Derwent Reservoir (County Durham)

This water is around 30 years old, and is the result of the river Derwent being dammed. The river Derwent contained trout, sea trout, salmon, roach, dace, greyling, perch and probably pike. The reason I think it probably held some pike, is that the river Derwent is a part of the river Tyne system and this definitely had a good head of pike to over 20lb around the time that the Derwent was dammed.

There has only been the one trial on this water to date, unfortunately there was no fish landed. The conditions on the 2 days were not ideal, with near gale force winds. Some fish were hooked and lost, also some runs were missed. these lost fish and missed runs could have been some of the large trout in the water, until we land some of these fish it will always be a mystery. Hopefully we can get into some pike in March and get some cast iron evidence.

I have had some reliable reports that trout have been caught with what looks like pike bite marks on there flanks, with some of these marks around 8" to 10" apart. The same person who reported this has seen trout torn off the hooks while being played. After Northumbrian water agreed to this trial a couple of their wardens went out onto the water in a boat with a fish finder. They were surprised by the size of some of the images they picked up, until we hook one of these monsters we will never know what they are. So it has to be worth another try to see if we can solve the mystery.