River Tweed Fishing Report 5th to 10th August

323 salmon reported on the river tweed website, but the non reporters excelled, so it would be no surprise if the real Tweed total was well over 400, possibly 500+ salmon. The Floors beats did well, Lennel and Tweedmill had stellar days, the former one day of 15 salmon (13 to one rod), and Tweeedmill at least one day over 20 salmon.

That conditions have been nigh on perfect, you cannot catch that number of salmon and grilse without there being plenty. Not only that, but as the landing rate of those pesky grilse can be well under 50%, the successful captures (memo to self, don’t use the word “landing” again, they should be kept in the water) bear little relationship to the action.

What of next week? After brief heat and possible thunderstorms on Monday, the weather is reverting to the same old series of Atlantic troughs speeding towards us, producing more cool, breezy and showery conditions which is good for fishing,

Tillmouth

Fishing has been a bit up and down this week. Rods could not keep fish on, we lost count the number we lost on Monday. Coloured water on Tuesday, the river rose to 3ft. Wednesday, Chris Lapsa’s daughters caught 5 fish between them, Jessy and Elsa also lost fish, including a 17lber. Friday more fish lost. Grilse everywhere and Lennel beat on the opposite bank had 37 fish in 3 days. 

Lower Birgham

Better back half of the week, a rise in the river from Monday evening affected the fish, they were still there but not in a taking mood. We ended up with 13 salmon and a sea trout and a few more lost. 

Carham Beat

Fish were still coming through in small numbers all week. Yet again we've had unsettled weather through the week, but overhead conditions were pretty good for fishing generally.

Monday, 2" and 62f, and didn't land anything, however we did have contact with fish. 

Tuesday, 2'6" thanks to water from the Tweed, Ettrick and Teviot. No fishing with a very coloured river. Wednesday, 1'4" and 62f. The river was still carrying a fair bit of colour so spinning was the method chosen for the day. We lost 2 grilse and a sea trout, and we also had 5 other good pulls, but nothing was landed. 

Thursday, 10" and 62f. 1 salmon, 3 grilse and a sea trout were landed, another salmon and 2 grilse were also lost. All the fish were contacted on fly. 

Friday, 8" and 60f. The high winds caused a few issues, but despite that a keen young angler caught his 1st ever salmon on fly and is now hooked for life. 

Saturday, 1' and 60f. 1 salmon and 1 grilse were landed, both on fly.

Small tubes and coneheads on floating lines with inertermediate or slow sink tips were the successful combinations.

Boleside Beat

Rising water in the early part of the week mainly out of the Ettrick made conditions challenging. The water started to settle by Thursday.  We connected with 6 salmon on Friday but only managed to land 2,  a cracking specimen at 12lb and 5lb for Mick Laidlaw. Saturday the fish held on better and rods managed 2 salmon and 4 sea trout, the best a 7lb beast out of the Meetings on a Teal Blue and Silver. With the water dropping we will hopefully connect with more next week. Short intermediate tips and small flies are working best.

Latest Catches 

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 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

Sign up to receive the weekly fishing report by joining the Tweed mailing list at the bottom of this page.