news/editorial

25 March 2018 News/Editorial

Last week’s catch was a little better, with 40 salmon and 5 sea trout, making 117 salmon and 21 sea trout for the year to date.

Ever since the snow started thawing on 6th February, the river heights have gone up and down like a yoyo. Last week was no exception. Just as levels were dropping nicely, there was a final snow melt on Thursday, followed by rain in the headwaters on Friday and a further rise on Saturday.

With next week’s weather looking even more unsettled, and much colder, from Tuesday, we can expect more of the same, with continuing damaging effects on the level of catches. We will only find out how many, or how few, fish are really there once the river settles.

Meanwhile, the smart money, after an early spring of far too much rain and snow for good fishing, is that there will be a drought just as the summer, and more fish, arrive.

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Q 10 of the Tweedbeats survey posed the following question:

“Do you think that the reduced catches of the last 4 years reflect natural changes in conditions at sea?”

The results from the 219 respondents were as follows:

No 12%

Maybe 18%

Don’t know 10%

Possibly 40%

Definitely 20%

Perhaps the most surprising figure is the very few (12%) who think natural sea changes have nothing at all to do with it…...meaning that almost 9 out of 10 at the very least accept that it is possible that sea changes are the, or a, cause.

As you would expect, the most comments are about predation and the massive increases in numbers of goosanders, cormorants and seals since the 1970s. Many of those who agree that natural changes are the most likely cause of the sudden autumn grilse and salmon decline since 2014, also mention predation as an additional significant factor.

All of which is probably where most of us are on this, viz, we would like to have much more control over predation, because predators must be reducing the numbers of salmon we anglers can fish for, and also affecting the numbers of salmon that eventually spawn.

But it really is impossible to imagine that predators alone have caused the very dramatic decline in grilse and late running salmon from 2014, both here and on other UK salmon rivers, whilst nothing remotely similar has happened to earlier running salmon.

Logic, and historical precedence, indicate something much more fundamental and cyclical……..

…….and most of the survey’s respondents seem to (sort of) agree with that.