IN A week when running water catches have continued to improve on all three of our major rivers, one Durham angler has caught an outstanding specimen.
James Hassan made an early start to a session on the Wear near Durham City and was rewarded by the capture of a magnificent, hard-fighting barbel that pushed the scales up to a magnificent 12lb 6oz. James caught the fish using spam as bait from a peg near Durham Sands.
The fishing has remained steady on Aldin Grange, with Bob Lindsey from Durham netting some good ide, skimmers and roach. An influx of cold water put a lot of fish off the feed at Whittle Dene, but on Derwent Reservoir pleasure anglers have found the Cronkley and Dam Wall areas the best, with roach up to the 2lb mark being reported.
Sunday’s match on the Tees at Yarm was won by Pete Rambow Jnr, who weighed in 14lb 7oz of perch, dace and roach using stick float and maggot. Dave Smiddy was runner-up with 11lb 11oz, while Nigel Rance was third on 11lb 2oz and Richy Bessemer in fourth with 10lb 12oz.
Derwent Reservoir’s Annual Coarse Fishing Championship was held on Sunday, and 90 anglers from all over the north of England travelled to see £550 raised for the nominated charity, which this year is Dr Barnardo’s.
The match was won by Nick Jose with 22lb 8oz from Cronkley ahead of Jimmy Messer in second prize with 19lb, while third was Nigel Spencer from Preston with a catch of 15lb 12oz.
The Aldin Grange winter match saw everyone netting fish, though it was tough-going in the colder temperatures. Brian Turner from Newcastle won with 10lb 8oz of carp and tench, ahead of Rob Rundle from Chester-le-Street who was second with 9lb 8oz, while Dave Barret clinched third on 8lb 10oz.
On Eden Meadows, L McGinley was this week’s winner, bringing 18lb 2oz to the scales.
Members of Wansbeck and Cramlington AC have been searching out Fontburn roach over four days and caught 163 roach weighing 81½lb in total with some almost weighing 1lb.
All fish were stocked into Horton Grange, where anglers are also reporting catches of 5-6 lb in a session, and that’s before the stocking took place. Anglers have rarely had so much to worry about lately as the prospective building of a Hydro on the Tyne at Hexham.
However, locals can glean real hope that the threat may not get the green light following this week’s news that Fish Legal, acting for its member club, the Derbyshire Angling Association, has won one of the biggest cases in its 64-year history by securing an injunction to stop a hydropower development on the River Trent at Sawley Weir.
County Durham coarse anglers are delighted with the news that Watergate Lake in Murton has now decided to operate as a day-ticket coarse fishery after all, despite the new owners originally planning to turn it into a trout water.
Day tickets are now available on the bank once more.
