news/editorial

21 August 2016 News/Editorial

After a week with blazing sunshine for 4 days, with the water temperature in the mid 60sF, and, despite this, still catching well over 200 salmon, what is a realistic assessment of how Tweed’s August is going?

In raising that question, I am trying not to think how many of these 200+ were caught on that ghastly, almost obscene when used to excess, which to my certain knowledge on some, perhaps even many, beats it is…..the upstream flying condom?

Well, 200+ isn’t bad, better than any other river, and conditions were far from favourable with those cloudless skies and heat, but with just 8 fishing days left in the month, some of which may well be affected by rain, it is looking distinctly average, no better than that.

Of particular interest (or concern?), just as in 2015, the lowest beats are doing ok, but not that well, which you might expect them to do, with continuing low water and no big floods.

Consider the following for August (with thanks to Fishtweed for many of these figures):

	2016 so far	2011	5 yr average
Ladykirk	22	116	57
Tillmouth	60	140	95
Milne Graden	11	28	25

It could all change very quickly, of course, but 2016 is not going to be 2011, the best August Tweed ever had, and the year when there were masses of salmon, not grilse, in the river as early as the first week of August, after a massive 10ft flood.

Those slaves to the “5 year cycle” theory will, yet again, be disappointed in this, because that vast run of salmon in 2011 should have produced an equally large run of its offspring in 2016……..it still might, but not yet.

And what of the grilse?

There are certainly some in the river now, but not yet in any great numbers.

You will vividly recall last year when everyone kept expecting the fish to turn up, but they never really did, in the process we blamed the water conditions, the heat, the lack of a flood…….when, in fact, all along it was the lack of fish.

Sounds familiar?

It is far too early to tell, but with more water in the river now after Saturday’s rain, not a proper flood but still enough for any fish that wants to come in, to do so, let’s hope that the last 8 fishing days of August produce something better than we have had so far……

…..and that every beat begins to fill up with those lovely fresh salmon and grilse.

And what of the weather this week?

It will be warm in the south, very warm at times, and cooler in the north. We on the Border will be somewhere in between, on a wavy, wiggly front between the warm and cold air. Now, students of meteorology will know these wavy, wiggly fronts, the boundaries between two large air masses. Not only can they hang around for a few days, but they can also produce an alarming amount of rain as they meander to and fro, basically not moving much.

Tuesday and Thursday next week look to be most prone to substantial rain, but, of course, the meandering front may miss us altogether.

At the moment, one of the weather websites I look at obsessively predicts an inch of rain at Hawick on Tuesday, and something similar on Thursday.

If so, it is not good for those fishing this coming week, but for the longer term, and to clean the river out…….

….. it is just what is needed.