River Tweed

The river

The Tweed rises in the Lowther Hills and runs 156 km to Berwick-upon-Tweed, draining the whole Scottish Borders. It is the most productive salmon river in Britain and the only one where you can fish salmon, brown trout and grayling in the same week without breaking a rule. Its character changes completely with water height: at low summer levels it is a clear, wadeable river; after rain it becomes a brown, powerful spate that should be left alone.

On this river

Fishing the drop

The best day of a Tweed week is usually the first day the water starts to fall and the colour turns from brown to green. Fish the beats near a tributary mouth, because salmon stack below the inflow before they run. Use a larger fly than normal and a sink tip, because the fish are moving rather than holding.

Trout and grayling in the same week

Because the Tweed's trout and grayling seasons overlap only briefly, plan the week around the calendar: trout on the dry in the middle of the day, grayling on the nymph in the afternoon, salmon at dawn and dusk. Booking a beat that has both fast water and a deep pool is worth more than booking a famous name.

Reading a big border river

The Tweed is 60 to 80 metres wide in its middle reaches and most of it is featureless from the bank. The structure is in the bends and in the tributary confluences, and 80 per cent of the fish are in 20 per cent of the water. Ask the beat owner which pools hold fish at the current height rather than assuming a pool is good because it is deep.