Disappointments but good fun


Another weekends fishing brought me to OGDEN reservoir in Lancashire. It wasn't really the nicest of conditions windy, cold and raining but what can you expect for Lancashire mid November.

Pike fishing was the order of the day and in attendance was Micho the length, Kojak and for the last 1hr fellow blogger on wellayewilligofishing Mr Kaps.

I'm not going to go into great details about all the different lures I was using as I only had 2 (not that great for a full days fishing) and I'll also not go into great detail about all the fish I spotted as I only spotted a few the best been a pike of about 15lb jumping 1ft in the air, very funny to see.

I did have one moment of pure adrenaline pumping action that lasted for about 10 seconds (no this wasn't with my girlfriend), after spotting a perfect hiding place for the pike and pulling off probably one of my best casts I held my reel under my right arm I preceded to strip the lure back as fast as I possibly could. BANG!! SMASH!! Pike on!! The reel screamed for about 5 seconds and the pike flung herself out of the water crashing back down! NO PIKE ON ANYMORE!!

This was probably my best piece of fishing, spotting the hiding place, casting to the exact spot I wanted, stripping the lure back correct and the result was pike on. When I look back on it I wasn’t prepared, I didn't have wire trace on and I only had 10lb leader not really good enough when fly fishing for pike and you can be certain that it won't be happening again.

I like to blog my disappointment because if I didn’t there would be nothing to write and hopefully I can come back to it and see how I've improved! The last 4 big fish I've had on the fly haven't been landed and it's starting to piss me of a little… One thing though, I wont be giving in!! I LOVE FLY FISHING ME LIKE.

Sueness McNooness

Ps….Good luck Gav with the operation on the shoulder, hopefully you'll be back in action after the new year, that’s if you haven't got MRSA!! DOYLE

Genocide on river Tees

Having been signed off work for a few weeks for a broken collar bone I thought I'd take a walk down to the Tees barrage to see if I could spot any salmon trying (and most likely failing) to get up the fish pass. When I arrived the scene was nothing less than disturbing.

In the 2 hours that I sat by the river I must have seen at least 15 salmon being slaughtered by the 5 seals patrolling that area, and that was only on the strech directly in front of me. The 8 cormorants mopped up the smaller fish that had the same problem. Other people walking down the river said the same thing was happening all the way down to the estuary. 25 fish went through the pass that day, and I saw 15 getting eaten in 2 hours on an 1/8 mile stretch, when the same thing is happening on the 10-12 miles to the estuary. That must mean that literally hundreds and hundreds are being killed daily, while 25 make it up the pass.

I could see fish moving slowly along the margins trying to keep out the way until they the tide rose when they might have a better chance of making it up. Some of them had clearly been bitten, with some of them having seal mouth sized chunks missing while they limped along slowly, surely to be picked off before long.


Why its going to take the EA another 3-4 years (after already having 14) to figure out what you can tell within 5 minutes is beyond me. People who had no interest in fish found the mass extermination uneasy to watch, stopping initially to watch what they thought was nature taking its course, only to see fish after fish, some of them easily over 15lb, being eaten alive, while struggling to the last. I went down 3 days in a row and the same was happening every day. The fact that so many fish are still coming back each year is testament to how well the rivers tributaries serve as spawning grounds for the few lucky ones.

Something needs to be done.

Petitions have been signed, and letters have no doubt already been written but it looks like it'll take a lot more effort before the message gets through. We'll be writing some letters, to the EA, British Waterways (who operate the barrage) and to wildlife and angling publications. If you care yourself then do the same!