news/editorial

15 July 2018 News/Editorial

The total Tweed catch for last week was 50 salmon and 7 sea trout, making a cumulative total of 1,085 salmon and 262 sea trout to 14th July 2018.

Folklore has it that whatever the weather is today, St Swithin’s Day, it will be similar for the next 40 days.

The radar picture tells us that a weather front is sitting over western Scotland, and it is raining.

As it moves east, that front will weaken and produce no meaningful rain for us…..but rain nonetheless.

The high pressure blockages of recent weeks are being worn down and the jetstream is more likely to throw Atlantic fronts our way over the next few weeks.

It could be a very slow process with little sign of immediate relief from the drought.

But then, on average, August here is the wettest month of the year.

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These pages have, in recent times, deliberately refrained from comment about upstream spinning with a flying condom in very low water…..because it so divides opinion.

How many of the fish caught over recent weeks have been caught in this way?

Quite possibly the majority.

It is noticeable that many of the beats that do it have been regular reporters of fish caught, whereas those who are fly only in low water, have not been.

It is an especially emotive subject when banks are owned separately, and even more so when one of those beats fishes with an upstream flying condom most of the time, and the other is fly only.

Here are the Lees catches for this June and July (so far) as compared to West Learmouth on the half mile of fishing which the two beats share.

June - Lees 8 West Learmouth 25

July - Lees 0 West Learmouth 4

I will leave you to guess which beat spins with an upstream flying condom (or something similar), and which beat only fishes with a fly.

Of course, you could say that a fly only beat should, in contravention of its principles, retaliate by spinning as well, and/or probably also getting onto the river before the other side to ensure all the pools are fished first.

And they could do that.

But therein lies a race to the bottom.

There is, of course, not only the issue as to whether it is justifiable to spin upstream most of the time in very low water, just because it is more effective….but also where banks are owned separately, is the spinning beat, by catching so many of the available fish, unfairly adversely affecting the chances of the beat on the other side? And, also, thereby unfairly affecting the fly only beat’s ability to attract tenants, because the non-stop spinning on the other side will put them off.

I can only tell you, from experience, that once opposing rods have been upstream spinning a pool all morning, the chances of fly fishers on the other side catching anything there in the afternoon are almost NIL.

We are far from alone in having this problem, other beats have similar issues, the Tweed angling code re spinning in low water is routinely ignored, and it is high time a code of behaviour, that all will adhere to, is agreed...and applied across the board.

When we get rain, all this will be temporarily forgotten, but when it gets low again, probably next year….

…... it will happen all over again.

Unless and until, maybe sometime soon, somehow a compromise can be reached which all parties can live with and feel is fair.

But we are nowhere near that yet.

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The Tweed’s closest major salmon river on the east coast is, of course, the Tyne.

The CEFAS 2017 statistics show that in 2017 the Tyne rods caught 3,329 salmon and grilse, with very much the minority (28%) being grilse.

The Tweed rods caught 6,577 salmon and grilse in 2017, almost double the Tyne, but not so long ago the Tweed would often catch 3, 4 or even 5 times more than the Tyne.

The Tyne’s Riding Mill counter provides some insight into what is happening in 2018. In June 4,327 salmon and sea trout went through the counter, whereas in June 2017 there were 7,581.

No doubt some of that reduction will be a result of the weather, and the counter cannot differentiate between salmon and sea trout.

But it would be logical to suppose that when it starts to rain and river levels recover, there will be a sudden, hopefully substantial, influx of fresh salmon, both on the Tyne...and here…..because of the pent-up demand in the sea.