A fisheries management plan for the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders

The River Tweed (Figs 1-4) is, in rod-catch terms, the second most important river in Britain for Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L., with an annual rod catch of ca. 10,000 fish, and also supports a now much reduced salmon-net fishery in its estuary (illustrated on the Front Cover of this volume) and around the immediate North Sea coastline. A drift-net fishery off the Northumbrian coast also takes a significant number of Tweed salmon (Anon. 1991). As well as its famous salmon, sea-trout ( Salmo trutta trutta ) and brown-trout ( S. trutta fario ) fisheries, some notable grayling ( Thymallus thymallus ) are caught - the present Scottish record (3 lbs 1 oz; 1.404 kg) is from the Tweed. Some coarse fish species, roach ( Rutilus rutilus ), dace ( Leuciscus leuciscus ) and gudgeon ( Gobio gobio ), have been introduced within the past 100 years (Mills 1989).