Game Angling: Regional round-up

Mar 21 2010 Sunday Sun

Derwent Reservoir (01207 255250): Top areas for fly were the Bay of Plenty and Cronckley Bay, with multi-bait anglers finding good shoals of fish between the second fence and the Oak tree and Pow Hill. Top flies: Black Fritz, Cats Whisker, Dawson’s Olive and Blobs all fished on an intermediate line. Multi-bait anglers did well using power-bait or gulp eggs, worm and magic dust. Best fish of the week weighed in at 6Ib 10ozs caught by Geordie Samms, with Michael Barnes from Whickham netting the Tiger trout of the season weighing 2Ibs and winning him £400.

Fontburn Reservoir (01669 621368): The queues started at 2.30am at this very popular water with anglers getting there early so favourite fishing spots could be claimed. The sport was great and lots of fish were caught. Ken Allen from North Shields took a fine brace of rainbows weighing 8Ib 7ozs on Green Power-bait. Top flies over the weekend included Bibio, Katie, Black Fritz, Cats Whisker, Dawson’s Olive and Blobs. Multi-bait anglers caught well using orange power-bait eggs and worm cocktails.

Sharpley Springs/Waters (0191 5818045): Lots of bending rods at this fishery. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag as far as patterns are concerned, but some of the most productive have included Quill Buzzers, Black Buzzers, Bloodworm, Nomads, Olive Worm, Black Fritz and Cats Whisker to name but a few. Anglers amongst the action included Gary Parker from South Shields who netted a cracking rainbow weighing 14Ib 8ozs and Alan Pritchard from Hebburn netted a brace of trout weighing 18Ib 8ozs.

Jubilee Lakes (01388 772611): The more settled conditions have made for much more comfortable fishing for the angler although the trout at times have not been that easy to catch. The afternoons have been best with top patterns including Cats Whiskers, Black Fritz, Olive Buzzers, Olive Zonkers and Damsels have all caught well. Two good doubles were netted this last week, the best tipped the scales at 18Ib 15ozs caught by John Wildon from Middlesbrough and the other weighed in at 13Ib 13ozs caught by Keith Peel from Jarrow.

Sleekburn Water (07956 387704): Top of the water action has been good this last week with anglers fishing Shipman’s, Emergers and CDC patterns catching some good fish, sub-surface work with GRHE, PTN, Damsels and Diawl Bach still on a floating line has also worked well, a drifted Buzzer or Bloodworm is well worth a try fished under a sight bob.

Witton Castle Lakes (01388 488691): The afternoons have produced the best action as the heat of the day brings the trout to life a little. That said, the fishing has still been challenging this last week. Patterns that began to work well included Damsels, Black Fritz, Bloodworm and Buzzers. Anglers among the action included Lee Thompson from Staindrop who returned 11 fish during a busy four-hour session, his best fish was a cracking brownie weighing 3Ibs. Bernie McEwan from Meadowfield lost count of the fish he caught and returned, while junior angler Ryan Mathews from Bishop Auckland had a great session returning 14 fish. The Final of the Winter Competition will take place today starting at 10am.