Tagging key to Tweed's future

The Tweed Foundation is looking for help from anglers to measure recapture rates of fish on the river.

Each season the foundation tags a number of salmon and sea trout to monitor the recapture rate by rods (also known as the ‘exploitation’ rate), undertaking this work with the help of the netting station at Paxton House.

The first reported capture of a tagged fish this season was of a fish caught by an angler at Waltham and Dirtiness on the lower Tweed on August 17.

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Records show this was a grilse, 455mm on length, which was tagged at Paxton on August 8.

What the foundation aims to establish from the tagging programme is what proportion of tagged fish are caught by anglers, as this gives an indication of the proportion of untagged fish that are caught.

Tagging results show just over half of the recaptures of tagged fish are made within one month of their tagging, and almost 90% within two months. This means that angling catches depend on regular runs of fresh fish coming in, as after just a couple of months in the river fish are unlikely to be caught.

This means, in turn, that it is of great importance to preserve the diversity of salmon in the Tweed catchment.

If you catch a tagged fish, you can note the tag number, place of capture and date. This data can be shared with the foundation by phoning 01896 848271 or emailing [email protected]