River Tweed End Of 2020 Season Report
With the season now
confined to the history books, we can look back and think what a season for
many reasons. Mr Herbert Hinterberger from Germany got the year off and running
with Tweeds first fish of the 2020 season, caught in the Putt at Lower Floors
on the 1st February, which won him the Tweed Trophy. With a very wet February
fishing was quite limited and 14 fish were reported on Fishtweed with the
Junction beat landing 4, Upper Hendersyde 3, Sprouston 3, Birgham Dub 2 and 1
each for Upper North Wark and Rutherford. As we got into March the spring run
seemed to be building up with a reasonable number of springers being caught
before the country came to a standstill on the 23rd March due to the
Coronavirus Pandemic that swept through the nation and fishing stopped until
the lockdown was lifted. 72 fish were reported on Fishtweed for the 3 weeks
fishing with the best of the fishing being at the Junction 16, Sprouston 12 and
Upper North Wark 10. In the middle of May a very unique situation arose when
the lockdown was lifted in England but not Scotland which meant that only the
beats on the English side of the river could start fishing again with Scotland
following a few weeks later. It was an intriguing period before the fishing in
England reopened, thinking how many untouched, rested fish are in the pools are
the catches going to be huge well those questions got answered straight away
with Tillmouth landing 85 and Horncliffe 51 in a couple of weeks and for the
rest of the beats fishing at that point 256 salmon were landed for May. June
proved quite productive with the lower water conditions helping the bottom
river with Ladykirk 94 and Tweedhill 90 having the best of the fishing, with
the odd small rise fish did start to push through and Hendersyde 64 and
Sprouston 60 did well. The summer months were ideal for fish coming with
regular rain given almost weekly rises in water levels, which is always a good
thing over the summer and beautiful fresh salmon into the teens of pounds and
chunky grilse were there in good numbers. There were 1151 fish reported for
July reported with Tillmouth 122, Rutherford 94, Tweedhill 88, Sprouston 86 and
Birgham Dub 80 showing the vast area where the catches were spread out over.
Water levels in August were a bit higher and this affected some of the lower
end beats but 962 fish were reported with Tillmouth 102, Birgham Dub 84 and
Ladykirk 78 having the best of the fishing. As we entered into the autumn month
of September and October the fresh fish that had been in abundance slowly
dwindled into more coppery coloured fish which became the trend as the weeks
went past. For September 1436 fish were reported with the best fishing on
Tillmouth 171, Lees (on Tweedbeats) 145, Rutherford 133, Ladykirk 121 and
Birgham Dub 107. October catches started to tail off with bigger floods ruining
some days each week and by the end of the month 1042 fish were reported with
Boleside 92, Tillmouth 87, Lees (on Tweedbeats) 86 and Ladykirk 65 having the
best of it. November saw the return of lockdown in England and new tier
systems in Scotland which resulted in most beats closing the doors for the
remainder of the season.
The final season tally
will be known around March time after the River Tweed Commission’s AGM, early
indications suggest the figure will be around 10,000 Salmon which would be a
reasonable increase in recent seasons. The summer fishing was a real highlight
this season with good water levels and plenty of fish entering the river on a
regular basis. The autumn again failed to materialise into what we hope for
every year but fish continued to be caught through into November. Individually
these beats had the best fishing on the river this season, Tillmouth 639,
Ladykirk 447, Lees 425, Birgham Dub 386, Rutherford 385, Sprouston 355 and
Junction 324. Two of the biggest verified fish of the river this season were
caught by Mr Andy Britton with a 32lber at Tweedmill on the fly and Mr Mike
Heaps with a 31lber at Norham Castle Syndicate on the fly also.
Bemersyde Head Ghillie
Ian Farr reported “February seems like a long time ago, when the water came up
to the steps of the hut, leaving us repairing the gravel. Trees came down,
including across the drive, but at least it made plenty of wood for the fishing
hut and the house! With the river rising (and falling – thankfully) by as much
as seven feet in a 24-hour period, there was little to be done except to clear
up the damage. The second big swell at the end of the month did cause concern -
up to seven foot on the gauge again - with fears that it might alter the river
bed significantly enough to damage the redds from this year’s spawning as well
as smolt and small par. March began with floods again, but our first fish of
the year came on 6 March out of the Cromweil at 13lbs for Mark Hansen on a
black yellow tube. The water was two foot four and clear: finally! More trees
came down across the drive by the end of March, although by that stage fishing
was becoming a distant dream in any case. The girls and Ian started to spend
more time working in Bemerysde gardens than on the river. The rest of the
spring was so hot and dry that there would have been little fishing in any case
and with the drop in people visiting the estate, we had work on our hands
controlling the wildlife! Spirits were boosted with the arrival of the
beautiful new boat, but she would have to lie idle a little while until we were
allowed to launch. By the end of April, the water was so low, we could see
stones that hadn’t been visible for 20 years. We were doubly frustrated by
Covid and the dry weather, but at least Bemersyde sits in such stunning
scenery, enabling us to get out and see such beautiful things as the view to
the quarry near Scott’s View and the Big Moss. While our annual party to
celebrate the winners of the Bemersyde trophy will have to wait, we were
delighted to announce Jonathan Murray and Samuel Ackroyd as overall and junior
winners for 2019. Jonathan landed his 35lber on a Calvin shrimp conehead in the
Black Strand Pool at Fairnilee in November 2019 and Samuel caught his salmon on
a Red Francis in Bemersyde’s Boat Pool in October 2019. We congratulate them on
their catches and look forward to celebrating them in person as soon as is
permitted and then it came, a glorious day at the end of May when we were
allowed back on the river. It was hot and dry, but we were catching fish again.
Moving into June, Nick Green had a nice fish out of the Boat Pool and new
syndicate member Colin Halliday landed an eight-pounder out of the tail of the
stream. Fiona Brown was one of the first people to fish the River Tweed in
Scotland after lockdown restrictions were eased and she was gracious enough to
talk to ITV Border about the resumption of angling at Bemersyde. Sadly no fish
for her that day, but she did land an eight-pounder out of the stream at the
beginning of June. There was an extraordinary week at the beginning of June for
the fish just kept coming: five in three days, some more lost and one that got
away as Ian was trying to tag it! After an extraordinary thunderstorm Alex
Barclay caught two fish out of the stream and there was a super day at the end
of June, with five salmon and one trout.
July started with great promise and, happily, a
trout for Ian Farr‘s grandson, Alex, out of Woodside. By the second week of
July the water was high and deep brown and we were only able to use the lower
half mile of the beat, but we were still landing fish: 29 salmon and nine sea
trout. We also saw the first grilse of the season. Into August and there was a
good rise of water. We were finally allowed to use the new boat and caught a
couple of old spring fish going up to spawn out of the Boat Pool. There was a
big excitement at the end of the month with the screening of BBC Two's Gone
Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse and we were finally able to put
an end to the speculation that Paul Whitehouse did, in fact, CATCH A SALMON!
By the end of August it was extremely wet, with
flooding taking the levels up to nearly six foot on the gauge, but there were
still some fish about to catch. The start of September was a perfect
illustration of how perplexing, pleasing and frustrating fishing is. One day
the water was like beer, but we caught five salmon and one trout; the next day
we had perfect conditions but didn’t land a single thing! The month progressed
with some great fishing, including 15-pounders for Peter Abraham out of the
Cromweil and for James Benbow out of the Dish. The start of October began with
low water and low expectations, but we had some super fish weighing up to 16lb.
The torrential rain gave Ian sleepless nights and he was down at the boats at
4am at one point making sure they did not wash away as the water hit eight foot
on the gauge. The rest of the month but brought some glorious fishing and a
better autumn than had been seen for years. ITV Border came back at the end of
October to film for Border Life and All Around Britain, to talk about the rise
in the popularity of fishing over lockdown: how good it is for body and soul as
well as social-distancing in that you are well advised to remain more than two
metres away from anyone casting in any case! The fish kept coming. Some high
waters receded and one week yielded 13 fish, including one tagged by Ian in
July this year. The season was rounded off very nicely with a super fish from
the Boat Pool for Alex Barclay weighing in at 17lb. All in all, it has been a
great season, with 139 salmon and sea trout caught here at Bemersyde. We have
had more sea trout and a better autumn than in recent years and, given current
trends we are anticipating a really good spring. Is it too much to wish for the
right amount of rain at the right time?
To all of you who have fished at Bemersyde and who
follow our page, thank you for your support. We wish you and your loved ones a
very Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and the very best for 2021.
Lower Birgham Head
Boatman Mr Tom Davis reports “Well the end of another season has passed and now
having a break and taking a week or so to reflect on what was a unique year.
What a strange year it was, lockdowns, travel restrictions, only people
traveling from certain places, and the strangest when we were only allowed to
fish the English bank of the river. But through all of this the one thing that
was really positive to see was people really enjoying their fishing. Some
people who have always fished, some who have never fished and some who used to
but has taken it up again. This added to a very good summer and early autumn
run of fish and good river conditions made for plenty of very successful
anglers. On Lower Birgham we had our best catch numbers for 7years. We landed
201 salmon and 30 sea trout. But saw and lost plenty others. It was the
standout catches in the summer (July/Aug) that 2020 will be remembered for in
particular, with most of the fish into double figures and very fresh, running
in off the tides. Whilst September was our best month there were some river
fish and a few fresh ones in the mix. But also a few bigger fish 20lb+ caught.
These catches were pretty consistent throughout the whole river system, with
fish getting caught and seen up and down the river. What will 2021 bring? When
will the fish run the river? And in what numbers? The answer is nobody knows...
but we all hope that with the last 2 years' catches picking up, another good
year on the cards would be great wouldn’t it! Thank you for everyone who fished
with us in 2020, your understanding, effort and commitment produced a great
year at Lower Birgham in a pretty strange year for us all. We look forward to
seeing you in 2021 and hopefully a little more normal. Stay safe, tight lines
and see you all ready for the 1st February! All the best, Tom”
Upper North Wark Head
Boatman Mr Martin Ritchie reports “Finally we have time to sit down
and reflect on events at Upper North Wark over the last 12
months We could not have imagined what was about to
happen we were preparing for the start of the 2020 season. As opening day
arrived we were greeted with 50mph winds which was quite a challenge for the
winter rested arms and casting was tricky into that angle of wind. On the 4th February
Mr Mike Graham landed our first fish of the season. He had previously
done this on opening day 2019 and won the Tweed Trophy at the
same time. Mike caught a beautiful 12lber on a 2” Black and Yellow
copper tube from the Back Of The Isle with boatman Mr Richard Farr doing the
necessary with the net. The rest of the month was a wash out as we lost 15 days
to dirty water. As we moved into March, which traditionally is our best spring
month, we were greeted with 4ft 9” on the gauge!! And it wasn’t
until the 4th we were back fishing with a bang landing 3
springers on the fly. Mr Richard Farr landed 2 and Mr Hugh Newton 1. On the 17th we
had a very interesting day when we hooked 9 fish but only landed 1 from the
Snipe with Mr Jason Tumath managing to hang onto one. With hopes high we
thought the following day could be very productive but we were greeted
by a 6ft dirty flood! Good job the beat fishes well in high water and on the
back of that flood landed a further 6 springers. Mr Hugh
Newton landed 2 on a 2” Black and Yellow, Mr Steven Hogg, Mr James
McLay, Mr Richard Farr and Mr Martin Ritchie all getting one apiece. On the 23rd the
beat was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and with the 2 meter rule
stopping boat fishing, we remained closed to the public until the 1st September.
The summer months were pleasingly wet with regular rain which seemed
to keep the fish coming. It’s not often we get to fish ourselves at these
levels so It was nice to get a cast albeit from the bank only. We had some good
sport landing 22 Salmon in July and 21 in August with fish up to
20lbs being landed and many of the fish being in the teens of pounds.
We had an incredible day on the 31st August when we hooked 16
fish in the day!! An unbelievable day's sport. With the relaxation of the
2 meter rule we reopened to the public on the 1st September and
it was gratifying to see our regulars returning. . Father
and Son team Keith and Jack Triffitt were our first rods after reopening and
they picked away and landed 3 fish for the two days and lost a few more.
The best fish went to Keith with a 14lber from the Snipe on a Samurai Shrimp
conehead fly. After this it became a frustration game of “what
if “as we lost 22 fish for the rest of the month and only landed 11.
October was also frustrating with a week being lost because of
dirty water and high winds. We landed 10 for the month. Ms Amelia Busk
landed a superb 24lber from the Back of the Isle on a 1” Red Frances. The Red
Frances produced well for us during the month with Mr Mike Graham landing 3 to
16lbs, Mr Richard Farr a 13lber from the Mill Stream from the same fly.
We had a fun day with Peter Stott on his first trip to the beat landing 2 in
the Dub and Mr Ralph Holmes completing the catch of the day with a
fish from the Snipe. A special mention to Mr Alan Triffitt who has been working
hard on learning how to speycast and was suitably rewarded with his first fly
caught fish from the Snipe on a Burgundy Frances. November started with a 7ft 6
flood!! On the falling water, fishing a Wet Cel 5 spey line,
15ft of T21 tip and a 2” Black and Yellow Copper Tube we landed a 14lber from
the Snipe. On the 5th we landed 4 fish and lost 5. Fish landed
were 24lb, 20lb, 14ln and 4lb. The following days the fish just seemed to start
taking that bit softer and we went on a run losing the next 5 we hooked. On the
9th we had a special moment when Head Boatman Martin Ritchie
rowed Taymount beats on the River Tay’s Head Ghillie Mr Cohn O’Dea onto his
first Tweed salmon in the Dub Pool. Mr James Aitken completed our catches
for the season and landed a 10lber from the Dub on a Cascade Tube. With the
changes in the Coronavirus restrictions we decided to close the beat to the
public on the 13th. It has been an interesting
season!! At times hard work to manage the bookings during
the lockdowns and regulations that prevented fishing. We landed 85 Salmon for
the season, which we are pleased with in the circumstances but we do
have nagging feelings about what could have been if we could have
used the boats during July and August. We will never know but it was
great to see such a good head of fish on the beat. Mr Mike Graham finished the
season as top rod with 11 salmon all on the fly, he also had our joint biggest
fish of the season with a 24lber, Ms Amelia Busk had the other 24lber also on
the fly. We had 2 other fish over 20lb for the season. On Behalf of beat owner
Mr Jonathan Hufford, Myself and Richard I would like to thank everyone who
fished with us during 2020. Your custom, support and understanding during what
was a turbulent season was very much appreciated and we look forward to
welcoming you back to the beat in 2021 hopefully with no restrictions in place
and we can get back to doing what we all love properly. If you haven’t fished
with us before and would like to come and fish at Upper North Wark please give
Martin a call on 07825 334427 or email bookings@uppernorthwarkfishing.com.
Lees Head Boatman Mr Malcolm Campbell reports “A much better year than
last year, February and March were a complete washout or blown off, April and
May we had perfect water conditions and fish in numbers but were shut down due
to covid, June came along and low water and squeaky clean but we had fish, lots
of fish on the beat, big fat silver springers but only two rods a day due to
travel restrictions and nowhere to stay. July started well but then became
humid and the fish went off a bit. August still fresh fish to be had, September
plenty fish but slowly starting to colour up, October two wee fresh grilse at
the start of the month all coloured apart from them. November the river
closed itself down. It would be nice to think that this trend continues and we
can fish in nice weather with a floating line or wee sink tip, wee flies or a
sunray/collie or even a skimmer for a bit of excitement. 425 landed of which we
returned 396 and only one on the spinner”
Mr Christopher Noble of West Newbiggin Syndicate reports “We had a
bumper season at West Newbiggin. We only hope that it was not a “flash in the
pan” and that we’ll have improved sport in future seasons too! During that
“silly period” when the English side of Tweed could fish and the Scottish
couldn’t, we decided not to fish into Scottish waters (Ladykirk), which
certainly restricted our catches, but our Members thought that only fair. We
had good sport until the end of September, but with no new fish after the end
of August, we stopped fishing altogether at the end of October. Salmon fishing
in November appears to be “finished” now. We feel sorry for the rods on the
upper river, but the season is certainly getting shorter. Our heaviest fish was
27lbs and I got one of 22lbs! We returned 90% of all the fish we caught”
Waltham and Dritness Syndicate report “Waltham and Dritness 2020 season
began our season on May 13th, and what a start 14 Salmon landed and several
others lost. Conditions in the spring suited our beat with low water and cool
temperatures, by the end of June we had caught almost 100 salmon. We continued
catching through the summer months, a few rises of water in September moved most
of the fish upriver, and by the end of the month fish were thin on the ground.
We saw no autumn fish. Most of the fish we caught were in superb condition most
with sea lice. We ended our season with 160 Salmon.
Berwick and Whiteadder
Angling Association reports “The round up on catches for salmon and sea trout
is in from Dave. A total of 50 salmon and 8 sea trout caught. A tough year,
first Covid takes a grip then then the water disappears with no rain to speak
of from the end of May to September. While the lower beats of the Tweed had a
bumper year in the low water we need rain on the Whiteadder with several caulds
holding back all but the most determined fish. Grilse did come through the low
water which is probably why the average fish was quite small but a few bigger
fish were caught, the best being about 12lb. Messages from the top of the river
suggest there were a lot of fish spawning right up to the Whiteadder Dam, so we
wish those offspring well and look forward to seeing them in the years to come.
Please see below catch return for the Association
during 2020.
SALMON CATCHES
Total for Season 50 Salmon & 8 Sea trout
Beat 1 - 31 Salmon and 3 Sea Trout
Beat 2 – 10 Salmon & 2 Sea Trout
Beat 3 – Blanked
Beat 4 – Blanked
Beat 5 – 9 Salmon & 3 Sea Trout
Beat 6 – Blanked
May
Beat 5 – Two Salmon
June
Beat 2 Two Salmon
Beat 5 One Salmon
July
Beat 1 One Salmon
Beat 2 Three Salmon
Beat 5 One Salmon
August
Beat 1 Eleven Salmon One Sea Trout
Beat 2 One Salmon Two Sea Trout
Beat 5 Two Salmon Three Sea Trout
September
Beat 1 Eight Salmon One Sea Trout
Beat 2 Two Salmon
Beat 5 One Salmon
October
Beat 1 Eleven Salmon One Sea Trout
Beat 2 Two Salmon
Beat 5 Two Salmon
4 Salmon Kept out of 50
2 Sea Trout kept out of 8
Biggest fish 12lb
Kelso Angling Association Secretary Mr Roy Adam reports “The salmon
catch on Lower Roxburgh showed small improvement. 47 Salmon were caught, 6 more
than last year and 9 greater than the 5 year average. Sea Trout numbers were
down 17 on last year at only 14 caught. Sea Trout seem to vary on this beat,
the numbers for the last five years being 14, 37, 4, 31 and 14, the five year
average being 18. The results of our first year back on Upper Roxburgh were 19
Salmon and 20 Sea Trout caught. The largest salmon was caught by Michael
Briggs, a lovely fish of 20lbs. There were four others caught at 15lbs.”
The RTC/Tweed Foundation report “The floy tagging study is designed to
look at the recapture rate of rod caught Tweed Salmon. However, it threw up an
unexpected result on the 10th November. Whilst capturing trout moving into the
headwaters of the Leithen Water to spawn (part of a study to understand the
relationship between Tweed Brown trout and Sea-trout), several Salmon were also
caught. One of the captured salmon, a male Grilse of 54cm (21”), had a Floy
tag. The tag number showed it had been tagged at Dryburgh Upper on the 22nd
July by Boatman Brian Douglas. The recapture provides the first direct link
between a tagged rod caught fish and its spawning location. After being
recorded, the Grilse was quickly released to continue its journey upstream.
There have been 3469 fish recordings through the Ettrick this year, with the
usual rush of fish through the counter in early October. Good numbers have been
passing through the Gala counter, with at least 3352 fish counted so far. The
upgraded camera system is picking up some good video clips of large Salmon,
with a number of fish approaching the 40 lbs mark. With Salmon spawning taking
place throughout the catchment in November, Tweed Foundation staff took
advantage of low water conditions in the second week of November to survey
sections of the Upper Tweed and Whiteadder. Counting Redds (where gravel is
turned over by Hen fish to lay their eggs) is not a precise method of assessing
the abundance of adult fish, but it does give us a chance to understand where
and when spawning is taking place, helping us to interpret results from our
juvenile monitoring. The traditional method of counting Redds involves walking
along a stretch of river, noting their location. However, this is limited to
quite narrow watercourses with clear, low water. Using a recently acquired
drone to look directly down into the water, we were able to survey sections of
river up to 20 m wide and in some areas of the Upper Tweed, we were able to
record the numbers of spawning fish as well. Walking alongside the drone, we
were able to cover around 5 km of watercourse in a single day.
Regular Tweed Fisher
Mr Colin Hewitt who has after a very difficult year for health reasons made it
back on to the banks of the Tweed, It was great to see him back in on the
action too. In his own words Colin added “Memorable, but for different
reasons......3 rods shared 15 fish on the day. The two other guys had seven
each, and I had one! Finished chemotherapy in late April and booked fishing was
rolled over, so I picked a day off the web at Rutherford, before last operation
in July. Fished fly all morning and was completely knackered by lunch time.
Shoulders and arms were dead with fatigue. Never felt so tired and reverted to
spinning the Dub in the afternoon. Hooked into a decent fish and almost didn’t
have the strength to get it in. That’s when I sat out the rest of the day and
contemplated. Happy to have caught the fish and be fishing; happy to have
finished treatment and still be here; really surprised how fit you have to be
to fish for salmon and that it’s taken for granted. PS...Check yer bollocks
regularly chaps as, if not right, get it seen to ASAP!
Early season tactics for
the River Tweed would normally consist of sinking fly lines with assorted poly
leaders. As for flies, Black and Yellow, Tosh, Gold Tosh, Gold Bodied Willie
Gunn, Rogie, Monkey, Eternal Optimist and Ice Maiden will all feature in the
early season catch books so stock up on these killers. On the spinning front
(From the 15th February) Devon Minnow, Blair Spoon and Salmo Toby
should bring success given the right conditions.
By the time Trout and
Salmon Magazine is on sale the 2021 season will be underway and hopefully the
first springers of the season have been landed and we’ll be tucking into some
fabulous food at the Contented Vine restaurant in Kelso, it has been badly
missed due to the restrictions. It remains to be seen if we will be back
fishing as normal or still under some sort of Covid Restrictions at the start
of the season only time will tell. I would like to wish everyone all the best
for the season ahead, stay safe and make memories.
A huge thank you to
everyone who contributes to my river reports without the information provided
it would not be the report that it is and hopefully one the readers find
interesting. A special thank you to regular weekly contributors, Tom Davis at
Lower Birgham, Malcolm Camplbell at the Lees, Brian Douglas at Dryburgh Upper,
Waltham and Dritness Syndicate who provided great up to date information for
their beats. Fishtweed and Tweedbeats websites for their statistics and
content. Hopefully some more beats will appear more regularly in 2021 by
sending in reports. If you’re an angler and wish to send me details of catches
or special memories on the river please get in touch and I will include in the
weekly/monthly reports.
If you would like to contribute to the report please feel free to get in
touch by emailing martinritchie02@gmail.com
Martin Ritchie
For all your Salmon Fishing Flies visit our Tay Salmon Fly Website please click here
If you wish to contact us you can do so by clicking here
To book or enquire about fishing on the Upper North Wark beat on the River Tweed please give Martin a call on 07825 334427
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