Sunderland Hall, Tweed (24 October 2016)

Sunderland Hall is a favourite of mine and I tend to have a few days, or at least, sessions there each season. Amongst the plus points are the very reasonable rod prices earlier in the season (Spring and Summer) and also the beat's versatility, as it has Upper Tweed and Ettrick fishing, plus the famous Meetings Pool at the bottom of the beat. This makes it an ideal venue for an evening escape from the office between May and July, while the days are longer. There are usually a good number of fish holding in the Meetings from mid-April until early June and in May and June the fastest running Spring fish will run the Ettrick, given water. Indeed, in May I managed a 16lbs springer from the Meetings which I was pretty pleased with.

One from May - great fight

In October, though, the Upper Tweed pools get the most attention and these were the focus of my most recent, unfortunately unproductive, day on the beat. There were 6 inches on the gauge at Peebles on the day and so, despite temperatures of only 2 celsius overnight, I made an early start in Black Strand (also referred to as 'The Birches') , a locally-famous holding pool in front of Sunderland Hall itself. Nothing was showing and so I only covered the top half of the long pool before moving on.

Black Strand

At the top of the beat, the Howden Pool is the main pool, although there used to be a good stream at an island below this. Readers who haven't visited Sunderland Hall or Fairnilee yet this season, but who are familiar with the beats, will be disappointed to hear that this stream has changed significantly  since last season and the stream from Howden down the left bank is far smaller than before and it looks more probably that fish run the right bank channel instead now. Some good fishing has been lost, if this is the case.

Howden itself has a more pronounced stream and flow in low water than before. This follows the right bank and did feel very 'fishy'. Again, nothing showing.

Howden Pool

Next up is Arres' Putt, a high water pool with a fast but shallow run at the top. Another rod on the beat fishing below me managed to hook and land a fish downstream, between Arres' Putt and the Needlehall Boat Pool while I was in Arres' Putt.

Arres' Putt (self-proclaimed, but I think this is a great photo of Upper Tweed-dale in Autumn!)

A fish for the rod downstream

I then headed back to the hut at the foot of Black Strand for a coffee and some food, before having a run through the Meetings and the Ettrick pools, Alder and The Bushes. I was fishing a floating line with an integrated intermediate tip and was using fly choice to control the depth thereafter. The slower high water pools on the Upper Tweed stretch, I fished with a small aluminium tube Black Snaelda, which looked the part. For the stronger flows in the Meetings, Alder and Bushes, I put on a tungsten Red Frances (having given up hope of there being anything fresh around!). I saw a stale grilse in the Meetings, but nothing more.

The Meetings

Alder Pool - very low but great fly water

Interestingly, the Council's works on the Old Tweed Bridge, long since replaced by a road crossing over the Meetings, seem to be improving the look of the Bridge Pool downstream. There were always lies here, but not much of a pool; now - unless the works change it again - a stronger flow carries further through the pool and increases the relevance of a croy on the Sunderland Hall bank. This lie currently looks very fishy and so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of here in the next few seasons, once the pool settles down again.

The Council's works on the Old Tweed Bridge

Later, I had a run through Needlehall Boat Pool (which was extremely low) with a big dressed Silver Stoat, Doocote (in-between Black Strand and the Meetings) with a Snaelda in Willie Gunn colours and a full run through Black Strand with a Junction Shrimp tube, pretty much in the dark.

 Needlehall Boat Pool

And again, from near the tail of the pool

Doocote

It's been a pretty disappointing Autumn, all round, and so there's no need for me to elaborate really. Hopefully, those with late Autumn rods and trips booked enjoy some sport even if it's with stale/old fish and a bonus would be a bit of water and some cleaner fish showing up thereafter.

A shame to blank, but Sunderland Hall is a great place to fish.

The Upper Tweed Back-end, 2014

By this stage, the 2014 Back-end could easily have been forgotten about. Perhaps as an aide to remembering to make the most of even just 'average' seasons, here are a few pictures from a little tour of Upper Tweed over a wet, windy and somewhat puzzling October and November 2014.

Following on from my early-October day on Glenormiston, I had a day on Holylee on 18 October which was unfortunately effectively over, at least fishing-wise, by about 10:30am. Heavy rain overnight had resulted in a rising river and, frankly, I was lucky to get some casts in at all. Starting on the upper beat, I fished Bar Stream, Bar Pool and Willows at about 2' 6" and rising, before taking shelter in the hut with Jack, Birkie, Tweed and the other rods; this was the silver lining to the cloud as they were great company. We had a few casts in the margins in very dirty water in the afternoon but it wasn't a day for fishing, really.

Pictured: Holylee's hut, which overlooks the Birkie Pool, below.

Pictured: The Birkie in very high, dirty river conditions.

Next up, I had a couple of days on Traquair at the end of the month. I had booked one of these - 25 October - at the beginning of the year, but luckily (for me, anyway!) a family friend's husband had double-booked himself and so I co-incidentally ended up also with a Monday rod immediately following my Saturday rod. These days were very windy and in high water of around 2', but the conditions were at least relatively steady. Two fish were caught by the same rod on the Saturday from the same pool (Birches on Beat 3) and one was caught from Middle Stream on Beat 1 on the Monday, but otherwise that was it for the 9 rods on the water each day; this is a reflection of the disappointment of the 2014 season, as the same days last year would have been some of the best fishing one could encounter on Upper Tweed, with total catches in double figures on some days.

My rotation was the same on each day - Beat 1 in the morning, Beat 3 in the afternoon - and so although I didn't get to fish the New Water, Boat Pool or Bridge Pool, or revisit Quair Stream where I picked up a 6lb hen last season, I got to know The Mound, Leithen Foot, Jawstane and Whin Stream relatively well, especially after my day on Glenormiston.

Pictured: The view back up Leithen Foot; interestingly, I was told by Rufus, the ghillie, that the Leithen Foot was actually a different pool which was precisely (and unsurprisingly) at the foot of the Leithen, but that this filled in and the next pool downstream has since picked up the name.

My dad and I then had Saturday 1 November 2014 on Ashiestiel, which we used as a trial day for our little Scottie, 'Daisy' - please note that I did not have any input in the choice of name and appreciate that the resemblance to a daisy is quite remote.

Pictured: Daisy scanning the scene at the House Pool. She later fell in while hunting voles - every day is a school day.

We started the morning on Gleddies' Weil, the principal holding pool on the beat, opposite Thornielee. The pool was quiet to start, but sparked into life in the mid-morning before quietening down again. The fish present were typical of this November in that they were simply not interested in flies. We could easily have fished the full morning on this long pool, but asked Dave the ghillie if we could move downstream for a wander. We had half an hour in the Rampy Pool before lunch, after which we moved down to fish Marmion Stream and the House Pool in the afternoon. A few taps on the line in Marmion Stream for me and the same for my dad in House Pool were all we had to show. Nest had a small fish in the morning, but there was nothing from Ashiestiel on the day.

Pictured: Marmion Stream in pretty high water - a recurring theme of late October/November.

Pictured: My dad working his was down House Pool, which fishes right down to the bottom of the bay on the right bank (where there is a good lie) and probably even further.

By this stage of the Back-end, the pattern had well and truly emerged; fish were there, but they were not for taking flies. I had booked the first week in November off a few weeks prior and so I fished Horsbrugh for a number of days anyway, as well as the newly available Haystoun beat at the downstream end of Peebles.

Unfortunately, two of the days on Horsbrugh were effectively lost to the weather, although being off work I had a go at the margins for a couple of hours on each anyway. Horsbrugh is a good stretch to be on in variable conditions, in that the meanders of the river mean that the beat is very diverse and has plenty of runs and streams but also five deep holdings pools (Castle Pool, Kirkburn, The Rumbler, The Dirtpot and The Nutwood), three of which are readily fishable from Horsbrugh's North bank.

Pictured: The Dirtpot in very high water of 3' 6" or so. I fished the tail of this pool which is one of the better spots on the beat in such water.

Pictured: The Nutwood - I had three heavy takes in as many casts on a run down the margin in the foreground, none of which stuck.

The conditions we were presented with favoured pools such as the Kirkburn, Robbie's Pot and Robbie's (where it meets The Dirtpot) and Craig Stream, but Lower Nutwood seemed to fish relatively well this week. Indeed, my dad lost a fish at around 10lbs - which was not overly coloured (probably not a coincidence as to why it was hooked) - from the upstream end of this pool on a Willie Gunn tube. The fish was holding nicely in mid-stream and looked to be settling down, ready to be netted, when it surface, thrashed around and was lost - frustrating stuff after such difficult fishing in the Back-end.

My day on Haystoun was very enjoyable, being in slightly better, more settled conditions of around 2' and falling. The nicest water that I fished in the conditions was to be found in Stobs and Kingsmeadow Pools. The former was fished in the morning and had many fish showing in it, towards the far bank. The latter just looked right - I'm sure you'll understand what I mean(!) - and so it wasn't a big surprise when I hooked what felt like a pretty decent fish on the dangle at the tail of the pool, as it breaks in Kerfield, the next pool down. It gave a few solid tugs and appeared to turn down stream to run, when after around 10/15 seconds my Red Frances tube was returned to me.

Pictured: Kingsmeadow Pool in pretty nice conditions.

I returned to Haystoun with my fishing pal Russell for closing day, which presented much lower, steady conditions, not dissimilar to the norm for 2013's Back-end. We concentrated on Lower Stobs, Blackthroat in the middle of the beat and Pailing End, a pool right at the top of the beat, almost in Peebles itself. I hadn't fished Pailing End on the my first visit, but quite enjoyed it on my return. Another fish was lost - a smaller one of maybe 3-5lbs (probably a Sea Trout, on the basis of its reaction to being hooked) - which took on the far, South bank before surfacing, splashing around and freeing itself. I suppose this was a fitting way to end 2014.

Oh well - try again in 2015!

Calum

Pictured: The last few casts of 2014, on Haystoun.