It's ofishial – Tweed Salmon Festival nets nearly 1,000 new anglers!

The first Tweed Salmon Festival seemed to be a big hit with close to 500 people estimated to have trooped into the hotel grounds near Kelso on Saturday and around 300-400 attending on a glorious sunny Sunday.

Among them were world champion speycasters from across the UK and Europe, the furthest travelled being world record holder Tommy Aarkvisla, who flew in from Norway for the weekend, and Katka Švagrová coming from the Czech Republic to provide demonstrations.

Both proved highly entertaining, along with Ian Gordon, Scott McKenzie, Simon Gawesworth and co-organiser Eoin Fairgrieve, as the festival organised by local ghillies and boatmen, and sponsored by Patagonia and YETI, moved from family fun to serious masterclasses, a busy shopping hall and food trucks to Patagonia’s outdoor clothes mending truck and live music.

Mr Fairgrieve said: “It has been quite a weekend – way above what we expected to be honest. When we pictured what we could do to encourage the next generation of anglers we thought a free festival would be a good idea, but the way the ghillies, boatmen and speycasters from around the UK and globally have bought into it and put on great shows, the enthusiasm from the Schloss Roxburghe, and from people from all over the Borders and further afield to come along in their droves, and kids and adults experiencing their first catches … it’s just been fantastic.”

The event also impressed Mr Aarkvisla, and brought back childhood memories.

“The first thing I have seen has been the number of children fishing with their parents or even grandparents, and I love that. It’s how I started out, but isn’t the same anymore in Norway.

“This is super cool to see the joy from the children catching fish with their parents and learning at a young age to put them back. With the computer stuff and gaming, phones and all that, you don’t see children outdoors doing things with their parents so much anymore, in Norway anyway. So, just from that point of view this festival is a success in my eyes in bringing families together and letting parents learn with their children.

“But yeah, the whole festival is a fantastic idea. I think it’s amazing and just love it, and I hope this is just the start for this festival to grow and get bigger. I am certainly happy to come across and help Eoin [Fairgrieve] and the amazing speycasters here in whatever way I can. It’s great for the future of fishing, and I’ve really enjoyed myself.”

Ted Innes-Ker has more knowledge than most of the Roxburghe Estate, having grown up here as the son of the late Duke of Roxburghe and brother of the current and 16th Duke, Charlie. He was having a ball with his five-year-old Arthur.

“Arthur is loving this – he’s just caught his biggest rainbow trout ever!” he said. “I think the festival is absolutely fantastic and is something we should be championing. I’d love to think this could be a regular event.

“It gets people into fishing and is a brilliant way to engage new people to fishing, which is what the sport needs. Fishing has materially changed in the last 20 years, from when there were many more fish in the river and many more fish around.

“Then people were fishing to catch and kill fish, but now fishing is enjoyed by a different demographic of people who want to have a nice day out, especially since Covid, and it’s about the experience of being on the river, being in the wild, seeing different things outside, and catching a fish is actually more of a bonus now.”

The Tweed Foundation and Tweed River Forum had stalls, and queues quickly formed to learn the art of fly-tying. Brothers Atticus (9) and Aldous (11) had been brought to the event by their grandparents, Mark and Sandra Hay. Mark watched as the boys and his wife Sandra enjoyed their first catches.

Atticus told us: “Today is our second time ever going fishing in our life and me and my brother have both caught two fish. The last time on the boat we got one bite but it got away. But this is amazing.”

Aldous added: “You’re just waiting for something to happen, and then when it does, and you catch it, it feels good. The festival is really cool because people show you what to do. I want to do more fishing now, definitely. It’s nice to just get out and have fresh air even if you don’t catch anything.”

Their granny Sandra, a local hotelier, picked up the bug too.

“This is my first time fishing, and it’s wonderful!” she said. “We came to the festival because the boys wanted a wee shot of it – they’ve always wanted to catch fish – and when I was given the chance to learn from a ghillie I thought ‘why not?’

“So, I’ve been learning how to cast, which is the most important thing, and I’m finding the most difficult, but I feel like I’m getting professional already, so I’m really enjoying it.

“It’s just so peaceful and quite therapeutic, I think. I would love to fish more now. I’d love to just sit by the side of river somewhere and do this to get away from all the stress of everyday living. I’d enjoy that.

“I’ll be honest, I never really wanted to try fishing because I always thought it’s all very professional, and you had to be really good at it to make it worthwhile, but actually that’s not the case. People have been catching fish all over the place today. I’m surprised at how many people are here, but everyone seems to be having a great time.”

Mr Aarkvisla added: “I think it’s important in this world we now live, especially post-Covid, that we start teaching children when they are young about the wonders of the outdoors, take them out in the woods, to rivers or lakes fishing, whatever.

“As you get older, you need to shut off your head, from stress, from work, and if your parents have introduced you to the outdoors then you have somewhere to go to do that. It might be fishing, or hiking, or tenting, but you experience different weathers, make fires, hot coffee in a flask, hear the birds starting to make the songs and all that.

“But once you start the fishing, it gets a hold of you. It’s all about the grab. When he takes, it’s almost like watching a horror movie. You get frightened, but in a good way and the excitement of it; you just want more.

“The festival has been great for introducing people to it. What I’ve been saying to parents is that the time they spend with their kids when they’re small means they’re probably going to love doing these things when they grow up because they associate it with the fun of childhood, and so it’s something they look forward to doing. So, it’s super important to bring your kids to the fishing.”