AS another brown trout season ends, the focus switches to salmon and sea trout.
Unfortunately a lack of rain over the summer and early autumn has made life hard for the fish.
They need a reasonable flow in the river to enable them to migrate upstream from the sea.
Fish on the Tees and Wear enter the estuary, and move a limited way upstream, but until water levels lift they struggle to progress up to the dales.
When fish gather in numbers in the lower Tees, mainly below the Tees barrage, and in the Wear between Chester-le-Street and Durham City, they fall victim to seals, poachers and low oxygen levels.
Some poachers have been caught and prosecuted, but there’s a limit to what can be done about seals and lack of oxygen.
Sea trout fare better than salmon for they will migrate on relatively low water, moving from pool to pool mainly at night.
Summer drought was a problem all over the country, though we are relatively lucky, for Northumbrian Water are able to release some water from reservoirs to prevent the Tees and Wear from dropping too low.
Further south drought will be a problem until more reservoirs are built. According to statistics, the population of the South East of England has increased by three million since the most recent reservoir was constructed. No wonder there were hosepipe bans.
Occasional salmon have been caught on the Tees and Wear, and with rain we could enjoy a couple of weeks of good sport before the season ends on October 31.
However when salmon have been stuck in the lower river, they can shoot upstream so fast when rivers finally rise, that they don’t rest in the pools and won’t take a lure or fly.
Instead they surge through the best angling stretches to reach their spawning grounds in the tributaries up in the Pennines.
Fortunately there’s more to fishing than catching fish. Being on the river to soak up the last of the warm rays of the sun, and see the leaves turn into autumn splendour, is always rewarding.
That said, it’s much more enjoyable when the line screams off the reel, as a powerful hooked fish bids for freedom.
If the fish knew that almost all anglers return them to the river these days, they wouldn’t fight so hard.
Whatever the last days of the season hold, we can reflect on a better brown trout season on the Tees. More fish were caught than last season, and they were mainly in good condition, which indicates that the river is in reasonable condition, with enough insect life to keep the fish well fed.
There were some superb sunsets this summer, and on one evening in Cotherstone, the sky burned red with stunning reflections in the river. To complete the scene an otter swam out of the shadows. I waded into a pool but didn’t cast a line. Instead I stood motionless and soaked up the beauty.
Fish wise it was my worst session of the season, yielding just one trout and one grayling, yet still a memorable evening.
My travels since writing the last column, have brought me pollack and mackerel from Cornish headlands, and an insight into the rivers of Taiwan. It was an eye opener even though I didn’t fish over there. There were fish leaping in heavily flooded rivers, whereas in England fish keep their heads down when rivers are in flood.
And despite the hot weather in Taiwan, anglers are covered from head to foot. Not to protect themselves from the sun – but from mosquitos. When walking by the river I didn’t take the same precaution. I will never again complain about the Tees midges.
