4th Annual Tyne Survey Match

Attendance at the annual tyne survey event last august was excellent with almost 100 pegs from prudhoe to newton filled, and 81 anglers weighing in on the day, as well as being great fun this match and the one on the wear help to provide the environment agency with important information about whos fishing and whats biting in the rivers. Environment agency fisheries officer Michael Donkin said that over 40lb of dace won this years event which is regarded as some of the best match fishing anywhere in the country, showing the potentiial of the beautiful river tyne. These events are held yearly in the north east and are arranged by the environment agency who attend and take all the data/info they can from anglers regarding habitat and fish species caught.

Whats the pike fishing like on the Tyne Gaz?

I will find out for you, its been vastly cleaned up this river it was obviously a river with heavy engineering on it, but recently Salmon have returned in record numbers again, i will speak to the local PAC lad and ask the question fella.

Cheers Gaz

He e mailed me this woody.


Loch's Ken, Ronald and Heron in the South West of Scotland and Loch's Awe and Lomond to the North of Scotland.

There is an ever increasing number of pike in the river's Tees and Wear with unconfirmed reports of pike still in the river Tyne. Most still waters containing pike are either private trout waters or trout waters run by Northumbrian water. With the exception of Killingworth Lake just to the north of Newcastle and Bolam Lake near Belsay in Northumberland. There is a few of the local angling clubs with pike in their water's, though not all have pike friendly policies. I have just received a report confirming that pike to mid doubles are being caught on the Tyne on a regular basis, though these fish may be in small pockets at present. With the ever improving water quality of the river and the increase in fish stocks these pike may become present in ever increasing areas of the river. The pike fishing in a few years may start to compare with the pike fishing of the early 1970's, when pike of over 20lb were not uncommon. We will have to keep an eye on the salmon anglers, to make sure that any pike caught by them are returned to the water unharmed, we know they probably won't understand that removing those pike will cause a lot of damage to their precious salmon and sea trout parr.

As liaison officer I am trying to gain access to some of the local trout waters. Thanks to the hard work of Mark Houghton, who was Liaison Officer before me, we now have our foot in the door of Northumbrian Water. We have had access to Kielder Water on a few occasions now, with limited success (best pike landed 12lb and much bigger fish lost). We are giving this water another try in future. The only other water tried to date is Derwent Reservoir in County Durham, this has only been fished the once for a couple of days, weather conditions were nowhere near perfect and no fish were landed. Unfortunately the spring event in 2001 on Derwent Reservoir had to be cancelled due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak, which brought angling to a halt in most of the country. The spring event is to be held on Fontburn Reservoir, near Rothbury in Northumberland. This is a 87 acre water which is heavily stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout, and also has a stock of Roach. This water has produced pike to over 20lb in the past to trout anglers, so it will be interesting to see what comes out next year.

And also this as well i think its disgusting.


River Tees Pike hammered to death in front of children

We have a problem on the River Tees with Match men and pleasaure coarse anglers killing pike, including specimens of nearly 30lb!

The River Tees is one of the most promising rivers in Great Britain. Over the last few year the bio mass of all species has increase year on year, yet the local anglers (in particular the match men) are trying the kill all the pike, with specimens of 25lb and 28lb being killed in the last few weeks. Match men have been seen killing pike by hitting them over the head with a hammer in front of junior anglers, so the juniors will think that they have to kill all the pike they catch as well.

The pike in the River Tees have one of the fastest, if not the fastest growth rates of all river pike in Great Britain. A pike that is 3 years old will be around the 10lb mark. So the river has the promise of producing pike to 40lb in the years to come.

With the exception of a couple of angling club, all the clubs with water on the Tees have a pike killing policy. When will something be done to stop the persecution and slaughter of this magnificent species? Nature perfected the pike 20 million years and it has hardly changed since, so why do a minority of anglers think they now better and kill them.

What do you expect from a bunch of knuckle dragging halfwits who hung a monkey thinking it was a French spy? (yes I know that was Hartlepool but that's close enough for me!)

While recently talking to the chairman of PAC in my area i'm possitive he informed that in part of the country on public waters it,s now against the law to kill pike, he said at one time anglers were given the write to take one pike for the pot,this law had been around for a long time when people ate pike more regular,due to people not eating pike anymore (apart from certain people)and the realisiation that more and more pike were being killed for no apperent reason as well as the excuse that they are eating all the fish or have grabbed baby sheep drinking from the water etc, members from the PAC GB as well as governing bodies brought this law or bylaw in to force.

I,ll ask the question at the next meeting and try and get some clarification if this is a govering law and what areas its in place.

Do the ea do these surveys on any other rivers that anyone knows of, i think its a great way for them to gather data.