Waltham & Dritness, Tweed (26 July 2014)

I would describe myself as an Upper Tweed rod, for the most part, and so Bottom Tweed and the mouth of the river seem very distant at times; however, I like to consider myself a thinking angler and so acquainting myself with goings-on downstream and learning about the factors influencing bottom river fishing had been high on my 'to do' list.

July had been a particularly dry month, as had a good few months previous to it, at least relatively speaking. The river levels upstream had been around the Summer low to 2 or 3 inches mark and so the time seemed right to look into a day on the Bottom river, when I received a very kind invitation from Martin Inkster, one of the owners of bottom beat on the river, Waltham & Dritness, to pay a visit.

Saturday 26 July was the day and the levels were low even for the Bottom Tweed when fellow Fairnilee rod Russell Lugton (my 'plus one' for the day) and I set off on our respective journeys to Horncliffe on the English  bank, just upstream from Berwick-upon-Tweed. Tiny flies were the order of the day and so I had paid a visit to Orvis in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, during my lunch hour the day before to pick up a couple of Silver Stoats, Gledswoods and Black & Yellow Ally's.

Pictured: Prompt arrival, for once.

I made it down to the beat in good time and was on the banks at 8:30am to watch the beat's principal pool, The Squire Pool, come to life with fish leaping every few seconds in the cooler morning conditions. As Marty explained to us, this pool is the first substantial holding pool on the river and so, at times like this, any fish awaiting opportunity to push upstream will congregate in its depths, a large boulder in mid-stream providing a perfect shelter during times when the current is pushing through with more conviction than on the day in question. The pool is shared with Tweedhill, the Scottish bank beat opposite, and it's thought that the first rod into this pool in the morning often has the best opportunity of the day, if it's a bright one. As we were rodding up, weight was added to this theory when an early bird Tweedhill rod was spotted with his rod doubled over at the tail of the pool, just visible from the parking spaces at the hut. The fish was landed and having one in the book before 9am - albeit the book on the far bank - added some urgency to our strides as we headed upstream with Marty, his son David and his friend Scott to enter the pool from the Waltham & Dritness side, above the Tweedhill rod. 

 Pictured: The Wheel and Red Rock, with the tail of The Squire Pool in the background as it kicked into action.

Upon arriving at the cut-in to the pool, some wading was required to gain a good vantage point - in the form of an underwater rock - from which to fish the pool. I had just got into position and   

started to work out how to fish the pool when Tweedhill hooked into another fish. This was also landed successfully with a minimum of fuss; a good meal (or two) for the angler in question! My attention returned to my own fishing, which required a steep learning curve as to how to fish my small Black Boar over the mid-stream feature of the aforementioned boulder. With an intermediate tip on, I learned that a quick retrieve was required until the fly had swung to the near side of the boulder. At slightly better levels, a mow tip would be in its element for overcoming such obstacles and this is something I will hopefully have opportunity to test out in the future.

Pictured: Tweedhill about to come into a second fish.

Fishing down from The Squire Pool, there is Boat Hole, Red Rock and The Wheel, which all follow in quick succession and which all had flurries of heavy activity at various points during the day, The Wheel in particular. We had planned to take an early lunch, in light of the tide times which would flood off the beat from around 2pm, and so we headed back to the hut for a catch up. A look around the hut gave me an appreciation of the quality and condition of the fish that are taken so close to the river mouth. The hut was wallpapered in photos of 'bars of silver', including Marty's very own 31lber caught just last season and around the same date as Russell and I were fishing on.

Pictured: The hut at Waltham & Dritness is nicely set back from the road, overlooking the top of the tidal section of the beat.

After a short break, Russell fished down a nice looking, shallower stretch in front of the hut, which had a stronger flow to it and a croy to provide a lie at its tail. This stretch looked like a spot in which to 'catch them running' and our hosts had discussed with us the tactics of fishing this stretch as the tide is washing off. This would be around 5-6pm on the day and so, when the tide rendered the bottom of the beat flat and lagoon-like at around 2:30pm, we stopped fishing for a further chat with our hosts before we parted company and headed into Berwick to pick up supplies. 

While we were sitting in the hut, we were joined by a friend of our hosts, a former netsman of the very pools we were fishing. The insight the conversation that followed gave us into the extent of the runs of fish in past years and into the prime spots for shoaling of fish on their entering the river was as fascinating as the despair about our current Summer run was concerning; as David pointed out, however, the scenes in The Squire Pool in the morning didn't leave much room for such despair! Indeed, a glance at the beat's catch book showed 7 fish for the month of the 14 taken for the season, 2 of which had been caught by Scott the day previously. Also of note was that 9 of these were on the fly, which I think is good going.

Pictured: The old netting shiel, just upstream from the hut and overlooking the scene of our visitor's stories of times gone by.

Our evening session commenced at around 5:30pm, after some further relaxing in the hut. The stretch in front of the hut - which I understand is called Waltham Croy or Tordsby Dyke (happy to be corrected!) was fished down again, once by each of us. I'd say the croys provided the greatest anticipation of a take of my day's fishing, possibly due to the fly swinging across the current at a good pace for a take while the tide had almost finished washing off.

Pictured: The croys - a good run down as the tide is slipping away.

We couldn't resist another shot at the run of pools at the top of the beat before finishing. Russell had another go in The Squire Pool, which had quietened down somewhat, while I had a brief go with a Sunray Shadow in Red Rock. At around 7:30pm, the tail of Red Rock and the Waltham and Dritness bank of The Wheel came alive with fish leaping. Russell and I agreed that most of these looked like grilse, but that they also looked like they may have been in a while. We each had a few casts in The Wheel to see if we could entice one or two, but they just weren't in the mood and the theory mentioned earlier regarding the first to The Squire Pool was seeming sounder and sounder as the evening progressed.

Pictured: A mid-morning view downstream from The Squire to Red Rock and The Wheel, which we would fish again in the evening.

We hope to return to Waltham and Dritness soon, though (indeed there are many pools which we simply didn't have time to fish), and armed with an understanding of how best to approach a pool like The Squire, we will do so with a great deal of confidence. There is great contrast with the Upper River (this shouldn't surprise me!), but as the week this stretch had following our visit suggests, until there is consistent and heavy rainfall to allow passage upstream, it really is the place to be.

Thanks again to Marty, David and Scott - great to fish with you and we're looking forward to catching up again soon!

Tight lines

Calum