news/editorial

3 September 2017 News/Editorial

Last week’s catch was 169 salmon and 15 sea trout, making 3,566 salmon and 1,186 sea trout for the year to date (2nd September 2017). For the avoidance of doubt, when William Younger caveats these figures by saying they are 85% accurate, he is not saying they could be 15% lower. What he is saying is that they could be as much as 15% higher because of non-reporting beats.

Whilst nobody dares say what everyone is thinking….the numbers of old fish in the river, the absence of fresh ones and of grilse…….that it is becoming uncomfortably reminiscent of last year, a proper flood (a glancing blow from the weakening Harvey maybe) would stir things up and maybe bring in something new.

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I don’t terribly like incomplete information. You either cannot draw any conclusions at all, or too easily draw the wrong ones.

Much is made of the record numbers going through the Riding Mill counter on the Tyne in June and July as an indicator that our Tweed salmon, along with those on the Tyne, are running earlier.

But, and it is a big but, those numbers include sea trout, which cannot be differentiated from the salmon.

Then I hear that the Tyne is full to the gunwales with sea trout, and that the north east drift netters have been catching loads of sea trout and that some had stopped fishing early (before 31st August) because they were catching so few salmon.

Some would have us believe that, both last year and this year, there are as many salmon as ever, but they are coming in earlier.

Many salmon certainly are coming in earlier, and there is a distinct lack of grilse…... but as many salmon as ever?

Not yet there aren’t.

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You catch nothing, you see a seal or a flock of goosanders/cormorants, and, hey presto…..the predators are to blame, get rid of them and all will be well.

You will catch fish again, but only once the predators are all dead.

The extract below is from an excellent book on “ The History of Coldstream”:

“A newspaper article of December 1898 records a few seals in the Tweed. One seal noticed was sporting itself all the way from Coldstream Bridge to the Leet Point. It was very dark in colour and another one was lightish brown”.

If you replaced the date December 1898 with August 2017, exactly that same article could have appeared in the local press today.

I have said it before, and no doubt will again, that it is the conceit of every generation to think that something new is happening.

And I bet those 1898 fishermen also pointed the finger at those seals whenever they caught nothing.

Ah well.