Seeing hard work and investment pay off is hugely rewarding and that is exactly what the 2005 season on Upper Caberston did for us.

Now at the end of our fifth season, since I acquired the beat in late October 2001, we are seeing the second year in the cycle of stock that has spawned during our period of ownership. Fry and parr have been nurtured with habitat improvement, and defended within our waters. Return rates have also been helped for the second year now by more fish making back to the river after the bulk of northeast drift nets were bought off in the summer of 2004.

But significantly, after a record 81 salmon and 12 sea trout from the Beat last year (2004), a year when the entire Tweed rod catch reached the dizzy heights of 15,000 fish, we broke the Beat record again this year with 101 salmon and 26 sea trout in a year when the entire Tweed catch slipped back to under 10,000.

The main reason for this years success was that we finally managed to complete the work this summer that we had planned (and got permission) to do the previous year, but had not been able to do due to high water. This was the removal of the artificial croys in both Weavers and the Gooselandale pools.

These croys had been put in back in the early 90s under the classic beat owners misguided apprehension that if you speed up the flow you make more fly water. Yes you do, but more fly water without any fish in it, is rather obviously useless. The faster flow merely gives the running fish a free pass through the Beat in high water and the muddy backwaters created by these croys substantially reduces the amount of suitable redding gravel for the salmon.

And so it was in June this year that Eddie McLellan with a 360 excavator, Steve and myself carefully removed the croys and repaired and tidied the banks in both the Gooselandale and Weaver pools. We also managed to tidy up some of the damage done by the big flood in January.

Have a look at the river height Beat catch comparison to the previous year to see how effective this has been.

Anyway the year began for poor Stevie with the biggest flood Tweed had seen in 40 years. The new hut, the car park, and all the infrastructure that Steve had worked so hard on the previous year, including the old hut which we use as an equipment shed were completely inundated and the mess was dreadful. The quad bike spent nearly two days under water. It is a tribute to Steve and Alistair, his son who helped, that by the time the season opened you wouldn’t have known it had happened.

Fortunately although the big flood had torn out several parts of the banks it had also done us some considerable favours, re-shaping and deepening most of the main pools.

And so the season opened and with very little fishing effort we took just a couple of salmon and half a dozen sea trout in the book before the end of August. I still think that we need to explore the spring fishing more as we do get Springers around April and May time and a run of sea trout in June & July, but you do have to be there when the water brings them up.

As usual we then we began in earnest at the end of September with my courses giving a first salmon on a fly for Ian Winstone (and he lost another) and a nice fish for Bob Tyrell. The following week’s course brought another 2 salmon and a good sea trout for Cecil Duguid but low water was holding back the main runs.

It was not until the 13th October that the first of several big rain belts brought us 3ft of fairly dirty water. No sooner had that dropped than we got another dose on the 25th and another after that. With the water going up and down like a yoyo you would have expected us to be washed off for much of the time, but our new high water pools started to perform beautifully. On 2 separate days we caught the only fish we knew of reported on Tweed. Ian Moutter’s party also enjoyed one of the biggest runs of big sea trout on Tweed for many years and we ended October with 24 salmon and 24 sea trout in the book.

November was really just more of the same. Buckets of water bouncing the river up and down week after week but again our new high water pools produced. In my own week at the beginning of November several big but coloured fish were caught and returned including a 19lber for Sandy Leventon and a 20lber for Mark Leatham - I think he had been tiring of salmon fishing up to that point!

All this water and the unseasonally warm temperatures, kept pods of fish hurtling through right on through the month, and though it was difficult to stop them, with numerous fish lost, we managed to notch up 3 more 20 pounders and a number of fish in the teens.

That was until brother John’s week arrived. At that very moment the temperature plummeted to several degrees below zero, the river dropped like a stone and the fish stopped. It wasn’t much more fun for the anglers either with lines freezing in the rod rings making fishing very unpleasant. But it is at that point that our magnificent hut and Reggie, the wood burning stove, are truly appreciated.

Not sure what he had done to deserve this but, after deciding to leave two days early, no sooner had John`s tail lights disappeared from the beat than the weather warmed and we were back in business! Taking 2 fish that afternoon and a whopping total of 38 for the rest of the week. This included a Beat record caught by Steve from the Bishop`s on the Saturday, estimated to have been between 30 and 35lbs and a beat record for the most fish in one day for him and, appropriately, Eddie (aka The Dig) McLellan of 17 fish. How wonderful that we celebrated our annual Christmas party that night with a fantastic turkey presented by Charlie Miller served with all the festive trimmings by Dawn and the girls at the George.

Enjoying yet more cold weather the last three days were slightly disappointing even though we caught 11 fish. But my own year was complete with the capture of both the 100th & 101st salmon for the season. The last one this lovely 18lb hen which was carefully returned. It seemed so appropriate so to do.

As ever my thanks to everyone who has helped us during the year but especially to Steve for his infectious enthusiasm and tremendous hard work on the beat and to Dawn at the George who works so hard to look after most of us that fish it.

All that remains for me to do is to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and to say I hope we will see you all again next year.