River Tweed · fly box
Britain's biggest salmon river, and one of the few with a genuine year-round season.
| Pattern | Imitates | Size | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tweed Fly / Silver Doctor | Salmon attractor | #4-8 | Classic swing on a floating line with a sink tip, step down after every cast. |
| Junction Shrimp | Salmon shrimp | #6-10 | Cold-water fly for February and March fish; fish it slow and deep. |
| Waterhen Bloa | Olive nymph | #16 | North-country spider for trout; two on a short line, swung round. |
| Pink Shrimp | Gammarus shrimp | #14 | Winter grayling in the deeper pools; fish it on the bottom. |
The dressing plate
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.