Birgham Dub

beat overview

Fishing has been an important part of Hirsel Estate life since 1743 when the Eighth Earl of Home caught a 69lb salmon (on a 22ft rod and a horse hair line) and whose dog (who was nearly as notorious) would catch and land fish at his Master’s feet.

A hundred years later the Lord Home of the day caught an average of 14 salmon a day (to his own rod) for 6 consecutive days in June, and almost 100 years after that Sir Alec Douglas-Home, with two others, caught 64 fresh salmon in one February day.

Over the last 250 years the fortunes of Tweed have been cause of constant speculation, but today Birgham Dub continues to provide excellent salmon fishing and in 2010 achieved its best catch (707 salmon) for over 20 years.

So fishing really is still as important to us today as it was to 8th Earl of Home - nearly 270 years ago!

Birgham Dub is situated on the Lower Tweed, between Kelso and Coldstream.

With a 5 year average of 290 salmon, throughout the autumn the average number of fish caught is between 15 - 20 salmon a week.

Fishing is let in blocks of 3 or 6 days throughout the year, with “first refusal” usually given to those people who have taken fishing the previous year.

However, during the last week of August, the Estate donates a number of days to various associated charities (Tweed Foundation, Atlantic Salmon Trust, Heather Trust and other similar organisations) providing others with an opportunity to fish on “the Dub”.

For those coming from further afield (if required) accommodation can be provided in one of the two holiday cottages on the Estate. http://www.dandaestates.co.uk/holiday-cottages/the-homestead.php

archived catch statistics

Salmon	Febr	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Total
2021 Salmon	0	9	8	15	10	15	39	37	32	3	168
2022 Salmon	4	12	21	28	26	15	4	71	46	3	230
2023 Salmon	5	12	22	20	14	43	83	35	34	2	270
2024 Salmon	6	6	4	29	29	62	114	188	55	2	495
2025 Salmon	3	18	13	13	32	41	25	192	102	0	439
AVG Salmon	4	11	14	21	22	35	53	105	54	2	320

Sea Trout	Febr	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Total
2021 Sea Trout	0	1	0	3	2	7	7	3	12	4	39
2022 Sea Trout	1	2	3	1	6	0	0	3	1	0	17
2023 Sea Trout	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	4
2024 Sea Trout	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	6
2025 Sea Trout	0	2	0	3	8	7	2	8	1	1	32
AVG Sea Trout	0	1	1	1	4	3	2	3	3	1	20

season to date

Salmon	Febr	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Total
2026 Salmon	4	14	11	20	24	13	13	78	33	0	210

Sea Trout	Febr	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Total
2026 Sea Trout	0	0	0	2	4	3	8	16	3	0	36