news/editorial

27 September 2015 News/Editorial

“Good news” the cry goes up from the latest TV/radio weather forecaster to invade my increasingly rattled consciousness “a big high pressure is coming in to settle things down, not just for the weekend, but well into next week!”...... and then it is all smiles in the studio as everyone agrees how marvellous that is.

“Settle things down!!” indeed...it could hardly have been more settled in south east Scotland for the last month already.

NO…. IT IS NOT GOOD NEWS; it is annoying beyond description that the Borders is a drought zone without any sign of immediate relief, and that this single fact has ruined the holiday fishing of many of the visiting anglers to the Tweed so far this autumn.

But can we only blame those infuriating weather forecasters for the comparatively poor fishing?

I know the Almighty is in charge of the weather, but I am all for shooting the messengers. All TV presenters, without exception, insist on displaying those insufferably smug grins every time another high pressure comes into view, as if it is going to be sunny and dry all because of them.

It would be comforting, would it not, to blame the Tweed catches in September entirely on those irritating forecasters and on the benign weather and low water conditions that have prevailed throughout ?

But is that the whole story?

The water heights here this September have never, so far, been below 8” on our guage, low, but not very low.

Let me take you back to 2003, the year that everyone recalls as being incredibly dry and low throughout the autumn.

August 2003 was dry and hot, we caught just 13 salmon here.

The guage was 0” or below in the first week of September 2003 and, as you would expect, we caught only 8 in the week. The second week was almost exactly the same, albeit with a vital small rise to +3” from -1” on the Thursday. They caught 44 salmon that week with the river almost a foot lower than it has ever been this September. The third week was even lower, dropping to -3”, hotter still and the total for that week was just 5 salmon. In the fourth week there was a rise to 1ft 10” on the Tuesday (very much as there was an 8” rise here on Tuesday last week) dropping to 2” again by the Saturday; the catch that week was 60 salmon, 56 of them being caught in the last 4 days of the week, after the rise.

We caught 137 salmon in September 2003 when the guage throughout was mostly a foot lower than it has ever been so far in September 2015.

With only 3 fishing days left, we will be lucky to get much past 60 salmon here in September 2015…...and in terms of the beats above us, further from the sea, that’s pretty good.

The conclusion is very simple; there have been many fewer salmon in September 2015 than there were in September 2003, despite there being virtually no netting at all on the Tweed in 2015, for the first time for centuries. The beats below Coldstream have done well, conditions have been tailor-made for them, but their results, so far, have not been startling.

On the brighter side, it is still the case that until we get some proper water and/or we get past mid October, we will not be able to draw any firm conclusions on the season as a whole.

All we can say for sure is that, to date, there have been nothing like as many salmon as 2003, when water conditions were even worse.

And all the while, it seems, we will have to endure at least another week of those self satisfied, smirking forecasters basking in the undeserved reflected glory of another protracted high pressure system.

Give me a good hurricane any day …….that is so long as it (a) produces a flood and (b) knocks the aggravating “good news, things are settling down” smiles off those exasperating weather presenters’ faces.

Now, where is Michael Fish when you need him?