See each day's largest fish and individual beat catches on our Latest catches page which is updated each time a ghillie uses our automatic telephone reporting system.

Last week

Last updated: Sunday 29th August

With the river fining down good runs of fish entered the system and 735 salmon and 52 sea trout were recorded on gillieline. Reasonable tides and low river levels suited the bottom and lower river and with fresh fish on each tide many beats made excellent returns. The bottom river finished the week with 178 salmon and 5 sea trout, and once again the Horncliffe rods had the best of the sport with returns of 53 salmon and 2 sea trout. The Tweedhill rods also had a good week with returns of 49 salmon, closely followed by Ladykirk with 47 salmon and 2 sea trout. Pedwell also fished well with returns of 24 salmon and 1 sea trout. Fish ran upstream to the lower river and the beats collectively made returns of 433 salmon and 16 sea trout. Almost all the beats made double figure returns but the best came from Tillmouth with 91 salmon. The Lees beat ended the week with 53 fish, followed closely by Sprouston with 48 salmon. Other contibutions to the excellent lower river catches came from the Junction with 39 salmon and 7 sea trout, Upper Hendersyde 39 salmon and 3 sea trout, Hendersyde 38 salmon and 1 sea trout, Birgham Dub 31 salmon and 2 sea trout and West Learmouth with 30 salmon. As fish moved upstream sport on the middle river improved from the previous weeks and the beats collectively made returns of 108 salmon and 25 sea trout. Upper Floors made the best returns of 30 salmon and 3 sea trout followed by Dryburgh North with 12 salmon and 1 sea trout, Middle Pavilion 10 salmon and 8 sea trout, Boleside 10 salmon and 3 sea trout, Lower Makerstoun 10 salmon, Lower Floors 9 salmon and 4 sea trout and Ravenswood with 9 salmon and 2 sea trout. The Upper river beat of Cardrona had its first fish of the season.

On the tributaries - Only the Till beats made returns - 15 salmon and 6 sea trout. The Tiptoe beat had the best of the sport with returns of 11 salmon, followed by Lower Tindal with 2 salmon and 2 sea trout and Upper Tindal with 2 salmon and 1 sea trout.

Very little mail - which is a surprise considering last weeks fishing and the returns/catches. Ah well, Malcolm from the Lees writes - a great start to the week with lots of fresh fish, almost all on the fly on full floaters and #8 and #10 hooks. Unfortunately as the water dropped back and the sun came out the runs stopped. We need some heavy rain but with not much in the forecast I doubt we will get any.

And here is a tongue in cheek one - Great to see the Tweed catching a reasonable number of fish yesterday! We have been fed this tale that there are no fish in the Tweed, but glad to see someone has let the cat out of the bag. Still plenty of fish up here in the "wee highland burn", looking forward to seeing you in September.

Thanks Edward - just counting down the days - all is ready.

In the interest of adding more content to these reports, if any rod/boatman/gillie etc. has any details of catches, anecdotes, pictures or experiences whilst fishing Tweed could they please contact me by e-mail on Bill@fishtweed.co.uk

© 2010 Bill Stanworth/FishTweed.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 28th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Tweedhill 49, Horncliffe 53, Pedwell 24, Ladykirk 47, The Boathouse 5, Tillmouth 91, Lennel 11, West Learmouth 30, The Lees 53, South Wark 14, Lower North Wark 16, Lower Birgham 23, Birgham Dub 31, Sprouston 48, Hendersyde 38, Upper Hendersyde 39, Junction 39, Lower Floors 9, Upper Floors 31, Lower Makerstoun 10, Upper Makerstoun 7, Dryburgh North 12, Bemersyde 2, Ravenswood 9, Drygrange 3, Lower Pavilion 6, Middle Pavilion 10, Boleside 10, Sunderland Hall 2, Cardrona Fishings 1, Tiptoe 11, Lower Tindal 2, Upper Tindal 2.
Total: 738 Largest: Tillmouth 20lbs
SEA TROUT: Horncliffe 2, Pedwell 1, Ladykirk 2, South Wark 2, Lower North Wark 1, Birgham Dub 2, Hendersyde 1, Upper Hendersyde 3, Junction 7, Lower Floors 4, Upper Floors 3, Dryburgh North 1, Bemersyde 2, Ravenswood 2, Lower Pavilion 2, Middle Pavilion 8, Boleside 3, Lower Tindal 2, Upper Tindal 1, Redscar 3.
Total: 52 Largest: Pedwell & Birgham Dub & Junction & Lower Pavilion & Middle Pavilion & Boleside 6lbs
TROUT: None reported

Fly patterns

To find out more information about fly patterns used on the Tweed and tips on how to tie them please visit the Fly patterns page.

Salmon fishing on the River Tweed

12yrs old Elliot Metcalf caught and returned his first fish when fishing Pedwell with his father on 3rd June 2010. Congratulations Elliot from FishTweed. We hope this is the first of many to keep you smiling :-)

On only his second day with a salmon rod, 15-year-old Harry Parrish caught this 6lb sea trout at Ladykirk last week.

Steve Parrish with a fresh 7lb springer caught at Ladykirk last week. The fish was returned.

Left: 9-year-old Patrick Smalley with one of the grilse he caught at Lower North Wark last Saturday (14 August 2010) on his first fishing trip. Right: 9-year-old Tom Caswell with one of the fish he caught at Hendersyde.

William Collinson's first ever fish - a 4lb grilse - caught and returned in early August from a Middle Tweed Beat.

Shirley Bell with her first salmon, a wee grilse from Bemersyde on 4th August 2010.

Andrew Edey with his first ever salmon. The 10lb fish was caught by 9-year-old Andrew on Tillmouth Park in July.

A 9lb fish caught at Upper Floors on the 28th June 2010 by Alex Hunt.

On Monday the 14th June Richard Pratt caught and returned this 10lb springer at Dryburgh North at 10:30 in the evening. Fly pattern was a Silver Stoat's Tail.

An 8lb sea trout caught by John McCann on Friday 11th June at Ladykirk.

Recent photographs
Been fishing this week? Send us your best photos, suitably captioned and dated for inclusion above to info@fishtweed.co.uk

Season review

SPRING.

February Not normally being a doom and gloom merchant, writing this report is a little difficult. Everyone is aware that the spring fishing on Tweed in 2009 was poor and we all hoped that it was just a one year blip, however when viewing the weekly returns on gillieline for the opening month of the 2010 season the situation appears to be similar to the previous year. Last year my February report included the text "the season began with cold wintry weather - both the river and fishing were affected by the weather and river conditions - catch returns for the month were low" Unfortunately the same text easily sums up the start of the present season. Admittedly we had a much harder winter but by the opening day of the salmon season the weather and river conditions were similar to those of last year. The returns recorded on gillieline for the month - 100 salmon and 1 sea trout. MarchThe months returns showed an improvement from those recorded for 2009. Due to high coloured river conditions 4 fishing days lost during the month. With the levels steady and fine spring weather over the opening week beats recorded 37 salmon and 4 sea trout. The levels remained steady and the weather was again fine during the second week - 48 salmon and 1 sea trout recorded. The following week saw one or two small rises, however rods/beats had the best week so far this season with 51 salmon and 10 sea trout recorded. The last full week began with good weather and river conditions, but heavy rain toward the weekend raised the levels and coloured the river. Over the four fishable days rods/beats recorded 48 salmon and 6 sea trout. Winter returned with a vengeance to Tweedside over the final days of the month and although the weather on Monday was spring like with 9 salmon recorded, by Tuesday gale force northerly winds brought heavy snow/sleet showers to the region. Needless to say the levels rose - over 12' at Norham - and with many roads and fields flooded the fishing was over for the month. A total of 193 salmon and 22 sea trout were recorded on gillieline. April Heavy rain showers continued over the opening days and high coloured river conditions led to 5 fishing days being lost at the start of the month. The river began to fine down on Thursday the 8th, and 46 salmon and 5 sea trout were recorded for the 3 fishable days. W/C 11th saw the river in pretty good order and although it was to high for the beats downstream of Coldstream the lower and middle river beats fished extremely well with 120 salmon and 22 sea trout recorded for the week. The levels continued to fall over the following week, as did the catch returns, and 58 salmon and 4 sea trout were recorded. During the week the Tweed Commission ruled that from the 22nd. the whole system would be catch and release till the end of June. With the river almost at summer low the final 5 days saw 43 salmon and 2 sea trout recorded. A total of 267 salmon and 33 sea trout were recorded for the month. May At the start of the month cold northerly winds kept air temperatures low and they only rose around the middle of the month when the prevailing winds veered to a southerly direction. Very little rain fell during the month and the river levels continued to fall. Saturday, May 1st saw 8 salmon recorded and then 78 salmon and 5 sea trout for the first full week of the fishing. Week-ending the 16th. saw returns of 91 salmon and 10 sea trout, however over the following weeks - hot, bright sunny weather arrived and made fishing difficult as the river levels fell to summer low. Returns fell in the third week - 63 salmon and 6 sea trout, then rose to 88 salmon and 32 sea trout in the last full week of the month. On the final day of May, 13 salmon and 1 sea trout were recorded. Although fishing conditions were difficult during the month, catch returns - although not brilliant - were reasonably good. Total number of fish recorded for the month on gillieline - 340 Salmon (231 in 2009) and 54 Sea Trout.

Summer

June A very dry month with virtually no rain to raise the river levels. The low levels, bright sunny conditions and increased water temperatures led to the usual summer problems of Ranunculas weed and the growth of green algea. The initial 5 days of the month saw returns of 39 salmon 20 sea trout made on gillieline and the following week ended with 71 salmon and 65 sea trout in beat record books. From then on the weekly salmon returns began to fall and sea trout became the main feature in the catch returns. W/c 13th finished with 36 salmon and 43 sea trout - the best at 12lb from Tweedhill. The third week saw returns of 23 salmon and 40 sea trout and the final three days 14 salmon and 20 sea trout. In general the low levels suited the bottom river beats during the month and a good number of the salmon caught were above the average spring fish weight. A total of 183 salmon and 188 sea trout were recorded on gillieline for the month. July For most of the month the river was at summer level and weed/algea was a problem. For the first 3 days, returns of 10 salmon and 19 sea trout were made. Light showers in the catchment areas during the first full week led to a small rise to the river levels, unfortunately it only managed to stir up the silt and algea, and the week ended with 67 salmon and 71 sea trout recorded on gillieline. During the week the Tweed Commission announced that the Spring Conservation Measures ie. total catch and release of all salmon until the 30th June would be extended for a futher 5 years - until 2015. In the following week heavy showers led to another small rise to the river levels which moved a fair amount of the algea downstream. The downside of this was a coloured river and 2 fishing days lost. As a result salmon returns fell 49 however the sea trout returns improved to 80 for the week. The river was fining down at the start of the following week then heavy showers coloured the river in the middle of the week. The conditions did not deter fresh fish from entering the system and the week ended with 83 salmon and 184 sea trout recorded on gillieline. The final week of the month with the river almost down to summer level fresh summer salmon continued the run on each tide and the week ended with 172 salmon and 57 sea trout entering the record books. Total number of fish recorded on gillieline for the month - 381 salmon and 361 sea trout.

The "season so far" total recorded on FishTweed - 1511 Salmon (916 in 2009) and 738 sea trout (451 in 2009)

© 2010 Bill Stanworth/FishTweed