17 October 2021 News/Editorial
For 20+ years from 1987 our delightful American visitors took last week, the second full week in October. They always got it right, perfect water conditions, and they caught loads of fish, every week. As long ago as the 1980s, they put everything back, the culture even then in the USA was way ahead of us. They had spotted the dangers; “why kill them?” they asked.
I was reminded of this by the weather forecast for next week. For all the time the Americans came, we kept the following week for our family, half term week. Every year, almost without fail, the river flooded. And so it could next week, Yr. No. predicting an inch of rain on Tuesday/Wednesday at Eskdalemuir, and it is not going to be exactly dry before that, many uprive gauges rising, albeit slightly, as I write.
As for last week, fishing conditions could not have been more ideal, even if the catches were not. “Harsh” you might say, but in such conditions pre 2014, the river catch would have been well over 1,000 for the week, even 1,500-2,000. Last week’s score was maybe 450-500. “Shifting baselines”, ie we become accustomed to mediocrity, might persuade some that 450-500 is good. It isn’t.
What struck most were the gaps in the middle river where very little was caught (Middle Mertoun 6, Upper Floors 3, Lower Floors 1, Makerstouns 3, Junction 8, Birgham Dub 9, Carham 8, Bemersyde 4, Upper and Lower Dryburgh 9, I could go on) in those many great and lovely beats. Of course, there are fish in the river, but now that many have left their long stay in the short distance below Coldstream, and spread out over the full length of the river, it exposes that maybe there are not as many as some, not moi, have been saying.
If we do get water next week, it would be no surprise if those fish still in the lowest beats disappear upriver, their colour and shape giving the game away that they are now close to needing to spawn.
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Jack frost wove his magic again; after declining catches in the warmth of mid week, a frost on both Thursday and Friday nights dropped the water temperature to the mid 40sF, so that Saturday’s cold and cloud made for the perfect conditions to catch some of those old river fish. For some reason, a frost brings them on to take, especially the cocks, something to do with the competitive aggression that is part of the spawning process maybe?
I saw one on Saturday that was predominantly yellow in colour with a mouth that could not properly shut, the head gets larger, the kype bigger and you half expect them to snarl or growl as you take the hook out and send them on their way.
Whether we should be catching them, or not, when they are so far into their breeding colours will remain a question for debate. For those beats above Galashiels that never see a salmon before October, the “we should not be catching them” lobby is seen as the overbearing and privileged preserve of the better off lower Tweed beats and their anglers, who have salmon to catch from February, and can afford to take a more purist view.
I could not possibly comment.
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These weekly rambles will end on 30th October this year, if, for no other reason than by then everyone will all have had enough. We are by way of going away for a week after that, and yours truly will have run out of anything remotely interesting to say. “Too late!” I hear you cry.
At a guess, no more, it could be that the Tweed score for 2021 will end remarkably close to the 2018 figure of 5,644. Avid and attentive readers will know that 2018 was the lowest Tweed rod catch since 1980.
Where will that leave us in the Premier League of Tay, Tweed, Dee and Spey? I hear tell that the Spey think they might have reached over 5,000 by their close date, 30th September, and now that both the Dee and Tay have closed (15th October), we can get some measure of how they have done. Oddly, the Dee seems to have done better than last year, whereas the Tay may be slightly down on 2020.
It will be a close run thing, but for the first time for many years Tweed’s top spot may be in jeopardy, and certainly it seems that if both we and the Spey closed on 30th September, the Tweed would have come a very poor second, maybe not having caught even 4,000 by then.
As ever, some will blame the weather and lack of water (as they did in 2018), whilst others remember 2003 when, if anything, water conditions were even worse and the rod catch was just under 14,000. As the counter figures proved in 2018, rod catch figures can be a surprisingly accurate gauge of abundance, or lack of it, despite the vagaries of the weather.
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