2006 has to go down as one of the strangest seasons I have ever known on upper Tweed.

Strange for two reasons, first for having the mildest wettest November on record and second, possibly as a consequence of the first, for being a season in which we lost an unusually high proportion of the fish we hooked. Indeed almost as many fish as we landed.

In my own week at the beginning of November, I lost 6 fish in a row and that was not counting pulls and plucks but fish seemingly firmly hooked and on for several minutes at least and in two cases almost at the bank. These were not just old fish pecking at it either but fresh fish running hard. My plight was not unique, the same thing happened to many others countless times and to me again at the end of the month. Very frustrating!

Theories as usual abounded, but I have seen this happen before. On the Tay in the spring several years ago when I recall that in one week the rods on my Course lost eight fish in a row and only landed one. In that week Loch Tay recorded an abundance of sea-liced fish, fish that had therefore covered over 60 miles in under two days, fish that were running very hard, very fast… in high unusually warm water, which is precisely what we had on Tweed.

Anyway, our season began once again on February 1st with Steve, myself and Charles Miller braving arctic conditions to toast the River with the traditional glass of scotch, before having a somewhat forlorn and fruitless cast into the icy depths.



Then sadly, hardly anyone fished during the spring except for Steve who had the occasional cast when conditions seemed favourable. He proved there are fish to be caught, landing a lovely 12 pounder from the Bridge pool on April 13th and another 10 pounder at the beginning of May. We hope to do rather better next spring when my Basic Courses move to the Beat.

We began our autumn in earnest with a welcome 4ft 6ins lift of water on September 19th but with no one fishing, it was left to Steve once again to get our first autumn fish from the Bridge pool and a couple of days later a 4lb sea trout from the Goosendale. We had to wait 6 more days of perfect water fining down and a number of fish running through us before our first clients arrived in the shape of Mick Bell and party.  They still managed a respectable 9 fish for their week, 7 salmon and 2 sea trout.

By the time my Courses started the following week, the water had run off and the fishing was rather disappointing with just one 12 pounder for Patrick Wheeler and a few fish lost.

Further small lifts of a few inches of water in the weeks that followed  produced rather a steady trickle of fish than feast or famine, with 6 fish in the week of the 9th, and 7 in the week of the 16th .

Then with no perceptible change in conditions a big run of fish arrived on October 23rd giving a fantastic week for Ian Moutter. 19 salmon and sea trout of which all except one were bars of silver.





November began with a nice week for me with 17 fish and 2 sea trout but as I said earlier, the figure should have been more like 30 fish if we’d hung onto the countless fish lost.

The following week produced 10 salmon and 2 sea trout including our biggest of the season at just 17lbs. Strange also how most of the bigger fish, that we did eventually see but then couldn’t catch, somehow must have known what was about to happen…

On November 13th the heavens began to open. Gales and rain are expected at this time of year but nothing I have ever seen has run on for as long as it did. Week after week until after the season ended, one belt after another of heavy rain swept in on a sequence of Atlantic lows that produced 4 separate floods over 5ft on our gauge one over 8ft and the level never below 2ft 6ins.

But at least we could keep fishing. Most of the lower river beats must have had a terrible time.

At high water times our Bishops, Goosendale, Shaws and Bridge pools will still take fish but it has to be said that restricted to just these few places, it is pretty dull and fishing conditions are far from ideal.



Nevertheless, those that were prepared to give it a go, still caught fish and in the week of the 13th . We managed to land 8 fish, the following week 9 and in the final few days 5.

Oh, and anyone who thinks we don’t get fresh fish at the end of the season might like to see Derek Coles with one of his 4 fish taken in the last week. 



It was then on Saturday November 25th that we celebrated the season close with our 6th annual Caberston Christmas dinner at the George. This has now developed into a really good evening with a lot of our more local fishers coming over specially for it and a not inconsiderable amount of both the Christmas and Scottish spirit!

Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that the dinner is also our way of saying thank you to Steve for his never faltering ability to keep us all going when the conditions get tough, for his dedication to the Beat and above all for his love of the River and the fish that run it and not forgetting Sandra, his wife, who has to bear the brunt of his frustration when so many of us lose yet another one that he has worked so hard to put our way.

I would also like to pass on once again, the thanks of all our fishers who stay at the George, to Dawn and all her staff  for managing to make our stay so enjoyable, even when we are not catching fish.

And so with another season passed, all that remains for me to do is to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and to say I very much hope we will see you all again next year.