Youngster takes fish of week at Derwent

May 14 2008 The Journal

FIVE-YEAR-OLD William Spinks, fishing Powerbait near the first fence, landed the fish of the week at Derwent Reservoir – a well-conditioned, hard-fighting rainbow of 12lb 8oz.

With all areas fishing well for bait and fly anglers, rod average peaked at more than five over the weekend. Small black flies, Buzzers and Black Fritz produced the goods for fly anglers while bait anglers using Greedy Bait in a swim feeder also reported good catches.

Catch of the week at Grassholme went to Gareth Whittaker of Bishop Auckland with a hard-fighting 9lb 12oz rainbow on ledgered pink Powerbait. Grassholme regular Steve Brown had one of 8lb off the disabled platform.

Those anglers prepared to travel light and switch tactics to suit the conditions were rewarded with good bags with S Robson taking eight for 22lb and G Russell landing eight for 24lb. It was another quiet week at the wild brown trout fishery at Cow Green.

Although the fish at Hury have been rising to good hatches of black buzzers and small gnats blown on to the water, the south easterly winds have made fishing challenging. The warmer weather is encouraging fish to move around Fontburn with all areas fishing well, with the trout feeding eagerly on almost any bait offered to them.

George Todd took 12 for 27lb, S Hogg had eight for 22lb, T Bell had eight for 25lb, T Welsh bagged eight for 22lb, including a well-conditioned 5lb 8oz rainbow, and Fontburn regular J Brennand took eight and safely returned six.

P Fitzpatrick, fishing off the South Abutment, landed an 8lb rainbow, the heaviest fish of the season to date from Kielder Water. Boat angler Raymond Walton had rainbows of 3lb 10oz and 4lb 2oz on the fly from Matthew’s Linn while Tony Clark took eight for 19lb 8oz on worm and sweetcorn.

The sunny conditions have favoured bait anglers at Scaling Dam with most areas producing excellent catches. Nick Brown – fishing rainbow Powerbait off the west end of the dam wall – took eight for 22lb 8oz, including a 9lb 8oz rainbow.

Fly box

COW GREEN: Black Pennell, Butcher, Kate McLaren, small black dries.

DERWENT: Black fritz, Black and Peacock Spider, Bibio.

FONTBURN: Cat’s Whisker, Viva, Bibio

GRASSHOLME: Cat’s Whisker, Devastator, Kate McLaren, Black Pennell.

HURY: Black Pennell, Cat’s Whisker, Olive Fritz.

KIELDER: Mini cat’s Whiskers, orange goldheads.

SCALING: Small Dawson’s Olive, Invicta, Bibio.

Bait box

COW GREEN: Worm around the stream mouths.

DERWENT: Powerbait, worm cocktail, Greedy bait Mix.

FONTBURN: Pink Powerbait, Greedy bait and worm cocktail.

GRASSHOLME: Powerbait and Magic Dust in ledgered feeder, float-fished worm.

KIELDER: Worm and sweetcorn.

SCALING: All baits catching well.