The AGM took place on Tuesday evening at The Cricket Club.

We enjoyed an excellent turnout which bodes well for the future of the club. The secretary will be contacting all members in the near future with details as appropriate.

The trophies for Season 2015 were presentes on the evening.

The T.O. Mounter & Sons Cup : For the largest migratory fish caught by a senior member.

Sean Baird :11lb 80z salmon

The J. T. Bell Memorial Cup : For the 1st Sea Trout of the season caught by a senior or junior member.

Sean Baird : 7lb Sea-Trout

The T. O. Mounter Memorial Cup : For the 1st Salmon of the season caught by a senior or junior member.

Sean Baird : 9lb 15oz salmon

The Dr. Crichton Cup : For the largest Brown Trout caught by a senior member.

Ronnie Featherstone 1lb 6 oz Brown Trout

The Dr. Chesters Senior Competition (Sponsored by Angler’s Lodge at Jubilee Lakes) : For the largest fish caught.

Tie : Paul Myers and Ronnie Featherstone each with a Brown Trout of 1lb 6oz. Sharing the prize donated by our web-site sponsor Angler’s Lodge at Jubilee Lakes: £100 of vouchers each.

Paul and Ronnie won £100 worth of vouchers for Angler’s Lodge, kindly donated by the sponsors Angler’s Lodge at Jubillee Lakes.

The K. D. Johnson Cup : For the heaviest “bag” caught by a senior member

Baz Conlon with a combined bag of 9lb. (3 fish limit).

Junior Trophies

The Junior Competition : for the Millennium Trophy

Tied between Seth Johnson and Cieran O’Dowd

The Dr. O’Grady Cup : for the largest Brown Trout caught by a junior member.

Dylan Clegg : 1lb Brown Trout

The Challenge Cup : for the largest migratory fish caught by a junior member.

No entry returned

The AGM takes place on Tuesday (9th) at Willington Criket Club with a 7:00pm start. Letters were posted to all members a while ago and hopefully any proposals or nominations for officials were forwarded to the secretary before the cut off.

All members are encouraged to come along and contribute to the meeting and to the future of the club.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Here we have pictures of Fly Tipping near Jubilee Bridge.

It goes without saying that these pictures have been sent to the various authorities involved in investigating fly tipping.  It is our understanding that investigators often find evidence in amongst this sort of rubbich which can lead them directly back to the offenders and result in prosecution. Let’s hope so, the sign on the fence states that the fine is as much as £3000. Looking at this stuff there appears to be plenty of stuff in there to help the investigators.

Maybe the offenders will see these pictures and have the sense to remove the rubbish before the investigators have the opportunity to start work.

W&DAC is committed to protecting the environment around our waters and will do all we can to help prevent these sort of thoughtless acts.

 

 

Dear members

As I type the river is again over the road at Jubillee Bridge. On the back of the last flood with banks saturated and unstable there will no doubt be more damage.

There will definatey be more debris.

The club really needs your help. Once everything has settled down we will need to sort out the mess and make ready for the new season. A few willing committee members cannot do this alone, can you help.

Please contact the Secretary and let him know your availability to get involved.

Remember this is our club and it will be all the sronger if we all pull together.

Thank you.

We may need a bigger shovel !

The rains came and the floods came too.

After the floods subside there may be some work to do.

This was a big flood which lasted longer than is often the case. The power of the water and the time it lasted may have caused some serious damage to our banks.

When everything settles down we will assess the situation and may find that we have some work to do before the spring, clearing up debris, protecting banks and much more besides.  Can you help?  Watch this space, we may need to ask for your help.

https://catchreturn.service.gov.uk/rcr/enterlicencedetails?execution=e1s1

Please don’t forget, if you hold an EA licence to fish for Salmon and Migratory Trout a catch return must be sent to the EA.

The link above is provided for your convenience. It is also always available at the side of the page.

You will need your licence number and postcode, alternatively the paper copy which came with your licence needs to be posted soon.

The upstream counts for October have finally been published on the EA site. ( see the links at the side of this page).

The figures have been updated and now show a combined figure for the new fish pass and the existing pass at Durham. This shows 7956 fish through the counters in October and 20999 so far this year.

Compare these figures with the Tyne where just short of 10,000 fish ran in October. If you compare the rivers for size and catchment area this would suggest that the Wear compares very favourably with England’s top Salmon river.

See the Winter News Letter for more information about our Grayling Day.

Following on from the recent organised fishing days on the ponds, to determine fish stocks and species,we have decided to hold a similar style of event on the river.

We have had reports of some decent Grayling being caught by anglers. So to determine the stocks of Grayling in the river and the size of the fish, we are organising a Grayling day.

The club is after volunteers to fish specifically for Grayling. We are looking for anglers to fish for the lady of the stream using fly and bait. The normal grayling restrictions apply with respect to the hook size and breaking strain of the line. The main difference being that along with the usual fly and worm is that we will be allowing the use of maggot for this day only.

The date for the Grayling Fishing day will be Sunday 29th November. If the river conditions are not suitable then the event will move to the 6th December.

Only anglers who register an interest for the organised date will be eligible to fish.

Any angler interested in joining in this fishing day please contact the Secretary for further information.

If you are unable to make the date we would still love to hear from anglers who can provide feedback on the Grayling in our waters. We cannot give the same relaxation of rules as on the day itself, but if you can get out for some Grayling fishing please let us know how well you do.

Please be sure to leave nothing behind on the banks of the river or ponds. A dog being walked by a member has had problems with waste nylon and weights in the area of the ponds.

You can see the problem quite clearly here and while we would prefer to think the angler intended to take this home but made a mistake, that could be a very serious mistake. The club has a rule about litter and waste nylon for precisely this reason.

At the very least waste nylon should be cut into small pieces, but better still, take it home and dispose of it correctly.

This time it was a dog, next time it could be farm animals … we enjoy excellent relationships with our Riparian owners which is very important to the future of the club, it is vital not to spoil this.

Please take care. Thank you.

We have not tended to put a lot of effort into Grayling Fishing on our waters, why not? Walking the bank during October you will have seen the tell tell signs of Grayling sipping at the surface. If you’re anything like me I forget to label my flies “trout only” and catch Grayling when I least expect, I’ve even had them fishing at night for Sea Trout.

We know that there are plenty of Grayling in our waters and we have heard of 2lb and 3lb fish being taken by trout anglers. I’ve had a few in the 12 inch range this year without looking for them, it’s got to be worth a cast.

So, if you want to avoid being boxed up for the winter or just can’t bear to put the rods away why not give it a go. Let us know how you get on.

Tight Lines