Reality check on the Tweed.

After the excitement and extraordinary luck I had on my recent trip to the far north it was back to my bread and butter and usual luck at Hillend on Monday. I decided to have a few hours out on the boat at Hillend on Monday. I'm not using the conditions as an excuse for the lack of success but it was a factor as it was more like sunbathing weather than weather for trout fishing. I should have known better than take a boat out on the still water with the sun splitting the skies. I did manage a couple of perch which took my little jack frost lure which I was fishing on my sink tip line. As Tuesday was my last day before I returned to work I was anxious to have one last outing before returning to hell. By chance my brother was up from Englanshire with his kids visiting my Mother this week so I arranged for the both of us to have a trip down the Tweed. We set off for Peebles in time for the tourist information office opening and duly purchased our permits. We then made the short journey down to Traquair Bridge where we parked, wadered up and went down to the river in search of troot. We walked up river a bit and entered the river and fished back down to the bridge. We encountered many many Salmon Parr and only a couple of trout. Most of the fish were caught on a wee size 14 gold beaded hare lug nymph and a few on the partridge and yellow I had on the dropper. We decided to have a break and sit on the handily placed bench on the river bank then just as we were deciding to fish down and under the bridge a couple of blokes arrived with an inflatable dinghy and Kayak. They explained they were going to navigate to Kelso and camp somewhere down there. They explained they had did it before and didn't expect any problems. We watched them load their gear onto their crafts , quite a lot of beer was on board along with what one of the guys described as a wee cheeky spinning rod for later. Off they went, the bloke in the dinghy slammed into the wall of the bridge as he tried to maneuver his craft. Oh! how I laughed, then they were gone. We decided to walk up river passed what appeared to be a fishing hut. It looked like a right good pool for the salmon right in front of the hut. The rest of out day was spent fishing and resting all the way back down to the bridge. A great number of Parr were once again caught, they were fun for a wee while but soon got fed up catching one every second cast. We then had a walk down the river to where the Leithen enters the Tweed. It looked a very good place to have a cast or two but a couple of locals were fishing there so we just decided to take some pics and call it a day. As I walked back along the river I reflected on a very enjoyable day out on the Tweed and looked forward to my fish supper in Peebles before driving home.