news/editorial

11 June 2017 News/Editorial

The rains have come and gone, the river has flooded/risen at least twice…...just exactly as ordered.

Those fishing this week could be very lucky. The forecast is good, dry and sunny and maybe not too hot.

The river will be in prime condition, and there should be both fresh salmon and sea trout aplenty (heavy emphasis on “should be”!) after such a prolonged drought, during which there was no encouragement whatever for fish to come in from the sea.

How odd is it that all Tweed’s main fishing beats are pretty much fully let and fishing in March, yet June, despite blindingly obvious recent evidence that more salmon come into the river in June than March, is still treated by most proprietors and letting agents as distinctly secondary to both the spring and, of course, the autumn?

Typically, ghillies/boatmen work part time in the summer, boats are taken off to be painted/repaired, and “other jobs” seem to take priority over the business of actually catching fish. The number of rods available to let also tends to drop.

In a way, this is understandable when the sun is blazing and river dead low, and, of course, historically pre 2003 (even more so pre 1987) very few salmon would get into the river, thanks to a combination of heavy Northumbrian drift netting and our own in-river nets.

But when there is water, and with much reduced netting, the summer now can be very prolific…...and an incomparably nicer time to fish than fighting a stiff northeasterly, with snow flurries, in March.

If I were a marketing man, I would be pushing Tweed’s summer fishing much more than it is now. Yes, we all know the Tweed in summer is not the Spey, but, with water, there is no reason why it should not come close. You should fish in the mornings on sunny days, and then from 7pm until nightfall, either spending the afternoons asleep, or, with sufficient energy, on the golf course.

The salmon angling public’s perception of Tweed in summer is long overdue a change.

We will soon see if catch figures, as a result of the welcome deluges hitting the catchment last week, go some way to achieving that change.

I will not be the only one looking at the catches, for the first half of the coming week at least, with a more than usual amount of interest.

They could be good.