Despite no extra water catches held up well, including two 30lb plus fish 

The Tweed online catch was 471 salmon last week, yet again, no doubt, over 600 when non-reporters are included. Despite no extra water catches held up well, if with a distinctly downstream bias as the water ran out.

Lennel 

Another good week with 36 fish and many lost. Monday rods caught 9. Tuesday was our best day with 10 including our biggest fish of the season. Tony Bell fishing in the afternoon caught a 21lb salmon from the Prop and then 6 casts later caught a 30lber (weighed). Rods also caught fish betweed 15-19lb during the week. The beat is now on 366 fish. 

Tillmouth 

We finished on 38 for the week taking our tally to 481 fish, which is our best in 5 years. There are plenty of fish in our beats, including some great big lumps. 

The Lees 

Anglers fishing the beat caught 70. Catches in September were 228 and August 178 which takes our total to 555 fish. The last time the beat caught over 500 fish was in  2013. This week we caught up with the Head boatman, Paul Hume.   

Lower Birgham

A different week but similar results. We finished the week on 11 salmon. Spread pretty evenly between the 2 parties of 3 days this week. As with the last few weeks, the fish have been pretty consistently showing at times in the days. Abit of same fish, same splash, same time…. But at least we have some targets to aim for while we’re casting in what is low water conditions now. The river is as low as it has been all year, so with the water and air temperatures dropping, fishing maybe deeper and heavier gear doesn’t quite work. The slow water mixed with a weedy bottom means as soon as the fly gets near the river bottom …. Boom it’s covered in weedy snot. And so far I’ve never caught a fish with any amount of weed on the fly so it can become quite tedious checking all the time. So it’s a fine balancing act of fishing low in the water but not to low. We’ve tried big flies, small flies, light flies, heavy flies, long flies short flies and every other available option in the box, but have always reverted back to quite big and dark flies and had success. The question is had we found the right fly or was it the case of finding the right fish to take what we offered? We had some bigger fish aswell with one day landing 3 great conditioned fish 16,17 and a 20 lb fish. Each one producing a heart in the mouth moment, some for an epic run, some for leaping out multiple times or one that was up in the streamy water at the top of the beat and I’m pretty sure it played us for most of the fight! But all in all a great week, one that resulted in our season tally of salmon going over the 200 mark and the best year for many! Still 7 or 8 weeks left of the season so who knows what our end catch will be. A slightly unsettled week is/was forecast but like we all know it can change in a heart beat and might be dry again. Who knows? A change might get them all stirred up and bring them on the take… let’s hope so.

Carham

Monday, we started the week with 6" on the gauge and 49f water temp. We landed 1 salmon and 1 sea trout. Tuesday, we were at 6" again and 50f water temp. We landed 2 salmon to 15lb. Wednesday, we were at 6" again and 50f water temp. We landed 2 salmon to 13lbs. Thursday, we were at 6" and 50f water temp again. We landed 2 salmon to 13lb. Friday, we at 5" and 50f water temp. We landed 6 salmon to 17lbs. Saturday, we were at 4" and 51f water temp. 1 sea trout was the only fish landed. Monday - Wednesday were challenging due to the stiff North Easterly winds. The fish went quiet, and the weather conditions were really difficult for our anglers those 3 days. In the second half of the week, the weather picked up, and the wind swung round to the south, then South West, suddenly, we started to see more fish showing again, and we caught a few more fish. Saturday was a strange one, we had a good height on the gauge, and the overhead conditions were pretty good, but we couldn't get a pull from a salmon. Floating lines with short int/slow sink tips and conehead Francis flies were doing well again this week. Cheers Lee

Tweedswood

It was the best week of the season despite desperate low water 💦 14 salmon and 6 lost Icelandic style micro Francis and Sunray shadow. Neil Richardson has been having lessons with me for a month and this was his first booked day and his first-ever salmon. The beat is hosting a  Frödin Flies open event with Mikael Frödin. Friday 11th October 2-6pm. 

Boleside

Another week of low water -1 on the gauge has continued to make me fishing challenging. Despite the conditions we managed 10 Salmon for the week. The highlights being on Friday with an 11lb fish for Ian Ferguson just a couple of days short of his 80th birthday and Colin Harvey landing a large cock fish of 31lb in the Gardenback on a Sunray. Saturday saw us land 3 fish with Jeremy Henderson landing an 18lber from the Gardenback on a black Francis conehead. Hopefully we will get some much needed rain over the next few days and the water level will lift. As with the last few weeks the rods that are prepared to change thier tactics will be rewarded.

Catches

For a comprehensive view of catches, visit the River Tweed website, Fishing Section. If you are viewing the catches page on a mobile phone, please view the page in landscape mode for the best experience.

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Tight lines

Anne Woodcock

Email anne@tweedfoundation.org.uk

Mobile 07540 834852

The Tweed Foundation Annual Auction will go live in November. If you would like to donate an auction lot to support the work of the foundation and education program, TweedStart, please email anne@tweedfoundation.org.uk