Fontburn Reservoir

Fontburn Reservoir (Northumberland)

Next event is on the 9th and 10th of November 2002

(more information here when available)

Well after managing to get onto this water after years of trying, the North East jinx hit again. There was a lot of interest in the event with over 120 tickets sold, with members coming from as far as Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland.

Our first morning on the water (Saturday the 2nd of March 2002) was greeted with snow and a hard frost. Over 30 members turned up, however only a few trout were caught. Some of the baits came back with big teeth marks in the bait that were almost certainly from a pike, as no trout in British waters have teeth that size.

On the second day (3rd of March 2002) about 25 members turned up, no snow on the day just a gale bloweing straight down the lock. Again only managed to get trout to the bank, but on a brighter note there was some more pike slash marks in some of the baits. The best fish of th day was a 4lb 8oz Brown trout.

On the first day of the second weekend (9th of March 2002) the weather was a little kinder, starting the day with strong winds and finishing with near gale force winds, around midday the water was like a mill pond as a low pressure passed over. Another good turn out with over 30 members turning up, but you guessed it there was still no pike caught, there was a 6lb 4oz rainbow trout but thats not what we were after.

The last day of the event (10th of March) summed up the hole event, with blizard conditions in a southerly gale. This lasted till midmorning, this was to be followed by gale force to severe gale force wind with very heavy rain sleet and hail showers. Of the 30 members who booked to fish only 5 made it for first light and a couple of others later in the day when the snow started to clear. Again no pike caught only a few small trout.

When I was talking to the head ranger on the water he mentioned that a couple of weeks before the event the water temperatur had risen to 6 degrees, this water temperature normally gets the pike into a spawning mood and they shoal up in the shallows. The only problem with this is the shallows are at the top of the nature reserve about 300 yards away from were you are allowed to fish.

Everybody had an enjoyable if not frustrating time and about 99% are interested in having another try, possibly at the end of the trout season when the pike are more spread out and there will be less trout in the water.