news/editorial

17 July 2016 News/Editorial

Whenever this column says anything critical about Fishpal/Fishtweed, it is accused of being unkind, unfair, of having a private agenda. “Don’t wash your dirty linen in public” some have said in the past.

The trouble is that Fishpal acts to let fishing for many rivers, whereas we here at Tweedbeats act to let fishing for only one river, the Tweed.

Feathers have been ruffled by Fishpal’s recent newsletter which says all sorts of wonderful things about almost every river you can think of (and some you can’t), with one exception, yes, you guessed it, the Tweed.

So here we go.

They say “Tweed, much more of a difficult story right now, with rain missing the valley much to the annoyance of many, other than the lower beats. The river needs a good flush out”…...and so it goes on, pretty downbeat you must agree, not really a positive word in sight.

That’s it.

Now that might have been ok, if it had not then gone on to provide more than fullsome praise for every other river in Scotland, and elsewhere.

In effect it says the Tweed alone smells, but every other river is fab and you must go and fish there.

Compare to what Fishpal says about other all these other rivers.

“The Dee is fishing well…...the Tay continues to fish well…….Helmsdale, Naver, Thurso and Ness all reporting decent catches…the Spey is fishing well with reports of fish caught the length of the river…...Gordon Castle on the Spey has caught 286 salmon in June……….River Tyne has enjoyed a very good run…...great to see rivers in Yorkshire having a really good time of it…..the River Bann (Ireland) is something else this season…….River Annan is currently at a good height for salmon…….expectations on the River Tay remain high for 2016 with over 2,000 fish so far……. 20lb fish have been reported so far in July on the Dee, Lochy, Findhorn, Ness, Spey, Tyne, Test and Itchen”.......and so it goes on.

Now let me give you a more balanced version of how Tweed has fished this season, and this despite never really having a proper flood since March, or even earlier, depending on how you define “a proper flood”.

It has been very distinctly better than average, with the middle/lower beats doing well in the early spring, the middle/higher beats ok in the late spring, and the lower beats as well as could be expected, possibly better, from May onwards.

Numbers caught will easily exceed 2,000 to the end of June, trumpeted for the Tay, but never mentioned by Fishpal for the Tweed.

Maybe only the Spey to date has caught more salmon than the Tweed so far in 2016.

And this all goes to the heart of why Tweedbeats ever started and continues to provide a purely Tweed service for the owners who let their fishing on it…...and who, let us remember, broke away from Fishpal precisely because of its almost monopolistic ambitions to let fishing and act for all rivers.

So, whatever becomes of Fishpal, Tweedbeats will always be here for anyone who wants to use it, no commision on fishing let and just a paltry maximum £250 pa subscription (minimum £50), depending on the 5 year average catches for each beat which wants to join.

Fishpal and others, at the time of the way-parting, said we could never run it for £5,000pa….in fact, we run it for a lot less.

Now, nobody would say that Fishpal/Fishtweed does not do a good job….of course it does, it is a truly excellent site and it works especially well for those owners and fishermen who like “spot” booking of fishing online.

But for those owners who do not want to let exclusively (or at all) online and who want a purely Tweed site, we at Tweedbeats will talk about only Tweed and its fishing in a fair and balanced way whenever we can…..and crucially we have no mandate whatever for any other river, nor do we ever want one.

So what would we say about Tweed fishing right now?

“The Tweed has fished consistently in 2016, despite no real floods since March, and has caught substantially over 2,000 salmon so far, well above its 5 year average. The lower beats are now fishing well, with mainly large salmon being reported and some grilse just beginning to appear…..and things can only improve further once water arrives.”

Huh……. “Tweed, much more of a difficult story right now”...... indeed!

And finally, per Fishtweed’s own figures, the Tay caught 98 last week and the Dee 113.

Here on the “difficult” Tweed, the water still low, the Fishtweed total was 121 and the Tweedbeats total for those beats not on Fishtweed was 49, so that’s 170 in total.

‘Nuff said.

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My thanks to the Duke of Roxburghe for the picture of an Alta salmon, all 51lbs of it, just about the most magnificent sea-liced cock salmon you could ever see, caught and released by my old friend, Andrew Christie-Miller.

The other picture is of it, all 51lbs, deciding it wanted to get back into the river; not that those holding it could possibly do anything to stop it!

I am not promoting the Alta (it has no need of that) as opposed to the Tweed (!), both because (a) you will never get on to the Alta anyway and (b) you can’t afford it, even if you could get a slot.

Maybe one day someone will catch one like it here, but I am permanently troubled by such a monster being caught, released and then nobody will believe the weight, or indeed have any accurate way of measuring it. Readers may recall such a thing has happened before (yours truly got into trouble about that….again!), indeed it happens almost every year, if not of a 50lber, at least of something very large.

We all need to get those weighing blankets, currently the preserve of carp fishermen who go on catching “George” the 65lber, or “Lizzie” the 69lber, both residents of some cavernous gravel pit in Suffolk, and who weigh him/her every time in the blanket, just to see how their respective weights are progressing.

We could also start talking about “swims” rather than “pools”, and before you all start getting snooty about coarse fishing, I am told that fly fishing for pike is just about the most exciting thing you can do.

The flies are about the size of your hand and all colours of the rainbow

…….. but those pike, I am told, just cannot resist them.