Bus Pass - Tweed
- Details
- Published on Monday, 03 March 2008 05:45
- Written by Bob Graham
If you’re a West of Scotland fisher (meaning a Weegie) this one might be a bit awkward but if you’re prepared to thole the hour and a half to Edinburgh it might just be manageable. I’m going to concentrate on the Peebleshire Association water, all fourteen miles of it, because I’m not familiar with the river downstream of Walker burn except for Melrose which, honestly, is not worth fishing.
Web sites you need are Google Maps, TravelineScotland, Fish Tweed and, from the Fish Tweed site, the Peebleshire Association site. Permits can be bought in almost every town and also through the Association web site but watch that it doesn’t cater for O.A.P. tickets. An O.A.P. season is £15 and double that if your under 65. You’ll find that the river is never more than half a mile from the ’bus route and it’s fairly easy to fish from one wee town to the next.
Ready to go? From Edinburgh ’bus station take a number 62; this is a half hourly service after 0800 hours. If you want get off at Peebles and take a number 91 MacEwans ‘bus indicating Biggar. This will take you as far as Stobo but it’s not a very regular service and the last ‘bus back to Peebles is just before 1800 hours. Otherwise carry on to Cardrona, Innerleithen or Walkerburn or any stop on the way. I noted that this is a half hourly service with plenty of stops so you should have no trouble on the way back. Time to Peebles is an hour and twenty minutes.
What’s the fishing like? The Tweed is a frustrating river to fish, it’s full of salmon parr and sometimes two or three of them will have a go at you on every cast. When the fish do start to rise the river can be covered with ripples but, unless you have the right flee, you’ll get nowhere. And the right flee is often hard to find. It can be a terrific dry fly water when the fish are taking but watch out for the parr. Generally the troot are four to the pound and great sport. It is stocked yearly and all the stocked fish are marked with a blue spot and usually a bit bigger than the average. Grayling can be found although their size is variable. Wading is quite safe in most places and, during the summer, you can cross the river easily at the head of some streams. I’ve found that my best fish have been caught up the river from Peebles.
And that’s the Tweed. I’m not telling you how to fish - just get out there and do it.