FIELD SPORTS
used only by the Roxburghe family and their guests. The current Duke would be on the river by 8.30 most mornings and back at sunset, while his father would turn up at 10.30 ‘after a long breakfast and having cogitated on the world’ and leave at 12.30. The ninth Duke was a ‘rather old-fashioned, austere man, so while we often fi shed on the river at the same time, we never fi shed together’. Instead, instruction came from a Floors ghillie who was to have a huge impact upon the eager young angler. ‘We only used to have one ghillie in those
days, a lovely man called Bob Paterson, who is now sadly long dead. A charming man and a great countryman, he lived for his fi shing, lived on the river, loved his wildlife and was a great teacher – he taught me lots of things about life and was a father fi gure in fi shing terms. From a very young age I’d be sent off on my bike down to the river with a “go on boy, go fi shing!” and that was my entertainment for the day.’ As a boy, the Duke used a huge Hardy reel,
a split cane rod ‘with a really whippy action that’s very different from modern carbon fi bre rods’ and greased line. An overhead caster who’s never learned to Spey cast, he used tradi- tional fl ies like the Hairy Mary, Blue Charm and Stoat’s Tail doubles, which have now given way to Willie Gunn-type treble tubes, or Munro Killer-style fl ies in black and yellow or black and red. Spinning was the norm until mid- April, and virtually every fi sh was knocked on the head, unlike now where catch and release is compulsory until June, and 70-80 per cent of fi sh are returned in the back end, when catch and release is voluntary. The river has also been completely changed
by the absence of the netting stations that once dominated the lower Tweed. ‘Fifty years ago the bottom ten miles of the river was largely netting stations, so a lot of the beats where they now
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‘The Duke’s record catch on Upper Floors is a 34lb salmon caught twenty years ago’
catch a lot of fi sh weren’t ever fi shed, or, if they were, anglers had to give way to the nets, which had precedence,’ says the Duke. ‘In the early to mid-Sixties, the total catch on the Tweed was around 60-80,000, of which the nets caught 90 per cent. Now that the nets have gone, we’ve had the three biggest rod and line catches ever within the past ten years, and last year was the fourth highest on record. The catch on rod and line is way bigger than it ever was: 2010 was the largest rod and line catch at over 24,000.’ He believes that the total numbers are even
Clockwise from top left: The Roxburghe family after one spectacularly successful day on the river; two of the Duke’s fl ies; in the tackle room; oldest son Charlie catches his fi rst fi sh.
higher, but that there is a degree of under-report- ing as there is no requirement to register catches of sea trout (which are best caught around 10pm). Many of these are caught on the Tweed, and especially on its tributary, The Till, than is gener- ally appreciated, he says. The average Tweed sea trout is surprisingly big at between 3-6lb, while for the past two years the biggest salmon caught in Scotland has been caught on the Tweed. The largest fi sh caught on Upper Floors is 56lbs back in the late 1800s, while the Duke’s record is a 34lb fi sh caught twenty years ago in the Black Stone pool in late autumn in low water.
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