After another good fishing week, the Tweed score will have been somewhere in the range of 250-300 salmon, plus maybe 100 sea trout. 214 salmon were recorded online, so when Tweedmill, Cornhill, Junction, Sprouston, Lower Dryburgh, Upper and Lower Floors, Upper and Middle Pavilion and many others are added in, a total well north of 250 seems most likely. Conditions could hardly have been better, with water temperatures still in the mid/late 50sF and the occasional lift in water levels to shake things up, the absence of heat and sun doing all fishers considerable favours.
Lower River
Horncliffe Beat: Anglers fishing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday connected with fish running through the beat. Five fish were landed, which included a 16lb bar of silver caught by Mark Dean on a Willie Gunn tube. Neighbouring beats also benefitted from the run of fish. Fishing was curtailed on Thursday after heavy rainfall. The river at Norhmam was 1 foot and rising and the colour of caramel. Recommended flies: Black Francis, Willie Gunn tube.
Pedwell Beat: Steven Scott caught a 15lb salmon on Wednesday using a small Black Francis conehead. The river was an ideal colour later in the week for bumping into a sea trout, there are not many entering the river. At the end of June when the river was low, Peter was watching pods of fish running in Pedwell Lane End, 30 fish within 25 minutes. Since then the river has been up and down and it’s not easy to see them. The weekly report from Peter on Pedwell is for rods fishing Monday to Thursday.
Boathouse and Canny Beat: On Friday and Saturday, the beat hosted two Ladies Charity Days, raising money for the Tweed Foundation. Women travelled from Inverness and Cheshire to enjoy two days of fishing on the Tweed. Several fish were sighted, with some pulls and light hookups. One fish was played from the boat on Saturday but unfortunately was not landed. The ladies were highly impressed with the beat and appreciated the assistance from boatmen Mel and Charlie, who dedicated time to help them with their casting. Fly choice: Ally Shrimps, Orange Coneheads of varying sizes, fishing to river height.
Milne Graden: Caught 5 fish on both Wednesday and Thursday and finished the week with 13 salmon, their biggest at 15lbs, and 2 sea trout, biggest at 9lbs.
Lennel Beat: Nine fish for the week, taking their monthly total to 22 fish and 2 sea trout. Rods fishing on Saturday all caught fish, with the action during the morning. It was a colder day on Saturday, plenty of cloud cover and heavy showers in the afternoon.
Tillmouth Beat: Willie Elliot reports "Plenty of salmon are coming in, including some really big ones. The river is as clean as a whistle, which is why they're here. It's full of grilse too, all shining like bars of silver. The cold water has contributed to their excellent condition; they're all very thick and have good girths, with few thin ones among them. We've caught about a third of them using the fly, cascades and Garry Dogs, and the rest were caught by spinning. Despite some colour in the water and dead pools, the river is filling up very nicely." The beat finished the week on 32 salmon, biggest at 20lbs, and 4 seatrout.
Lees Beat: Rods fishing the beat finished on 13 fish. Andrew reports that next week looks pretty much like last, very little sign of any settled weather with the ever present chance of some decent rain, more likely later in the week, temperatures if anything slightly higher, the late teens, early twenties, but nothing long term to encourage those sunscreen purveyors. You can read his excellent TweedBeats report here.https://www.tweedbeats.com/news/7_july_2024__news_editorial_
Lower Birgham: “Great week this week. Mark Roberts and his gang fished the whole week. Plenty of fish were caught and plenty lost. But a terrific week fishing. They fished hard, fishing into the evenings and got rewarded with some lovely sea trout. Nice to see sea trout start to build up in numbers. The salmon were fresh off the tide with sea lice on them and altogether a great week of good fishing, great friends and even better bbqs!!
Carham Beat: Monday, we started at 7" on the carham gauge, the water temp was at 58 and running clear. We had 1 salmon and saw a few fish moving. Tuesday, we were down to 5" on the gauge and water temp was 58 again and still running clear. We ended up with 3 salmon and a sea trout. Again we saw a few fish moving through. Wednesday, thanks to overnight rain the river rose steadily all day from 5" to 11". Water temp was at 58 again. We saw a few fish in the morning but it all went quiet in the afternoon. We had a couple of pulls but nothing was landed. Thursday, the river was at 1'4", and carrying a fair bit of colour and the water temp was at 58 yet again. Despite the colour it was fishable with the fly and we managed to land 2 sea trout and lose a 3rd, again fish were seen moving upstream through the shallows from time to time. Friday, the river had dropped down to 9" but still carrying a fair bit of colour, water temp was up to 59. 1 salmon and 2 sea trout were landed, and fish yet again were showing. Saturday, we were down to 6" and the water temp was back to 58. We managed 2 salmon for the day, the first fish landed was sea liced. The second was an older fish. Not many seen showing. The overhead conditions all week were pretty good. Little glimpses of sunshine, but it was mostly overcast with showers now and again. Recommended flies: small, half-inch brass tubes, Snealda’s etc.
Hendersyde: The rise in water levels on Monday affected fishing conditions for Ed Jordan’s party, who were fishing with the fly. Once conditions settled, his group landed 4 fish on Tuesday, including an 11 pounder and a sea trout. Wednesday, the river continued to rise due to heavy rainfall early in the morning, Sprouston recorded 20 millimeters of rainfall. Despite the challenging conditions, murky water on Thursday, anglers persisted to fish the fly. Richard Heath’s party, fishing the fly, concluded their trip with each rod landing a salmon, their largest weighing 10 lbs and a cracking seatrout at 7lb. They also lost as many fish if not more during their trip. John Ketchingham, head boatman, praised the excellent quality of both sea trout and summer salmon. Recommended Flies: Cascade and Yellow Gledswood Shrimp (size 10)
Junction Beat: It was another productive week on Junction Beat, despite river levels fluctuating with the changing weather. On Monday, the river was coloured but conditions improved later in the week. Jonathan Reddin’s party fishing the end of the week caught at least six salmon, with one reaching the high teens in weight. They also caught six sea trout, with the largest weighing 10 lbs. Recommended flies for the week are Black n Yellow, Cascade, and little conehead tubes or doubles in sizes 10/12.
Trout Fishing: Ronnie Glass reports the weather has not been conducive to fly hatches, with very few of them. Consequently, trout fishing reports have been unfavourable, with fewer anglers seen on the river from St Boswells downstream to Coldstream.
Middle River
Rutherford beat: Continues to fish well with 11 fish and 6 sea trout, taking their catches to 110.
Mertoun Beats: Finished in the high teens last week, Upper Mertoun caught 9 salmon.
Bemersyde Beat: The week ended with four fish caught, including one netted by Colin Chisholm while assisting Ian on Wednesday. Ian commented “There was a small rise in water, but it wasn't sufficient; we need a good flood soon. The water is dropping away now, and no fish were seen on Saturday, making the river look empty”.
Congratulations to Bemersyde Estate, winners of the Best Fishing Beat of the Year award at the Scottish Game Awards. This prestigious recognition, created by Scottish Land & Estates, GWCT Scottish Game Fair, and Scotland's Regional Moorland Groups, celebrates the significant contributions of sporting estates and ghillies in promoting recreation, employment, and conservation efforts across Scotland.
Tweedswood Beat: We lost count the number of fish we lost during the week. Sandy Lang fishing the Braes caught a 10lb fish on Tuesday, equalling the number of fish caught for the entire season last year. Recommended flies for the week small Cascades, Gold Bodied Willie Gunns, small doubles size 12/14.
Boleside Beat: The river did not rise as much as anticipated, and fish were caught every day from Tuesday onwards. Their best day was Friday, with three fish landed. On that day, Garry introduced beginner Susannah Godfrey-Faussett to salmon fishing, and she caught her first fish, a 16-pounder, in the Garden Back pool using a copper monkey dressed tube. What a fantastic way to start salmon fishing! Anglers have been successful by adjusting their fishing times to suit the conditions. Recommended setup: short intermediate tip, summer flies, Black Francis fly.
Upper River
Horsbrugh Beat: Sadly the weather forecast was as accurate as usual and the predicted heavy rain failed to materialise. Instead we got a bit of rain on Tuesday morning, then drizzle. The result being not even an inch on the levels. Good to see anglers on the water this week, fish are in pools, but nothing landed. Recommended flies: small dark patterns, mini tubes, small singles & doubles.
Kailzie Trout Fishery: the trout pond has picked up this week with the best action on dry flys and yellow damels. River fishing for trout has been pretty good, with a few nice fish caught up to 2 ½ lb on a dry fly. Anglers have been out on an evening, with decent rises of olive uprights, little iron blues and blue winged olives. Salmon rods have hooked a few sea trout with nothing as yet landed.
Latest Catches - you can view catches for both TweedBeats and FishPal and other non reporting beats within the Fishing section of RiverTweed.org.uk,\ the official website of the River Tweed Commission and Tweed Foundation
Where to fish - availability for July - check the River Tweed website for both FishPal / Tweedbeats and some non-reporting beats here https://rivertweed.org.uk/fishing/fishing-info/salmon-fishing/
Trout fishing availability for July - visit the Trout Angling page on the River Tweed website. https://rivertweed.org.uk/fishing/fishing-info/trout-angling-associations
If you are a trout angling association and your details have not been included please get in touch with anne@tweedfoundation.org.uk
Thank you to the boatmen and ghillies for your fishing reports. Anglers please keep emailing your fishing news to anne@rivertweed.org.uk and tag us into your Tweed fishing trips on social at River Tweed News.
Best wishes
Anne
