My First River Tweed Salmon

Last week I was fortunate enough to find myself fishing on the River Tweed for the first time in the company of Philip Black and John Fyfe. This meant getting up a 4am to arrive at the beat for 9am. It was also my first time fishing in November.

Safely in the net at last!

The early start was well worth the effort as I managed to land a cracking fresh fish late in the day. It weighed in at 20lb and fought like a tiger! It used the current and depth of the pool to it's advantage when ever it could. After an epic tussle which had my Hardy Cascapedia reel singing a merry tune, the fish was finally in the net. Not a bad fish to open my Tweed account with! It couldn't resist a Willie Gunn tube fished on a H/I/S1 line and a 10ft 7ips versi leader.

A quick photo before release.

Another one for the scrap book.

Every Little Helps!

Last week, I spent a few hours with my Dad clearing parts of a tributary of the River Don. My Dad had notices several blockages the previous week on the Blackburn which would hamper fish migrations so we decided to head out and clear the way. We cleared 3 separate sections and removed numerous items which should not be found in a water way. These included bike frames, concrete blocks, roof sheeting to name but a few.

Before

After

Although it was hard work, it felt really rewarding to be giving something back and making an effort to try and restore the flow of this wee stream back to some sort of normality. My Dad and I will be keeping an eye out on the burn to make sure there are no further blockages in future.

Before

After

River Don Grilse For My Dad

My Dad finally broke a 2 year long wait for a River Don salmon when he managed land one a couple of weeks back. He lost one just 2 or 3 cast prior to this one taking and when it fell off I feared his chance was maybe gone. Undeterred, he cast the fly straight back in and was rewarded for his patience with a coloured cock fish around the 4lb. It took a size 10 Red Ally's. I was almost as delighted as he was when I got my hand round the tail of the fish.

Hopefully it's not another 2 year wait for his next one!

My dad about to release his salmon back into the River Don.