The Upper Tweed is the closest stretch of Salmon fishing to my parents' house in the Borders (Wemyss & March or Dawyck probably being the closest beats) and so in a way I consider this 'home territory', in fishing terms. As a result, the Back End run - being the only substantial run on the Upper Tweed - is something of a focal point for me. Last year, my dad and I had a few days on Horsbrugh, as well as a day at Ashiestiel, all to no avail. Indeed, my dad hooked the only fish connected with by either of us that Autumn in the Lower Nutwood pool at Horsbrugh, only for it to drop off just as I arrived with the net. This year, though, we'd planned further ahead and had taken three days on Glenormiston in the first week of November.
Similarly to the Autumns of 2013 and 2014, low water had stretched prohibitively far into the Autumn. We had only had a couple of one foot rises in the months since the last decent spate which had come in May. The river was dirty and still lined with weed and fallen leaves, waiting to be washed out. The fishing was yet to really get going by the time our days at Glenormiston - between Innerleithen and Cardrona - came round and there had only been a handful of fish from the beat so far, despite more than half of the short two months season having passed.
On arrival at the beat, Colin the ghillie told us we would be fishing the bottom of the two sub-beats in the morning, switching to the top beat in the afternoon. This would be a pattern to which we'd stick, over our 3 days with Colin. We tackled up and headed down in the car to park up at the long Whin Stream pool, before walking down to Jawstane where we began our fishing. The majority of rods would be fishing very small doubles in the prohibitively low 6" Peebles gauge levels, but I'd seen a fish caught on Horsbrugh earlier in the week on a Sunray/Monkey-style fly and thought the extra movement might help otherwise reluctant fish to take an interest - I went for a small aluminium Monkey tube I had been passed by a fellow angler on Pert, North Esk, in March. We each had a go in Jawstane, where very few fish were showing, before taking a break to watch a Traquair rod fish the Whin Stream and have a drink of some Traquair Bear Ale we had picked up in Melrose earlier in the week. Later, we headed into Innerleithen to pick up some lunch and head back to the hut to catch up with the other rods.
I had fished Glenormiston in October 2014 and knew that the top spot on the beat was the Girley Water, on the upper beat, where the river is divided by an island before rejoining and forming a deep channel where the fish like to lie. Conveniently, this also happens to constitute particularly nice fly water. After lunch, we headed straight for this pool, passing the Bridge Pool and the Bushes on the way. I watched my dad fish down the first few yards at the foot of the island before joining in. A relatively short cast to reach the best water, I had only been fishing for a few minutes when, as my fly moved just inside of the main channel, I felt the line gently tense and began to gather in my loop onto the reel in anticipation. It was a very subtle take, but once the fish had settled it began to fight. The majority of the fight was played out away from the main depth of the pool and eventually, after 5 or so minutes, I was able to beach the fish on the gravel on the inside of the bend in the river.
It turned out to be a slightly coloured hen of around 6lbs or so. I was slightly surprised that any fish I'd caught was not more coloured, given the lack of water, and so was fairly pleased. We recovered the fish in the water - which took slightly longer than normal as it seemed to be fairly comfortable with holding position at our feet(!) - and watched it turn downstream and head for the safety of the deepest part of the pool.
After a slightly early departure on day one to head into Edinburgh for a family viewing of 'Spectre', the new Bond film, we arrived at the beat on the Friday morning to instructions to head for the bottom beat again for the morning. We again headed for Jawstane, first off, and - sticking with the same fly - I felt slightly disappointed not to get a tug from a classic 'under the cables' lie halfway down the pool. I've never had any luck from Jawstane, despite having fished it from both Traquair and Glenormiston a few times each, but I always feel like I'll get a take when fishing it.
Eventually, we moved up the beat to Whin Stream, via a coffee break in the car. The top of this pool comprises a fairly long run which steadily deepens into the depth of the pool. With plenty of space for two rods, we each found a suitable perch on Glenormiston's high, outside of the bend, bank from which to start. There are not many obvious lies in the pool and so I worked my way down quite quickly in order to cover the pool. I had just passed the remains of a croy on the Glenormiston bank and was fishing the leaf-strewn back eddy behind it, when I had a heavy take. This was followed by a fairly acrobatic fight with a number of leaps and runs. I moved slightly upstream to a better position from which to play the fish, while my dad got the net and moved downstream into position. This was a slightly better fight than the fish from the previous day, but eventually the fish went up on its side and my dad scooped it up and headed for the bank to take a look at it.
On inspection, the fish was pretty fresh for upper river standards. It was a cock fish of around 7lbs, with a little damage on its right side. Having managed to keep the fish in the water by using the net, we lifted it out briefly and quickly took a couple of pictures before getting it back into the water to move off into the river with minimal recovery time seemingly required.
We tried hard in the Girley Water in the afternoon, following a Deerhunter dram or two with Colin and the other rods in the hut at lunch. By this stage, the pool had filled with fish and you could be forgiven for thinking this was a reasonably good Autumn from a few minutes watching it; nothing further doing, though.
By day three, the weather had broken and the river was rising slowly but showing no signs of stopping. We focussed on Whin Stream in the morning but had no success this time. We had increased our fly sizes by this point to counter the decreasing clarity of the water and were now fishing one inch copper Gold Bodied Willie Gunn and Monkey tubes. By lunchtime, leaves were beginning to pose an issue, although we still felt confident of another fish in the Girley Water, which was beginning to extend downstream with the extra water. It didn't come though, despite changing tips to try and plumb the bottom of the channel to get the attention of any fish hunkering down, out of the way of the leaves and debris.
We moved upstream to the Woodend Pool at the top of the beat near the march with Horsbrugh for a final few casts, but it became apparent - with a ratio of 3 leaves in every 4 casts - that fishing was done for the day. We left with a feeling that at least being washed off for the last half-day would mean better fishing for the next few (for others, anyway), but we all now know this didn't prove to be the case this Autumn! We had a great few days on the beat, though, and the combination of enjoyable (and fairly successful) fishing with good company on the beat and especially in the hut at lunchtime left us looking forward to a return next year.
Now to book some rods for early Spring 2016!
Calum
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