phil dean

there is a good run of sea trout and some salmon nose up that way. plenty of brownies too. i've asked the question about fishing rights, I believe that allendale has a club, also some waters are held by a police fishing club. I don't know the details, sorry, if the river is in your property were the fishing rights excluded or is your documentation silent? If you own up to the bank then the ad milium filum rule may apply and you effectively own up to half way across. any more info and I'll have to charge cheers phil

i recommend putting a question on anglers net to get hold of Phil Dean , it works well I think that your outside our area for automatic membership and may only be able to join as a season visitor, for which there's a 4 year waiting list, you may be within the catchment for Haydon Bridge However. I'll check and get back to you. PM me in the meantime if you have any further questions. cheers phil

fish cannot be legally transferred without the appropriate licence from the EA, this goes for any fish in any circumstances I believe. the practice does happen illegally, predominantly it has been highlighted in carp fishing with some very gallic looking fish showing up, but the taking of live baits for livebaiting is also covered, that practice is roundly criticised for the introduction of alien specias to SSSI waters such as those in the lake district, and has resulted in the loss of native species, possibly permenantly. this illegal transfer may also be part of the reason for the widespread incidence of SVC, which has killed many carp and bankrupted fisheries. the problem some have rightly highlighted is that the flooding has effecitvely put thousands of native stocks at risk of disease as well as the obvious risks of introductions of alien species. we've got away with alien species most of the time in the UK, but a quick search on carp on australian sites (and pete waller's signature will provide you with a link) will show the risks

on the rainbows, there are very few fish that are "natural" as anderoo states, there are only a few venues where the rainbows breed without assistance from man. the king carp is an alien.................................I do wonder how many people would be happy to see that removed. barbel to be removed from all seas emptying in to the atlantic side, that wouldn't go down well. this whole discussion is going much wider than the original point. best of luck with the lit venue, it's not my thing as it's a commercial carp lake, I very rarely target these, but who am I to say what is right or wrong? i fish a very popular river, the only thing that may stop me has been the increase in salmon, a native species, who's numbers have been artificially increased by stocking. I was in favour of that stocking, but the numbers of salmon may soon put the cost of fishing beyond my budget, not something I would previousley have thought of, but has their reintroduction been a bad thing???? It may well have just assisted a process which would have taken nature a little longer. i'm glad I don't have to make the decision, which is why I leave it to experts at the EA, if they get it wrong, I can call them, and if they get it right, I can always say I helped pay for them. But on the opening point, if it's what you enjoy, and causes no harm (watch out for the CO2 police as mentioned above), then why not, just don't do it to the detriment of others such as Budgie (i believe) suggested.

good pike fishing though, you should contact some of the guys on the coarse forum about that, there are some real norfolk pike experts on here. Alston probably had a better season than us last year, there was so much water that the fish often went straight through to their stretches. Despite that our season was OK, some people had a lot of fish, the main problem was numbers on the bank...ie too many, hence the restriction on day and week tickets at the end of the year. If you want sticking on the waiting list PM your details through, but it's likely to be a 4 year wait to get full membership, if not more. I suspect that the waiting list may be closed soon.

you think you feel like an idiot fishing the float, try fishing the fly next to these guys..........it'sgreat to be told that there arn'y any trout in there, then to hook onto a double figure carp. I always find it safer to tell them I was just licky, I don't want them whipping the water to death with a double handed hardy salmon rod.

I often night fish for codling and whiting outside a local hotel as it gives you a lot of light to bait hooks etc, I can't imagine this to be much different. I imagine that the fish feeding habits differ from night to day which you may be able to exploit in the short term, but the additional benefit may be short lived (and may have already passed), such as fishing the margins where the fish are uncomfortable during the day. tight lines

i was planning to stay in that nice hotel in the harbour...if you're offering to put us up that's a different matter!!!!! No, I promise I'll make the effort this year even if it's just a day trip!

mouth breeders? does that mean we hook them in their wedding tackle??? not nice. they had a carp in the northern spanish lakes they called freshwater sharks, they looked like carp to me from a distance, so I guess they were carp with teeth. they were in water which comfortably held perch and roach so I assume may survive over here.

you can get day tickets and week tickets for haltwhistle from MAGS newsagent (opposit the HSBC on the main street, next to the market place, haltwhistle). fishing is both banks for most of the river from the POW camp at featherstone down to the alston arches. (it's single bank only from featherstone castle's wooden bridge up stream to the POW camp gates where fishing is on the opposit bank to the castle itself) Fly and spinner only from Park Burn (near the caravan park) down to the railway station signal box in Haltwhistle. Single bank then on the haltwhistle side from Alston arches down to the haltwhistle burn. Finally you can fish single bank from woodhall farm down for about a mile. approximatly 6 miles of bank. day tickets are only available Feb to August 31st as are week tickets, though week tickets can be bought direct from the chairman, at his discretion, in september and october if you are staying at a B&B or campsite in and around haltwhistle. Day tickets are £25, week tickets are £60. By the way, how are you dave, I haven't heard from you for a while.

where did you get that sloping sea from? lol it looks lovely mate, I'll pay a visit this summer.

Hi Norrie, did you get a chance to wet a line? I got out on Saturday morning, i fished the deeper pools as it was still quite cold, I got one tug, but that was it, and only a small wild brownie to show for my efforts. I got nothing from the pool where the larger fish tends to hang out, but equally I didn't get him on and lose him, as has happened in the past, so hopefully he isn't spooked and I will have another chance over the easter weekend. I went back on Sunday morning but the wind was from totally the wrong direction and I couldn't get the line to behave, so I settled for a cup of coffee and a few flicks in some quiter areas, but nothing was forthcoing from those. Anyone else?

Hi, and welcome. why all the travelling, do you not have some nice rivers near you?

Not wanting to jump the gun, but as it was clear that the season has already begun for some of us, has anyone had any success as yet? there've been a few salmon caught up here but the trout season doesn't start until saturday on the dark side of the pennines and there's another week after that on this side.

eostrogen damage to fisheries

most of the best bream (and tench) I've seen landed were caught on boilies over a bed of feed and boilies, usually intended for carp. there's no reason why slightly scaled down carp tactics shouldn't work a treat, and if you do catch a carp, you'll still have the chance of landing it. I'd probably favour a sweet method mix, or just add molasses to your normal mix, and I'd probably go for a worm/mini boily combination. dead maggots do well too. tight lines

so do starfish make good bait? they seem a little hard ;-D Once upon a time, when I had holidays where I was allowed to go fishing, i arrived at a river mouth in southern europe. The nearest town was in the process of dredging out a new harbour for multi millionaire yacht owners (not that i was jealous). The sand and gravel was being vaccumed out and being dumped into the sea. The tide was then washing most of this onto the previousley pristine beach. there were thousands of common stars, but also thousands of other creatures including the larget collection of razor fish I'd ever seen. the fishing was very good that holiday ;-D

definately a place for dry flies.....though a dog knobbler could be interesting, or maybe a cat's whisker.

I can see me retired before I get a pass to go to wingham, which is a shame...........that, the itching trips and skate with davy are three of my must do trips. if you do get a chance to go, take it with both hands.

I had a bizarre season, mainly poor due to too little time on the bank howevre my highlights will be minor to most but meant something to me: A chub on the haltwhistle burn, where no chub had previousley been caught for at least 15 years. 4 small sea trout within 10 casts of each other on a tiny tributary of the tyne. my first 100% wild brown trout over 2lb from a tributary of the eden. taking my neighbour's 5 and 3 year old children fishing for minnows and both of them catching brown trout over a quarter pound. taking my nephew to his first put and take water, helping him land a 3lb rainbow and seeing the glow in his eyes...................fantastic. i just hope i have more time next year.

hurrah...there's hope for the future of angling still!!!

less wind but the same air temperature would suit me fine.

sorry, re the clubs etc requiring sight of the licence. Our rents are payable on or about the 1 February when the salmon season starts. We need memberships to be paid at that time in order that rents can be paid. There is no sensible way of checking that they renewed their membership, from what I am reading, some are suggesting that the club should thereafter be fined. That would be a strict liability offence (no evidence of intention required) which is normally only used for "administration" crimes (eg parking, speeding, late payment of tax etc). If the level of fine is in the £1k level it would seem that it is serious enough to take a little more seriousley than a mere admin crime. If the level of fine is lower, there's no benefit to the EA of enforcing it. So if we do incorporate an element of mens rea (intention), any club would probably pass that test by stating that all members should have an EA licence, which most are happy to do. It would therefore be very difficult to prove that there has been a breach, and is there any point imposing an unenforceable rule? I don't believe that there is.

scenario 1. i had moved house, I alwauys kept my licence in my wallet, i'd gone fishing at a club water, the bailiff came round, I got out my wallet only to realise that it was the new one as I couldn't find my other as I'd put it down the day before, in the new house, and a box or something must have been put on top. Due to the stresses of moving I'd decided to go fishing, never clicking that my licence wasn;t with me. I had a fixed number of days to produce. I couldn't but wrote to the EA explaining the situation and giving details of when and where I had bought the licence. I got stressed but got a very nice letter from the EA saying yes I was in breach but the appreciated my circumstances and would not persue it. scenario 2. I now buy a salmon licence, we have to give a return in November, i was late and working away. My wife rang to say that I had a reminder. I asked her to send the return. She sent the whole licence. I now have no licence, though I bought one, and can't go fising unless I buy a replacement for the two months of salmon fishing ahead of me before the new licence is phased in. I therefore cannot risk going fishing..........................even though I bought a licence. To be fair the EA do try to justify their existance to anglers and put in some worthwhile effort to demonstrate that the money comes back into the sport. The other side of the coin is that to a large part anglers are subsidising other tax payers for maintaining waterways, as where works are needed on a waterway, even where it is not a fishery, the EA does usually do the works.

cheers chris, I'll make the effort to look up some of the articles. best of luck finding dennis if you feel so inclined. tight lines phil