GAME ANGLING
THE heavy rainfall over the Tyne catchment brought the river away in big dirty flood at the weekend. This washed out much of the sport.
Added to this, huge Kielder releases of 21 cumecs made fishing very awkward on much of the North Tyne.
Surely some thought could have been given to anglers in the last full week of the season!
Only 29 salmon and two sea-trout were reported from the prime Tyne beats last week. This was in the main due to the fact that the river was out of sorts and unsettled after rainfall.
I saw plenty of coloured fish running the Rede over two visits. On the first I counted around 40 salmon over three hours and on a second visit around 30 over a similar period.
It appears that we have once again not received the autumn runs of fish that were commonplace a few seasons ago.
I did hear of a few Tyneside Anglers Syndicate rods doing well.
Out on the TAS Coquet fishing, Patrick Martin, from Hebburn, caught the river just right and landed four salmon to around 14lb, all on the fly and all carefully returned.
Another TAS rod doing well was Kevin Winters, who fished TAS Border Esk fishing and caught a salmon of 8lb and four sea-trout to 4lb on spinner in a high water. I returned an 11lb salmon on the Rede on Monday caught on a Mepps.
The salmon season closes after fishing next Tuesday on the English waters, but the Tweed system remains open until the end of November.
Reports from the River Tweed are far from good, but there is always hope that November proves to be an improvement.
Tweed has seen a decline from a catch of 20,000 salmon down to around 8,000 over 2014, 15 and 16 seasons. To date 5306 salmon have been reported caught this season.
The Fritz n Flies Heat was fished at the weekend at Chatton Trout Fishery. Congratulations go to the qualifiers Rob Frame, Alan Morton, Billy Braithwaite and Peter Davison. Pairs winners were: Alan Richardson and Chris Jarratt with Trevor Wadds and Robbie Bell second.
Please note that November 9 will be the last time this column is published. I would like to thank all those who have given reports of catches etc over the last three decades I have written the column. Anglers caught plenty of great quality hardfighting fish this week. Chatton Ladies Angling Club member Caroline Brown of Longhorsley caught an excellent 8lb 2oz rainbow on a Damsel (see left). Eamon Looney from Consett also landed a cracking rainbow, as did Bob Smith with a stunning double-figure brown trout. Some 55 anglers caught 190 trout to 3lb. Trout have been feeding well. Rod Whaley caught a double limit bag from the Meadow. Fly anglers had success fishing close in to the margins. Lures, Snakes and Minkies were productive fished on intermediate lines. Spinning baits such as Tobies accounted for plenty fish. Top flies were various Blobs, Minkies, Snakes and Sedge. Chartreuse was the effective colour for powerbaits. A total of 34 anglers caught 77 trout to 2lb 8oz. The reservoir is full to the brim with feeder streams flowing steadily. Jon Robinson took his bag limit for 17lb 3oz on Powerbait, Chris Walker landed seven fro 15lb also n Powerbait. Herbert Long and Pete Watson both caught six rainbows for 12lb and 11lb 8oz respectively. Keith Davison and Pete Bell both caught six trout each for 13lb and 12lb 12oz. Top flies were Daddy Long Legs, Black Gnat and Peter Ross. Pink Powerbait Eggs were the top bait. Some 58 rods caught 73 trout in a week when the weather spoiled the sport. R Jackson caught six good fish on powerbait. C Daines also landed six and C Johnson had five on Powerbait. Trout were close in to the shoreline again with some caught only two rod lengths out. The huge shoals of fry around at the moment should see fly anglers doing really well with lures and small spinning baits. Olive Fritz, Blobs, Orange Blob and Cats Whisker were top flies. Orange and White Mice Tails, Pink Sparkle Powerbait Eggs and Powerbait Fry were best baits. Top rod was Derek Carr catching his bag limit for 18lb 12oz. Malcolm Fraser landed six while Mr Harvey caught five. R Conway landed three, including the best fish of the week at 4lb. Lures proved the most productive this week. Other flies catching fish were: Cats Whisker, Humungus, Kate McLaren and Soldier Palmer. A total of 42 rods caught 77 trout to 3lb 10oz in a blustery autumnal week. A family of nine whose name is not known fished and one of them caught seven trout for 12lb 1oz and another caught four for 6lb 2oz. Boat anglers had mixed success in Plashetts near the Janus Chairs, the entrance to Belling Inlet and around Matthews Linn. Powerbaits, worm and sweetcorn were top baits. Cats Whisker, Blobs, Orange Montana and Fritz lures were the best flies. Despite the storms there were a number of large fly hatches and the trout were up for them. Derek Ogden caught nine rainbows and a lovely 2lb brown trout, all on the Dawson’s Olive. Les Wheatley used a Gold Invicta and Kate McLaren to catch and release six good rainbows. Bait rods had up to five fish on Chartreuse Mice Tails, worm and various Powerbaits. The poor weather kept rods away this week. Both loughs produced sport with wet flies and lures. There were a number of good fly hatches which interested the trout. Top flies were: Dog Nobbler, Cats Whisker, Cormorant and Diawl Bach. With all the stormy weather trout have been very unsettled this week. Anglers who braved the elements did well. Jim Lumsden from Cramlington landed a cracking 15lb rainbow during the storm. Regular Matty Divine from Hadston caught 19 trout to 9lb on nymphs, buzzers and lures. Kieran Holliday caught 15 trout on Diawl Bach, and Matt Bradbeer caught 10 on the same fly. Anthony Meadows from Chopwell released 12 trout caught on Diawl Bach and Chamois worms. Guy Nicholson also landed 12 trout on the same fly plus an Olive Zonker. Brian Lillie from Gosforth caught 15 trout to 8lb on Olive Lures.