30 September 2018 News/Editorial
Tweed’s rod catch for last week was 402 salmon and 31 sea trout, making the annual total to date 3,325 salmon and 559 sea trout (within 90% accuracy).
“Good”, you might say, and in terms of what else has gone on, up to now, this year...last week was good-ish.
Curmudgeonly maybe, but despite a small lift in water on Thursday, catches did not recover on Friday and Saturday to what they had been at the start of the week.
With a breezy, cool and quite unsettled week to come, real fishing success will depend, as ever, on how many fresh fish are still to come in from the sea.
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News this week of where our (increasing number of) cormorants come from.
Like me, you probably assume they come from the east coast, either Berwick, St Abbs or the Farne Islands.
One that was found dead here recently had been ringed on Puffin Island, Anglesey in July, just 2 months ago, having travelled 279 km north north east, presumably mainly overland.
If you had asked 100 Tweed fishermen and boatmen where our most unwelcome cormorants originate...
....I will wager not one of them would have said “North Wales”.
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With spinning mercifully over for the year, there are those who like it, who would smear those of us who don’t, by accusing us of hypocrisy...which means they are saying we do really spin upstream and in low water, when our beat rules are that we do not.
Our rules here forbid upstream spinning at any time, and spinning downstream except in high water.
We have caught 1 salmon spinning this year out of a total 148.
So either we are doing it and are very bad at it ...or we aren’t spinning, except in high water...and even then not much.
If you still don’t believe me, you try finding a fisherman who has caught a salmon here spinning, other than in high water, not just this year.... but for many years past.
Good luck with that.
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