. I would like to thank Andrew Douglas-Home for providing the following:-

Guy Innes Ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe, died on 29th August 2019 at the age of 64 after the recurrence of the cancer which he fought and bore with great courage, fortitude and determination. It is a massive blow to his devoted family, his wife Virginia (“Virge”) and his five children who he adored, and to his close friends, to all those working at Floors Castle and the wider Roxburghe Estates, and to his acquaintances and colleagues in the many walks of life in which he took an interest. He loved all fieldsports, especially shooting and fishing, the latter mainly practised on his incomparably beautiful two River Tweed salmon beats, Upper Floors in particular, perfect fly water and he was scathing of any who would dare to fish with anything other than a fly. He once caught 12 salmon in a November day at Upper Floors, and on his annual July pilgrimages to the Alta in Norway he caught two salmon over 50lbs, and many others over 30 and 40lbs. A great man and friend to so many, a sportsman and businessman, his perfect day might be, after the customary stint in his estate office, a few holes of golf at the beautiful course he created, the Roxburghe, or at Muirfield, followed by watching some recorded racing on TV, dinner with his family, and then a gentle late evening’s fishing, preferably always with a floating line and small fly, at Upper Floors.

Jennifer was a very private person, a hugely supportive RTC Commissioner for over 20 years ago, a permanent member of the Chairman's committee for most of that time and acted as RTC and Tweed Foundation Treasurer for many years. She was an incredibly loyal and conscientious member of the Tweed management team involved in all the initiatives over recent decades for buying out nets, improving spawning areas' habitats, knocking down obstructions, reducing poaching, helping setting up Tweedstart to teach the young to fish, raising money for the Tweed wheelyboats, and for the Tweed Foundation....amongst many other things.

Looking back at the season while awaiting on the official catch returns which should be published by the River Tweed commission in March 2020, we have some figures provided by Fishtweed and Tweedbeats websites. Approximately 6000 Salmon and 2100 Sea Trout were reported on these websites for the season. The spring period looks to be slightly under the 5 year average and the summer period above the 5 year average but this would be expected on the back of a wet summer like we just experienced. The autumn continues to be challenging and numbers are nothing like what they were 10 years ago but it still remains the most productive time of the season with the fish moving up through the river system. The largest salmon reported on Fishtweed was a 34lb fish from Upper Dryburgh caught by Gerald Dutton on a Copper Bodied Willie Gunn and the largest sea trout was a 14lber caught on the Milne Graden beat. The best performing beat was the Lees with 292 fish closely followed by the Junction with 289. Rutherford on the middle river had a really good season with conditions suiting them and 242 salmon were landed on the beat.

The traditional end of season ghillie/boatman dinner was held in the fabulous Contented Vine restaurant in Kelso. A decent turn out enjoyed some of the finest food in the area from amazing Sea Food Platters, Sizzling Steaks to mouth-watering Pasta dishes that need to be experienced to be believed. The evening carried on long into the night with the fishing stories continuing over some fine drams. Mr Alex Knox very kindly put on the evening for the ghillies and his exceptional staff made for a very enjoyable night. Alex is very generous in his support of the river and as a keen fisher himself he is very passionate about the Tweed and all those who fish it. On behalf of all the ghillies/boatman who attended and those who unfortunately couldn’t make it I would like to thank Alex and his staff for their generosity and looking after us so well and we look forward to returning. If you would like to sample the venue that everyone loves call 01573 224777.

Middle Pavilion reports, so the end of the season has come and gone in a spate of brown muddy water, A bit like half of the rest of the autumn! We finished the year with 58 Salmon and 16 Sea trout, which is a small pick up from last year. The top rod trophy for the year was won by Mr Stephen Fielding Finishing with 7 Salmon and 3 Sea Trout, Well done Stephen!

Lower Birgham reports, first of all I’d like to thank everyone who fished with us this year. Both regular fishers, owners and new rods to LB. All the fishing effort and dedication put in by everyone has given us our best year in 6years! We ended up with 146 salmon and 49 sea trout. We caught both salmon and sea trout in every month of the year. But the summer was the biggest success of 2019. The sea trout fishing was a lot better than it had been in the recent years, with them starting to run in numbers in May and a lot in June. With so much work being done buying of coastal nets, the promise of plenty more sea trout reaching back to the rivers has been anticipated highly in recent years. Maybe this is the start! It certainly has been a lot better, let’s hope so... As with the recent increase in sea trout numbers, our salmon figures made good reading. Our spring was a lot better than recent years. With 37 salmon recorded up until the end of May. These were all fantastically fresh super strong fighting fish. Each one nearly fin perfect and largely sea liced, the stuff of salmon fishing dreams! With a decent amount of water in the summer the fish kept coming steadily. And continued to come through September and October. Including a few big fish off the river, our biggest came in the same week, one 22lb and the other 24lb. Then as the autumn ran on the fish numbers suddenly decreased. Quite dramatically. This was the pattern all over the river and indeed from what I head other rivers also. But as the seasons change, weather patterns alter and fish runs move and adapt. Are we going to see the spring and summer become the mainstay of tweed fishing? Who really knows? We look forward to seeing what 2020 has in store for us and meeting friends old and new and trying our luck doing what we love. Tight lines. All the best Tom.

Upper North Wark beat reports, with the 2019 Salmon Fishing Season now closed we can look back and reflect on our season. Catches were our best since 2014 and the New Fishing Lodge was completed and fully functioning with the snagging list near completed. On the fishing front, the season got off to a great start with Mr Mike Graham landing the first Springer of the river on Opening Day which won the Tweed Trophy for 2019. Overall the spring was reasonable with 20 Springers and 20 Sea Trout landed during this period. Our best fish of the spring was a superb 15lb fish landed on the 23rd February by Mr Stuart Campbell on a Black and Yellow from the Snipe. During March which is on paper our best spring month we lost 11 days due to dirty water, this cost us a few fish during the month. As fate would have it we closed the beat down on the 1st June to allow for the building of the new fishing lodge which so happened to coincide with a good wet summer with plenty of water to fish in and a reasonable number of fish around. Hopefully get similar water conditions next season. The Fishing Lodge was completed towards the end of August and we had an official opening on the 9th of September which was well attended and renowned wildlife artist and Tweed fisher Mrs Clare Haggas done the honours cutting the ribbon. August, September and October the fishing was quite consistent with some lovely grilse and a mixture of fresh/old salmon been caught before November was pretty much a wash out! 65% of our fish were caught on the Fly with Mr Hugh Newton landed our biggest fish of the season with a 20lb fish from the Snipe on a Rogie caught on the 30th of September. I would like to thank everyone who fished with us and supported the beat throughout the season and I look forward to welcoming you back in 2020.

The Lees beat reports, the 2019 season ended the same way as 2018 with no fish left in the lower river, on the Lees we had the grand total of 2 fish for November, high water didn't help but it was down to a lack of fish. The best of the fishing going forward now seems to be from mid/late spring through to mid-October, it was pleasing to see some fresh fish into October albeit not many but enough to keep the interest up. Happy Christmas and Hogmanay and good luck next year.

Berwick and District Angling Association report, that’s the final catch returns completed.

72 Salmon and 14 Sea Trout. A vast improvement on last season and above average for BDAA water. We have been blessed with plenty rain during 2019.

The Tweed Foundation need your help to make our salmon tracking study on Tweed a success in 2020! Getting as many smolts safely to sea is a priority for the future survival of our salmon stocks. The Tweed Foundation will be expanding the small pilot study it undertook last spring to track salmon smolts down the river and into the Tweed estuary. In 2020 we will be tagging and tracking 150 smolts downstream to discover how many reach the sea, and where we lose fish in-river. This work is vital to help us to protect our smolts by ensuring that we target the management actions where they are most needed. It is, however, expensive work! We'd love to have your help and support with our 2020 tracking project. You can sponsor a smolt and follow its journey downstream via a dedicated weekly update. We'll also be awarding a prize for the fastest smolt from tagging in the Gala Water to the Tweed estuary at Berwick.

A few boatmen on the lower river have been testing a floy tagging system in the autumn this year and one of their tagged fish has gone through the Ettrick counter. Boatmen have found it easy to apply the tags, so we plan to expand the tagging to other volunteer beats in 2020. The main purpose of floy tagging will be to estimate recapture rates of rod caught fish. The two biggest fish seen going through the counter this year were around 35lbs and 25lbs.

2020 Syndicate places now available on the River Tweed. Horncliffe, Ladykirk, Pedwell, Fairnilee and Traquair. Including one day per week or one day per fortnight. Email Tom@fishpal for more information.

As always I would like to thank everyone who provides me with the information to compile this report for the readers, it is very much appreciated by all and if you would like to contribute to the report please feel free to get in touch by emailing martinritchie02@gmail.com Thank you, stay safe on the riverbank and tight lines for 2020.

Martin Ritchie

www.taysalmonfly.co.uk



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