Best week this season

Tweed’s online scorers notched up 487 salmon for the week, yet again the highest of the season so far. It is safe to assume an all river catch, inc. the many online absentees of over 600 salmon. Assumptions galore, you will say, but if taking last week’s assertion that the season’s score to 31st August was around 5,000 salmon, then the Tweed score for 2024 to date may well be around the total, for the whole of 2023, at 5,720.

There are definitely more fish, the rod catch would indicate that, as would the much bigger catches of the research netting at Paxton. Secondly, fishing conditions can seldom have been more perfect throughout the summer, never too hot, always just enough water to encourage fish to move upstream, generally cool and breezy.

Never mind, there are plenty of resident river fish in most beats, waiting for the weather to become less muggy and cooler, cold even, which is precisely what is promised for next week. Amounts of rain are uncertain, but the theme is distinctly more unsettled. That blocking northerly high pressure is receding and the favoured, for fishers, Atlantic drift from the west/north west will resume. If the water temperature drops to the low 50sF, then those river fish could be persuaded to take your fly.

Lower Birgham 

Having spent a week on holiday in what seemed the biggest week of the year on the river the week before to say I was itching to get to work would be an understatement! And luckily it kicked off really well on Monday with a pod of fresh grilse sitting in one of our deeper and slower pools. We ended up with 7 landed and even more lost, some very agonisingly close, inch’s away… Tuesday again we got into the swing of it and landed more and lost less, so the ratios were getting better. But again all mainly grilse, with the odd fish just touching double figures. As the week went on the numbers slowly dropped, but fish were seen in numbers throughout the week and fish were landed every day. So 27 salmon we ended up with which is fantastic and some more lost. Reports from lower down the river is that some fresh fish are still making their way into the system. It’s become a little bit of a gamble in recent years to wish for a rise of water this time of year as it has before taken all we have around us and not replaced with a fresh batch of silver autumn fish. Maybe we should just keep picking away as we are and be grateful, hoping for a flood or change when this lot quieten off. Who knows? It’s still early in the autumn, only the end of the first week of September now and we are currently on nearly 160 fish. Which is absolutely fantastic. Let’s hope we can keep the run going and get closer to our next target figure. Only time will tell…

Carham Beat

Monday, we started the week with the gauge at 3'3" and badly coloured, we fished the morning with the spinner, but touched nothing, so the fishers gave up at lunchtime. Tuesday, we were at 2'6" and 56f water temp. We ended up with 8 grilse and 2 salmon for the day. Due to the height and colour of the water and the strong wind the fishers chose to spin and that turned out to be the right choice. Wednesday, we didn't fish due to high dirty water. Thursday, we were at 3'2" and 56f. Due to overnight rain, which put the river up again, we chose to spin and picked up 3 grilse. Friday, we were at 2'4" and 56f. We ended up with 5 grilse and 3 salmon to 18lb. Saturday, we were at 1'9" and 56f. We ended up with 2 salmon and 2 fish lost. All the fish contacted were on the fly. This was a tough week with the river being so unsettled, but there were obviously a good number of fish there when we did get fishing. We had 1 sea liced fish for the week, but generally the fish caught had been in the river for a few weeks. The overhead conditions were mixed again, but it still had that autumnal feel about it. Flying cs and rapalas worked for us on the spinning front, while floaters with short fast sinking tips with small tubes worked on the fly front.

Boleside 

Monday saw fresh water and some new fish arrive into the beat, however despite connecting with 7 we failed to land any. Murray Richardson and his party faired better landing 4 Salmon on Tuesday. The water settled midweek and the warmer weather at the tail end of the week put the fish down. However Andrew King persevered and was rewarded with 3 salmon all on a Wullie Gunn Snelda all from the top of the Boat Pool. We managed 9 salmon and 1 sea trout for the week. Fingers crossed for favourable conditions this week.

Catches

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

Don’t forget to sign up for the River Tweed newsletter and follow our social media pages for the latest updates from the River Tweed Commission, Tweed Foundation, TweedStart, and fishing news.

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