news/editorial

29 October 2017 News/Editorial

The Tweed rod catch for last week was 208 salmon and 28 sea trout, making the seasonal total to 28th October 2017 5,514 salmon and 1,632 sea trout.

If I read the weather runes correctly, early November looks to be much colder and less unsettled than October; better fishing conditions for sure, but as our American friends would say, it won’t amount to a hill of beans……. if the fish are not there.

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Just as you scarcely notice when “things have never been so good”, so too the opposite, perhaps we can never quite spot the precise time when “things have never been so bad”.

Or maybe we do notice the latter rather more than the former, for October 2017 cannot have been much worse in the Tweed salmon fishing world, or at least not in recent times.

We must all hope that 2017 marks the low water point of the current very obvious trough in autumn salmon numbers.

Tweed salmon fisheries are undergoing one of their periodical “ rateable revaluations” so that the River Tweed Commission, in seeking to raise its annual levy/Tweed assessment, can split the required money to be raised on an equitable basis between all 150+ fisheries on the river.

The problem with this revaluation, in 2017, is that it coincides with a bit of a crisis (I use the word after due consideration) in the economics of salmon fishing on the Tweed.

Let me give you an indication of what I mean.

Without giving too much away, let us suppose that, pre 2014, beats above Galashiels obtained 95% of their income after 1st September, between Galashiels and Coldstream 70%, and beats below Coldstream 50%.

Now take away most of the fresh fish coming into the river after 1st September, more or less what has actually happened on the Tweed since 2014. That might seem like one simple change, which it is, but with huge consequences.

With the exception of late November on the lower river below Coldstream, and maybe some of September above Galashiels, it is not that the autumn months are not lettable…… they mostly are, just, but at nothing like the figures that beat owners and agents have come to rely on.

You only have to look at fishing availability on Fishtweed in November to see what I mean…...and of course that is just the un-let fishing, nowhere will you find the fishing that has been let, but at vastly reduced prices as compared to pre 2014.

Some will make excuses for the weather and water conditions this October, for it has been both wet and unseasonably mild, but that has not been the problem. And when you look at the monthly scores, it may well be that October 2017 will have caught not so very many more than July 2017, despite less than full-on fishing effort in July. Moreover, there is no comparison between the quality of fish caught in July (mainly big sea-liced salmon), and those caught in October (90% stale river fish).

Given that Tweed salmon catch numbers have halved since 2013, it would be surprising if the owners’ income has not done the same …...but, in fact, I suspect it has done more than that (see above re %age income that used to be gained in the autumn), or if it hasn’t yet, it may well do so in 2018 as more fishermen lose hope that things will get better anytime soon.

So there we have it, and although I am not one who thinks this slump will go on much longer in overall terms, it is hard to imagine, based on the experience of the last 4 years, that Tweed’s famous autumn run will soon be getting back to its former glories.

Quite how the current Tweed fisheries rateable revaluation deals with all of that……

…….is anyone’s guess.