news/editorial

15 November 2015 News/Editorial

10 weeks of drought and, now, 2 of floods (as I write we have a 10 footer, the biggest flood for over a year) just about sums up Tweed autumn fishing in 2015.

Suddenly, here we are, the season almost done, in mid/late November.

Ah November, that most fickle, and controversial, of fishing months.

Fickle, because it can, and often has, produced fishing bounty in spades; just as often, it has not.

Controversial, because there are many who think we should not be fishing in November at all.

More than any other autumn month, it tends to be feast or famine, as results here over the last 5 years have shown:

2010 213 salmon

2011 79

2012 57

2013 230

2014 45

2013, just 2 years ago, was a record November catch.

The reason for the poor return in 2012 was weather, with incessant floods, especially later in the month.

In 2014 it was lack of fish.

In 2011 it was because the fish came in early and by November would not take anything.

2015 looks like being both flooding and lack of fish.

But it is the controversial aspect of November fishing which exercises anglers most, never a year going by without the words “we shouldn’t be fishing for these black fish” being heard, often with no real evidence that fishing for and catching “these black fish”, while clearly not doing them any good, does them any harm, so long as they are handled carefully and returned swiftly.

Such arguments are also inconsistent, because old springers are black, red and green as early as August and September, and I have never heard anyone say we should stop fishing in those months to avoid catching our precious old springers.

By the same token, you could argue we should not be fishing in the spring, because catching kelts can hardly be good for them.

Indeed, as our most vulnerable stock, the only stock not affected by November fishing is our springers, because they are long gone above and beyond rod fishermen, into the uppermost reaches of the Tweed, Ettrick, Teviot, Till and Whiteadder…..to spawn…...which is why the rods start catching kelts in November.

On 26th November 2007 we caught 13 salmon here, and 6 of them were sea liced. I have no doubt that year that sea liced autumn fish would have been coming in in December.

And herein lies the problem with November…...it all depends when the fish come in.

Sometimes they come in early (2011 was the most recent obvious example of that)... and then sometimes they come in late.

There are those who say the River Tweed Commission should close the river down early in years such as this, all of which assumes the RTC has the power to do this…...which it does not.

It would also disenfranchise all those beats above Boleside, where November is by far their best month; it would be seen as elitist, denying those upper beats the chance to catch something, while the fat cat beats down below have had 9 months of good fishing already.

Any attempt at November closure would also be subject to rapid legal challenge, one would think, by the upper beats, and rightly so.

I have also heard it said that the lower beats should close in November if the upper beats are to continue, but that is absurd if “black fish” is the reason given, because it is mainly the lower beats who are likely to have fresh fish in November, and the higher-up beats the least likely. Not only that, but the lowest beats in most years effectively close themselves, because they catch very little, often nothing, once the floods start.

So where do we go from here?

I would strongly recommend, and support…….. leaving well alone.

Tweed back end salmon runs have always varied in timing, but uniquely amongst the big salmon rivers, there can be exceptional runs of fresh salmon well into November and even beyond…..as the last 5 years have shown.

The benefits of that far outweigh the often illogical, inconsistent and, some would say, anthropomorphic arguments for stopping earlier, (say) at either 31st October or 15th November.

But I still expect to hear the same things said about “not fishing for black fish” next November…..and the one after, and the one after that, and so on.

It will run and run.

And, I hope and trust, it goes nowhere.