Liaison
Officer (for North East England) - Robert Murray
There are currently four
active regions in the North East of England. They are: -
Region 21 - Teesside
Region 24 - South East Northumberland
Region 86 - Tyneside
Region 89 - Darlington
Regions 21 and 89 are running as a merged region.
As a region the North East has very limited pike angling importunities. Yet there is still a good number of active pikers, who have to and are willing to travel at least an hour to the Lakes or Yorkshire. Then at around 2 hours or even more, they travel to the like's of Loch's Ken, Ronald and Heron in the South West of Scotland and Loch's Awe and Lomond to the North of Scotland.
There is an ever increasing number of pike in the river's Tees and Wear with unconfirmed reports of pike still in the river Tyne. Most still waters containing pike are either private trout waters or trout waters run by Northumbrian water. With the exception of Killingworth Lake just to the north of Newcastle and Bolam Lake near Belsay in Northumberland. There is a few of the local angling clubs with pike in their water's, though not all have pike friendly policies. I have just received a report confirming that pike to mid doubles are being caught on the Tyne on a regular basis, though these fish may be in small pockets at present. With the ever improving water quality of the river and the increase in fish stocks these pike may become present in ever increasing areas of the river. The pike fishing in a few years may start to compare with the pike fishing of the early 1970's, when pike of over 20lb were not uncommon. We will have to keep an eye on the salmon anglers, to make sure that any pike caught by them are returned to the water unharmed, we know they probably won't understand that removing those pike will cause a lot of damage to their precious salmon and sea trout parr.
As liaison officer I am trying to gain access to some of the local trout waters. Thanks to the hard work of Mark Houghton, who was Liaison Officer before me, we now have our foot in the door of Northumbrian Water. We have had access to Kielder Water on a few occasions now, with limited success (best pike landed 12lb and much bigger fish lost). We are giving this water another try in future. The only other water tried to date is Derwent Reservoir in County Durham, this has only been fished the once for a couple of days, weather conditions were nowhere near perfect and no fish were landed. Unfortunately the spring event in 2001 on Derwent Reservoir had to be cancelled due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak, which brought angling to a halt in most of the country. The spring event for 2002 is to be held on Fontburn Reservoir, near Rothbury in Northumberland. This is a 87 acre water which is heavily stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout, and also has a stock of Roach. This water has produced pike to over 20lb in the past to trout anglers, so it will be interesting to see what comes out next year.
Region 21 - Teesside
Region 24 - South East Northumberland
Region 86 - Tyneside
Region 89 - Darlington
Regions 21 and 89 are running as a merged region.
As a region the North East has very limited pike angling importunities. Yet there is still a good number of active pikers, who have to and are willing to travel at least an hour to the Lakes or Yorkshire. Then at around 2 hours or even more, they travel to the like's of Loch's Ken, Ronald and Heron in the South West of Scotland and Loch's Awe and Lomond to the North of Scotland.
There is an ever increasing number of pike in the river's Tees and Wear with unconfirmed reports of pike still in the river Tyne. Most still waters containing pike are either private trout waters or trout waters run by Northumbrian water. With the exception of Killingworth Lake just to the north of Newcastle and Bolam Lake near Belsay in Northumberland. There is a few of the local angling clubs with pike in their water's, though not all have pike friendly policies. I have just received a report confirming that pike to mid doubles are being caught on the Tyne on a regular basis, though these fish may be in small pockets at present. With the ever improving water quality of the river and the increase in fish stocks these pike may become present in ever increasing areas of the river. The pike fishing in a few years may start to compare with the pike fishing of the early 1970's, when pike of over 20lb were not uncommon. We will have to keep an eye on the salmon anglers, to make sure that any pike caught by them are returned to the water unharmed, we know they probably won't understand that removing those pike will cause a lot of damage to their precious salmon and sea trout parr.
As liaison officer I am trying to gain access to some of the local trout waters. Thanks to the hard work of Mark Houghton, who was Liaison Officer before me, we now have our foot in the door of Northumbrian Water. We have had access to Kielder Water on a few occasions now, with limited success (best pike landed 12lb and much bigger fish lost). We are giving this water another try in future. The only other water tried to date is Derwent Reservoir in County Durham, this has only been fished the once for a couple of days, weather conditions were nowhere near perfect and no fish were landed. Unfortunately the spring event in 2001 on Derwent Reservoir had to be cancelled due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak, which brought angling to a halt in most of the country. The spring event for 2002 is to be held on Fontburn Reservoir, near Rothbury in Northumberland. This is a 87 acre water which is heavily stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout, and also has a stock of Roach. This water has produced pike to over 20lb in the past to trout anglers, so it will be interesting to see what comes out next year.
