WITH just over two weeks left of the 2017 salmon fishing season, catches on the River Tweed are predicted to be the lowest in 33 years.

According to Andrew Douglas-Home, a former chairman of the River Tweed Commissioners who runs the popular Tweedbeats website, just 88 salmon and seven sea trout were taken by rods in the week ending Sunday, November 11.

Blogging on his online platform which records catches on all beats across the world-famous river, Mr Douglas Home says that brings the cumulative total for the season, which ends on November 30, to 6,044 salmon and 1,668 sea trout.

This compares to a total salmon catch of 8,221 in 2016, 8,644 in 2015 and 9,971 in 2014.

“With little chance of much improvement in that total, you have to go back to 1984 – 33 years ago – to find an annual figure as low,” says Mr Douglas Home who owns the two-mile Lees beat near Coldstream.

“Bar one smallish rise of water, fishing conditions have been good for November, but the scores last week were not.

“Of all the bad years since the last good one in 2013 [when 20,316 salmon were taken], this year has been the worst, despite fishing conditions right through the spring, summer and autumn being as good as you can want. Enough said.”

Mr Douglas-Home also makes it clear that many days’ fishing are unsold for the remainder of a season which is normally at its busiest in October and November.

According to his website, beats with angling still available include Middle Pavilion, The Yair, Haystoun, Upper and Lower Floors, Sunlaws and Upper Roxburgh as well as the Lees.

“I will be doing some fishing this week: not because I want to but because, despite slashing the price [to £80 per rod per day], nobody wants to take it or at least no more than a small part,” writes Mr Douglas-Home.

“As things stand you can hardly blame them.”

Last year it was estimated that salmon angling of the Tweed catchment was worth £24m a year to the Borders economy, supporting around 500 jobs.