news/editorial

13 March 2016 News/Editorial

Whatever Muse there ever was (limited most would say) has gone, blogger’s block, writer’s cramp, call it what you will, the agony of knowing you ought to have something gripping to say, but nothing comes along.

First, I tried something like this…….

“It has long been a criticism of this Tweedbeats website, especially when it started, that it confuses when it comes to salmon catch numbers.

So how many were caught last week on the Tweed?

My guess would be 110-120, which you can just about come to if you take Fishtweed’s 71, add on another 30+ from the Warks, Mertouns, Floors, Lees etc who are just on Tweedbeats (eliminating from the Tweedbeats total, for this purpose, those who are on both sites eg Rutherford, Makerstoun, Birgham Dub etc), and finally add on a few more for all those beats who never report, either at all or at least not daily, eg Tweedmill, Lennel, Cornhill, Carham, Upper Pavilion, Whiteadder and lower Teviot beats and other tributaries….and so on).

Fishtweed has a “Season so far” page which summarises its weekly catches and then shows both season and annual totals. That it does not actually show the total Tweed river catch, or anything like it, is demonstrated by its bar chart showing the 2015 catch at about 4,500, when in fact it was 8,093.

No matter how many caveats you put on that “Season so far” page, which Fishtweed certainly does, you wonder at the value of producing summarised figures, which, to the casual observer, purport to be for the whole river……. with comparisons to other rivers and previous years, when in fact they represent little over a half of the whole?

Which is why Tweedbeats has never sought to do it.”

But that won’t do, everyone will think I am getting at Fishtweed, old habits etc….so better not print that.

Then I tried something like this…….

“Imagine my horror at reading Richard Donkin’s column in the March 2016 Trout & Salmon where he pretty much comes out in favour of beavers being introduced UK wide because the Ecologist (whatever that is) “argues that, with sufficient surrounding woodland, beavers perform a service in helping to hold back floodwaters with their dams”.

Can this really be Trout and Salmon magazine (I’ve cancelled my sub), a magazine whose whole purpose is the wellbeing of our migratory fish, promoting beavers because they build dams and hold back water….you bet they do, and with that they also hold back our salmon and trout from migrating to where they want to go to lay their eggs.

I have never before heard such mindless twaddle from someone who should know better.

Of course, holding back water in the tops of rivers is a good idea, by recreating marshlands and bogs, even dams where migratory fish cannot access because of natural topography, for peak flood prevention……. but to unleash beavers on the UK with all the other consequences they are well known to have, is, from a (migratory) fisheries management viewpoint alone, downright irresponsible.”

Er, no I can’t possibly write that, mustn’t upset those nice people at T&S as well as those at Fishtweed, double whammy, best to say nothing, keep the head well under the parapet etc etc.

So, instead, I will tell you this……….

“It is about going fishing for an hour on Saturday afternoon.

I caught one, 10lbs, fat as could be and covered in sea lice, the same fly, cast and line I used in November, like my father, I never change things much.

I felt sorry for it as I struggled to unhook it, knowing it has 7 more months to survive before it spawns, I desperately did not want to harm it, as the hooks stubbornly refused to come out.

But eventually away it went, back to continue its great journey upstream”.

That is if it doesn’t come across any of the Donkin’s beaver dams, and, of course, it will never figure in the Fishtweed “Season so far” catch totals for the Tweed.

Oops!