River Tweed - Rutherford
This season we have fished both the River Dee and Tay a number of times. When two rods became available on the Rutherford beat of the River Tweed in late March, we felt it would be a great opportunity to have our first cast of the 2015 season on the Tweed. We fish the Tweed regularly and have fished on a number of beats from Peebles down to Norham. The Rutherford beat would be a first for both my wife and I, as neither of us had fished it before. The weather forecast was good and conditions had been settled for a number of days prior to our fishing. It looked like the dreaded Tweed curse of high coloured water was unlikely to strike, as it has done so many times in the past.
We awoke to a bright, crisp spring morning. It was one of those days where you knew once the sun had got up it would be pleasant and warm. There was a light easterly breeze. Conditions could not get any better for mid-March.
We indulged in our normal ritual when we got to Kelso of having a coffee and a bacon roll, sat by the famous Junction Pool. The water was crystal clear and we saw a number of spring salmon splashing around. This certainly wetted our appetite. Rutherford is only four miles upstream from Kelso, so after a short drive we arrived at the beat.
Michael Farr, the boatman at Rutherford, made us feel very welcome right from the onset. We had a coffee in the hut while chatting to the other guests. The other two anglers had been fishing all week and caught a number of fish. Michael himself said that conditions were perfect, which was music to both our ears. After a quick chat with Michael about tactics, we decided to build up two fly rods and a spinning rod. We both used sink tip lines and Michael selected a couple of two inch copper tubes, as the water was still quite cold. My wife’s weapon of choice was the Kinnermony Killer a and I tied on the trusty Black and Yellow. My wife also set up her spinning rod with her a Vision110, Western Clown. Michael said that we would be fishing the Slap first, which is situated just below Rutherford Cauld. We parked our car on the riverbank by the side of the pool. To access the pool, we would have to cross part of the river and fish from an Island. Michael had a novel way of getting to the Island. He strapped our rods on to the rod carriers of his Argo cat and off we went. It was quite an experience crossing the river in an Argo cat. It reminded me a bit of the television programme Extreme Fishing! I would have to say it was one of the most dramatic arrivals I have ever made to a fishing pool!
Looking upstream towards the Slap
The Slap is a short pool with a fast run, which flows out from the cauld. The pool then widens out with a good even flow. It can be highly productive especially when the fish are running. It looked mouth wateringly good for fly fishing. My wife started at the head of the pool and I started half way down. We fished the pool hard covering every inch of water under the watchful eye of Michael. The tail of the pool looked fantastic, with lots of glassy glides. The fly was swinging around beautifully, but neither of us managed to make contact with a fish. Michael then suggested that we fished a couple of pools at the very top of the beat. My wife was going to fish the Island pool and the Long stream. The Island pool looked superb. It has quite a narrow neck, which is fast flowing. The pool then broadens out with most of the current running along the far bank. It is a nice long pool and reminded me a bit of the Kilpheider pool, on the Helmsdale in character. My wife would fish the pool down with the fly first and then cover it again spinning. Michael wanted me to fish the Corseheugh Pool in the boat, which was the pool directly upstream from the Island.
The Coresheugh pool is a long deep pool with a good steady current. Because of the high bank on the Rutherford side, it is best fished from the boat. Michael felt it would be best if we backed the pool up, starting at the tail. The tail of the pool fished well. Every so often I would perform a slow figure of eight retrieve with the line just to impart some extra movement on the fly. As we moved up the pool, there was more current and the fly was swinging around in the current seductively. It was nice to hear Michael recollect on past glory days on the river when salmon were plentiful. Hopefully, we can get back to those days sometime soon. We fished the Coresheugh Pool hard for around an hour with no success. Michael felt that I was covering the water reasonably well; I personally thought I was thrashing the pool to a foam!
We drove back to the Island pool, where my wife had just finished fishing. Michael suggested that we fished the Dub located in front of the hut for the last hour before lunch. The Dub is a long pool, which runs into Rutherford Cauld. There is a deep channel on the far side where the fish lie. The wading is very easy with only gravel to contend with. I was going to fish the head of the pool and slowly work my way down the pool. My wife was going to spin from the boat, by anchoring up on the far side and casting into the deep channel with her Vision110.
I waded two-thirds of the way across the river and then started casting my fly into the deep dark channel on the far side. The fly was swing around nicely and hanging tantalisingly on the dangle. I could see my wife fishing from the boat fifty yards below me. I decided to change my fly to a cone head, Willie Gunn. I had no longer changed my fly, when I looked up to see a lot of commotion downstream. A fish was thrashing around on the surface close to where the boat was and my wife had hooked it. I could see Michael taking the boat into the bank. My wife then dropped her rod and started to reel her line in quickly. I got that horrible sinking feeling, realising that she had lost the fish. The fish must have been hooked for no longer than around a minute. I continued to fish down the pool. No more than ten minutes had passed when I saw from the corner of my eye the boat coming into the bank again. My wife had hooked another fish. I reeled in my fly line and walked downstream to watch her play the fish. The fish showed a couple of times and it was a fresh deep bar of spring silver. It was putting a good bend in my wife’s rod and staying deep. After two surging downstream runs, my wife managed to get the head of the fish up and guide it into Michael’s net. It was a lovely fresh springer, around eight pounds in weight. After a quick photograph, the fish was returned to continue it’s onward journey. Michael and my wife came back across the river, as it was lunchtime. My wife was full of beans, telling me how she had now caught more salmon than me this season. I thought that the best form of defence was to attack. I said that I could not understand why there was so much excitement in the boat after landing a kelt. This did not go down too well with my wife, but Michael was in fits of laughter.
Michael with my wife's fish
It was good to hear at lunchtime that the other anglers fishing the beat had been seeing fish regularly throughout the course of the morning. This filled us with optimism for the rest of the day. We were going to be fishing the lower half of the beat in the afternoon.
We followed Michael down to the bottom end of the beat. The lower half of the beat is so different in character from the top half, set in a stunning gorge; the river is narrower and faster flowing with cliff faces on the far bank. It feels like you are on an entirely different river let alone the same beat. Michael suggested that we spent an hour fishing the gorge, as we were limited for time. We fished the Lovers leap Pool and the Mid Caul. These pools were a joy to fish with the fly. The deep dark pockets and lovely boils created by large boulders under the water looked so inviting. We decided to work as a team. I fished the pools down with the fly and my wife followed behind me spinning. Between us, we covered every inch of water but to no avail. To be honest, I would have been happy to spend the entire afternoon in the gorge as it looked so good. Michael felt it would be best to cover as much water as possible being early spring and he was right.
The gorge at Rutherford
We left the gorge and drove back to the hut. Michael suggested we spent the last hour of the day fishing Between the Caulds. This is a lovely stretch of water best fished from the far bank. We would therefore have to row across to the far side of the river. I was quite looking forward to this, as I had not rowed a Tweed style boat before. Whilst rowing across the river we could see how deep the water was close to our bank. The pool looked so inviting and a great spot for a springer to lie. The head of the pool had a fast run, which then spread out evenly into the main body of the pool. The pool was not particularly broad by Tweed standards, which meant the water was easily covered. The middle and tail of the pool was deep, especially along the far side and this is where Michael felt most of the fish would be lying. We both decided to spin the pool and opted for the Vision110 for obvious reasons. We carefully fished the pool down. The tail of the pool fished especially well. It seemed that the fish were playing hard to get as neither of us had a touch. It had turned into a lovely warm afternoon by now, with a bright blue sky overhead and the sun beating down on the silvery Tweed. It felt like spring had finally arrived. It was quarter to five when we rowed back across the river reflecting on a fantastic day.
Between the Caulds
We got back to the hut and enjoyed a coffee with the other guests. Unfortunately, there had been no other fish caught from the beat. This did not matter as a good day was had by all. For us, it was just great to fish on a new beat, which had such a variety of pools. To top it all off, the change in scenery was stark from the flat rolling farmland at the top of the beat to the dramatic rocky deep gorge at the bottom. The Rutherford beat truly has it all. In addition to this, Michael is a true gentleman and has an intricate knowledge of his beat. He is a real asset to his guests.
On the drive home, my wife became unbearable with her gloating, reminding me how she had caught more fish than me this season. I reminded her that it was only March and we had a long season ahead of us. When salmon fishing, things can change so quickly and revenge can be so sweet!