Top rod 20/11/16
With only a handful of rivers open across Scotland, there was a real end of season feel to proceedings last week. The River Annan has closed its banks to anglers in recent days, leaving only the Nith, Tweed and Urr still open. With the autumn run not materialising in any great numbers on most rivers this year, it is unsurprising that very few fish are now being caught.
The fishing season is now coming to an end
The weather was quite typical autumnal fare last week. It was much more unsettled than in recent weeks with weather fronts racing in from the Atlantic at regular intervals, driven on by a strengthening jet stream. This brought frequent spells of wind and heavy rain to many parts. Most rivers had a decent lift in water but unfortunately; this did little to help catches. The week started off on a relatively mild note. However, on Tuesday there was heavy rain which affected many parts of the country and behind this much cooler conditions predominated. The wind started coming down from a northerly direction and there were frequent snow showers, mostly on higher ground. As the week progressed, some snow fell to even lower levels. Many of us were greeted with a hard frost on Friday and Saturday morning after temperatures plummeted overnight. However, at least the winds were light and there was little rain over the weekend.
Snow fell to even lower levels in some parts of the country
Catches across Scotland were limited last week. There were decent lifts in water on both the River Nith and Tweed towards the end of the week but unfortunately this did little to help catches. It was a relatively quiet week on Tweedside. For a couple of days conditions were perfect and in spite of this the fish were proving very difficult to catch. There are currently very few fresh fish in the river and this seems to be the main problem. The fish that were caught last week were mostly older and had been in the river for several months. There were even some kelts splashing about in some of the pools. We fished on the Tweed on Saturday and did not see many clean fish. There were a few salmon splashing about in the tails of pools but these were ready to spawn or had already spawned. It is probably safe to say that the autumn run on the Tweed is going to be a non-event this year and for all intents and purposes, the season is now over. There are several beats on the Tweed that have rods available next week but unless something drastic happens it is difficult to recommend a beat that might be worthwhile fishing.
The beautiful River Tweed at the weekend
The River Nith fared little better last week. The Nith had a decent lift in water on Thursday after heavy overnight rain across the catchment area. In fact, everything that has been written about the Tweed this week could also apply to the Nith. The Nith has also experienced a poor autumn run and the majority of fish in the river are coloured. With current conditions the way they are, just like the Tweed, it is hard to recommend a beat to fish on in the upcoming days with confidence.
We at SSFS pride ourselves at being honest with our readers and if we feel that there is nowhere worthwhile fishing we will always endeavour to put this across in our “Top rod” feature. It is important to remember that this is only our opinion and many anglers might have differing views.
The "Top rod" feature will be back in January 2017 ready for the new season
With the current state of play on the rivers that are still open, unless something changes drastically, we cannot see a great improvement in catches occurring and hence there is now an end of season feeling towards proceedings. This will therefore be our last “Top rod” feature of 2016. We hope that you have enjoyed our weekly reports and the advice given around where to fish in Scotland throughout the course of the year. The “Top rod” feature will be back again in early January, just in time for the 2017 season. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our “Top rod” readers a Merry Christmas and may your rods be bent in the New Year!
Tight lines,
Sandy & Sam