Record Breakers

It’s been a year of many highlights for the game angler, with records falling like skittles on the trout waters.

Anglers on the rivers enjoyed an exceptional year, too, with high water levels allowing salmon and sea trout to run in freely from the sea almost throughout the season.

Ever-improving rearing techniques in the stock ponds have seen still-water trout get bigger and bigger and double-figure catches – once a major achievement – become almost common-place.

Stonebridge Lakes burst on to the North-East trouting scene with a clean sweep of northern records during the year.

The record for golden rainbows fell no less than three times, culminating in a 19lb 6oz fish in June for Mick Burr, of Darlington.

Stonebridge, just off the A1 at Leeming Bar, had already claimed the northern record for brown trout in April with a 21lb 4oz specimen for a Yorkshire angler, Martin Oxley.

The clean sweep came in August and it put Mick again into the northern record books with the biggest-ever rainbow of 28lb 7oz.

Two weeks earlier, Stonebridge had chalked up its 1,000th double-figure trout inside its first 12 months in business.

The lure of specimen catches attracted the travelling anglers in their droves, with 60-70pc of all visitors coming from Northumberland, Tyne Wear and Durham.

On the reservoirs, sport opened with a bang and seven 10lb-plus whoppers on the first day of a new season at Fontburn in Northumberland and 24 in the first three weeks.

But it was the Derwent Reservoir in County Durham where the records tumbled.

Ralph Hymer, of Delves Lane, Consett, was first off the mark in May with a new fishery record brown trout of 6lb 7oz, caught on fly.

The rainbow record fell in mid-October with a 10lb 15oz specimen on worm for Derek Gray, of Hetton-le-Hole.

But the daddy of them all came in mid-November when fireman Mark Hayes, from Westerhope, Newcastle, landed an enormous rainbow of 19lb 6oz on fly, which topped Derek’s catch by more than 8lb.

By the time the Derwent’s season ended on November 30, no less than 12,421 visitors had passed through the gates in the year 2000.

The figure was well up on the 11,800 visitors in 1999 and was certain to put the Derwent top of league table of attendances at English trout waters for the third year running. Beamish Lake, near Stanley, also did the double, with new fishery records for both brown and rainbow trout.

Dale Rafferty, of Stanley, set the standard first with a rainbow of 17lb then, in September, 13-year-old Phillip Middlemast, of Stanley, weighed in a record brownie of 10lb.

Phillip’s father, Dave, also enjoyed a bumper year at Beamish, bringing no less than 16 double-figure trout to the net by the end of November.

At Linnel Wood Lake, near Hexham, Eddie McCarthy, of Fenham, weighed in a new fishery record rainbow of 15lb in April, then in early December came a new record bag for the water when Kevin Lanceley, of Newburn, won a competition with six trout totalling 28lb 12oz. In Cleveland, there was a new record rainbow at Lockwood Beck when Mark Arrowsmith, of Hartlepool, hooked a 16lb 2oz leviathan in July.

July also saw a new fishery-record rainbow for Kielder when Ogle Brown, of Ashington, bagged a 10lb trout.

In August, an 11lb 14oz beauty for J Thompson, of Wolsingham, set a new rainbow record at Whittle Dene, west of Newcastle. Declining attendances at Whittle Dene, however, culminated in the news earlier this month that trout will be off the menu in the New Year as the fishery switches to coarse angling.

Salmon anglers on the Tyne had a cracking year with a very good spring run of fish, excellent summer sport, then huge autumn runs. The Bywell Syndicate beat on the main river logged 280 fish for a record season. The Styford beat, on the opposite bank, also had a record catch with 120 fish.

Bywell also produced the first reported Tyne salmon of the year when retired dentist Andrew McKelvey, of South Shields, pulled out a 9lb fish.

One of the most spectacular Tyne catches came in April on the Northumbrian Anglers’ Federation stretches at the Alders, Ovingham, when Brian Ellwood, of Prudhoe, caught and released a spanking 30lb cock fish.

On the Coquet in Northumber- land, ex-miner Brian Douglas, from Shilbottle, caught the first fish of the year for a record fourth time with a 15lb salmon returned carefully to the water in mid-February.

Among the highlights of the year on the Wear was a splendid 14lb 2oz sea trout for Nigel Collis, of Escomb, which set a new Bishop Auckland Angling Club record.

The Wear had tremendous runs of fish and October, in particular, saw many sea trout and a good number of salmon on the regular spates. There were so many fish in the upper reaches that fishing had to be closed in the name of conservation.

There were mixed fortunes on the Tweed with high water levels not helping the lower-river beats but fish running straight through into the prime middle-river stretches between Coldstream and Kelso.

Catches there during August and early September were described as the best for years, with a phenomenal haul of spanking 4lb-7lb grilse.

November 20-25 also brought one of the best weeks of the autumn and some beats ended the year well up on expectations with, for instance, a new seasonal record haul of 326 fish at West Learmouth.

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