Last Cast: Scrogbank, Tweed (28 November 2015)

I made a couple of friends from my year fishing a Saturday syndicate rod on Sunderland Hall and I was lucky enough to receive an invite from one to fish what would have otherwise been an unused rod at Scrogbank, opposite Holylee, Upper Tweed, on the last Saturday of the season.

I had fished 3 days at Glenormiston in early November with my dad (which I'll write about soon), the last afternoon of which saw the beginning of a big rise in water levels which have remained high since. Not a lot has been caught following this rise, by the standards of a Tweed November, and, with the river probably a bit high and the day being very wet and windy, the conditions weren't the best. A number of beats appeared unfished on the basis of a bit of surveying from the Peebles-Selkirk road through the bare, late-November trees.

I rodded up with a floating shooting head with 15ft sink 3 tip and a big Snaelda tube in Willie Gunn colours and with a red cone-head and headed for the Birkie, which I'd fished from Holylee in even higher levels last season. The top of the pool was moving through a bit fast for the fly, so I only fished a sheltered lie behind an island on the Scrogbank side, before moving down fairly quickly to a long stretch of better resting water at the tail of the pool. I saw a fish splashing about under some trees in the distance, presumably past the march for the for sale Elibank beat, downstream.

Pictured: The top of the Birkie, which was rising and nearing flood.

Pictured: Looking down to the tail of the Birkie, which had some better-paced water for the fly.

I was working my way down, concentrating on the sheltered water, towards the near bank, when I had a tug on the line as the fly came round onto the dangle, which didn't stick. The fly continued swinging for a couple more seconds when, just as I began a couple of yards of retrieve before casting, I had another take and the line went tight.

The fish surfaced early on in the fight and I could see that it was of a decent size. For those that know the Birkie, from the Scrogbank side, it is a difficult place to land a fish on your own with no net(!). I gathered in my line and began to adjust to a better position where, once the fish had tired, I could draw it onto a patch of grass only just submerged by the river. The fight continued for around 10 minutes, with plenty of rolling and splashing, before the fish was brought under control and I managed to bank it.

On inspection, it was a moderately coloured hen (later measured via reference to my rod at 32' - roughly 13lbs), with a little damage (perhaps claw marks) on its left flank. I got a couple of nice photos, which will help me remember the season more fondly(!), and held the fish in the current until it recovered - which was fairly quickly - and returned to the pool.

Pictured: Managed a fish 'selfie' before returning it!

Pictured: 32 inches.

This was a really great sign-off to another fairly difficult season for most. I seem to have had most of my luck in November, having managed a couple on Glenormiston a few weeks before. Hopefully, those fishing the last day tomorrow get a bit of a break in the weather although, looking out the window as I am writing this in Edinburgh on Sunday 29th, I would suspect this won't be the case!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, when they come.

Calum