River Whiteadder

[jamesr2007]

A note to thank David Paxton for helping land my first double figure salmon. 12lb on the nose and it took a Willie Gunn (size 12) on the Allanton Bridge beat of the River Whiteadder earlier today. Plenty of fish, mainly grilse, on the move and some excellent sea trout. A gem of a river that never fails to disappoint and it's exceptionally well managed by the Berwick club.

[jamesr2007]

too much wine, I meant 'never disappoints'.

[elwyman]

Well done James, we'll excuse you the wine!

[robbie]

Well played James ,
Best watch out for Salmonking though. You are on his turf there and he only catches little ones ;D

[tweedsider]

Thats a good fish James, I was down that beat early doors this morning and only saw one fish in the middle of the Bridge Pool.
WELL DONE.

TWEEDSIDER

[tweedsider]

To mush wine you say, we had a bit of that last weekend when some local posters were blaming wonky keyboards

jamesr2007 said:

too much wine, I meant 'never disappoints'.

[neptune]

well done im glad you went 1 better after helping me the only thing to watch out forin salmon king is the curse .......
tight lines

[salmonking]

Nice one James,,any sea lice?

[jamesr2007]

Thanks. No sea lice, the fish looked to have been in the river for about a week. At some point I'll upload the photos. Seems to me that a lot of salmon/grilse are holding in the deeper Allanton pools downstream from the bridge, waiting for the levels to rise.

[tweedsider]

Hello again James I think I met yo two years ago in late season when you had just released a 8-9 lb coloured fish from where you took your most recent. Long may the local association on the Whiteadder thrive as this is the only public salmon fishing in the eastern borders. Our assoc has an excellent policy of one fish per day, allthough some anglers take this as an invitation to kill that one fish per day which is bad enough. Unfortunately there are other organisations on the river who seem happy tp allow their members to indulge in fishmongering if rumour is true.
Far to many tales circulate af anglers taking 4 or 5 fish in a day
which must be far to much for anyones own use.

[jamesr2007]

Hi: yes I remember, on the willow tree run just down from the big pool at Allanton bridge. Good to put a name to a face!

I took the fish I caught this week. It's no easy decision, but with a very hard 15 minute fight and the reel being stripped down to its backing on numerous times and an exhausted fish, I felt discretion needed to be the order of the day. After my one fish, I stopped fishing. All the other fish I've caught on the Whiteadder have always been returned. It may seem hypocritical to C&R 99.9% of the times and not in this instance, but irrespective of the size of the fish, experience dictated that releasing it would have almost certainly led to a dead fish.

I've heard the rumours of fish being caught and sold and four-five fish being dispatched in a day on the river by non-association anglers. It's a crying shame if this is the case. These are wild fish and it's not a rainbow fishery (no offence meant to those that fish for stockies - I do myself). However, all the people I've met in the odd week I spend north of the border on the Whiteadder are some of the most approachable and knowledgeable anglers I've encountered and it's a pleasure fish a well managed stretch of water. Long may its public status continue .

Best wishes to all anglers for the remainder of the season. Tightlines.

[hornet]

James,

Taking one for the table now and again is not an issue in my book, especially when most of the fish we catch are released.

Hornet