3 February 2019 News/Editorial
Four salmon (that we know of) were caught on the Tweed's opening day of 2019, despite most of the first morning being lost to grue. On day two, despite a repeat performance with ice and grue in the morning, the score was two salmon, with Hendersyde proving the place to be with a total of three over the two days .
Unsurprisingly, given the cold and low water which has persisted throughout January (it was the driest January here since the Aitchison family rainfall records began in 1903), most of the fish were caught, for once, below Kelso.
If you cannot imagine why anyone would want to fish in sub zero temperatures in early February, click on the Instagram button (above) to see two of the best fish you will ever see, caught at Upper North Wark and Carham.
So, a moderately encouraging start to 2019 when you consider that the average score for Februarys nowadays is around 200, for the whole month.
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Some snippets to start the new season.
The RTC and Foundation will be acoustic tagging smolts in March, the crucial issue being how many make it intact from their streams of origin down to the sea without being attacked and eaten by cormorants and goosanders, to say nothing of cannibalistic brown trout, herons and otters.
To help fund it, the RTC is planning a "Sponsor a Smolt" scheme, so for all those who have long been concerned that we do not know enough about what happens to our smolts, this will be a chance to make a real contribution.
Please click on the following link to find out more http://tweedfoundation.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=7480ce9c44244059836029b4555d064e&folderid=8f90650960d54eea8fea8a1499298ab3
All contributions towards the Tweed Foundation's costs will be most welcome. It is a far from cheap exercise, but will provide vital information, especially in the fight to limit the damage done to migrating smolts by cormorants and goosanders in the future.
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The River Tweed Commission Annual General Meeting takes place at the Ednam House Hotel, Kelso at 9.30am on Monday 4th March 2019. The public are welcome to attend the AGM (which normally takes about 30 minutes) but not the quarterly Commission meeting which takes place after that. Proprietors who are not Commissioners are welcome to attend the quarterly Commission meeting as well.
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Apparently 2019 is scheduled to be a pink salmon year. They are alien to the Tweed and if caught should be killed and reported to the RTC/Tweed Foundation.
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The updated 2019 Tweed Angling Codes have just gone up on the website at https://www.rivertweed.org.uk/news/?p=6376
For the first time there is a separate stand alone Code for Spinning which contains Rules which the Commission expects all beat owners to impose. Particular attention should be drawn to
a. Spinning should not be the method of first choice in low and clear water conditions and
b. Where a beat has different owners on opposite banks, good etiquette is that fly fishers should have the opportunity to fish the water first.
These Rules have existed for years; it would be nice if, in 2019, those beats, who have consistently ignored them in the past, by being far too quick to spin in low water, to the obvious detriment of those fishing opposite with a fly, actually obeyed them.
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For some very (un)light relief, please watch this S&TCT video of Jeremy Paxman and the demise of the Loch Maree fishery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawqvXqIa5M
It has been said before in these pages that it would be easy for the east coast to be more relaxed about the disastrous effects of salmon farms, and their sea lice, on young salmon and sea trout, because there are no east coast fish farms….until you understand that our precious east coast migrating smolts must swim past the Shetland Isles on their way north, where they too could be set upon by a sea lice soup.
The solution is "close containment", preferably onshore, for all salmon farms so that they can no longer do the sort of damage they have been doing to our wild salmon and sea trout for years past.
It will be expensive, but it has to come.
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