phil dean

I hope that you've been putting some time in steve, they're here in numbers, it's the best run i've seen fora couple of years.

it was next to the mal maison, opposit the baltic, I now work in Jewsmond opposit the carriage pub....not quite as many opportunities to see the river here.

these were, but it's a fair question, guess where I'm going for an hour between meetings this evening, and there are fish there too.

i remember catching chub at the 5 rise locks off the top after Nick in the North suggested I had a bash........prior to that i'd always relied on large bags of small fish, it wasn't until nick told me where to have a go, that i realised there were chub in there. The pole anglers were not happy and "reported me" to the club committee..........I never heard any more, so I assume that someone on the committee had their head screwed on and squashed it.

just done a test, stil sea trout .............he he he...

and two more, slightly smaller, on teal blue and silver.

LOL, shhh don't tell anyone, I had two last night ....... on bright pink float dough. After I had two go for my indicator i decided to put my hook in the indicator....result, two fish in two casts, time to go home (2lb and 3lb, so not as big as yours) it makes the whole "blob controversy" even more amusing.

I had the upsetting site, whilst driving to work, of seeing a couple of anglers fishing my favorite pool. Even more upsetting was that one of them was clearly playing a fish, and one had a sea trout at his feet. but it does mean that they're in, and there are plenty of reports of fish. enjoy!!

where do i find their catch reports?

got to agree either grayling or fresh run sea trout.......if you've not had them, you really need to make the effort.

i've had some great perch on minkies recently, i wonder how a coarse angler fishing a match would feel if the angler in the peg next to him started fishing the fly?

I fully understood this right up to the point where it was pointed out that there are signals already in the local waters. I don't live that far away and have waters close by where the white clawed crayfish lives. They can be killed by the plague spread by signals and other fish from the signals water can carry that plague I believe, if those fish have ingested signal cray products, including signals themselves. It would be stupid to allow the signals to get into these last remnants of the white clawed's terrotories in this country, which are only a few miles from thornaby BUT there are waters which pose a risk much nearer to the white clawed's last bastions, wouldn't it have been a sensible matter to place the fish in effective quarantine in the new pond for a few months?

I've been experimenting with various non digital, filters, will their use be in breach? i may actually have the motivation to take some photos again which aren't related to work, it's amazing howw my interest in general photography for my own pleasure wains when i have to take photos for business purposes.

The fish look great, but, and i know I'm being a bit of a snob here and I expect to be shot down, but even for those great fish i'd rather not be stood that close to other anglers, i like a bot of space.

You can get a more narural presentation, it does work. but so does nymphing, spinning, ah well, each to their own.

I better not mention where I got a 2lb perch on the fly this morning then....I love it when a plan comes together....he swam off however.

I saw my first south tyne chub at haltwhistle last year, i've had a few at Hexham in previous years there are also some good double figure pike around all the way up to haltwhistle......have fun.

Fly choice seems fine, what you've encountered is the reel fact that many of the trout in the tyne do go to sea, within the next couple of weeks we'll start seeing the runs of sea trout, so late nights and early mornings with sea trout flies could have you into some good fish. There are some salmon in the water, so don't forget about having a go for them. There are good brown trout in the river, my PB wild fish was over 3 pounds, but this was ferox and had two small trout in its stomach. I have had 4 takeable trout on the south tyne this season on fly, but they are well spread out as well as angler and tackle shy. I wouldn't expect to have more than one or two takeable brown trout on a full days fishing, even if the conditions were perfect, on the south tyne. Saying that I once had 5 in a day. Tactics...look for holes and undercuts, the river is very low at the moment so a deep pool below faster water would be a good start, the bottoms of weirs being ideal. wait for some water in the river.....but who knows when that will come. fish late at night, though get some serious midge repellant. go for a walk, not to fish, wander up the tributeries etc, I had a lovely fish from under a willow on one of the tributeries on saturday morning, it was about 6oz, but on a 4 weight rod, having wriggled to a casting position on my knees, it was a good fish. but enjoy yourself and take the time to find the likely spots for when there's a bit more water. don't worry about it, no-ones finding it easy, you're not on your own. I'm going after perch on Saturday morning unless there's some water by then, i also find catching nothing but fingerlings demoralising. best of luck tight lines phil

I've seen sea anglers use a a variation on a uni knot, but melting the thinker line to form a blob...is that what you mean?

Mr Ogborne said: "Fly-fishing is about imitating things that fish eat. Blobs are fundamentally bad for the sport. It's a very easy way of catching a lot of fish and takes the skill away. Any idiot can use them." It takes the skill away............so does buying your flies. So does using a carbon rod (do you really think he's still using split cane), does his ral have gears, does he use fluorocarbon...the list goes on......... live and let live, the whole concept of fly fishing is fooling a fish into a bite, what you use to fool them is up to you. half the succesful "imitation" flies we use are a fudge rather than an exact replica. A March Brown, A Hares Ear, An Adams, a greenwells glory.............. i love fly fishing but i really hate the snobby element. Give me a bent pin and a worm and I'll still enjoy myself, and if he wants to know about taking fish with no skill, try telling a coarse angler that there's no skill in feeder fishing....as that will empty a swim if fished properly, faster than any blob.

What a massive fish.....so did it fight, what were you doing, where, what with...etc etc.... re the photo, post it onto somewhere like www.photobucket.com then copy the image link into your email, and it should work, there are full details on the photo forum, it's quite easy once you've done it, i used to post on here a lot, so it must have been easy, 'cos I'm useless with IT.

That seems to be a vote in favour of open office. I will have to pull my finger out and get a copy put on. thanks guys, stars as always phil

I have a new notebook and an old pc. i want to load up versions of word etc, but the only versions I can find cost over £100, are there any old versions out there, I remember paying £30 last time. ta

the amazing thing for me is that it has 7 bids already (though the reserve has not been met), i'd have thought that it would fetch more at a specialist fishing auction, not ebay?

have fun, there's no water in the south tyne so i'll be on the irthing sratching for brownies.