High Water

Yesterday saw several anglers trying to make the best of the tricky conditions. The water was at just over 3ft above summer level at the beginning of the day and relatively clear. The river did start to colour up as the day went on and had risen a few inches by evening. Despite this, Donald Milne captured a hard-fighting cock fish that needed several attempts at being netted before it was safely on the bank. The fish was sportingly released moments after the photograph was taken.
Donald pictured with his fish.

Report for W/E 14th November

There are plenty of fish in the upper river now. We've had 13 salmon (and a sea trout) in the last week even though the river was rising on Friday and pretty much unfishable on Saturday. Most notable catch this week was for John Kane who had a successful day on Tuesday with 4 salmon to 14lb, returning all but one.

The river rose to a height of around 7' late on Saturday but, by this evening, had fallen back to 3'4" at Peebles. That's the good news; unfortunately there is bad news too, we are likely to see enough rainfall tomorrow to bring the river back up and more rain is forecast for later in the week.

Another good day

We had another 5 fish on Monday, 3 of these fell to our regular visitor, Charlie McGhee, with the best around 15lbs. Successful fly for Charlie was a Willie Gunn conehead. Tony Jones also took a nice 10lb cock fish (pictured below) - whilst the tale ended happily for the returned fish, the same could not be said for the tip section of his Sage TCR - warranty claim pending! The successful tactic (until the rod snapped) was a Sage 8123-4 TCR with Vision Ace intermediate/S2 head with a small Cascade double. A further fish was caught by local fisher Graham Dea, though we have no further details to hand.

10lb cock fish with 5 piece Sage rod.....

Levels have settled so far this week - with the water sitting around 1' above summer level. This is a good height, fish will have stopped in the pools and it also means not having to rely too much on big rods, heavy sinking lines and flies.

Fishing Availability

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Update for W/E 7/11/10

The heavy rain of last weekend and the early part of this last week has meant that the upper river beats have now started to see good numbers of fish caught. Wednesday saw six fish caught (see previous blog entry), two good size salmon were caught on Thursday, six fish on Friday and three on Saturday. Of particular note was that all three of Saturday's fish along with three of those caught the previous day were taken by Iain Bain. Not bad going for two day's work!

Iain, pictured with a fish caught last month.

6 fish today

With the water running at over 3 feet, but falling slowly, 6 fish were reported off the beat today. Nigel Griffiths took 3 fish, best at 15lbs and his fellow rod, Geoff Badlands, managed 2 fish, best 6lbs. One further fish was reported but we do not have any more details. The fish were all reported as fresh, with many fish running. This bears out the fact that fish can most certainly be caught on fly in high water at Cardrona. Prospects now look excellent providing no further rain arrives.

October Review

Last year saw us catching more fish in October than we did in November. Hopefully this year will prove to be very different as, due to the lack of rain, we've only caught 10 salmon in the last month compared to the 41 captured in the same period last year. Of those 10 fish, 6 were taken in the last 3 days of October and that bodes well for the coming month. The heavy rain forecast for today will also improve prospects in the longer term. In contrast to the salmon numbers, sea trout returns continue to be better than last year with 19 for the season so far.

Yesterday saw our biggest salmon of the season caught so far; a coloured cock fish of approximately 17-18lbs being released by Brian Davidson.


Iain Bain also returned 2 smaller salmon yesterday to add to the 9lber he caught on Friday.

It was interesting also to meet Paul Young and Mike Shepley yesterday as both anglers fished Cardrona in their formative years. They are pictured below alongside some of Cardrona's regulars.

Thursday 29th October

The upper river seems to be coming into its own this week with the beats above Boleside catching decent numbers of fish for the first time this season, Fairnilee alone declaring 15 fish in the last two days. There is no doubt that they're heading our way. Robert Davidson and Charles Jeffrey fished yesterday and - although they failed to bank any fish - I'm informed they did hook a couple.






Today, Dave Parkes landed and returned a conservatively-estimated 12lber from the Rumbler and the writer of this piece hooked a big fish that fought spectacularly only to shed the fly in the last moments of the battle. There is no picture of Dave lovingly cradling his fish due to the inability of the photographer to take an unblurred image.







Tomorrow's forecast is for rain so river levels should be maintained.

Two large sea trout

It is pleasing to report that Charlie McGhee, a regular fisher at Cardrona, managed a brace of fine sea trout today. Capitalising on promising conditions, Charlie took a 6 pound fish from the Castlehaugh Cheek early this morning. Later in the afternoon, a further fish was hooked and lost in the same pool, and not long after, this fine 7 pounder was taken. All fish succumbed to a smallish and lightly dressed yellow/red conehead. Congratulations Charlie, and haste ye back!

Water was fining down today from the long-awaited spate on Saturday night and a number of running fish were observed on the move today. Upper Tweed should be on song now, the water is clearing and more rain is expected this week.

Action in the Castlehaugh Cheek and subsequent release.

Some Rain & A Few Fish

The last week probably didn't see as much rain as was predicted and levels only lifted by 6-7" in midweek before dropping down to 2-3" above summer level again. However that small rise does seem to have encouraged fish to move up. James Mackellar had a successful couple of days at Cardrona, getting two salmon on Friday and a sea trout on Saturday. Succesful flies were a collie dog, small junction shrimp and a stoat's tail.

Also on Saturday, Brian Marshall returned a 9lb salmon and both Iain Bain and Brian Davidson each had a sea trout.

More rain is forecast and the river is rising quickly in its upper reaches at the moment so the next week should see more fish caught. It's been a long time coming!

River levels are updated twice daily on Fishtweed should you wish to check current river conditions.

Imminent rain!

At last we have the prospect of some decent rain which should transform the fishing on Tweed! BBC weather suggests that an area of deep atlantic low pressure will dominate this week, bringing with it "rain, some of it heavy and persistent. Northern Ireland and western parts of Wales, Scotland and England are likely to see above average amounts of rain".

Lovely!

Autumn drought continues

'Drought' may be a strong word but that's what it feels like at the moment. Down to 2" above summer level, which is ridiculous for mid October, but this cannot continue. We've noticed Caberston, a few miles downstream, got a couple of grilse last week so it seems that the smaller fish can run in this 'height'. Still, this high pressure has got to break at some point and we notice 'heavy rain' is forecast for the Borders on Tuesday night. I suspect that it will not bring us a flood of biblical proportions but any rain is better than none! The good news is that when we finally do get rain, there should be a big influx of fish into the upper river judging by the catches below Kelso.

Below is one of our rods 'skagiteering' like a Pacific North West steelhead junkie down the Nutwood Pool. This is a productive pool, it is a joy to fish at around 1'8" on the gauge and surrenders a fair number of fish each year.

1 fish today

Despite gale force winds and our first leaf fall of the autumn, Iain Bain managed to take a fish of around 7lbs from the Castlehaugh Cheek today. A slightly coloured cock fish, Iain sportingly returned it. Water has risen 7' from yesterday (the guage shows 10" & rising tonight), and steady showers have been moving in from the north west all day, so let's hope this will herald some proper fresh water to draw in more of those big autumn run fish. If we get water for next week, this should provide good fishing.

Rain?

At last we have the prospect of some rain to raise river levels. The forecast is for some heavy rain this evening and lighter rain to follow that. If it materialises, then even a modest rise will get fish on the take and moving. Fish are present in the beat, but at 3" above summer level, it makes for very challenging fishing. On the plus side, we now have two of the three major cues for fish coming 'on the take' -cooler overnight temperatures and reduced daylight hours - both triggers for fish becoming more active in the autumn. All we need now is a bit of fresh water coming down to set things up for the peak autumn run.

This is the head of the Rumbler Pool, sitting at about 2'

Returns

We're approaching the end of September and catches have been a little disappointing over the last few weeks with a few notable exceptions. Cardrona, along with all the other Upper Tweed beats, has suffered as a consequence of the dry spell of weather that is only now coming to an end. However, we've not had returns from all who have fished with us and I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is important that they give us details of any catches (including nil returns and whether fish were retained or released). We have to give a full catch return to the River Tweed Commissioners at the end of every season and without your returns we can't do this. Please send your returns to the email address on our FishTweed page and feel free to add any other information you'd like us to hear about (flies, techniques, pool in the case of catch returns).

September 2008 saw 17 fish caught for the month including the one pictured here which went back safely after the photograph was taken.

It's Raining!

The last week has seen a continuation of the unseasonably dry weather but despite that Hywel Vickers caught a 15lb fish last Thursday. We believe it to be our largest fish so far this season and Hywel is to be congratulated for returning it safely.

There have been showers at Cardrona most of the day and more rain is forecast over the next few days. The gauge at Peebles is now down at just 4" above summer level but, with luck, the expected rain will give us the rise in river levels that we've been waiting for.

Pray For Rain!

The gauge at Peebles is currently sitting at 6" and, unless the rain that is currently moving in from the West pushes levels up, this coming week will be challenging for anglers on the upper river. Returns for last week show most catches concentrated on the lower and middle beats, I fear that this may not change significantly over the coming days if we do not get a rise in levels.

Floating lines and small flies will probably give the best chance of a fish. With the strong winds forecast anglers should also exercise caution when casting - try to keep the fly downwind when casting and always wear some kind of eye protection.

Fly Fishing only from 15th Sept

Just a reminder that - as of tomorrow - we, along with all other beats in the Tweed catchment, are fly only. Cardrona's runs and pools are ideally suited to fishing the fly and even before the 15th September the overwhelming majority of our fish are always fly-caught so, in reality, this ruling makes very little difference to those fishing with us.

It's probably also a good time to remind anglers that they should always read and sign the Gyrodactylus declaration before fishing and also abide by the Tweed Angling Code.

Indian Summer

This last week has seen more settled weather and the bright sunshine and gradually falling water (now at just under one foot above summer levels) has meant for pleasant but generally unproductive fishing conditions. There have been rewards for those who were persistent, the most notable catch was a 8.5lb salmon caught on an Ally's Shrimp by Robert Steel. Two sea trout were caught early on in the week, the biggest, a fish estimated at 6lbs, was captured by Tom Borthwick.

We are unlikely to see any significant rainfall over the next few days but there is likely to be more cloud cover which should improve prospects for those hoping to catch a September salmon.

Falling water

It's been an up and down week - quite literally. Water level has been like the proverbial yo-yo, but there may be a glimmer of hope for rods fishing at the weekend on the upper river. One of the regular rods managed to winkle out a 3lb sea trout in a brief window of opportunity between spates earlier in the week. Now sitting at 3' 6" this Friday morning and falling, prospects could be good if we get no more wet stuff today. Upside is that most of the rain is in the east, what we do not need (well, at the moment) is rain sweeping in from the west which affects the western Tweed catchment.

Anyway, prospects could be good tomorrow, as the water up here falls in, fines down and clears very quickly.

Featured 'Pool of the week' is the Castlehaugh Cheek, Cardrona's uppermost pool and pictured here in early spring with about 1' 2" on the guage. If you are not a speycaster, watch the overhead wires on the back cast. The pool name is derived from Nether Horsburgh Castle, a 16th century tower house, the ruin of which sits on the haugh on the north bank. These tower houses are regular features in border country.

Skagit and all that

Just as a postscript to the earlier post, this blog's other co-author ventured out in less than promising conditions for a few casts this afternoon and proved the worth of these new-fangled Skagit lines. The river was rising and carrying a tinge of colour but a couple of hours with a 12'9" 8 weight rod lined with 550gr Rio Skagit head and an 8ft T-14 sink tip produced a couple of violent pulls, the second of which resulted in this sea trout being banked. The fly? Let's just say it was a dirty great steelhead fly armed with a size 2 stinger hook and leave it at that! Apologies for the picture of my knee - it was a rushed photograph as I wanted to get the sea trout back in the river where she belongs.

Prospects & tactics

The forecast for this coming week is for more unsettled weather, which really suits the Upper Tweed and should hopefully keep the level 'topped up', encouraging fish to keep coming through from lower down.

The regular rods use a range of tactics. Of late, we have been trying out some modern set ups using shorter rods in tandem with skagit lines or shooting heads. Whilst the river up here is not particularly large, these set ups can still be advantageous in tight situations and where greater depth and control is required, particularly later in the year when water temperature is low and the river is pushing through.

At the moment, a rod from 12 - 14' is more than adequate, getting the fly down a little always helps. The successful rods at the weekend were using modest sink tips just to get the fly down a foot or two. One fish was taken on a light skagit set up with a short sink tip and the other utilising a conventional short-head spey line with a slow sink tip.

As for flies, dressed doubles (size 10-8) or smallish light tubes will be all that is required, cascade variants, shrimp patterns or the ubiquitous stoats tail are always a popular choice. If the water really is pushing through (anything above 2' really), don't be afraid to go up to quite a large fly.

They've Arrived!

A decent lift last Sunday and other small rises in the intervening days since have helped maintain good levels throughout the last week and so it was no surprise that Cardrona saw its first two salmon of the season caught on Saturday. Both fish were very fresh as can be seen from the photograph of the first (estimated at around 11lb) going back.

There are undoubtedly more fish present as Charlie McGhee, also fishing on Saturday, hooked and lost a couple of fish.

We've also added to our tally of sea trout this week, Iain Bain and Hywel Vickers getting one apiece on Tuesday and Friday respectively.

With more rain forecast for the beginning of the coming week prospects should remain good.

Prospects

On Thursday the river rose to its highest level since early Spring before dropping to a very fishable 2ft above summer level on Saturday. Two sea trout were caught on Saturday and, with the river rising again as I type this on Sunday evening, prospects should be good for the coming week when things settle down.

This is a picture of a sea trout captured (and returned) earlier in the week.

Beat Map

Click here for a larger downloadable version of the beat map

Salmon & Sea Trout Fishing at Cardrona

We've set up this blog to provide information for those wishing to fish at Cardrona and also to provide news updates for those of you who have fished with us in the past or who are intending to do so in the future.

The beat comprises 1.8 miles of fishing on the right bank of the Tweed at Cardrona, just a few miles downstream of Peebles and only 26 miles from the Edinburgh by-pass.

It's true to say that the upper Tweed is regarded as an autumn fishery but, given water (and we seem to be getting a fair bit as I type this in mid-August), salmon can appear earlier in the season. Last year was the first full season under the current ownership and 96 salmon and 4 sea trout were caught between August and the end of the season.

If you'd like to join us at Cardrona you can check availability and make bookings via Fishtweed.