Trout Season Opening Celebration
Peebles will take centre stage on Saturday 1 April when The River Tweed Commission hosts what is believed to be the first official opening celebration of the trout fishing season on the Tweed, and indeed on any river in Scotland.
Famed as a salmon river, the Tweed and its tributaries are also home to significant numbers of trout and the catchment’s reputation for trout angling is growing year on year.
Saturday’s launch will begin at 10am with a piper-led procession from outside The Tontine Hotel in the centre of the town to the banks of the river at Tweed Green where broadcaster and angling enthusiast, Fiona Armstrong will bless the river and cast the first line of the trout season.
The event will feature a casting and trout fishing tackle clinic sponsored by Peebles-based Fast Flies, as well as a beginners introduction to trout fishing, with children under 16 offered a free fishing permit from Peeblesshire Trout Fishing Association. The River Tweed Commission’s sister charity, The Tweed Foundation will launch its new Trout and Grayling logbook, which encourages anglers to record their catches before releasing them to help the organisation’s scientists to monitor the catchment’s fish populations. People attending can also discover how they can become citizen scientists by getting involved in a new riverfly monitoring initiative.
Tweed Foundation biologists will be on hand to discuss measures the organisation is undertaking to help trout populations to survive and thrive in the river network. The health and wellbeing benefits of fishing will also be promoted as local angling clubs engage with new, lapsed or inactive anglers to help grow participation in the sport.
Clerk to the River Tweed Commission, Jamie Stewart said; “Borderers have fished for trout here for generations, but the Tweed’s reputation for excellent trout fishing is continuing to spread so we felt that an official celebration of the opening of the season was well overdue. As well as showing people how to fish and highlighting the wonderful health benefits of the sport, the event also allows us to explain what the Tweed Foundation is doing to protect fish stocks on the river and to tell local people how they can become citizen scientists and make an important contribution to the wildlife in the river catchment. We hope as many people as possible will join us by the river on Saturday 1 April for what promises to be a fun and informative event.”
