Tweed

[elwyman]

Tweed opens tomorrow - any hardy souls venturing out?

I might have a day in a few weeks time, I've booked 3 days on Boleside in May.

[sagefly]

Makerstoun on the 11th, trying to blag a freebie for Saturday. Lats weeks rise should have drawn some fish in but the river is low for the time of year.

[elwyman]

Catches on the Tweed seem to have tailed off very quickly - only 1 fish on both Mon and Tues.

Catches on the Dee seem to be more consistent - am I right in thinking the Dee is generally the better proposition for Feb/March?

[sagefly]

The Dee has a stronger spring run but if you look at FishTweed you will see that there are almost no rods let on the river this week.

Perhaps with more fishing effort more fish would be caught.

[charlieh]

sagefly said:

The Dee has a stronger spring run but if you look at FishTweed you will see that there are almost no rods let on the river this week.

Perhaps with more fishing effort more fish would be caught.

I was talking to Alastair Brooks of the Ednam House Hotel (historically the main fishing hotel for many of the prime Tweed beats) on just about this exact day four years or so ago, and remarked on the scarcity of fishers. He told me that fishing effort would pick up once spinning was permitted - the Tweed is fly only for the first two weeks of the season.

[sagefly]

and if they just asked me I would fish the beats for free until the spinners came on.

just think how much more they could charge if the books showed fish being caught!!

I am sure that the Tweed Foundation could get a grant to sponsor me or something.

I am after all a member of the downtrodden minority.

[elwyman]

I've booked 3 days on Upper Caberston in November - anybody fished it before?

PS SKY Channel 133, 9.00pm tonight - Complete Angler - Salmon fishing on Dryburgh beat.

[elwyman]

Nice looking beat, and they had some fish. Looks like it was filmed last autumn.

[stoater]

C'mon folks let's get some current reports going on this wonderful river. I know its approaching that lull between spring and summer runs, but Tweed is fished pretty well all through these days, and I love to hear what's going on!
Went to Boleside for 2 days last week, but only fished about 6hrs. due to the ghastly heat and unbearable sun. Few fish about, had a brief contact in the Meetings, then saw half a dozen good sea trout in the Gardenback before realising I'd forgotten my torch, so that curtailed a promising situation! Oh well, the grilse should be creeping in down the bottom soon. Got some dates sorted August onwards (about 15 days, yipeeee!!) on sub £100 days, there's no need to pay cricket scores with a little homework. May give the Till a go soon- anyone know if its fishing yet?

[acw]

elwyman said:

I've booked 3 days on Upper Caberston in November - anybody fished it before?

PS SKY Channel 133, 9.00pm tonight - Complete Angler - Salmon fishing on Dryburgh beat.

A great beat with a great ghillie ,had a few days there ,no fish but great water and good company !Dryburgh that is !

[tweedcast]

PS SKY Channel 133, 9.00pm tonight - Complete Angler - Salmon fishing on Dryburgh beat.[/quote]
A great beat with a great ghillie ,had a few days there ,no fish but great water and good company !Dryburgh that is ![/quote]

Yip, great beat, nice Gillie.
Had an 8 pounder on the doorstep last Thursday.

[dryburgh]

George is a bit of a local celebrity. He’s also featured in Nick Nairns cooking program, been a model for Barbour and the Dryburgh hotel. A real genuine guy who would do anything for you. He fostered my love of the Tweed. It’s just a pity that Dryburgh is a good bit more expensive than some of the other middle beats on the Tweed.

[Yorkshire Esk]

George was only saying tonight that they are in desperate need of water to bring the grilse through. The water is below summer level.
On the beat like Dryburgh they need the rain to come from the west.
Most of the ghillies now are busy with there bank and boat repairs.
Quite a few guys that are out trout fishing and are doing quite well.

[acw]

dryburgh said:

George is a bit of a local celebrity. He’s also featured in Nick Nairns cooking program, been a model for Barbour and the Dryburgh hotel. A real genuine guy who would do anything for you. He fostered my love of the Tweed. It’s just a pity that Dryburgh is a good bit more expensive than some of the other middle beats on the Tweed.

George is also a local celebrity in Both soho and Chelsea amongst some of the older inhabitants ,thats the london ones wouldnt be suprised that he was infamous in NYC as well !

[tyneandrew]

Went up to the Tweed today but was very disappointed as the there has been a land slip on the Ettrick that has colored the water vastly...

[tyneandrew]

Fished West Learmouth today, bday treat and all. Saw an odd fish kicking about but pretty quiet and very low. Bob, the gillie, looked after us very well, and got the arm chairs out of the hut and plonked them by the river bank - with a nice glass of red wine (or 2) it wasn't a bad way to spend my bday!

[stoater]

Hi Tyneandrew, yes Bob is a top man and will really try his heart out to put you into a fish. Very knowledgeable too and able to survive lock-ins at the Vic night in, night out with no ill effects. A gillie so keen that after all those Salmon, he still runs over the rocks on the "Back of the Wall" when you have a springer on!
I could never afford an autumn Rod there, but despite what they say about the Lower River, fly water becomes hard to find on Bob's beat in low water. On a good water between August and November though, have you seen those scores?
I'll be fishing a few miles downstream soon, it can be wonderful there too from now onwards in low water. How was the dreaded green cotton wool, is it a problem yet? Any grilse around yet? (they were late last year, none really til August). I've also noticed FishTweed reporting quite a few seatrout, which is encouraging. Tightlines all.

[tyneandrew]

Stoater,

Bob is a great chap and as you correctly point out and has a great amount of enthusiasm to get you a fish (even in hopeless conditions). Interestingly, he pointed out that they expect a poor year this year as this is the cyclical year since the major flooding of the Etrick which occured right in the middle of spawning several years ago.

We did see fish but the river needs a good spate to clean it out. Although the lower beats would be expecting to pick up more fish by now.

[hadrian]

hi andrew,hope you are well.the campers are back,rumour has it buttlins are showing an interest in merryshields.
andrew would you be able to find out and let me know when the etrick had that recent flood and also how the lower river has been affected in the years since as far as catches and counts are concerned?

hadrian.

[tyneandrew]

Good thanks Tony. Just returned from the river - Wylam was alive with fish (as usual at this time of the year - things change in late July). I saw the campers at the layby as i drove past. I was thinking we should get a sledge hammer and knock in some steel rods so that:

a) cars cannot get onto that ground on the downstream side of the layby
b) tents cannot be pitched

They will still be able to camp further downstream but not in the fishermans social car park.

I can certainly find out about that terrible flood (it is quite famous), perhaps someone will post it before i find out. There was basically thought to be a poor run every 5th (or 4th) year as a result of the lack of young fish present from spawning losses.

I don't think you could say it affected any particular part of the river (lower, middle etc...) but just the season throughout the river was affected...