Upper Caberston on the Tweed October 2006

backReport on the Salmon Fishing

The Autumn fishing on Upper Caberston proved, once again, to be excellent yet challenging. The few days before the start of these fishings had found me on the River Alness in Sutherland as the guest of my friends Mr Philip Sharnock and Roger Dowsett. After many years of losing fish in various entertaining ways, Philip managed to catch his first and second salmon on the fly. I am afraid to say the 2 fish I hooked were lost, Sharnock-2, Moutter-0, well done Philip!. On Sunday we headed south to the River Tweed through magnificent scenery, the autumn colours at times proving to be staggering. By early evening we were pulling into the car park of the George Hotel at Walkerburn, to be welcomed by other members of the party and the wonderful Dawn owner/proprietor of the Hotel

The Fishing the river proved to be low and the general prospect appeared not the most encouraging. We have, however, been there before and view pre-fishing soothsaying as little more than general chat, something to be indulged in, but not taken too seriously, even if the river was continuing to drop. How right that attitude proved to be. Monday ended with 6 fish landed and numerous fish lost.Steven Gordon had 2, 9lbs & 5lbs from Weavers and Bridge Pool. Phillip Sharnock (again! this is becoming a habit) and Phillip Pledger each had fish, 6lbs & 7lbs from Bishops. I had 2 - one of which was one of the the nicest looking fish I have ever seen off Tweed - 9lbs and 7.5lbs, one from Goosendale, one from the Bridge. There is a erroneous perception that fish caught in Autumn on the Upper Tweed are generally coloured. I have never understood this as the vast majority of the the fish I have caught and have seen caught are good clean silver fish. Out of the 6 fish caught on the first day one was slightly coloured the other 5 being that old cliche - bars of silver. It would be an oversight not to mention the excellent work from Stevie the Ghillie. His assistance and guidance was welcomed by all and his work on the the river has consistently improved the fishing.
The week continued with each day seeing fish being caught. On Tuesday David Ward, caught his first salmon for 25 years on the Bishops, and what a nice fish that was (pictured right).
The middle of the week saw the river rise many feet, with trees and such rushing by the fishing hut. You would have thought it unfishable and I must admit to taking advantage of this to catch up with some lost sleep, ably assisted by my friend Steven Howarth (see left). Those who chose to fish took 2 fish and it is notable to report these were the only fish reported caught on the whole of the Tweed for that day, a not inconsiderable feat and one we have achieved for the last 3 years.
On Friday the river was still high and coloured but slowly dropping down. Stewart Oakes lost 3 fish in the Goosendale, which set the tone for the day. I went on to lose 5 in succession and David Ward lost a further 3. The fish were lying in low water by the bank and were generally hooked on the dangle. 3 fish were taken for the day, it should have been at least 6.
Saturday saw six fish landed the largest would have been over 12lbs (Philip Sharnock again, he managed 1 other for the day). Philip Pledger had a magnificent sea trout of around 8lb, David Ward a 7lb'er from the Bishops and I had 2 one of 6lb from the bridge and a beauty of around 10lb from the Bishops.
My good friend Stewart Oakes, hooked and landed a nice fish, which proved to be foul hooked and was duly returned, unrecorded - better luck next time Stewart.
The week ended with 19 fish, not a bad week especially considering the conditions and only 3 slightly coloured fish amongst them. We look forward to returning next year. Many thanks to Stevie Dixon the Ghillie (pictured right) for his excellent work and to Dawn and her staff at the George Hotel, Walkerburn who always go beyond the call of duty to ensure we are all comfortable, well fed and watered.

________________________________________________________________

back