Willow? what willow?
Brief review of 2009
It is just as well you need a healthy dose of optimism to be a salmon fisher. The 2009 salmon catch at Cardrona, in line with most upper Tweed beats, was down on the previous year. Our final catch was 55 salmon and 28 sea trout, with our salmon catch being well down on our 2008 figure of 96 fish.
Nevertheless, some nice fresh fish were taken, with two fresh salmon the first to come off the beat at 9 & 11lbs taken on the same day by Messrs Jones & Davidson at the end of August.
As we moved into early September, water levels were still good, but fluctuating. Catching the tail-end of this water, 6 fish were caught, but by the middle of September the water had all but disappeared and Tweed was barely 2” above summer level for the rest of the month. Despite this, our regular visitor from Wales, Hywel Vickers, managed to extract a 15lb fish in what could only be described as an autumn drought.
This ‘drought’ extended into the best part of October, and proved very dispiriting for the fishers, with only 11 fish taken in what should be prime time. Patchy rain in the middle of October provided a few ‘false starts’, although this finally materialised in something a bit more worthwhile, giving us a little rise in the last week of the month and freshening up the water – James Mackellar capitalised on the freshet to take two salmon and a sea trout, making his journey from the South all the more worthwhile.
Our final month, November, was plagued with too much water – we probably lost almost two weeks fishing due to conditions, and our highest flood of the year wreaked havoc on some of the riverbank and moved an awful lot of riverbed about - the flood peaked at around 11’ (yes – eleven feet) on Saturday 21 November. Despite the water levels, suitable windows for fishing appeared, early in the month Geoff Badlands party had 5 fish in one day, Charlie McGhee had 3 one day the following week and John Kane took 4in one day. Brian Marshall also managed to tempt (and lose) his usual quota of fish from the Castlehaugh Cheek!
It is a bit disappointing to note that our biggest fish, at 18lbs, failed to break the 20lb barrier, this is quite unusual as the beat usually offers up several 20lb plus fish each year. Iain Bain, yet again, proved to be our most successful fisher with 12 salmon recorded for the season.
A bright little fish
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Every cloud has a silver lining, and with 27 fish for 2009, the picture for sea trout was much more promising, this was the first year we made slightly more effort fishing for these sporting fish in the summer. Whilst our beat is well up the system, this does not seem to hinder sea trout and we feel that the beat does offer some potential for sea trout fishing earlier than our traditional autumn fishing. Some fine fish were taken, with Iain Bain taking 4 fish one day in July. The biggest sea trout, at 7lb, fell to Charlie McGhee with Tom Borthwick not far behind with a 6lb fish. Charlie’s fish also achieved the national press, with it being awarded ‘Fish of the Week’ in the Scottish Sun!
A typical Upper Tweed sea trout
So, what will 2010 bring? Whilst we are not a spring beat, our thoughts are with the middle and lower beats which open today and who fared poorly last year. Let's hope the spring run is much improved over last year. Initial indications on rivers elsewhere suggest that there are fish about, but of course it is far too early to draw any conclusions - time will tell.
We are hoping to erect some benches at the pools this year, as well as some new signage. We are also investigating the potential for a fishing hut somewhere on the beat. Prices will remain unchanged for 2010, and our annual newsletter has
just been published and circulated for our guests.
In the meantime, why not try for some of the upper Tweed grayling? Good-sized fish are to be found in the river and excellent value day or season tickets can be purchased via the Peebleshire Trout Fishing Association -
http://www.peeblesshiretroutfishing.co.uk/
