news/editorial

9 July 2017 News/Editorial

It’s a bit of a guess, but the Tweed caught 250 salmon last week, yes 250 salmon (not grilse) in the first week of July.

That’s double the catch of any other river, and the guesswork only extends to the last 20 or so, as the recorded beat catches come to well over 200.

Not only was this a big score, but the evidence remains that Tweed is far from fully fished in the summer; how many more would have been caught last week if it had been?

Much is made of Tweed’s exorbitant rents, but with double figure salmon scores in a day both here and at Upper Floors, and an extraordinary 20 sea trout in a day at the Junction, you could say that Tweed’s summer fishing is now the best value on the planet.

I am not privy to what others charge, but the 3 rods fishing here on Tuesday caught 11 salmon, all on a fly (need one say?) and all between 8lbs and 15lbs.

The total cost, for the day for all 3 rods, was £424.80.

The message should go out…..

…... come and fish on the Tweed in the summer, it can be very good and, for what you can catch, it is certainly not overpriced.

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We live in an age of theories…...or at least those of us who inhabit the salmon world.

A product of uncertainty, theories thrive when the normal way of things is disrupted. Indeed, “not knowing” is just about the only vital ingredient necessary for theories to abound and flourish.

At the moment, we “do not know” what is happening to our salmon, nobody does, and this is the most fertile of ground on which the salmon theorists can make their mark, despite the most probable fate of all such theories…….

……...that they are all wrong.

I have given up listening to them eg “it’s the fault of goosanders and cormorants”, despite there being no more now than 10 or 20 years ago, and why are they eating the “autumn” smolts and not the spring and summer ones, for the decline is in autumn salmon but no overall decline in spring and summer….very clever birds?! “It’s massive trawlers at sea scooping up all our smolts as by-catch”......but again, clever trawlers to only catch the young autumn fish and leave unscathed the spring and summer ones.

I could go on, for the theories are legion. By all means empower and encourage the Atlantic Salmon Trust, Fisheries Management Scotland, the Salmon and Trout Association and all our own rivers Trusts and scientists to find out what really is happening.

Until they do, if they ever do, my vote is that we should leave well alone, stop talking about it and take what comes. For that is salmon fishing, you win some, you lose some, it’s the name of the game……

…….and if you don’t like it, if you want to be certain, to guarantee, that you are going to catch one (or more) every time you go fishing, and you dislike the glorious unpredictability of it all.

You’re in the wrong game.