news/editorial

28 September 2014 News/Editorial

There is something quaintly British (if that word is permitted any more on this side of the Border), almost Kiplingesque, about our attitude to triumph and disaster.

I do not recall being especially joyful or elated by the salmon catches of 2010, nor are most overly doom-laden when, a short 4 years later, and without any warning, we are confronted by exactly the opposite.

Comments heard range from extreme unconcern, “there always have been bad years and anyway what can we do about it?”, to “what a pity we have these b…..y websites which post depressingly low catch numbers day after day, so that we know well in advance what we are coming to”.

Some come fishing despite the figures, just to get away and have a few days with old friends, reliving past triumphs on beats they love and have been coming to for years….and there is always a chance to catch one or two, if not the boatloads of the heretofore.

There are worse places to be on holiday than the Borders in early autumn, and this September has been the best weatherwise any of us can remember, now officially the driest (and possibly the warmest) September on record in the south of Scotland.

Some cancel, preferring to do other things, to stay at home, to work, to watch the Ryder Cup, even to watch Mr Nigel Farage disporting himself at Doncaster racecourse….whatever….but the hotels, the pubs, the petrol stations and tackle shops here miss out.

Of the £18 million generated each year by Tweed angling, a lot of that will go awol this time.

There is of course no point in wringing your hands and wailing like some demented witch, but we are curious, and comparatively rational, beings and we quite naturally look for answers to the puzzle posed by the sudden absence of fish in customary numbers.

As we near the end of September, a stellar month since 2003 when the bulk of the northeast drift netters came off, we will not be able to avoid the fact that with a recent average monthly catch of over 3,000, this year it could be as low as 1,000, despite no days being lost to floods and the conditions being pretty good for those beats below Coldstream, where both drought is de rigeur and the bulk of September fish are caught.

The latest forecast shows more warm and dry weather for most of this week, with the possibility of it becoming more unsettled by the weekend.

The optimist in all fishermen hopes that more water, when it comes, will liven things up for the fish that are already in the river and encourage more in from the sea.

The last throw of the dice for this autumn?

We live in hope.