Fishing Reports

Before Storm Babet hit the Scottish Borders late Thursday (19th October) with strong winds and rain, anglers had enjoyed some good sport. This report covers from Saturday 14th October to Friday 20th October.

Saturday 14th October.Fish were caught from the bottom of the river at Pedwell to the upper reaches on Horsbrugh beat at Cardrona. Rods fishing Dryburgh Upper beat had 4 fish and so did Boleside beat.

Saturday produced a 31lb Salmon on Lower Birgham and the weight was verified in a weigh net. The angler caught it using a Guideline 14ft 9. Rio AFS with a 7 inch per second 10 foot tip. Fly, a black and red franc in snelda cone head tube. Lower Birgham beat so far this month has had fish at 27lb and 31lb.

Notable catches last week.
Lees 20lb, 25lb and 28lb
Ashiestiel 25lb
Bemersyde 22lb,
Horsbrugh 16lb,
Nest 15lb.

Monday 16th October.It was a lovely autumn day with no wind and the leaves are now starting to change colour but not falling into the river yet. Anglers fishing the lower river enjoyed some good sport with 3 fish on Milne Garden. The Lees produced 5, Mike Hornsby had a 16lber out of the Cauld, Bob Wigglesworth and Pete Markam had a fish each from the Back of the wall this morning, 12lbs and 14lbs. Mark a beginner was in Learmouth and the boatmen upgraded him to a 15’0” rod rather than the 13’0” he was using and it paid off as he had two fish at 4lbs and 8lbs.

Rods fishing South Wark started off the week strong with 7 fish and Birgham Dub had 4 fish the largest at 22lbs.Further upstream Rutherford had 5 and Upper Dryburgh produced 8 fish, with almost as many hooked, played and lost! Bemersyde rods had 3 fish. Nigel Fell enjoyed a two hour afternoon cast on Boleside and had 5 to his fly from one pool. The Ettrick a tributary that joins the Tweed near Selkirk recorded 2 fish.

The upper Tweed continued to fish well with the Yair and Nest on 4 fish each and Traquair 3; these beats produced fish every day until Storm Babet arrived on Friday 20th. Rods fishing Glenormiston started the week with 6 fish and Horsbrugh had 4 fish.

Tuesday 17th October. A foggy frosty morning first thing which had dropped the water temperature down to 40f and the height to 1’7” but squeaky clean. Rods fishing the Lees beat caught 9 fish from 12lb to 25lb. West Learmouth beat had 4 fish.

Birgham Dub caught 3 fish up to 30lbs taking its catch numbers to 266 which is their second best season during the last 5 years. Hendersyde produced 3 fish which takes their season to date to 201 fish, which is their best year since 2020.

The Mertoun beats produced 7 fish. Upper Dryburgh rods and Bemersyde rods had another good day with 4 and 2 fish respectively. Boleside continued its good form with 7 fish, including a memorable fish for a young angler who caught a 14lber and a contender for the Bemersyde Junior Trophy.

The Upper Tweed continued to fish well with 4 fish to Fairnilee, Yair 3, Holylee 2, Traquair 5. Two new beats reporting their catches Kailzie on the Upper Tweed and Ninewells on the Whiteadder both had 2 fish.

Wednesday 18th October. An overcast start but much milder, the water temp jumped from a nippy 40f yesterday to 48f this morning and the gauge was reading 1’6” at the Lees. Mike Hornsby was the man on fire today on the Lees getting all four of the fish at 20lb, 18lb, 16lb and 13lbs.
South Wark and Lower North Wark produced 5 fish taking their totals so far this year to 98 and 149 fish respectively. Carham, Birgham Dub and Hendersyde all had fish. On the middle Tweed Rutherford continued its run and so did Boleside with another 3 fish. On the Upper Tweed Traquair produced 6 fish up to 20lbs.

Wednesday - 20lber at Traquair and Tillmouth produced a 8lb sea trout.

Thursday 19th October. It was a wild start to the day as storm Babet or the first part of the storm went through, it was blowing a hoolie from the east with heavy rain, lots of leaves and twigs being blown into the river. Conditions were not ideal for anglers on the river today which affected catch numbers across the system.

Fish were caught from Tillmouth to the Upper Tweed at Kailzie fishery Peebles. Notable catches included the Lees with 6 fish, with 2 at 8lb and 10lb for Nick Charter and Tim Springham with 3 fish at 10, 12 and 16lb. Boleside continued their successful week with 3 more fish.

Friday 20th October. It was the sort of morning you wouldn’t put a wheely bin out let alone try and fish with a rising colouring river and a gale from the east. It wasn’t all that big at 2’6” on the Lees gauge but it was up a foot from yesterday and very murky, there were also some very impressive waves rolling upstream. This is a shame as had we got another two days at it this week had the potential to be our best week of the season on the Lees. This weather according to the cheery weathergirl is to last all day and into tomorrow, the river might not get really big as it’s mostly in the east but the colour coming out of the Leader is horrendous. Malcom Campbell - The Lees. 

Some beats further up the system were able to cast a line. Tweedswood caught 1 fish and Holylee had 2, biggest at 14lb.

Saturday 21st October. Upper beats fished, Traquair and Kailzie caught salmon and Horsbrugh beat and Nest had 2 fish each, largest at 16lb caught by a Nest rod. 

Seatrout were caught at 5lb on Traquair and Horsbrugh beats.

Catches for both TweedBeats and FishPal now be found on the River Tweed website under CATCHES.

Thank you to Malcolm on Lees Beat for sharing his daily update. Definitely worth a follow and weekly read - Malcolm’s Fishing Reports. 

Anne Woodcock 

Fishing The Tweed Catchment This Week.

Contact your boatman, ghillie, guide before you travel to the river for the latest update on fishing conditions, including advice on what to bring and flies to use. 

Rainfall data gathered by SEPA - click the link to find out about rainfall across the catchment. 

Tides: Here are the predicted tides for Berwick - including Tide Graphs showing the tide heights for Berwick over the next seven days - click here.

Photographs and Stories.