River Wear

[Willow Man]

Do any other members fish the River Wear?

If you do, where at?

Thanks WM

[Willow Man]

Springer, I must agree with you on how under rated the Wear is.
Last season there were sea trout to 20lb and salmon to 25lb and those were fish I saw caught so goodness knows what other fish had gone through undetected.
I still say there is a 40lb salmon to be caught on the Wear at some point.
I can verify them to 35lb and larger ones have been lost so only time will tell.


Regards Willow Man

[fishtail]

Willow Man,
I fish the Wear as a Bishop Auckland Angling Club member.
I tend to concentrate on the Page Bank and Nature Reserve beats but I am still exploring other areas.
Its such a shame so much rubbish gets thrown in as its a great river to fish. Cann't understand why people think its OK to dump rubbish in a river, or anywhere else for that matter!
The BAAC will be having bank clearance days this year so hopefully things will get better.
Steve

[Taddy]

Hello willowman 1st place i would try is the willow pool on the Sands stretch at Durham! then the pink house now painted white-ish,or even join Kepeir farm syndacte,to fish her water which is very good,Water Keeper Jimmy whin will put you right on Kepeir fishing,when i lived in Durham i didnt fish anywhere else,its right on yer doorstep,quality night fishing and even better when the river has extra water in,near the old ice rink is probly the best stretch for spinning and again the Sands for the fly.
down from Kepeir woods down to the viaduct is all good,esp "Ban The Bomb" pool good for holding Salmon when they is no extra water in,also Kepeir pool which incedently isnt owned by anyone on the opposite bank to Kepeir estates,the shingle bank about 400 yards down from K-pool,also a good shot.

Further up river now, Shincliffe isnt any good in my opinion,but thats just my opinion,Croxdale is a good area down from Sunderland bridge,personally speaking going upriver from Croxdale spells red/black fish even in high water,ok fishermen do get fresh run fish up that neck of the woods but the chances are narrowed,Bishop Auckland has always had a good reputation for being a good area,so to is Jubilee bridge i think they call it at Willington,Stanhope,Wolsingham,Eastgate are also exelent for sport towards the back end of the season,every beck and stream which comes out of the Wear past wolsingham gets awsome runs of fish, if fishing small becks is your thing this is for you,Ireshopeburn and Cowshill are also superb, but again a back end thing,Durham is my number one choice,since they modified the fish pass on the ice rink weir (back in the 80s) then again in the 90s when they installed the fish pass,and again when they shut down "the Tunnel" has given the fish "Passage" but still a lot of fish bank up at Durham till the water is right,once theys been a good rise of water from May onwards this will entice fish further up past Durham,i was at Durham today 12 May 07 and the water was up slightly so now should be the start of the fishing,the small rise in water WILL bring fish over the next day or so even though the extra water has no colour

[Willow Man]

Thanks Taddy.

If your not in Durham now, how long is it since you fished the area on the scale your talking about?
I might even know you as I have fished this stretch for over 30+ years!
I know the Willow pool well and as for `K` pool, used to fish the far bank up from the stakes (on that postage stamp of shingle beach).

Regards WM

[Taddy]

Ive fished the Wear now for 27 years constantly,the chances are i probly know you or have spoke to you at some time.

Jimmy has put a end to the stakes !! has hes cut them away !

still one of my favourite stretches the steaks,always a good area for Salmon,under the trees,i remember when the late William Tozer ( the fire cheif) got his 30lb er from there back in 1982 or 83.

1981 was a cracking season one that sticks in my memory.

i now reside in Hartlepool-please dont critisise we all make mistakes but im originally from Stockton On Tees

[Willow Man]

Taddy, what is your first name?

I knew the late Bill and enjoyed many an hour talking about the fish that had been caught in the Willow. You could always smell his cigar before you seen him!

Who else did you know down on the Wear?

Cheers WM

[Taddy]

absolutely everyone who fishes "The Wall"
Jimmy whin
do you know a Austrian called Rudy?

David Mordue
Tommy macmanus and sons
Little Mac
Little Nicky "hunchback"
old Ron
"Hez" and son Deano
Dean Ferguson "Fergy"
Graham Wilson
"Ricker"
Davy Raymond
Joe Gibson "Gipper"
Tucker mackay
The right honrable Peter Appleby who no longer fishes there now.
the list goes on,plus ive known anglers whove fished there as long as me but dont know there names.

ive sent you a PM

[zephead]

Is a Shakespeare Ugly Stick,a 500 grain shooting head from Anglers Services and a 2 inch plastic tube weighted 2 foot up the 30lb leader still apparatus of choice for the Wall or has technology moved on?

Jubilee Bridge at Willington and the Bridge Pool at Page Bank used to be good IMO before the new bridges have apparently spoiled them and just below the Stepping Stones at Tudhoe/Brancepeth in a decent water has yielded me a few salmon over the years.The water at Coldstream farm before the bend used to fish well in a big water where the bank reinforcement croys were put in and on the bend on the left bank from the Croxdale Woods burn down to the Viaduct was always productive given the bedrock shleves/slabs.

Used to fish Stanhope a lot 25 years ago especially during spud bashing week when I was at school in the days before the beat below the cement works became a sanctuary (as when I last was there there were "no fishing" signs which is a shame as all the caulds made fom the gabian baskets used to make great back end holding pools) and tickets were bought from the West End service station in Stanhope.

BAA and Willington AC seem to have the best stretches of publicly available water albeit there is some very private water above Witton le Wear that is excellent.Taddy is spot on in that there does seem to be a piece of river between Shincliffe and The Batts at BA that has a problem in holding clean fish at the back end-possibly because the bottom is quite muddy in places albeit I have seen fish cutting redds in that part of the river over the years.As youngsters we used to trot a prawn at them in the slower pools and rarely got hold of a clean fish.

If you can get there to see it there isn't a better sight than watching fish stream under Croxdale fish pass and I vividly remember one Christmas day with snow on the ground after a very dry autumn watch a run of very big (20 lb plus)and very fresh fish come belting through to my utter amazement.

Early springers still seem very scarce-anyone know if the Wear ever had much of a spring run-the only guy I ever knew that picked up the very very odd one was the Fire Chief mentioned earlier as I knew a colleague of his.

One thing I always notice when I fish the Wear now on the odd occassion is how much quicker spates runs off and how much abstraction there is.In many places you can see where the old summer level used to be and how much lower it gets.

Might give some of these old places a cast at the back end.

ZH

[Taddy]

"UGLY STICK"

Yes the "abuse" of double handed Salmon rods is still practised at Durham,usually a "fibre tube" and lead core line,or if yer have "money" a carbon rod and a "Wet cell hi-speed hi D" i didnt know they use "A tube fly" though,30lb line is egagerated a bit as the fly line will break before the mono,usually about 20- 25 lb breaking strain.

They is a rumour circulating that the E/A will be putting a stop to all kinds of fishing from "The Wall" not just fly type fishing,which is well over due,ive fished the Wear for 27 years and only ever seen one person from the public "Hooked" seen many cars get "Hooked" mind you!

They is a hotel being built where the electric bourd used to be, so i suppose in the intrest of public safety it might actually be stopped.
But it has always been said that it will always remain free fishing,some old school law from the 1700s cant be reversed is the rumour, so we will have to wait and see.

Yeah the cement works can be a s4it hot area at the back end esp that pool with the beck that runs in to it near the caravan site.

Spring fish are few and far between on the Wear,the fire cheif when he was a younger man and better on his legs seemed to be the man for the job, Bill had spring fish nearly every year from the Wear which he deserved as he certainly put the hours in.

The rivers course has certianly changed over the years,a few years ago some old lead mines in upper weardale were closed so to speak and water was drained from them in to the Wear,as well as natural occuransers,the "Steaks" seems to be narrower these days,dont know weather thats a good or bad thing to be honest.

check my thread for fish counts, this will give some insight in to Spring fish.

[zephead]

The public would be the same as the fish then-hooked in the "jayckett"!?

Could have been an Olympic sport like the clean and jerk weightlifting-wham it out,let it swing round then lift about 10 yrds off the dangle and land them after a colossal struggle in under ten minutes at the steps.

A pal of mine used to have a crack occassionally pulling up in the car park adjacent the ice rink in a Land Rover,pulling out binos and then a camera with a big lens and watching folks dart for cover.

It'd be shame to stop fishing from "The Wall" as it was a bit of free fun once in a while but I never quite had the balls for it at night when a run of fish was in and the traditional tactics were the order of the day but have had fish from it wading down the edge and speycasting a short line.It always fished best when the rink was pumping water out
-seemed to bring them on.

Do most of the fish still find their way round to the back door of the County and the Tuns?It used to be the freshest salmon on any October hotel menu in England.

I've shot with the hotel developer-must ask him if the room rate includes rod hire.It'd be a bit like the Edgewater Inn in Seattle,a famous moment in Zeppelin history where some mud sharks,a groupie and an English rock band were filmed letting of some steam by the bassist from Vanilla Fudge or the MC5,forget which.......

ZH

[Taddy]

Technology lol
some lead core some wet cel depends on status
the county hotel was the chef years ago who used to have the contract there.

Yes once it was accepted "The traditional method" as yer put it but these days it is not accepted one little bit.

Would be a shame to stop fishing on the wall but they have to draw the line so to speak.

"Dazed and confused" about the whole situation.

[zephead]

Spent twenty minutes yesterday watching a heap of fish,mostly salmon,run the top weir and fish pass at Framwellgate.

Counted 25 in all with quite a few 5-6 lbs and many larger 10lb fish screaming through and I saw more fish there than I've seen elsewhere all season.

Fish were also running hard at Croxdale and at Witton-le Wear although after yesterday afternoons unwelcome rain it was more of a spinning water than a fly water albeit it didn'stop me chucking everything in the box at them for 5 hours this morning.

Regular Wear fishers are in for a field day this week as there is so much water it will be like an old fashioned flood there fining down but maintaining a bit of height.Shame I had to return to North Britain or I'd be there yet.

ZH

[tyneandrew]

Makes good reading ZH!

[bucko]

How is the Chester le Street area looking anyone?

[zephead]

Bucko-crap for cricket and good for fishing tomorrow/Wednesday once you've checked the tide tables........................

Andrew-any chance of some photos given your texts and clear late start at the fuishin' this morning.

I shall be e-mailing Pavarotti in the morning to find out why you weren't at bloody work!

DTYS!

ZH

[tyneandrew]

Don't grass me up!

Have a few pics on the camera so will get them posted. Had a cracking 12lb bar of silver off the upper Wear today - what a battle. Tried to escape out of the pool down some fast water, the backing was out and i was chasing it down the bank. Never had such an energetic fish before - great!

[zephead]

You should be studying for your APC and measuring up oily-rag industrial properties boy.

I bet "Brough" Herron won't be too pleased about this sort of galivanting either,never mind how dreamy and Oglesby-esque the prose is in the File Notes.

What was today's RICS APC Diary entry?

Preparation-read reports of fish running South Tyne and Wear on SFF-key interactive study aid read avidly most lunchtimes.

Morning.Inspection of disused water mill near Haydon Bridge-note to self-must take waders in case of need to check width of river with accurate measuring tool-40 yard flyline and B&W Norway more appropriate than Disto tool.

Afternoon-Inspect effects of recent explosion in Wolsingham on structural integrity of nearby buildings,watercourses etc.Damage to riverbed may only be properly assessed by wading using aforesaid flyline to check depth hasn't altered during post flood periods.

Tried and used them all.................................................................mostly with two of your bosses in tow!!!!

Photos please or else.

ZH

[tyneandrew]

;D ;D ;D

Coming soon...

[Tyne Angler]

Well done again Andrew, your Wear fish looked a belter.