Glenormiston, Tweed (3 -5 November 2016)

Our 3 November days on Glenormiston, between Cardona and Innerleithen on the Upper Tweed, came around off the back of a long spell of disappointingly dry Autumn weather. The river was at 4" on the Peebles gauge and catches had tailed off since a short spell of 50 or so fish per day off the river, a few weeks before in October.

To cut a long story short; it was a fairly poor few days' fishing, with 3 tugs on the Thursday, a fish lost on the Friday and just 1 tug on the Saturday (the latter for my dad). The Girley Water, on the upper of the two beats, was holding a few fish but nowhere near as many as the previous season when I got one from here, despite that being a poor one also. Whin Stream, where I managed a clean cock fish of around 7lbs last year, was holding fish also but other than that there were only a few fish showing in Strip End at the bottom of the beat and in Woodend Pool at the top.

Other rods got one fish from Whin Stream on the Thursday (a 6-8lbs or so coloured cock fish) and a 3lbs coloured cock grilse from Strip End, but due to drop outs my dad and I ended up with the place to ourselves by the Saturday! Seemingly out of nowhere, Traquair opposite had a day of 6 fish on the Thursday, although they have some low water fishing where tributaries join the main river. I lost my fish on the Friday in the Girley Water on a copper Gold Bodied Willie Gunn tube and had tugs in Woodend Pool and Strip End. My dad had a firm tug in Woodend Pool on the Saturday.

Colin, the gillie, is always on top form and so Glenormiston is always a great place to spend a few days. The hut was well-used and a bottle of Glendronach was well-received by our French and American beat companions. We'll be back next season as, although the river has obviously not fished well in the traditional last week of October and first week of November spell, it is the second season running when we have had almost Summer-low conditions for this spell and it's not really possible therefore to make an accurate guess as to how different these weeks might have been should we have had 2' on the gauge at Peebles. That said, it will indeed be interesting to see when in the season rods are fishing Upper Tweed in say 20 years' time. In the meantime, here are some photos.

 The Girley Water - one of the two best pools on the beat.

The Bushes - a medium to high water stretch between the more pronounced Bridge Pool and Girley Water pools.

 The stream into Woodend Pool, at the top of the beat.

 My dad fishing Strip End (sometimes called Jawstane, although there is another pool by the same name above).
.

 Strip End, looking downstream to the foot of the beat where it marches with Traquair's left bank fishing.

 Jawstane - all quiet in here, for all 3 of our days.

 Jawstane, looking up to the tail of Whin Stream.

 The tail of Jawstane, from the neck of Strip End. The Traquair rods parked on the far bank favoured Whin Stream, though.

 Under the wires in Strip End.

 My dad coming into the hot spot in Whin Stream, as a Traquair rod fishes down the right bank.

 Looking up to The Beeches and Fawnburn Pool, a lesser-fished stretch of Glenormiston for high-water use.

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.

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

The Spate in Pictures (4 & 5 October 2014)

I've been a little quiet on the blog front in the past while, mainly due to the lack of water and lack of fish. This weekend, I still have no fishing to write about, but at least the reason for this is also likely to mean the rest of the season is a little more lively!

I was due to fish Fairnilee on Upper Tweed on Saturday (4 October 2014). The first heavy rain in months was due on Friday and it duly arrived; unfortunately, for those due to fish on Saturday, it put the upper river up to 4' 4" and the Ettrick even higher and both were running the colour of milky coffee and so we were washed off for the day (although I did see see some brave attempts on Holylee, Elibank and Ashiestiel while the water was rising). I've long had my Saturdays' fishing in October and November planned out and next week I plan to be on Glenormiston; hopefully, I'll have some fishing - with water and fish - to write about by then! However, in the meantime, here is an attempt at 'The Spate in Pictures' comprising the results of a wander around Tweedside with my camera yesterday and today for those who are also waiting to have a cast at some fish on Upper Tweed now the water is here.

First stop was Fairnilee, to have a chat with the ghillie, John, before getting on with the rest of my day. I took this photograph of the Yair Boat Pool. Three trees floated past while I was there.

I thought Philliphaugh Cauld would be worth a look and so I headed over the Tweed at Yair Bridge towards the Ettrick at Selkirk. Here's a photograph of the Saughs pool on Selkirk and District Angling Association's Lower Ettrick beat at around 2" from a session last Saturday (27 September 2014). This pool is the last stop before the cauld pool and the cauld itself.

Here is the same scene on Saturday (4 October 2014) lunchtime, after the rain had eased. The Ettrick was up at around 4' 8" at this stage.

Another from my low water session on Lower Ettrick. This shot is of Saughs, looking upstream towards the cauld, which you can see in the background.



A similar view from Saughs, but a week later.

I moved on upstream to take a look at the cauld. This spate should have put the gravel that has recently been the subject of the works at the bottom of the cauld where it's supposed to be!

I stopped for a quick photograph of the Tweed/Ettrick Meetings Pool on Sunderland Hall (right bank, Tweed, & left bank, Ettrick) and Boleside (left bank, Tweed, & right bank, Ettrick). The Ettrick was noticeably faster-flowing and more coloured than the Upper Tweed.

There was only so much flooded river that I was willing to look at yesterday, but the river was in fine form today (of course it was, it's a Sunday!) so I went for a walk along Glenormiston in advance of my fishing there next Saturday. Here's the view upstream from the bridge to the Woodend Pool (near), Glenormiston, and then Lower Nutwood and Nutwood, both shared between Cardrona (right bank) and Horsbrugh (left bank). There is something very special about Upper Tweeddale in full Autumn colours.

 

Finally, I made a return visit to Philliphaugh Cauld to see if there were any fish running and managed to get some good photos and a video (which will hopefully follow, at some stage). As you would expect, with the long spell of low water and prevalence of Spring fish in the Ettrick run, most were heavily coloured, but there were some big ones making an appearance. It will be interesting to see how many of these turn up on Middle Ettrick's catches in the next while. 

Now just to see one up close next Saturday.

Tight lines for the Back End, folks.

Calum