See each day's largest fish and individual beat catches on our Latest catches page which is updated each time a ghillie uses our automatic telephone reporting system.

Last week

Last updated: Friday 11th May

Tyne salmon rods enjoyed another record catch in 2011. The Environment Agency announced a reported rod catch of 5,663; this followed the previous record catch of 5,115 salmon in 2010.

Further good news is the very high smolt run in the Kielder Burn, at least 7,000 salmon smolts and 620 sea trout smolts have been recorded by the hatchery staff. This smolt is a record. Prior to the spates some good salmon came of the Tyne, Lord Allendale caught a fresh 14lb salmon at Bywell, where Hugh Newton landed two fish , the largest was another 14lb salmon. Steve Mills netted a 10lb salmon and downstream at Eltringham Alva Hodgson caught a fresh 8lb salmon on a Cascade. Above Corbridge s Hutchison landed a 16lb fish and some good sport was enjoyed near Hexham

The Dilston Fishings which are on the Tyne above Corbridge are now available on Fish Tyne. The beat is 2.5 miles of single [right hand] bank immediately upstream of Corbridge passing Devils Water, the upper limit is at Widehaugh. The Fishery is available on a daily basis, Wednesday to Saturday inclusive.

Aidan Pollard © Aidan Pollard, 11th May 2012 Please support the Environment Agency scale reading scheme with scales from salmon and sea trout, either fresh fish or kelts.

Morton Heddell-Cowie is appealing for anglers to send scale samples from their catches whether they are salmon or sea trout . This is a fine way of recording your fish and greatly assists research.

Springers are prime conditioned fish, well rounded and often with that mother of pearl shine on the fins. If there is any doubt, have a look in the gills, if any gill maggots are present, it is not a fresh fish. A true test is via a scale reading, the Environment Agency continue to provide this free service and send a life history of the fish to the angler.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 13th May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Bywell 4.
Total: 4 Largest: Bywell 14lbs
SEA TROUT: None reported
TROUT: None reported

Season review

Salmon rods began the 2011 season with hopes that the preceding seasonís excellent returns would be continued, they were not to be disappointed. The Lower Tyne produced fresh salmon in February; as usual the beats below the fish pass were the first to report fresh fish only five fish were recorded passing over the counter. March saw a large increase in activity, over one hundred salmon travelled upriver and Eltringham, Bywell and Styford enjoyed some excellent fishing, landing salmon to 28lbs. Bywell caught 80 salmon by the end of April. The total April count for upstream movement was the highest in 15 years and rods near Corbridge and Hexham were well pleased with their share of the 409 salmon recorded. The May count was also a record with 1,346 passing through the fish pass and again these fish were salmon. These fish provided good sport in the North Tyne; Chesters caught 34 salmon in May and June. Haughton and Chollerton also produced fresh salmon. Most beats were catching fish and sea trout were appearing, these were good quality trout but numbers were down on 2010 which was an exceptionally good sea trout season. River levels increased from the middle of July and salmon fishing was very good, many beats were reporting above average returns. Haughton Castle, Chesters and Chollerton were good indicators with salmon catches often double the average. The South Tyne had good numbers of salmon in most beats and these fish were in excellent condition and of high average weight. Lambley fished well on following spates as did Haltwhistle, again salmon catches were above average but sea trout numbers were low. Sea trout to 13lb were reported but there were fewer multi sea winter fish. The abundance of salmon is best illustrated by the remarkable catches at Bywell; their August return of 170 salmon was over four times the average and is probably the Tyne record for August. Salmon continued to run in numbers, all beats were reporting higher than average catches and the counter was recording a higher than average run. September was probably the most productive month on the Tynes and catches were frequently double the long term average. Good average weights were evident with many salmon above 16lbs and 20lbs plus fish were not scarce. There were reports of four salmon of 30lbs, Cris Price reported his 30lb fish from a Haltwhistle beat and included a photograph, which is shown at the top of this page. Rods out in October were amazed at the numbers of salmon showing; in some places it was proving difficult to match catches to sightings. Many beats had a better than average October. The in season fish counts were the 5th highest recorded and the count to the end of November was 35,964. Salmon rod catches were close to a record for some beats, sea trout returns were below average. The best trouting was on the River Derwent. Axwell Park and Derwent Valley AA reported good catches of brown trout to 3lbs and high daily catches of over 20 trout in a session. Grayling stocks in the Lower Derwent are doing well and rods are reporting multiple catches to 1.5lb. Small flies have and still are giving the best returns.

A Pollard 9th December 2011

A cock salmon, estimated to weigh 37lb, from the Croy pool on the Duke of Northumberland's water at Countess Park on the North Tyne. It was caught on Sunday 13th September 2009 by Ashton Clanfield on a Blue Madonna fly and was returned to the water.

Angler Scale Sampling

The angler scale sampling scheme in 2008 managed to collect 310 scale samples, 240 from salmon and 70 from sea trout. This information will go al ong way in helping us understand the salmon and sea trout stocks in the River Tyne and assist us with monitoring the impact of the second Tyne Tunnel on these fish.

However, it is important we maintain this momentum in data collection. The 2009 fishing season has started so I appeal to the anglers who have submitted samples to the scheme to keep doing so and to anglers who haven't, please submit scales from some of the fish you catch. Ideally we would like to get around 500 samples from salmon and sea trout. What were looking for is a representative sample of the fish that you catch, so we want your big fish, your small fish and your normal, everyday fish!

Information sheets (pdfs)
• Procedure for Collecting Scales
• Scale Sampling Report 2008

If you would like further details about the scheme or some scale packets please call 0191 203 4140 or email morton.heddell-cowie@environment-agency.gov.uk