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The Berwick Angling Association Beat on the Whiteadder at Allanton
A few weeks before visiting Allanton I
drove through Abbey St Bathan stopping to view the Whitadder, a fine looking
river, I resolved to come back to try the fishing.
As a tributary of the Tweed I had high hopes for the Whitadder as I set out for a day ticket visit to the Berwick and District Angling Association water at Allanton near Chirnside. Arriving at Allanton Bridge I pulled up to view the river where Whiteadder and Blackadder meet just above the bridge and much to my surprise found a much small water than I had viewed a few weeks earlier further upstream at Abbey St Bathans, never the less it looked very attractive. My main problem was however that I had brought my 9'6" Orvis and my 15 foot salmon rod. One look at the river made it certain that this was not a big rod water. What I had seen at Abbey St Bathans was a river running high and clear, by the time I got round to my trip the river had fallen back to a more refined size. The most you would want to use, even for salmon, would be a 10 foot rod.
I had gone to the Whiteadder to do some
salmon fishing and the owner of a newsagents in Chirnside, a keen angler as
it turned out, told me that some spingers had been taken that week, news
that always gets the blood flowing a tad faster. His advice was to use small
flies, 8s and 10s Ally Shrimp or Cascade even in spring, advice well worth
taking. Having just bought two new lines I decided to put up the 15 footer
just to test the lines using my Guideline rod (but that is another tale to
tell) I also set up the Orvis with a dry medium olive and set off upstream.
With a pair of Polaroids it was possible to see into the depths of the pools
making sight fishing very feasible. The river was rarely more than 20 yards
wide so my 9 foot 6 rod was more than sufficient to the task of covering the
water. Many of the pools are clear of vegetation on at least one bank which
makes casting easy. As wandered up stream I enjoyed the look of the river,
nice streamy runs between decent pools suggested that dry fly or nymphing on
a summers evening or night fishing for sea trout would be great fun.
Spotting some rises in the head of a pool I
cast the olive over some fish and was rewarded quickly with a take. A
regretable take as it happens when a small fast fish slashed the fly and
ended up foul hooked in the back. Worse still it wasn't a trout, it was a
salmon smolt obviously keen to get a snack before dropping downstream to
Berwick and the long dangerous sea journey that would occupy its life until,
if it survived, it returned to Allanton as a fully fledged salmon. I cursed
myself for casting to the rise because even gentle handling was prejudicial
to its well being and I fear for the future of this game little fish. I
moved on, picking up a couple more small trout before returning to Allanton
Birdge where I chatted with a couple of visitors.
Both anglers had come up from Yorkshire for the day and decided to take season tickets, a bargain at £60 although it apparently only covers salmon fishing up to the end of the trout season, thereafter you are back to buying day tickets at £15 never the less as the lads said half a dozen visits and your quids in! They had ventured down stream to the lower extent of the beat finding some very good potential holding pools in which one of the visitors had a 'good pull'. We all agreed that the pool below the bridge was especially interesting, confirmed by a couple of local lads who had been 'hammering the water' all morning. I discovered from the local lads that the run on the right of the picture from the bridge pool was especially good for sea trout.
The bridge pool its self looked very good, deep holding water where some decent trout were showing as I chatted, off course by the time I stopped yakking and got down to the pool the good trout had stopped rising and all I got for my effort was an other small fish. I did see one substantial fish move just under the bridge and waited ten minutes in hope with my dry fly at the ready but he wasn't coming out to play.
Changing to a cast of two small salmon flies, silver stoat and cascade I moved off to fish the run. It was an easy wade but I suggest that you Spey cast during the summer because that sedge grass you see lining both banks (you see it as a creamy coloured strip) will make overhead casting frustrating in the summer.
I drew a blank as far a sizeable fish are concerned but learned enough to know that he quality of the fishing can be good for salmon and sea trout when the runs come in and there are some quality trout to be had. I will be back there is no doubt of that.
Permits from Game Fair, Berwick on Tweed call 01289 305119, Mitchells Newsagents, Chirnside, 01890 818392, The Allanton Inn 01890 818260, R Welsh & Sons, Duns, 01361 883466. Membership of the club is very reasonably, 4 visits and you are quids in, contact The Secretary, Berwick on Tweed AC, 129, Etal Rd, Tweedmouth, Berwick on Tweed, cost £15 per day.
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