Fishing the Upper Tweed

The River Tweed and salmon fishing in Scotland are synonymous, and it’s no wonder people come from all over the world to fish here. After three record breaking years (over 17,000 fish caught in 2008), the Tweed is the top river in Europe, ranking among the very top salmon rivers in the world, but that’s not all – for trout fishing in Scotland the River Tweed is equally hard to beat.

The Tweed's fame as a salmon river has meant that it has often been ignored for its other types of fishing. If you are interested in trout fishing in Scotland the River Tweed offers both excellent Brown Trout and Grayling fishing and provides a good year round sport with some good sized fish (2lb+) being caught regularly.

The Tweed from a few miles above Peebles down to Selkirk is known as Upper Tweed, set in some of the best scenery in the country, the Upper Tweed offers some excellent Salmon fishing at very reasonable rates (£40-£100) compared to the prime beats lower down river which can be booked up year after year.

If you are considering an angling holiday in Scotland then the best of Upper Tweed's salmon fishing season is essentially the months of September, October and November. This section of the river is very water dependant and if early autumn enjoys heavy rainfall, September will encourage some summer salmon and sea trout into Upper Tweed. October will see good numbers of fish begin to appear through the beats with October and November the best months for this section of the river. To fish Upper Tweed during this month, offers the salmon angler an opportunity to fish pools that are quite simply alive with fish of all sizes.

There is a website dedicated to Tweed fishing, with details of beats, availability/prices and recent catch returns along with daily river levels.

Article contributed by Alasdair Ash, Craiguart Bed & Breakfast