Salmon festival aims to encourage young anglers

The first Tweed Salmon Festival brought hundreds of people to the Scottish Borders to learn the art of fly-fishing.

The free event held at the Schloss Roxburghe Hotel near Kelso was organised by the River Tweed ghillies and boatmen to address the ageing profile of anglers and proved a success with the target audience of children and families.

The festival featured demonstrations from Norweigan Spey Casting Champion and record holder, Tommy Aarkvisla, as well as former European Ladies Fly Fishing Champion, Katka Svagrova, who had travelled from Norway and the Czech Republic respectively.

Co-organiser of the event, Eion Fairgrieve said: “It has been quite a weekend – way above what we expected to be honest.”

The event also impressed Mr Aarkvisla, and brought back memories of how he started out.

“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,” he said.

The world famous Junction Pool beat and the nearby Sprouston beat on the River Tweed are currently for sale for a combined total of £5.5 million after a record year where over 10 000 Atlantic salmon were caught and returned in 2024.