7 March 2021 News/Editorial
Forget February, Tweed’s 2021 salmon fishing began last week. A calm, cool, dry spell allowed the river to drop. The water temperature fell from 44F to 38F as the week progressed, a punishing time for those with leaky waders. At age 70, it was too cold for yours truly, but hardier souls had some luck. The fish were exceptional, as you would expect, every one caught here sea liced, or as Malcolm says on Instagram with the picture of long tails on a 7lber, you “could almost smell the saltwater”. How different to those summer fish last year which took 2 months to get this far upstream. Springers don’t hang about, none of that coming in on one tide, and going back out on the next, and all that faffing about near Norham. Springers come straight in, and set off like bullets. The old netsmen used to tell me they were so much harder to catch. If you blinked they had gone.
The score on the two websites came to over 40, maybe nearer 50 when you include those shy non reporting beats. Early days, but there were enough caught, with probably less than half the normal fishing effort, to give some cause for optimism.
The river should remain in good order for the first half of next week, but after that the energy in the Atlantic is pepping up. With a storm on Wednesday and more rain on Thursday, we are back to dodging depressions and the effects of their rain. The current prognosis for the rest of March is “unsettled”, but with a hint of more “dry and settled” as we get further towards April.
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Some will have been surprised at photos of boats, and even people in them. Paul here caught two salmon while anchored in the river on his own. It is a peaceful and rather amusing way to fish. He had never done it before, so I warned him, as an old hand at living dangerously, that your problems begin when you hook one. The first 12lber led a merry dance, pretty chaotic he said, and you are always worried it will get around the anchor rope, amongst many other things. The best tactic, and the one he chose, is to put the rod between your knees and row ashore after pulling up the anchor. Of course, you tend to go very slack on the fish while rowing ashore, but I cannot recall losing one when doing it. Whatever you do, with anything over 10lbs, do not try to stay out and net it from the boat. With the rod in one hand and the net in the other, and with the river current always acting against the fish, it is almost impossible and can result in both a lost fish and a broken rod.
The other excitement, and legal way to use boats, was for husband and wife, and/or those in the same household, to fish together. Malcolm rowed his wife Sally, she (one of our amazing NHS nurses) who had a very very bad do with the hellish Covid but now, at long last, well on the mend, in the Temple Pool on Thursday. She was using something called a “spoon”, of which readers will know I thoroughly disapprove, but as we allow downstream spinning (only, never upstream) over 1ft 10” on our gauge, and it was 2ft 2”, and she would have struggled to cover it with a fly, what could one do? She caught 2 salmon, a good ghillie of course, but despite the method, she loved the whole thing and I could not have been more pleased for her. As you would expect, I have already given her some stick about it not being a “proper way to fish”. She can expect a lot more of the same in the future! Not only that, but of 425 salmon caught here last year, just one was caught spinning. So not good for our street cred, we are on 2 already in 2021! No texts, or other trolling, please.
The third way to use boats, not one we use here, is roping. You would have to be careful that the “roper” and “ropee” were never within two metres when the ropee was getting into and out of the boat, but it is hard to see any objections if it were to be done scrupulously carefully. For those who have never done it, it is a skilful operation with the roper standing, and moving down a yard at a time after every cast, on the bank, holding the boat on a long rope, the boat perfectly positioned just this side of midstream. It can be very effective.
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You will be as confused as we are about April and May fishing. We have repaid all those who booked February and March, other than those few locals who can legally get here, and may well be doing the same for April and May?
Sometime in the next week or so, we will be writing to all our April tenants asking them if they are coming or not, this hopefully after our First Minister/Prime Minister has/have updated us all with more specific dates as to what we can do, and when? It will all depend on lifting travel restrictions and opening up accommodation to visitors. I know it is not strictly relevant, but last week there were just 19 new cases in the Scottish Borders out of 115,000 inhabitants. You would think that if this figure goes much lower, and the more the vaccine is rolled out, there ceases to be much of a case for keeping us locked in.
Not only is it impossible, even here on the cusp of April, to be certain whether those in the UK will be able to get here or not, but our delightful long standing German tenants should be here at the end of May, but will they be allowed travel, even then? If anything, opening up international travel seems to be less certain than the home based variety, which is saying something.
Oh dear, it is a mess. May it never happen again, minor inconveniences for all of us fishers/fishery owners no doubt, as compared to what so many have suffered, but the closer we get back to something like normal, the more we realise how fed up we are with the life we have had to lead for a year now.
“Normal” has never seemed such an exciting word.
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