Riverbank grub

It has been a quiet week since Monday 4 October. Water levels have been inching down by the day making conditions more challenging, although fish are there. John Goold and his son won the AST auction bid for 3 days fishing on Cardrona. They also had the option of fishing Horsbrugh (the opposite bank) and were ably guided by Kenny Annand. We heard that they ended up with one salmon and one sea trout, off Horsbrugh, so congratulations to them both, as we believe the salmon was a 'first'.

Iain Bain managed to save the week with a 12 pounder off Cardrona on Friday evening.

Of course, there is more to fishing than catching fish, we spotted this strange caterpillar munching on some riparian leaves, doing its bit for bank maintenance. A quick email to our moth specialist identified it as Deilephila elpenor, or a large elephant hawkmoth to you and me......

Week summary report

An average to good week, with 8 salmon and 5 sea trout reported since Monday - best salmon was 12lb and best sea trout 5lb. We've had two rises in water this week which has kept new fish coming in, and prospects seem excellent at the moment. There are a fair mix of fish around, from grilse through to fish well into double figures. Some with various autumnal hues, and a few fresher ones.With no major rain due this week, an intermediate tip will get the fly down to the right depth.

Monday

The water was sitting about 7" on Monday and we recorded 3 fish. Charlie McGhee took a fish of around 8lb on a size 10 Red Francis, and Graham Dea took a fish of around 5lbs. One of the co-owners also had a fish of around 8lb on a small blue charm. Not too bad a day considering the levels are creeping down again.

Charlie McGhee's fish


A bit of action in the Rumbler

Quite a few fish about

The recent rise has encouraged fish up. Iain Bain reported a salmon and a sea trout during the week, and today he had a salmon around 7lbs.

One of the other co-owners had 4 salmon today, ranging from 4lbs-18lbs. The 18lb fish was a large hen,and pretty fresh for so far up. The observant will spot a little blood on the gill cover of the fish in the picture below, the fish was bleeding slightly from one gill, but recovered after about 5 minutes, and she was returned safely.

The successful fly was a yellow/red hairwing dressed sparse on a half inch aluminium tube conehead - fished off an intermediate tip.

18 lb hen fish


11lb hen fish

Another fish

The rise in water levels during last week seems to have encouraged more fish up. A coloured hen fish of around 7lbs was taken and returned. Water level was 5" which really is quite low for this time of year. The successful angler was fishing light - a 9' 6" #8 single hander with a floating line - the fly was a very lightly dressed nondescript pattern on a #10 salar double - orange with a strand of flash.

The fish



More water is needed to get a decent run of fish up - the middle and lower Tweed beats are having a bumper time of it, well over 1000 fish were taken during last week. Once we get a decent rise, it won't take long before Upper Tweed gets a good run of fish.

Dave fishes a nice cast round the Dirtpot at Dusk



The lower Dirtpot Pool looking downstream.Time will tell how well this will fish this year. The large willow came out during the big flood late last year (see right of picture). This may or may not have a detrimental effect on the gravels and substrate in the pool. It certainly has opened up more fishing, if nothing else.

First fish of 2010

We got a report at the weekend that a 5lb grilse was caught by Hywel Vickers on Saturday at the end of his week's fishing. No further details are to hand at present. We have heard that the odd grilse are being picked up elsewhere on the Upper Tweed, so these fish do obviously press on upriver regardless of flows. Last year's first two fish were caught in the last week of August too.

The water is sitting at 2" above summer level which is really low. Let's hope we get some rain to raise the river soon.

The Dirtpot Pool

Below is an older photograph of the Dirtpot Pool taken some time prior to 1980....it is rather grainy but does show that very little has changed in this spot. No doubt the angler pictured plying his trade will have been doing so with the obligatory wetcel 2 and 2" Garry Dog tube fly!