River Tweed Fishing Report Monday 15th to Saturday 20th July

Catches were spread across the system from Tweedhill to Ashiestiel in the upper Tweed. If we include non reporting beats over 200 fish approx were caught and my sources inform me, one party had over 25 salmon and sea trout during their 3 day trip.  

Lower River 

Horncliffe Beat: Anglers fishing Wednesday through Friday encountered fish running through the beat, landing three fish up to 10lbs in Holywell pool. Successful flies included Willie Gunn, Tyne Toucan, and size 14 Black Francis.

Lennel: A cooler start on Saturday led to a day full of opportunities, with many pulls and lost fish. Finally in the afternoon, a fresh 10/11lb fish was landed and released. For the week, 10 fish were caught, bringing the season’s total so far to 45 salmon and 5 sea trout.

Tillmouth: Five fish were landed last week. After the rain at the weekend, Monday July 22nd, six fish were caught, with the largest being 16lbs.

West Learmouth: The week started off reasonably well with two fish coming off the beat on Monday and Tuesday, and plenty of fish to be seen throughout the beat. Small lifts of water and rising temperatures  put fish off, resulting in one fish each day from Wednesday onwards, we just couldn’t manage to tempt anything, although there was still a number of fish to be seen. We are hoping for some settled and cooler water next week. Tight lines to everyone out this week. Cheers Dean. 

Coldstream Trout Fishing: Guy Stephenson reports challenging conditions due to rising water levels and winds, with few evening hatches. Nymphs have been effective when there's little surface activity. Hopefully the weather will settle and we can get some good fishing before the end of the season. 

Lees: Six fish were caught last week, bringing the season total so far to 75. Andrew Douglas-Home noted the adverse effects of hot, humid weather on salmon fishing. Read more at TweedBeats. 

South Wark: Fishing has picked up with more resident fish. Successful fly is a small Francis. Lower North War, also part of the Wark Estate, caught 4 fish taking their total so far to 63 fish. 

Lower Birgham 

A slightly quieter week this week. The fish caught have been good size for summer fish,  no grilse, all big summer salmon. Grilse have been seen running, but so far have avoided our flies. Last week sea trout were regularly seen crashing about during the day and the evenings, this week they have either gone shy or moved on.  On Monday and Tuesday we had the wheelyboat on the beat. We used to have it very regularly with one of our owners utilising it, so was nice to get it back down and use it again. Paul who used it had a great couple of days but didn’t manage to get hold of a fish… well briefly did but unfortunately not long enough. But there’s always next time. Fingers crossed!  Whilst writing this (Saturday) I got a call from below us that there were pods of fish seen showing and running past them, so with this new intel we headed back onto the river and hey presto! Within a few casts a fresh grilse was landed, maybe this was the start of the ‘run’. Well amazingly 10 minutes later a second fish was caught by the next rod up! And then incredibly 15 minutes later the third fisher at the top of the beat connected with a fish and a hat trick of fish, one for each rod! If carsberg did fishing moments… this would have been one of those!  All thanks to the info of fish heading our way. A great end to the week, and 3 very happy anglers.

Junction: Fished well early in the  week with good numbers of salmon, biggest at 16lb and sea trout to 10lbs caught. Thunderstorms across the catchment on Tuesday affected water clarity on Wednesday. Top flies cascade size 10. Lines floating with a small tip. 

Trout Fishing Ronnie Glass

Trout fishing continues to be poor. Certainly the lower Tweed is very quiet. Thankfully there are a few reports of short spells of surface activity and, when caught, the trout are in great condition. They must be feeding on something ! At this time of year it is normally the Sedge hatch at dusk that provides our sport but, so far, these are absent. On a positive note the nymph anglers are starting to pick up large numbers of small grayling and some trout in the faster streams. The small (10 inch) grayling are also being caught on tiny dry flies at the tails of the pools

Middle River

Makerstoun:  A bit quieter with us this week. The wee lift we had coloured up the river for the first couple of days, with a few fish lost on the spinner, and one landed on the upper beat on Wednesday. By Thursday river was clearing and we persevered with the fly, and landed a clean fish on the Upper beat in the afternoon. Friday was better, with the river carrying a wee tinge of colour, we lost 2 fish and landed 1 fresh fish on the lower beat. Saw a few fish going through and these were smaller fish. We landed the beats first Grilse at 3lbs and lost another on Saturday. We also had an older fish on the lower beat . Overall a steady week with fish still running through the beat and a noticible shortage of Sea Trout but maybe they will pick up a wee bit. Rain due tonight so another wee lift may keep the fish on the move hopefully. The beats finished on 12 fish and 1 sea trout.

Rutherford: Junior angler Woody Younger (age 9) fished Tuesday night with his father and reports, “The river was slightly coloured and had risen a couple of inches, a few sea trout about, resulting in one for his dad, Jonny”  Highlight for his Dad was seeing Woody’s casting improve and managing a longer line. The beat finished on 12 taking their season to 126 fish. 

Lower Mertoun: Mat reports a lovely 3-day fishing experience with a 14lb fish caught opposite the Groins. Despite 760 casts so far, Mat is still trying to catch his first salmon. On Friday the water level dropped 2” and ran clear at 0” on the gauge. He thoroughly enjoyed the fishing, wildlife - watched an otter, hares, roe deer and king fisher. 

Upper Mertoun: Anglers reported a mix of resident and fresh fish, including a 10lb sea trout. The beat finished with 8 fish, bringing the season total to 76. The rise of dirty water mid week did’nt put fish off.

Dryburgh Upper: The new hut is now completed. Ando and his dad Fred came from Holland for their annual 3 days fishing holiday last week and had some great sport, landing 4 salmon to abound 12lbs and a sea trout.

Bemersyde: Four fish caught on the fly, with two on Saturday. A river rise on Wednesday allowed for one fish caught while spinning.

Tweedswood: A lot of fish moving through the beat. Of note was Tomas Reznicek who on Saturday connected with multiple fish lost one and landed 2 at 8lbs and 10lbs small dressed doubles. Green highlander and a silver stoats tail variant. Saturday is a day we all dream of as salmon anglers, pure magic. 

Drygrange: Ian reports the river has been in good order. No salmon caught on my days, but several nice sea trout have been caught and returned by other rods fishing. 

Boleside: Slow start to the week, a rise of water on Tuesday and Wednesday affected fishing. The river was in fine fettle by the end of the week, and rods caught 3 salmon and 1 sea trout.  Salmon have been terrific this year, very clean fish for up here at this time of the year. Majority of fish have been in the 10lb plus bracket. One inch on the guauge with plenty of flow on the water. Successful flies black n yellow, cascade and some sucess stripping a monkey. Short intermediate tip from 10 to 5. 

Upper River

Fairnilee: Mark reports that its been a bonus this year with river levels up and down. We don't usually see any fish until late summer so syndicate rods had some lovely clean fish, long may it continue. 

Horsbrugh: With low river levels the fish in the beat are settled. A decent rainfall is needed to move some more fish forward and waken up the residents. It’s still very early for us, this far up river and good water levels are essential for fish to move at this time of year. Hoping to see some sea trout appearing anytime now. 

Tweed Tributaries

River Till at Tiptoe: Lucy Carroll reports, Mike Blee caught and returned a 4 lb sea trout in the Pulpit Pool (Pool 10) at 6.30 a.m. on a Silver stoat variant. The river has been high the last few days but slowly coming down. On Saturday, Don Holtman caught a 2.5-lb sea trout in the Quarry Run Pool (Pool 9). Don also caught at least five brown trout. We have two fishermen who hooked nice sea trout but lost them as they did a victory roll! Today, Monday 22nd, a keen fisherman is fishing with us for the week and spent the day with Charlie Brownlow, and has caught a 3lb sea trout and a 4.5lb salmon. 

Whiteadder BDAA Water: Jamie Moorhead reports After a record breaking May, June catches were down to 3, 1 salmon & 2 seatrout were reported for the whole month, July is seeing some grilse & seatrout moving through so far after the rise in water levels with conditions looking good Some excellent trout catches have also been recorded by anglers during summer evenings Forecast for the week ahead is sunshine, clouds & rain showers which will hopefully have the water in near perfect condition

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.

Trout fishing availability for July - visit the Trout Angling page on the River Tweed website. 

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, ghillies and anglers for your fishing reports. Please keep emailing your fishing news to anne@tweedfoundation.org.uk  

Best wishes

Anne

The Tweed Foundation Annual Auction will go live in October. 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