news/editorial

8 February 2015 News/Editorial

With much whooping and hollering, the Kelso angling community, and Junction fishers in particular, quite understandably hailed the first week of Tweed’s 2015 salmon season as the harbinger of better things to come…….the disappointments of 2014 already forgotten, the days of plenty here again.

A curmudgeonly, some would say more realistic, assessment went something like this with reference to the first day’s catch of 16 salmon:

“4 miles fishing around Kelso…... 16 salmon; 40 miles in the rest of the main river, in ideal conditions,... NIL”.

Conditions really were perfect all week, so the only conclusion for the other 40 miles (only 5 salmon were caught all week other than at the 4 miles of the Junction and Floors beats, where a remarkable, for springers, 48 were caught) is that there was nothing there, bar the odd seal, a large number of cormorants and goosanders.

Kelts, unsurprisingly given the reduced number of 2014 spawners, are largely absent.

And therein lies the problem.

Put together the following:

1. A warm and very wet January with lots of floods.

2. Very few kelts to act as decoys.

3. The occasional marauding seal around and below Coldstream.

4. The springer’s well known penchant for running straight and hard until it finds some friends/becomes tired.

….and you have a toxic mix for the lower beats, because any fresh fish coming in will simply keep going until they meet some friends around Kelso.

The Junction is especially attractive, a natural break point after swimming about 25 miles upriver, a pause to consider going up either Teviot or Tweed, and a cauld at the top, something else for the fish to ponder, especially in the cold water of last week.

And it could well go on happening, which is good news for those beats around Kelso….and one would think also for those above Kelso, once things warm up a bit.

The only thing that can save the lower beats is low and cold water for a prolonged period, and there is no rain in the forecast, but even that may not be enough to stop the silver bullets as they forge upstream.

In terms of overall numbers, the jury is still out.

The normal river catch for February is around 200….so that 50+ for the first of the 4 weeks of the month is about par mathematically, but maybe a little better than that in reality as numbers tend to increase the further we get into the month…. and then spinning starts.

So, well done Junction and Upper/Lower Floors in providing an eye-catching start to 2015, something to celebrate after the gloom of 2014.

With no netting on Tweed or its immediate coast for the whole 2015 season, for the first time for well over 200 years, every salmon coming past Holy Island and into the river, will get through.

Compare that to 30 years ago when there were 40 nets, many with full time crews, working right through from 15th February to 14th September.

It is far too early to predict anything for 2015, especially after just 50 or so salmon caught in the first week in perfect conditions.

Remember, there were no signs that 2010 was going to be exceptional until well into August, even September.

Time alone will tell.