Sport on river gets into flow
Jun 19 2009 by David Hall
ALTHOUGH the rivers have only been open to angling since Tuesday, first reports are optimistic.
Bream, skimmers and roach have featured in catches to 30lb on the Tees around Thornaby while, on the Tyne, Mark Wright had 8lb of dace and small chub in an evening session at Ovingham.
Whittle Dene’s Southern Reservoir has been fishing well lately, and Gary Perkins had 128 fish, mainly gudgeon and roach.
Aldin Grange continues to give good sport, too. A five-hour session saw Kevin Taylor use mussel as bait to net 48 tench, while junior Mark Henderson used pellet and corn to good effect, taking around 60lb in a half-day session.
The Angel complex has had a good week, with Lookout Lake yeilding large shoals of skimmers, with carp and crucians in margins.
On Bowes, carp are beginning to feed up after spawning and the hook baits which are working best are paste, pellet, sweetcorn, prawn and even cubed cheese.
Bassetts, too, has been in form with rudd, some well over 1lb being taken on the drop.
Two pike anglers out on the Tees on Wednesday had fish of 8lb and three of 6lb, while on Esthwaite, where the coarse fish fry have just started to hatch, fly anglers fishing fast-sinking lines are not just locating trout, as John Gardner proved when he had two pike to 12lb on Cats Whisker lures.
The final match of the Spring Series on Whittle Dene was won on Sunday by local angler John Parkinson with 9lb 8oz of skimmers, caught on the feeder.
There was a tie for second place between Craig Hutchinson and Scott Lister, who both returned 8lb 9oz, while fourth place went to Graham Jones with 6lb 15oz.
The series winner with an impressive score of 48 points from a possible 50 was Browning angler Craig Hutchinson. He was presented with the Ron Duke Cup, kindly donated by ID Fishing.
There was a tie for second place in the series between Scott Lister and Graham Jones, however runner-up spot was awarded to Scott by virtue of a superior weight count.
Sunday’s match on Lookout saw Malcolm Dunlop win with 65lb 8oz ahead of Tommy Marshall with 45lb 15oz and Mark Wilson with 44lb in third.
Ian Foster won Sunderland FAC’s Summer Open on Silksworth with four carp and a few roach for 16lb.
Big Waters AC, sponsored by I D Tackle, fished their Summer Cup match on the Angel of the North on Sunday, where lots of good weights were recorded.
The match was won by Barry Evans with 58lb 7oz, and second by a mere ounce was Nigel Beardsley.
The same club recently travelled to High Stand Pond to fish the Sir David Burnett Cup, where Eric Brown took the trophy with 2lb 3oz of perch, taken on the pole and worm from the Schelly Pond.
