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.

Ladylodge, Middle Ettrick (25 July 2015)

Over the remainder of the close season, I'm going to post a few short blogs on outings I had during the 2015 season which I didn't write about at the time for one reason or another (a recurring theme will be that I lost fish on these trips and couldn't face writing about it 'til now!). These will consist mainly of pictures, but I'll give an outline of events also. Hopefully, this will help you tide over the month or so until the rivers begin to open again!

We had a spell of heavy rain and high water in July, which resulted in some good rises in the Ettrick, the uppermost of the major Tweed tributaries. Sustained high water would have been more welcome on this river in May and June, when some of the Tweed springers would have a think about moving up the system towards their intended spawning grounds in the Upper Ettrick and Yarrow Valleys. The best spell though came in July and so, hearing news of a few fish in the holding pools on Middle Ettrick's top beats, I went to go and have a look around the Ladylodge beat, near Ettrickbridge.

 Pictured: As you'd hope for a Buccleuch beat, Ladylodge is neat and tidy, well-strimmed (even in July) and is generally a nice place to fish.

The river had risen a couple of days prior to my trip to a bit over 1' (there had been bigger rises before this) and was down at around 8/9" when I fished. No fish were showing on the day, but I still fished fairly shallow with a floating shooting head, 15 foot intermediate tip, long leader and small Red Frances double. Any fish up here were likely to be moderately coloured springers and so I thought even this early in the season that a Red Frances was worth a go.

Pictured: Broomie Knowe - my second pool of the day. Fast, streamy water with a deeper channel under the far bank trees.

It was all quiet in the morning and the sun was shining squarely onto the pools, which didn't breed confidence. I moved around the pools a lot to get a proper look around and, working the fly through some nice boily water in 'Croys', I received a heavy take near the surface and had hold of a very coloured cock fish of around 8/9lbs. It was on for around 5 or 6 seconds, most of which involved the fish thrashing around on the surface, before it dropped off. It had been hooked near the dangle.

 Pictured: Croys, looking upstream. This pool is on the single bank 'A' half of the beat.

 Pictured: Fishing down Croys.

 Pictured: The lower section of the long Croys pool.

Pictured: The final croy of Croys(!), where I lost my fish.

Ultimately, having given it a good go, I didn't have any more interest shown in my fly in the afternoon and so went for pub tea in Ettrickbridge with my folks around 5pm or so. Here are some other pictures from the day.

 Pictured: Singlie Hillend; both the fast neck of the pool and the glide towards the tail felt like good spots and I was surprised I had no offers here.

 Pictured: The imposing Brock Scar. Too low and slow on the day but I had a few casts anyway.

Pictured: Pinal Knowe. Probably my favourite pool to fish on the beat - and there are a quite a few nice ones.

The Middle Ettrick beats, on the Duke of Buccleuch's Bowhill Estate, are very picturesque and peaceful beats indeed. They are not the beats to provide the best fishing on the system or the best conditioned fish, but they are the sort of beats where a little improvement in conditions or a few fish being sighted gives an excuse to spend a day in a very nice setting indeed and still with the chance of a fish, even before the late Ettrick run of September and October. It was also only £25 for the rod, so a fairly good deal, I think.

More reports on my various 2015 outings to follow.

Cheers.

Calum

Sunderland Hall and Fairnilee, Spring Report

So the Spring has ended, at least for those that class Spring fishing as that done before the end of May. I see from discussions on various salmon fishing websites that it's not perceived as being quite as clear cut as that. Also, from my own first hand experience on Sunderland Hall recently, I know that there have been plenty of 'Spring' fish held up in The Meetings in the low water of April and May that will either still be there, or will be making their way further upstream into the Ettrick, Yarrow or even Upper Tweed valleys, in June and further into the season. However, for simplicity, I'll report on Spring fishing on Sunderland Hall and Fairnilee simply for the months until the end of May.

I had fished Sunderland Hall on closing day last season, at which stage the best of the fishing was long gone. I covered most of the beat's Tweed pools, which were at 8" above summer low, during my Autumn day on the beat, but wasn't able to venture onto the Ettrick before dark at 4pm(!). My trips to the beat during the first month or so of this season were therefore spent scouting out the pools which were the most probably route of the spring run; this was difficult, however, with heights of 2' and above for the majority of the early season.

Pictured: 2' 6" in February on The Alder Pool, Sunderland Hall, Ettrick.

In early April, when snowmelt slowed down, the rainfall lessened and vegetation grew back in after the Winter, the heights - at least on saturdays - were far lower. I have chanced upon an odd situation where I have seen not seen the beat at any height between 10" and 1' 10" yet and it is now June; this has been slightly frustrating, as better heights in May might have opened up the smaller Ettrick pools and livened up the fish and fishing.

Pictured: The same pool and picture as above, except at 8" in May.

Cutting to the chase, the first weekend where fish were showing on Sunderland Hall water was in mid-May, although I'd suggest that a cast in the right place in The Meetings would bear a reasonable chance of success from mid-April onwards. With the beat at a good running height, as had been suggested to me by a number of people prior to my fishing this Spring, I'd suggest that May could be quite good at Sunderland Hall. Ultimately, I fished three saturdays when there were obviously plenty of fish about, with one fish lost on 24 May 2014 (about 10-12lbs, on seeing it leap). It was hooked at dusk on a Super Snaelda fished deep in The Meetings.

On the Fairnilee front, I fished a few of the beat's pools on most saturdays of the Spring, in amongst my Sunderland Hall fishing. The majority of this was focussed on Dovecote and Black Strand, although Island Stream, Raeweil, Rocks and Sawmill all had some attention, depending on the conditions. Notably, amongst this, was the presence of big fish in Raeweil from early May. The same low water as perhaps thwarted success a fews pools downstream maybe rendered tempting these Raeweil fish slightly too difficult. I also saw fish in Black Strand around this time.

Pictured: Black Strand, in good nick.

My fellow Fairnilee rod Russell Lugton caught a 3.5lbs sea trout in the Needlehall Boat Pool in May and Fairnilee ghillie Bob Anderson landed a springer (of 8lbs, I believe) from Elmweil also. I have heard of numerous fish hooked and lost from Ashiestiel, as well as a fish landed on Thornielee during the Spring, and would be interested to hear about any further fish caught on the upper river so far, also.

All in all, it's been a fun time and I feel confident that I know the water well so as to capitalise on any Summer spates that bear grilse and early salmon. I think the conclusion to my little exercise on Sunderland Hall would be that late-April and May could provide very worthwhile Spring days, but that the conditions are perhaps even more relevant here than elsewhere. In low water, as we've had, fishing is effectively limited to The Meetings. The best fishing, in my opinion, would come at a medium height (1' 4" to 1' 6") where it is still possible to wade the Ettrick's mouth to fish The Meetings, but when the Ettrick is running high enough for fish to be moving through the various pools and pockets of The Bushes and Alder Pool.

Pictured: The Alder Pool looking nice, but maybe 4/5 inches still needed.

Next up is the summer on Sunderland Hall and Fairnilee. From a little research, I see that June is an equally good month on the Ettrick for 'Spring' run fish moving over Philliphaugh Cauld. I'll hopefully have a chance of catching one of these, in this case, and I'll be looking out for sea trout and grilse arriving on Fairnilee also.

In the meantime, next stop is Ruan Ruarie on the River Garry, with Russell, on which I'll report next week. I see it's had a rise from 2" a day ago or so to 1' 2" tonight, so things are looking up.

Tight lines.

Calum