25 September 2022 News/Editorial
One is torn.
On the one hand over 1,000 salmon were caught the week before last, and maybe 300-350 last week, not bad you would say. On the other, there are beats higher up the river that are on course to having one of their worst years ever.
Where is the truth?
The last two weeks have been revealing in that there are beats in both extreme categories, for very poor and very good, little in between. This is symptomatic of a river system that is a long way from being full of fish. If you talk to some (not all) of those beats below Coldstream, they will tell you the river is “stuffed with fish”. No doubt all true, but not only is this extraordinarily frustrating for those many other less favoured (mainly higher up) beats, it also does a disservice to their months-long experience of how many fish there are in their particular part of the river.
Even here, on one of the more favoured beats, we have yet to catch a single salmon in two of the pools, and in our pools opposite the Cornhill beat you will struggle to see a splash. This has been the case for some weeks now.
The salmon is a shoal fish, it likes friends, so that pools/beats that have nothing in them are ignored as the salmon move upstream, and those pools/beats with some residents act as decoys and attract more. In other words, to quote Matthew (25;29) “for unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath”. Foremost amongst the “haths” is Ladykirk with 233 over the last 2 weeks, whereas a majority of the beats above Coldstream have failed to reach double figures over the same 2 weeks period. It would be hard to blame fishing conditions of late, ok a bit on the low side, but the water has been cleaner and cooler, pretty good and nothing like as bad/impossible as most weeks in July and August.
As we near the end of September, the end result for 2022 looks to be creeping up somewhere towards the catch figure (5,862) of 2021. Let us guess that the total thus far is around 4,000 (1,800 for the “spring” and 2,200, mainly in September, since then), it will take a very good October/November to equal or better 2021, especially as many beats do not let much, if any, of November now. 2021 was one of the worst rod catch figures of the last 50 years.
In a period of declining numbers for all our Atlantic salmon rivers, some will say it is quite good if we can avoid any further decline in catches, quoting the hot/dry summer, impossible angling conditions and significant losses of salmon at sea (seals, dolphins etc feeding on salmon which cannot get into the river) as large contributory factors in what could be a disappointing result. Others will point at Tweed rod catch averages of around 16,000 pre 2013, and that there were some very low water and warm summers/autumns then too.
Perhaps what we can all agree is that 2022 has provided confirmation that, for whatever multitude of reasons, as yet unknown, an unarguable upwards corner has not yet been turned in the numbers of adult salmon returning to this wonderful river.
As for next week, it will be cold and dry at least until Friday, so that water levels will remain low, yet again, you would think, favouring those beats lower down the river.
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