Anglers report good catches at Chatton Fishery and Thrunton Long Crag as the waters cool

Anglers are reporting good catches at Thrunton Long Crag. Picture: Bob Smith

While fishing this week I’ve noticed many of the migrant birds have disappeared as the weather has changed and the temperatures have fallen. There are still some swallows and house martins around, but not in the numbers we have had, writes Bob Smith.

Talking about things falling, there are more leaves dropping from the trees, especially along the riverbanks.

With lower temperatures, especially at night and early morning, the still waters are getting cooler. This has resulted in bag sizes increasing for more anglers.

Chatton fishery is weekly stocking again, and successful anglers returning into the high teens of trout are using small fly patterns on shrink tip lines. Pheasant Tail Nymphs and Shipman patterns have done the business recently.

Please note that all three lakes at Chatton will be closed on October 8 for the final of the Puddle Pairs competition.

It’s not long before the first heat of the Eddie Brown Winter Series Competition at Chatton. I gather entries for the first two heats are filling up quite quickly. Interested anglers should contact the fishery to see what is still available, sooner rather than later, to avoid disappointment.

Thrunton Long Crag Fishery reports the temperature of their lakes is dropping and consequently some good bags of trout have been reported. A number of regular anglers have returned 18-19 fish.

Successful patterns at Thrunton this week have been worm patterns, Daddies, Hoppers, Fabs and Buzzers.

One of my friends, Robert, has had this month – sea trout from the Federation Tyne stretch, Chollerford, the South Tyne at Alston and Haltwhistle. He has also caught and returned a lovely salmon from the Wear. All these fish were caught using a half-inch black and silver tube fly.

I had a few hours with my salmon rod on the Whiteadder this week, but I never touched or saw a fish moving.

Fishing the Coquet for wild brown trout a couple of days this week has been fun. Using small spider patterns and winged wet flies has produced good sport. A four-weight rod with a three-pound tippet makes for good fun. All the fish I catch are returned.