The Tweed Foundation went on a fishing expedition on Wednesday, 20th June in the headwaters of the River Whiteadder, on the Dye Water. The exercise was to amass more angling data on the smaller burns in the catchment which are not nowadays habitually fished by anglers but which were popular in the past. The Foundation has angling data from the Dye Water area dating back to the 1920s and so the object of the exercise was to relate modern-day catches to the catches of 90 years ago.
The 'Dye Water' team: From L to R: Kenny Galt (Tweed Trout & Grayling Biologist), Nick Yonge (Director), Ronald Campbell (Senior Biologist), Shaun Robertson (Summer Surveys Student), Steven King (General Biological Assistant), Barry Wright (Scale Reader) and James Hunt (Assistant Biologist). Photo taken by the eighth member of the team - RTC Water Bailiff, Alan Davison.
The trip was undertaken during the worst June Tweed has seen for some time with very high water conditions persisting. There had been tremendous rainstorms the night before the trip and, despite the burn having dropped 18 inches in the morning, it was still really too big to fish. The Tweed Foundation was, however, determined..... and results were as follows:
Eight anglers fished for a total of 19 hours, 30 minutes (the average being 2 hours, 25 minutes each).
15 trout were caught all of which were undersize (unless the size limit was reduced to 8 inches, in which case 13 were undersize and two takeable).
The fish ranged in size between 4.5 inches and just over 8 inches, with most being around 6.5 inches in length.
The results were not a patch on the fishing on the Dye in the 1920s - but conditions were against the team and they hope to be able to have another attempt at some point .....
Kenny Galt came out on top - having caught three trout (and the largest) with Ronald Campbell a close second (also with three fish of a smaller size). Ducks went to Nick Yonge and Steven King.
Eight anglers fished for a total of 19 hours, 30 minutes (the average being 2 hours, 25 minutes each).
15 trout were caught all of which were undersize (unless the size limit was reduced to 8 inches, in which case 13 were undersize and two takeable).
The fish ranged in size between 4.5 inches and just over 8 inches, with most being around 6.5 inches in length.
The results were not a patch on the fishing on the Dye in the 1920s - but conditions were against the team and they hope to be able to have another attempt at some point .....
Kenny Galt came out on top - having caught three trout (and the largest) with Ronald Campbell a close second (also with three fish of a smaller size). Ducks went to Nick Yonge and Steven King.
Whilst such trips are 'fun outings' for staff, they do have a serious and useful purpose in helping the Foundation to collect data on how our stocks have changed over time. The Foundation therefore hopes to undertake such surveys periodically on other once-popular areas in the catchment to make comparisons on stock sizes.