Past events held by Darlington and Tesside region 2002

2001

2002

2003

Bill Winship, the Ripon R.O. gave a slide show and talk covered a whole spectrum of pike fishing in Yorkshire. While it is always intriguing to hear stories from far afield, and exotic waters, there's something special about hearing what can be achieved on your own doorstep. This Bill did very well, and his enthusiasm for his sport and the love of his local waters shone through.

The First half of his talk concentrated on the rivers of Yorkshire, with slides covering many venues and a wide slice of time. The slides where more than a procession of big fish, one in particular showing diagrams of the relative size and stature of pike from different levels of a river system was very interesting. This was backed up by actual photo's of long lean fish from the upper Ure near Middleham, and a great fat beast of an old girl from the city centre in York, unfortunately it wasn't Bill who had the latter.

Another aspect of Bill's talk, was his obvious high regard for the surroundings, the slide of a Kingfisher sat on his rod was a good example of that. There were also slides of other species of fish like perch and chub that Bill had encountered over the years, illustrating that although we may be targeting pike there are still other fine fish we can land in the process.

The second half of the talk concentrated on still waters, and more so on the syndicate waters Bill has been involved with, and the methods used to turn them into top notch pike fisheries. During this part of the show it was interesting to look around, and see the expressions on peoples faces, they seemed to say "if only" or "could we?". f this kind of thing could be achieved in our area is open to debate, but the examples given by Bill show what can be done with dedication and enthusiasm, not to mention a bit of shrewd business sense.

It was heartening to hear that during the transformation of the lakes the co-operation that has gone on between the pike anglers and the game anglers, as these waters are also trout fisheries. At first glance it may seem a nice dodge to put trout in a water to feed the pike and then charge game anglers to catch the trout, but if it benefits both groups why not, after all although our tactics might vary we are all looking for the same thing, to catch fish and enjoy ourselves. Schemes like this can only help to raise the profile of pike anglers, as Bill so rightly said, a profile that has been lagging behind.

All in all this was a very interesting , informative and thought provoking slide show, nice one Bill, and I'm sure we would all be more than pleased to hear from you again.

Dave North

(news letter editor)

About 30 members of the Teesside & Darlington PAC recently attended a slideshow at the Hope Inn, Sedgefield, hosted by Andy Szczecinski and his wife Isabelle, of Lure Mania. Andy is well known through his company and everyone, both experienced lure and anglers and novices, eagerly awaited the show.

The evening started with Andy talking about his experiences fishing the River Bann in Northern Ireland as well as other waters in the area. He regularly had 25 - 30 fish in a day fishing these waters to high doubles, all on lures.

His experience there has lead him to know the waters very well despite the size of this particular river. He also recommended to members to fish in the Spring as this was when the best fishing is likely to be. September however is also a very good month with large numbers of fish available to visiting anglers. He also spoke about accommodation available to anglers and was able to give tips on addresses to try. A lot of advice was also forthcoming over tackle used and lures. In particular he advised members on the use of Bulldawgs and his feelings on the hooking arrangements that should be employed with these lures to avoid damaging fish.

Andy and Isabelle had brought with them a very comprehensive selection of tackle for sale and this was eagerly snapped up by members during the break in the show. Advice was freely administered, especially on how to fish certain lures and rigs to try with them.

The second part of the show started with slides of a recent trip to the Baltic area, a 26 hour journey to reach the venue. This is a vast saltwater area where tales are told of anglers fishing for Herring as well as Pike in the same water, bizarre! Andy told us that the best way of fishing this type of venue is obviously by boat and finding reefs or marks. These should be fished in zigzag patterns until fish are located or fishing down the side of the reef. Finally a description of fishing some of Andy's local troutwaters was given and slides were shown of some very large fish caught recently. In particular Andy is still smarting from Isabelle catching the biggest fish for them so far from one particular venue! Andy however has sworn revenge!

This was a very well received talk and many questions were asked and answered throughout the evening. A highly enjoyable event and one which we hope to repeat at some stage, specially so members can buy more lures from Andy and Isabelle, at reasonable prices.

Chas White

Teesside & Darlington RO

The second part of the talk centered around various rigs used by Mark. He has developed several very specialised rigs to cope with running water situations. In addition to slides of these items he also let members see them for real with several he had brought with him. He gave details to members of amendments he has made to various items of tackle over the years and suggested ways in which other improvements could be made.

This was a very enjoyable evening and one, which all persons present thoroughly enjoyed. Many thanks to Mark for the time and trouble to come and talk to us.